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The annual Eritrea Festival 2015, held between 31 July and 2 August in Frankfurt, was addressed by many German and Eritrean leaders of political and civil society organizations as well as old friends of the Eritrean people who included two veteran Swedish journalists. They were the nonagenarian and still strong Bo Bjelvenstam and Christina Björk, who in her youth in the 70s worked with like minds like Bo in establishing a support group and both later in those years visited liberated parts of Eritrea.

A thunderous applause welcomed both old friends when they took the podium to make short solidarity speeches. Both expressed feelings of family reunion with Eritrean freedom fighters whom they met three ande four decades ago, and still struggling to realize a democratic Eritrea. Old friend Bo started by informing the festival audience that he interviewed the Ethiopian Emperor in 1969 about the war in Eritrea and soon after visited Eritrea and reported about the war for the Swedish media. In his impromptu speech, Bo called on Eritreans to mend their fences and realize the lofty objectives of democracy and the rule of law for whose sake so many lives were sacrificed. He also stated that both of them together with other Swedish compatriots formed the Eritrea Gruppen over 40 years ago and that group catered fro many years medical and other support to Eritrean civilians in the liberated areas.

On her part, Christina read a short prepared-text in which she recalled with nostalgia her encounter with Eritreans in those early years and urged present-day freedom fighters to unite for the common cause they are struggling for. She added: “When the dictatorship falls I hope that the external opposition which today is divided into several groups will be able to cooperate. What I like with the EPDP is that both former ELF and EPLF members are already cooperating.”

Reproduced below is the full text of Christina Björk’s statement at the festival. Good reading.

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Dear friends

Some of us Swedes like Mr Bo and I have been interested in Eritrea since the early 70^th. We felt indignation about the injustice and the way the Eritrean people were treated by the Ethiopians. It was unfair. And it was a scandal that the UN made a decision to which they did not take responsibility.

That´s way many of us in Sweden felt that we had the obligation to support the struggle.

In 1981, I visited Eritrea and made a film about the struggle for independence. It was during a very difficult time for the people. But what you can see in the film is that they had a hope for the future. Cooperatives had been organised. The liberated areas were used for farming and the products were distributed among the civilians. Mobile clinics offered health care and I saw functioning schools everywhere. Most important of all people believed in a better future.

During the last years I have been interviewing Eritreans who participated in the struggle for independence during the 60´, 70´and 80^th. I made interviews with young Eritreans as well. These interviews will be kept in an archive for future research. Some of the material will become published in a book which I am writing at present.

One young man who fled Eritrea, told me about the situation he met when he 2002 was deported back from Malta to Eritrea. In Malta they believed in the assurances they got from Eritrean authoritieson the good treatment the deported youngsters were expected to receive. It was of course a lie which Malta realised too late.

The deported youngsters were held in prison for several years where they as well were tortured. They never met a court or got a trial.

Some of the older people I interviewed had as well been kept in custody. They referred to the judicial procedures they met after they got caught by the Ethiopians. They were assigned a lawyer and got a trial.

This is contrary to the situation in Eritrea today where no judicial system exists.
Those of you who were forced to leave Eritrea have in different ways worked for a change in a country you no longer can visit. All of you want to be able to come back to Eritrea again to start the important reconstruction of your homeland.

Unfortunately all the sacrifices you did during the war for independence resulted in dictatorship and Eritrea became a prison for the people.

During 2015, Eritrea at last obtained the attention it deserved from the international community and the media. The UN Commission for Human Rights reported about the conditions in Eritrea. They wrote among many other things that thousands of young Eritreans every week are leaving the country risking their lives because of intolerable conditions in the homeland. Very many of them are coming to Sweden where I live.
Eritrea today has neither human rights nor a functioning constitution. It is time to get rid of a regime which abuses human rights.When the dictatorship falls I hope that the external opposition which today is divided into several groups will be able to cooperate. What I like with the EPDP is that both former ELF and EPLF members are already cooperating.

I will finish by saying that I feel hope. I believe there will become a democratic Eritrea in the future I hope that all of you will be able to go home and feel that all the sacrifices you did will help you building the country of our dreams.