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| June 21st,22nd - Special Report - Global University Exposure Program, Eritrea |
 On
the 21st June, the Global University Scholarship students were taken
to Eritrea to meet a diversity of people from non-governmental groups
to explore concepts of future peace and reconciliation in Eritrea.
This tour, which is one of many study and cultural exchange tours
run by Peace Boat in Eritrea, went all the way to the capital, Asmara,
and included staying with Eritrean families for a night. |
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The liberation of Eritrea from Ethiopia in 1991
was followed by only seven years of peace in which some of the infrastructure,
such as schools and hospitals, were rebuilt. Many of these advances
were again set back by the border dispute with Ethiopia in 1998 but
as of this year there is once again peace in Eritrea. Prospects remain
uncertain however. "It is impossible to predict the likelihood of
a stable peace in Eritrea. The Ethiopians still want Port Aseb", said
a representative from the Eritrean Studies Association. |
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As part of Eritrea's rehabilitation in peacetime,
ex-fighters are given the opportunity to join a rehabilitation camp
such as Denden or Maihabar. We visited Denden camp where many of the
ex-fighters with double amputations were offered accommodation and
work. The term 'camp' conjures images of tents but Denden is more
like a very small town. In fact, it used to be a US army base. Many
of those wounded in the wars were evacuated to Port Sudan, where facilities
were sufficient to deal particularly with amputations. On return,
the Eritrean government gives free housing, food, medical and physiological
care and an allowance for spending money. |
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Denden Camp also provides internal workshops that many of the ex-fighters work in. One of these is for making and repairing prosthetic limbs. During the struggles, the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front sent some of its doctors to Beirut to learn how to make these limbs at minimal expense and with diverse materials. Also made in the workshops are wheelchairs and motor wheelchairs, which resemble three-wheeled scooters, for use outside of the camp. When asked if psychological support was provided for the ex-fighters, the rather surprising reply was, "Most of the patients have accepted their condition, were fighting for a cause they believed in, and are happy dealing with the consequences of that fight".
The exposure tour visited the unions of both Eritrean women and Eritrean youth. The National Union of Eritrean Women acts primarily in an advocacy role with targets of poverty, security and "backward social attitudes and practices" said Dr. Tzega Gaim. One of the most serious of these is dealing with female genital mutilation (FMG). Even today up to 95% of Eritrean women have undergone FGM. Of increasing concern is also HIV/AIDS but still the rates in women are low at 3%. Some of the successes of NUEW is achieving 30% representation for women in the local government assemblies and an astonishing 32% in the National Parliament. |
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The final group visited were the Citizens for Peace
in Eritrea. This human rights group works to document abuses particularly
during the most recent border conflict with Ethiopia. There were 75000
Eritrean people deported from Eritrea on grounds of suspected or potential
espionage. Alongside this were property confiscation and imprisonment.
The worst atrocities including setting communities light and gang
rapes, particularly in the Central Eastern region. Rather than requiring
relief assistance for the deportees, CPE is calling for rehabilitation
assistance now. In particular, what is needed is farm equipment, livestock,
grain and temporary shelter. This needs approach is representative
of the Eritrean notion of self-reliance.
"Justice does not create peace, it creates winners and losers. And
winners and Losers will always get back at the winners through legal
and non-legal means," siad Prof. Ashmarom Legesse of CPE. He is looking
to the South African model of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions
as a potential model for peace in the future between Ethiopia and
Eritrea. Indeed Peace Boat has proposed itself as a forum in which
people from both countries can talk in a frank and honest way. Prof.
Legesses' response was very positive ."We need neutral ground to meet
our Ethiopian partners and there's nothing like the sea for that!"
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| Written by Duncan Trevan |
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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