Eritrean Information and Discussion Meeting with German politicians and other nationalities residing in the City of Giessen and region based on the truth of Eritrean historical, political and cultural background.
The German city of Giessen became the stage of confrontation between Eritreans defending their nation and Eritreans accusing their nation of human rights violations, illegal detention, torture and forced military conscription of child soldiers in the past two years. Tensions ran high especially, during the annual multicultural Eritrean Festival in Giessen, which opponents describe as a propaganda event sponsored by the Eritrean Government. Unusual for Eritreans, once even police had to step in and make arrests after fist-throwing brawls.
To put the record straight and inform the visibly irritated German public in Giessen, the Eritrean Women’s Association of Giessen staged an information session about Eritrea in the Horn of Africa. The event was attended by 100 visitors including city councilors and municipal political parties in a small hall of the local convention center.
During the presentation, the women explained about the country’s customs, culture, religion, traditions and the aspirations and daily life of the 5.3 million inhabitants of Eritrea. One of the speaker stressed the importance of the cultural festival in Giessen to the Eritrean Diaspora community, which flocks every year from all over Germany to the festival. The event attracts around 600 Eritrean visitors, who want to share their common historic culture and celebrate their little proud nation each year.
Eritrean speakers highlighted the festival would represent a multicultural event open for everyone, Germans and Eritreans alike, aiming to build bridges among people and serve the city as a symbol for tolerance and cultural education.
Although, not everyone in the room shared this view, the overwhelming applause indicated that the opponents were clearly in the minority that night.
Nonetheless, already the first question on the length of military service in Eritrea lead to a heated debate. The first answer was six months, then after further discussion one party came up with 14 years of service, at the end it turned out to be that six month are only the period of initial military training.
One member of the audience pointed out that a shorter period of service would be impossible “due to constant threat of war caused by neighboring Ethiopia”, the borders must be secured, he added.
Some of the questions, such as to why there is a high number of organized Eritreans in the German Diaspora, were diplomatically evaded. On the other hand, very clear statements were made regarding the occurrences in Giessen over the last two years.
“The city council and some of the local politicians have made big mistakes and partly ran a “smear campaign” against the Eritrean community and the cultural festival”, said one representative of the Eritrean Women’s Association.
She further noted that no other city in the world had experienced such a heavy police presence for a cultural festival, caused by violent troublemakers from abroad, despite the Eritrean community’s peaceful intention to display their culture and celebrate their festival in peace.
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