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EHDR-UK in Collaboration with Sennit
Mr Mussie Ephrem’s Seminar
in London
The public seminar
organised by Eritreans for Human and Democratic Rights-UK and Eritrean
Reconciliation Forum-UK (SENNIT) was successfully conducted. The keynote speaker was Mr.
Mussie Ephrem, from Sweden, who is a member of the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC), one of the recently formed Eritrean
organisations.
The seminar was
enlightening and discussions were open, frank and thought provoking. Mr M
Ehprem, after introducing himself and his organisation, he tackled the
issue why young Eritreans should partake in bringing the needed change in
Eritrea and their communities abroad. He explained how the group which is in power in
Eritrea affects the lives of Eritreans inside and outside the country,
and the difficulty Eritreans are experiencing in getting their messages
across. He addressed the
importance of respecting the human and democratic rights of the people
and showed how the government has totally disregarded them.
Mr Ephrem gave a
detailed account of his experience in taking the Eritrean government to
the African Court of Justice for illegality imprisoning ex-government
officials. The case is still not closed. He stressed the fact that this course is necessary to
follow if the people want to be heard. He reminded the audience that there are many human
rights groups and other organisations that can engage in the promotion of
human and democratic aspirations of Eritreans. ‘The future is not gloomy’, he said, ‘as Eritrean
civil societies have many friends with whom they can collaborate in
waging their struggle for their basic rights’.
Towards the end of his
speech, Mr M Ephrem stressed
that all human rights, democracy, peace and constitutional activists,
change-seeking organisations, civil societies and groups of friends of
Eritrea should forge an alliance based on minimum programme that will
effectively address the current problems in Eritrea.
Moreover, Mr M Ephrem
made an emotional and passionate appeal to all Eritreans to find a way of
supporting the drought victims in Eritrea. He suggested that we need to find
the means of getting help to our people directly, considering the history
of the government disregard of NGO's.
During the question
and answer session Mr M Ephrem gave more explanations on the ethos of his
organisation, the way forward and how the link between human rights
groups, community leaders, diasporic and local populations should be
enhanced. Towards the end,
Mussie thanked the Eritreans in the UK for giving him the stage and
necessary support to express his views. The meeting was concluded after a minute's
silence in remembrance of Eritrean martyrs.
The Seminar was
educational and uplifting.
Eritreans for Human and
Democratic Rights-UK and SENNIT
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