Eritrean opposition accuse Libya of colluding with Asmara on refugees
By Dereje Berhanu
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia- a member coalition Eritrean Democratic Alliance the Democratic Movement for the Liberation of the Eritrean Kunama (DMLEK) condemned this week Libya for its deportation and imprisonment of refugees fleeing from Eritrea.

Mr. Cornelios Osman, DMLEK chairman told SSI:” the Libyan government is conducting an illegal act against Eritrean potential refugees under international law “.
According to Cornelios at this time there are more than 700 Eritreans in Libyan jails awaiting deportation as part of an agreement with the Eritrean dictator government.

The Libya government should stop violations of the rights of refuge and international conventions. we oppose the Libyan government continued deportation, last year we were to opposed this act through demonstration at Addis Ababa at the Libyan embassy and the Africa Union (AU). the Libya government opposes UN sanctions against Eritrea that shows their interest in horn of Africa, they try to go beyond international laws “.

The UN Security Council’s sanction on imposing arms embargo and targeted sanctions against Eritrea, which has been accused of trying to destabilize the Western-backed government in neighboring Somalia.

“The sanction is deteriorating the life in Eritrea. The government is not paying salaries to its civil servants, the price of goods are hiking forcing people to flee form the country. The number of people getting into Ethiopia now averages 1000 a month it is the same in Sudan”, said Cornelios. 

Human right groups have reported that Eritrean asylum seekers who have been deported back to Eritrea have been imprisoned and are suffering as their fleeing had exposed them as belonging to the opposition. 

“The government in Eritrea is trying to show, that the sanction does not affect its day-to-day activity”, said, Cornelios saying that the regime is organizing demonstrations in Eritrea and  in different US and European cities to show that international community that it still enjoys the support of its citizens. The travel ban imposed on senior officials would isolate the regime more from international community and prevent it from receiving the hundreds of millions of dollars it gets annually from the Eritrean Diaspora.

DMLEK said it is working inside Eritrea to create public awareness and is also conducting guerilla warfare against the eritrean regime.