Publikasjoner

Skrevet 8. februar 2008            

Det har vært eritreiske flyktninger i Sudan siden 1960-tallet. De har tradisjonelt blitt mottatt av Sudan og mange har bodd i landet siden de ankom på 1960-tallet. Behandlingen eritreere har fått av sudanske myndigheter har vært avhengig av forholdet mellom Sudan og Eritrea. 

Forholdet mellom Sudan og Eritrea ble forverret etter 1991, spesielt etter at Eritrea beskyldte Sudan for å støtte Islamsk Jihad-bevegelsen som angrep Eritrea fra baser i Sudan. I 1994 ble diplomatiske forbindelser landene imellom forverret, og i 1997 og 1998 var det mindre trefninger på grensene mellom landene. 

I 2000 undertegnet landene en avtale der de ble enige om å åpne diplomatiske forbindelser, gjenåpne ambassader i landenes respektive hovedsteder og gjenoppta ordinær flytrafikk.[1] Men i perioden 1999 til 2005 var det fremdeles spent. Så sent som januar 2004 klaget Eritrea til FN over Sudans behandling av eritreere i Khartoum.[2] Etter fredsavtalen inngått i Sudan i januar 2005 og utnevnelsen av en ny nord-sør regjering i Sudan i september 2005 har forbindelsen mellom de to landene vært bedre enn på over 10 år. Dette har økt eritreiske myndigheters innflytelse over eritreere i Sudan, spesielt i øst Sudan. 

Amnesty rapporterte 20. juli 2007 om arrestasjon av eritreere (og etiopiere) i Khartoum:

"Hundreds of Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals have been arrested since the beginning of July, and are at risk of being forcibly returned to their countries of origin. Many of the Ethiopian and all the Eritrean nationals would be at risk of immediate arrest, torture and indefinite detention without charge or trial if forcibly returned.

In mid-July several hundred Ethiopian and Eritrean adults and children were arrested in the capital, Khartoum. At least 14 Ethiopian nationals, whose names are known to Amnesty International, had been arrested on 5 July in Khartoum and in the east of Sudan. Arrests are continuing.

Many of those detained are understood to be asylum-seekers or recognised refugees. Some are in Omdurman prison in Khartoum, but the whereabouts of most is not yet known, or has not been disclosed by the authorities. Some have been taken to court, charged with illegal entry and summarily sentenced to imprisonment or immediate deportation as illegal migrants. It is understood that no-one has access to them in custody."[3]

Nettstedet Adoulis skrev følgende 7. november 2007:

"The immigration operations through the borders increased, especially through the Hamdait [as transliterated] crossing.  The Sudanese Red Crescent Society and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other organizations reported maximum alert along the border. Media in the town of Kassala reported that the passport and immigration authorities in the state deported about 42 Eritreans who had infiltrated the borders. They were handed over to the Eritrean authorities, where some Eritrean sources say they face a dark fate, adding that the Eritrean opposition and Sudanese civilian efforts failed to prevent the deportation. Knowledgeable sources reported that the escape operations will not stop despite the ongoing campaigns and deportation operations.
 
About 225 refugees were registered at the Hamdait crossing in the past three days.
The same sources indicate that there is a high state of alert among the Sudanese Red Crescent and the UNHCR along the crossing points in anticipation of a large flow of Eritrean refugees, especially after the escalation of the tone of war between Asmara and Addis Ababa and the state of [military] buildup on both sides of the border.
 
Sudanese and Eritrean civil and popular personalities have appealed to the Sudanese authorities in the state to stop the deportations and to take into consideration the reasons that prompted these young people to escape from their country. They also appealed to the UNHCR, as they are responsible for the protection of those refugees, and to the Sudanese refugees commission and other related agencies to take responsibility for preventing the forced deportations and to grant them refugee status. The authorities had deported 32 Eritreans during the last week and their fate is unknown. The central prison and a number of police stations throughout the city are filled with hundreds of refugees who are awaiting deportation decisions."

Nettstedet Awate rapporterte om retur av eritreere fra Sudan 24. desember 2007:

"The Eritrean regime´s abduction of Eritreans in Sudan is of significantly bigger scale than originally reported.  Almost four thousand Eritreans, mostly those who escaped from the mandatory draft, have been picked up from Sudan, loaded in Bettahs (trailers) and hauled back to Eritrea.  This may account for the recent increase of Eritrean migration to Ethiopia, where there is little risk of being snatched back.    

Some Eritreans in Sudan have questioned the accuracy of this report since, in their view, a movement of this magnitude would have been witnessed by them.  Awate.com contacted its stringer to see if we owe our readers a correction and/or apology.  Our reporter stands by the story and adds this clarification: 

PFDJ is hauling deserters from the Sudan in masses. People thought that they abducted one or two truck loads of deserters, but the number is so tremendous according to military sources. The youngsters are loaded in Bettahs one at a time and so that they don´t create disturbance they transfer them to different detention centers. Some died while trying to jump from the trucks. It is really a cruel and messy affair.    

The only absolute way to know is to interview the prisoners in Track B, Meiter, Sawa, Adi Abeito, Dahlak, Wia and Gedem.   In the meantime, we stand by our report."[4] 

Awate forklarte deporteringen på følgende måte:

"The case of the local East Sudan government is relatively easy to explain.  At the macro level, the government of East Sudan is indebted to the Eritrean regime that placed it in power to begin with.  At the micro level, corrupt Sudanese security officers have found reasons for their unpaid excursion to Eritrea. Officers accompanying deported refugees to Eritrea are generously hosted by the Eritrean government officials in the Eritrean border towns. They are hosted in guest houses and entertained with girls, food and drinks. This has become an incentive for the security officers to work hard to arrest refugees and forcibly deport them back to Eritrea.  

As for the central government, it should be recalled that the hospitality that the Sudanese are famous for was never due to the leadership of their government. Whoever was at the helm of the Sudanese government in the last 50 years--whether it was Aboud, or Numeiri, or Turabi or Beshir—has always been all-too-willing to use the Eritrean refugees and their political activists as a negotiating chip with Ethiopian or Eritrean rulers. What has changed is the total collapse of Sudanese civil society and the re-alignment of the interests of its political elite. 

Facing three hostile forces in the west, the east and the south, the Northern Sudanese political elite—the Islamists, the communists, the liberals, and the nationalists---have closed ranks and formed a united front with the Sudanese ruling party to protect their interests.  In the East, an alliance of the non-Arab tribes that straddle the borders between Eritrea and Sudan is considered a threat to the central government.  By denying political space and autonomy to Eritreans of the Gash/Barka areas and by controlling the activities and ambitions of the Eastern Sudanese, the Eritrean regime serves an ideal role for the Sudanese government.  In exchange, the Sudanese government has kept the Eritrean opposition based in Sudan under a short leash, and it has given the Eritrean regime wide latitude to treat Eastern Sudan as its territory." 

Referanser

Amnesty International. Sudan. Forcible return. 20. juli 2007. Tilgjengelig fra: http://archive.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR540382007?open&of=ENG-2F4 [Lastet ned 11. mars] AWATE.

Eritrean Regime abducts thousands of Eritreans from Sudan. 24. desember 2007. Tilgjengelig fra: http://www.awate.com/portal/content/view/4698/3/ [lastet ned 11. mars 2008] BBC.

Eritrea-Sudan relations plummet. 15. januar 2004. Tilgjengelig fra: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3400575.stm [Lastet ned 11. mars]

VOICE OF AMERICA. 1. april 2000. Tilgjengelig fra http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2000/01/000104-eritrea1.htm. (Lastet ned 11. mars 2008)

Fotnoter

[1] Voice of America, 2000
[2] BBC, 2004.
[3] AI, 2007
[4] Awate, 2007.