UN slams Eritrea leaders for 'crimes against humanity'

The United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights has accused the government of Eritrea of committing human rights crimes, saying the leaders of the African nation should face international justice.

“Crimes against humanity have been committed in a widespread and systematic manner in Eritrean detention facilities, military training camps and other locations across the country over the past 25 years,” the UN commission said on Wednesday.

The report, which was based on interviews with 800 Eritrean exiles and more than 45,000 written submissions, said the government of President Isaias Afwerki, in power since 1991, is guilty of systematic enslavement, forcible conscription and other abuses.

Up to 400,000 people have been enslaved by the government since Eritrea’s independence a quarter-century ago, it added.

“We probably think that there are three to four hundred thousand people who have been enslaved,” chief investigator Mike Smith said, adding, “Very few Eritreans are ever released from their military service obligations.”

He called for the individuals responsible for the crimes to be brought to justice and face trial in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

“What we are asking for is the Security Council to contemplate targeted responses” against individuals responsible for rights abuse, Smith told journalists in Geneva, adding, “Particular individuals, including officials at the highest levels of state, the ruling party - the People's Front for Democracy and Justice - and commanding officers bear responsibility for crimes against humanity.”

Smith said Isaias presided over a state with no functioning democratic institutions and that “has created a governance and rule of law vacuum, resulting in a climate of impunity for crimes against humanity.” He added thay there was no hope that Eritrea's judicial system could bring the perpetrators to justice through a legitimate trial.

Eritrea: UN report politically motivated

Meanwhile, Eritrea's government on Wednesday rejected what it called unfounded accusations of human rights abuses made in the report prepared by the UN Commission of Inquiry, saying that the investigators were driven by political concerns.

"Eritrea rejects the politically motivated and groundless accusations and the destructive recommendations of the COI," the presidential adviser, Yemane Ghebreab, said in the government statement, adding, "It believes they are an unwarranted attack not only against Eritrea, but also Africa and developing nations."

Eritrean rebels fought three decades of war against better-equipped Ethiopian troops to finally gain independence in 1991. The World Bank has ranked the Red Sea state as one of the world's poorest nations with an annual per capita gross national income of USD 480. Refugees from the country have made over the past years one of the largest contingents of people making a perilous journey for seeking asylum in Europe. The UN says about 5,000 Eritreans risk their lives each month to flee the nation where forcible army conscription can last decades.

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