Day: October 12, 2022

NEW YORK — The international community sent a clear message to Moscow on Wednesday, declaring the country’s so-called referendums and attempted annexation of parts of Ukraine illegal and invalid under international law.

In its strongest show of support for Ukraine since Moscow’s February 24 invasion, the U.N. General Assembly voted 143-5, adopting a resolution condemning and rejecting Russia’s move to annex Ukrainian territory. Thirty-five countries abstained, but those votes do not count toward the two-thirds majority needed for adoption.

Voting with Russia were Belarus, North Korea, Syria and Nicaragua.

In a tweet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the states for their support in what he called a “historic UNGA resolution.”

Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told reporters that the outcome of the vote “was amazing.”

“I think that the countries made the right choice — to defend the principles of the U.N. Charter and to follow the Charter,” he said.

President Joe Biden hailed the vote, saying, “The overwhelming majority of the world … voted to defend the United Nations Charter and condemn Russia’s illegal attempt to annex Ukrainian territory by force. … The world has just demonstrated that it is more united, and more determined than ever to hold Russia accountable for its violations.”

Despite concerns that international support for Ukraine might be waning after nearly eight months of war that have exacerbated global food, energy and inflation crises, the General Assembly’s vote demonstrated that the international community is still largely united in its stance against Russia’s war.

Previous votes

Wednesday’s vote surpassed the support for a March 2 assembly resolution condemning Russia’s invasion and calling for it to end. That resolution drew the support of 141 members. Only five voted against, including Russia and its allies Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea.

By comparison, a similar resolution in 2014 that condemned and rejected Russia’s attempted annexation of the autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol in Ukraine received 100 votes supporting the resolution, 11 against and 58 abstentions.

Wednesday’s daylong meeting was the continuation of a special emergency session opened on Monday to discuss Russia’s so-called referendums and attempted annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk in Ukraine’s east, and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the country’s south.

While the General Assembly’s vote is not legally binding, it carries the moral weight of the international community.

“And today’s vote has a practical effect. It means that in the eyes of the world and the United Nations, Ukraine’s borders remain the same,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after the vote. “Kherson is Ukraine. Zaporizhzhia is Ukraine. Donetsk is Ukraine. Luhansk is Ukraine. And Ukraine remains Ukraine.”

Take a stance

During the debate, Russia’s ambassador painted the vote as politicized and provocative and warned it could hurt efforts at peace.

“By introducing this draft, Western states are pursuing their own geopolitical goals and are once again trying to use the members of the General Assembly as bit players,” Vassily Nebenzia said.

France’s envoy, Nicolas de Riviere, said the question the General Assembly was considering was one that concerned everyone: “Do we want to defend the principles of the United Nations Charter?”

The United States urged members to send Moscow a clear message.

“The only way to bring peace is to stop this aggression. To demand accountability. To stand together with conviction. To show what we will not tolerate,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

Most nations reiterated their support for the U.N. Charter, Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence.

“Some of the most passionate and important statements today were made by small countries far away from Ukraine expressing the concerns of every continent and every country in this General Assembly Hall about the fears of what Russia is doing,” EU Ambassador Olof Skoog said after the debate.

Support for Russia

The debate began on Monday, and it wasn’t until the 34th speaker took the floor on Wednesday that Moscow found a friendly voice in the assembly.

“We recognize that the referenda were conducted in accordance with the U.N. Charter and international law, which stipulate the principles of the equal rights and self-determination of people,” North Korean Ambassador Kim Song said.

Syria’s envoy also defended Russia, a close ally of President Bashar al-Assad.

Ambassador Bassam al-Sabbagh said the West was taking a “hostile, provocative approach” to Russia with its vote in the assembly. He painted Moscow as the victim of fake news when all it is trying to do is protect “their own people” in parts of Ukraine.

But Canada’s envoy dismissed such claims.

“As Russia makes claims of Russophobia — sort of like the kid who kills his parents and then goes to the court and says, ‘Help me out, I’m an orphan,’ there is no Russophobia,” Ambassador Bob Rae said. “Its own soldiers, its own artillery, its own tanks, its own warplanes, its own missiles are flattening Russian-speaking cities and towns and abusing Russian-speaking populations in eastern Ukraine.”

Russia is part of the BRICS bloc, which includes Brazil, India, China and South Africa.

Brazil voted for the resolution, while China, India and South Africa abstained.

“We have always believed that any action taken by the General Assembly should be conducive to the de-escalation of the situation, should be conducive to the early resumption of dialogue and should be conducive to the promotion of a political solution to this crisis,” China’s Deputy Ambassador Geng Shuang said.

South African envoy Mathu Joyini said the resolution should have focused on “concrete proposals to end the war.”

Notably absent from the debate was Iran, which has sold Moscow drones for its war effort. It did not cast a vote on the resolution.

Saudi Arabia, along with Russia last week, led oil-producing bloc OPEC+ to decide to cut oil production targets by 2 million barrels a day starting in November. The move will go into effect as winter temperatures set in across the Northern Hemisphere and will help drive up energy prices, helping to fund President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

But Saudi Arabia voted for the resolution, condemning Moscow, as did fellow OPEC member the United Arab Emirates, whose president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, was in Moscow on Tuesday and met with Putin.

 

Source: Voice of America

We, Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States, are profoundly concerned by the escalation of the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia.  We call on the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray regional authorities to immediately halt their military offensives, agree to a cessation of hostilities, allow for unhindered and sustained humanitarian access, and pursue a negotiated settlement through peace talks under an African Union-led process.  We also condemn the escalating involvement of Eritrean military forces in northern Ethiopia.  We call on Eritrean forces to cease their military operations and withdraw from northern Ethiopia.  All foreign actors should cease actions that fuel this conflict.

Multiple reports, including the joint investigation report of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission/Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the recent report of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia (ICHREE), have documented human rights abuses committed by Ethiopian and Eritrean government forces, Tigrayan forces, and other armed actors, such as Fano militia, since the start of the conflict in November 2020.  Human rights abuses documented in these reports include unlawful killings, physical abuse, and gender-based violence.  We are deeply concerned by the ICHREE’s finding that there are reasonable grounds to believe that starvation of a civilian population has been used as a method of warfare.  The resumption of fighting in northern Ethiopia raises a high risk of further human rights violations and abuses.

We denounce any and all violence against civilians.  We call on the parties to recognize there is no military solution to the conflict, and we call on the Government of Ethiopia and the Tigray regional authorities to participate in African Union-led talks aimed at helping Ethiopia achieve a lasting peace.  Any durable solution must include accountability for human rights abuses and violations.  We also call on all parties to allow unhindered humanitarian access, ensure the safety and security of humanitarian workers, and cooperate with, and facilitate access for, international human rights monitors.

 

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online

A man sits beside a bus destroyed during the fighting between Ethiopia’s National Defense Force (ENDF) and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) forces in Lalibela town of the Amhara Region, Ethiopia, on January 25, 2022. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri

Blog Post by Michelle Gavin

October 12, 2022 2:48 pm (EST)

Nearly two years after war broke out in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the fighting is intensifying, and the interstate dimension to the conflict is as undeniable as ever. Reports indicate that some one hundred thousand Eritrean troops are assaulting Tigray, apparently in coordination with the Ethiopian military. The region has been under siege since June of 2021, with only piecemeal exceptions during the lull in the conflict over this past spring and summer. Humanitarian conditions on the ground grow more dire as the latest combat compounds the suffering of people who have not had adequate access to food or medicine for over a year. Because access to the region is so difficult, observers have been left to speculate on the scale of the human losses.

The world has mustered limited will to address the crisis. Even beyond the gridlock at the UN Security Council, the UN Human Rights Council barely summoned enough support to extend the mandate of the Commission of Experts tasked with investigating major violations of international human rights, humanitarian, and refugee law in Ethiopia, despite the evidence already uncovered of grave crimes committed by all parties to the conflict. Part of the tepid international response springs from African states’ insistence that the matter be addressed within the region. But this presents its own problems.

The United States’ energetic Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer, has been working with African and European colleagues to try to bring the Tigrayans and Ethiopians to the African Union’s (AU) negotiating table, aiming to stop the carnage and build some momentum toward peace. It’s been tough sledding. Over the last week, diplomatic fits and starts have attracted plenty of international attention, but accomplished nothing for the civilians living through this horror.

 

Talks between the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan leaders were scheduled for October 8 in South Africa under AU auspices. The AU has failed to gain any real traction to date in addressing the crisis under the leadership of former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. But a new formula–one that formally added former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka to Obasanjo’s effort–was unveiled to try to win more confidence from parties distrustful of past attempts. It quickly became clear that the announcement was premature. The Ethiopian government welcomed the initiative. But while the Tigrayans indicated that they were prepared to attend, they pointedly requested basic details about the structure and participants, indicating a lack of consultation. Kenyatta himself similarly signaled that he was left in the dark, revealing that the date didn’t work for him and that he, too, had insufficient information about basic modalities for the talks.

Diplomatic work is often cumbersome, and talks with so many actors and moving parts are bound to present logistical challenges (and likely substantive problems down the line). But shuffling mediators, switching up locations, and finding suitable dates can become pointless distractions if the parties to the conflict have no intention of taking any kind of peace process seriously. An earlier AU effort involving three former African presidents was stillborn when Ethiopia refused to seriously consider dialogue. This time, it seems Ethiopia is happy to engage in a series of meetings, but it is not at all clear that this reflects any indication of political will to make real peace. Airstrikes continue, including one that struck a school last week. Ethiopian leaders do not appear to have been preparing their political constituencies for anything short of total victory. It’s uncertain whether AU talks envision any role for Eritrea, one of the main antagonists in the current conflict. The foundation for progress is not a strong one.

History is full of “peace processes” divorced from reality that diverted critical international attention from the preparation and execution of horrific campaigns of violence on the ground. Policymakers must do more than support the work of the diplomats who are frantically trying to set the table for talks. They need to help build the will to make them successful, by clarifying for all relevant actors–a list that goes far beyond Prime Minister Abiy’s government and the Tigrayan leadership–what the costs of continued war will entail, and what dividends peace could bring.

 

Source: Dehai Eritrea Online

The first time I understood the significance of postage stamps was when I was in Sawa doing my national service. In Sawa, we longed for Sundays, the day’s someone chosen from amongst us brought us stamps from the post office in the camp. You had to get on well with the person elected to fetch the stamps lest she refused to sell you stamps pretending to have sold out. What this meant was not being able to send letters to your loved ones. It was back then that I appreciated the importance of the postal service and the significance of stamps.

When I watched Hollywood movies, collecting stamps was portrayed most of the time as a worthless leisure pursuit or the hobby of weirdoes and nerds. However, when I met Fitsum G.Selassie, a philatelist, I came to know that name-calling in the movies was just stereotyping.

Fitsum has more than 100 collections of stamps, representing a period extending from Italian colonization to the independence of Eritrea. He says stamp collecting can be both a hobby and a form of historical study because postage stamps issued by governments tend to tell the history of nations. And when the demand of stamp collectors greatly exceeds the supply, the commercial value of stamps in a specific market may become enormously greater than the face value of the stamps, even after use. For some postal services the sale of stamps to collectors who will never use them is a significant source of revenue.

I have lived my whole life in Asmara but I have never visited the bureau of postal services. Of course, with the internet and the social media the importance of letters was fading when I was growing up. But that could not still be a good excuse for my not visiting the post office. The moment I shared this with Fitsum, he was willing to be my tour guide right away.

When we reached the gate of the art deco building the first and most noticeable thing was the banner bearing this message: October 9, 2022 World Stamp Day. We entered the building and Fitsum pointed at the archaic but vibrantly and beautifully colored ceiling. On that ceiling appear names of the post office’s branches during the colonization period located in different towns, including Keren, Massawa, Akordat, Barentu, Decemhare, and Tessenie.

Worldwide many types of stamps are used. Those mainly used in Eritrea are: definitive, commemorative, first Day Cover and local post stamps. The first adhesive postage stamp in the world, the Penny Black, was issued in the United Kingdom on 1 May 1840. According to Fitsum, the postal service in Eritrea was probably introduced with the coming of the Italians in 1882, when the mercenaries bought a land at Assab and had to establish their own way of communication. Postal service was one of the most essential communication means at the time, and they had to use stamps.

When the Italian government recognized Eritrea as its colony in 1890, the necessary infrastructure for post office was built in Asmara, and an official overprinted type of stamps introduced with the words Colonia Eritrea printed over the existing stamp called Estro. After that they issued several stamps displaying pictures of Eritreans from different ethnic groups and wild animals.

In 1903 and 1916, revenue stamps were launched, and in 1922 pictures of buildings began to appear on stamps. One such picture was that of St. Mary’s church, with ‘Asmara Deghe Selam’ scribed on top of it. In 1938, new stamps bearing pictures of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Libya were printed under the name Africa Orientale Italiano reflecting Italy’s ambition to be a formidable colonial power.

With the end of Italian colonization, the British Military Administration took over Eritrea and issued overprint stamps marked Middle East Force (MEF). After a while the words on the stamp changed to British Military Administration and then to just British Administration.

The pictures on the stamps didn’t vary much during the British Administration although one new stamp was introduced. It was an Inland Revenue stamp bearing the picture of a farmer cultivating. The stamps continued to be printed throughout the federation period until they were replaced by stamps with Ethiopian king’s portrait following Ethiopia’s annexation of Eritrea.

The history of postal service and postage stamps is also associated with the struggle for independence. On the catalogue published by the philatelic bureau of Eritrea, it is clearly stated that postal service was provided to people in the liberated area and towns of Eritrea. In 1978 postage stamps that depicted the steadfastness and bravery of Eritrean women and the sacrifices made by the people were printed.

After the second congress of the EPLF, postal services were expanded to facilitate communication between the armed forces and people in the liberated areas as well as Eritreans in Diaspora. Despite all the difficulties around eight centers were established.

After the liberation of Eritrea, on 1st September 1991, the Independent State Postal Administration issued a group of three stamps featuring “Freedom, after 30 years of armed struggle” for internal use only. A second group of the commemorative postage stamps were introduced on 22nd April 1993 consisting of five value denominations celebrating the days of the referendum. Then sets of commemorative stamps consisting of two souvenir sheets and two sheetlets featuring the marine life of the Red Sea were issued when the national currency, Nakfa, was issued. The Eritrean postal service has so far issued more than 42 series of stamps, both definitive and commemorative.

As humans it is natural for us to use communication tools that are up-to-date and more convenient for us. And there is no question that the advent of mobile phones and social media have undermined postal services. However, the collection of stamps is emerging as a popular hobby, which keeps postal service from totally vanishing. When I saw Fitsum’s collection of stamps I had the sudden urge to know the history behind them, the history I had learned only through textbooks.

I asked Fitsum how he was able to collect all the stamps, and he said he followed four things that enabled him to pursue it without giving up. They are: hobby, devotion, patience and money. At last while we were standing in the middle of the bureau of postal services, Fitsum told me that World Stamp Day is a great means of income and a tourist attracting event and he calls on the philatelic bureau to do more!

Eritrea formally became a member of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) on 19 August, 1993. UPU, which was established in 1874, has 192 member countries and sets the rules for international mail exchanges as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations.

 

Source: Ministry of Information Eritrea