Samuel, a 14 year old boy from Eritrea, lost one leg during a machine accident in September 2008. Humanitarian medical help group (Hammer Forum) for children in war zones brought Samuel to Germany for operations to his second leg.

Hence, German surgeons have been conducting a series of operations in order to save his second leg. After the operation, Samuel’s condition improved and he is now learning to walk with the help of crutches and a lower-limb prosthetic device for his lost leg.

These operations were necessary and effective because the boy lost part of the bone structure during the accident. Throughout the operations and medical treatment Samuel is living with a German foster family, which makes him feel home. When asked what he likes best about his new home, he said “Watching TV the whole day”.

Samuel is from a poor family background with his mother and his ten year old brother living in a small rural village in Eritrea. He reached 7th grade at school and speaks Tigrigna and Arabic.

His mother could not have afforded the expenses required for his treatment to help her son keep his second leg safe. It was only with the support of the medical help group that made this possible to happen.

Meanwhile, everyone takes care of the boy who has adapted very quickly to his new environment far from Eritrea. His foster family remarks, “We could not believe how quick he learned the German language”.

Samuel’s future plan is to go back to Eritrea once he finished his operations but intends to return for a visit to his friends and foster family and of course he will be watching TV all day long.

According to World Radio Swiss, a police officer in the canton of Vaud accused of abusing his authority is to be re-tried, following claims he was acquitted thanks to his colleagues committing perjury. The case had been dismissed, but will now be fully re-investigated.

The substance of the case dates back to New Year’s Eve, 2006. A 16-year-old Eritrean man was stopped on two separate occasions by police in Lausanne.

He claims that on the second occasion, a patrol officer drenched him in pepper spray, and abandoned him near a forest. The man from Eritrea says his attempts to lodge a complaint later that night were rejected.

The case eventually went to court, and the policeman was acquitted, based on testimony by his colleagues. Some months later, however, a fellow officer who’d left the force accused those colleagues of lying under oath, to cover up police brutality. Those accusations are now being investigated, and the previous acquittal has been cancelled.

Now the case will be brought before a higher court, which should investigate what happened on the New Year’s Eve day in 2006. Bringing the case to the next level of courts should assure that justice is spoken and that the risk of fraud within the case is abolished.

The police force or so called “Gendarmerie” from the canton Vaud has already been involved in similar incidents in the past. For example during the G8 Summit in 2003 two demonstrators, were nearly killed by police officers from the canton Vaud.