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Supporters of Eritrean government charge Italian with “disruption”
by Scott Gilbreath ~ April 10th, 2009
Human rights activist Dania Avallone was seriously injured in Rome last October while participating in a peaceful protest at an Eritrean festival when rocks and bottles were thrown at her. Now, some Eritreans living in Italy have charged Ms Avallone with “disruption”. She is to appear in court next week.
Maria Daniela (Dania) Avallone is due in a Rome court on 15 April accused amongst other things, of referring to the Eritrean president as a dictator, continually ’disturbing’ Eritrean government sponsored events in Italy through protesting, and insulting the organisers in Italian and Tigrinya, an Eritrean language.
The charges stem from an incident that occurred last year on 26 October, when around fifty Eritrean government supporters pelted human rights activists who were picketing an Eritrean festival that was opened and attended by the Eritrean Minister of Defence. During the assault Ms. Avallone lost consciousness after a stone struck her in the kidneys, and was kept in hospital overnight for observation.
The legal complaint against Ms Avallone was ostensibly brought by “the Eritrean Community in Italy”. However, signatories to the complaint are said to include at least two members of the Eritrean diplomatic entourage.
Photos taken at the festival protest are posted here with a report in Italian.
The government of Eritrea is one of the most repressive and religiously intolerant in the world. Thousands of Christians, including children, are held in deplorable conditions. At least eight are known to have died in custody in recent years. Eritrea regularly shows up on lists of countries that trample on the human rights of believers.
Last December, authorities conducted another round of mass arrests of Christians, bringing the total in custody to about three thousand.
Reporters Without Borders has ranked Eritrea the worst nation on the planet for press freedom, worse even than North Korea. An estimated 20,000 political prisoners are held in Eritrean jails.
Gospel singer Helen Berhane, who escaped to Denmark in 2007 after two years of imprisonment and torture, last week urged the European Union to withhold a €122 million foreign aid package to Eritrea. She joins an international chorus of objections to the aid proposal, including Reporters Without Borders and the US ambassador to the UN.
Eritrea thumbed its nose at the International Criminal Court last month by inviting the international pariah Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan, for a state visit—his first since the court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of crimes against humanity.
More news stories of persecution in Eritrea can be seen here and here.
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