President Isaias Afwerki Calls for Lifting of Sanctions

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki

President Isaias Afwerki Calls for Lifting of Sanctions

In a letter written to the President of the Security Council, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki calls for the lifting of the unjust and illegal sanctions imposed on Eritrea since 2009.

The following is the full text of the December 3rd 2013 letter by President Afwerki:

Annex to the letter dated 13 December 2013 from the Permanent Representative of Eritrea to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council

As will be recalled, the Security Council imposed unwarranted “sanctions” against Eritrea four years ago in 2009. This resolution was adopted almost stealthily during the Christmas holiday season, without any legal basis or factual evidence and through unorthodox procedures, including denial to Eritrea of its inalienable right of defence as the accused party.

Eritrea, which had remained a victim of, and which has relentlessly combated, declared terrorism since achieving its independence in 1993, could not, naturally, acquiesce to the unjust and illegal “sanctions”. Indeed, the only proper and legitimate course of action for Eritrea was and remains the wholesale rejection of this unwarranted act.

The other irony in this sad episode was the Security Council’s ill-advised decision to invoke an alleged border dispute and misconstrue it as an additional accusation to bolster the “sanctions” without ascertaining the facts or pursuing due legal processes. This lopsided decision was in spite of the Security Council’s failure to shoulder its legal obligations in terms of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission award of 2002 and the continued occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories.

In the past four years, intensive efforts have been undertaken through the Monitoring Group to ensure that the “sanctions” resolution that was originally adopted through myriad baseless allegations would not be reversed but would rather become an accomplished fact. However, all the fabricated accusations cobbled together by the Monitoring Group could not only not alter the true facts that prevail on the ground but have further accentuated, in unequivocal terms, that the allegations peddled to impose the sanctions were baseless from the outset.

To accept and acquiesce to these illegal, unjust and unfair “sanctions” as an accomplished fact and grapple with the consequences would be tantamount to buttressing and consolidating the suppression of the rule of law and injustices. As such, the Government of Eritrea has, beyond exerting determined efforts to ensure its rights and the respect of the rule of law, been incessantly appealing to the Security Council to redress this “error” for the last four years.

The Government and people of Eritrea again call today, after four years, upon the Security Council to re-examine the underlying motivations and evidences of all the original and baseless allegations in a transparent manner as well as to respect Eritrea’s right of defence in accordance with the provisions of international law so as to rectify the “erroneous sanctions” resolution.

(Signed) Isaias Afwerki

Sponsored Ads