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Talk about Eritrea is to be heard at every corner of the UN headquarters in Geneva these days. Wednesday, 22 June, was another long days for Eritreans attending the various sessions concerning their problems. Following informal meetings of the non-state actors with delegations of UN member states, Eritrean activists Wednesday organized a well-attended side event at which victims and witnesses of the wrong-doings of the Eritrean regime well told in great detail.

First to speak was young Hanna Petros Solomon, whose story shocked the audience and many had to follow Hanna in breaking to tears and lasting sobs. Hanna was a child when her father, a most senior member of the Eritrean government, was incarcerated on 18 September 2001 and her mother, Aster Yohannes arrested on 11 December 2001, leaving Hanna and her siblings at parentless home. Every word Hanna uttered was painful.

Exiled founder-editor of Setit, Aron Berhane, explained how the tyrannical regime suffocated freedom of expression from its very start. He reported that five journalists are presumed out of 30 journalists who were imprisoned during the last 16 years, while 50 Eritrean journalists had to flee the country.

Prisoner of conscience Helen Berhane was also at hand to tell how the regime fights all Eritrean religious denominations, with emphasis on the so-called unregistered churches like the Pentecostalists and Jehova's Witnesses.

A former judge, Abdalla Karar, witnessed that rule of law died in Eritrea not after the border war but from the start of Eritrea's independent existence. He said Eritrea is using for 25 years now an old Ethiopian constitution which was adapted to the new situation in 1991.

Former diplomat, Fathi Osman, congratulated the UN Commission of Inquiry for ignoring the 45,000 "protest messages" it received from Eritreans because the regime is used to forging such signatures from unwilling signatories. He said he was a personal witness (as regime diplomat in Saudi Arabia) in the signing of government petitions against UN sanctions by 500 school children below the age of 12 in Jeddah .

Head of the Djibouti Commission for Human Rights was also provided an opportunity to tell the suffering of his compatriots as prisoners of war in Eritrea, some 13 of whom are still not accounted for.

Ms Elsa Chyrum, one of the organizers of the interesting event, concluded with meeting by summarizing the process undergone and the prospects ahead of Eritrean activists and their friends. A similar Eritrean side-event is expected to be held on Friday, 24 June.

Eritrean Activists Discuss Way Forward with Amnesty International

Later in the afternoon on 22 June, fifteen Eritrean human rights and democracy activists were invited to the office of Amnesty International in Geneva and discussed the implications of the UN COI report, the ongoing discussions on the Eritrean case and how the final resolution on Eritrea by the UN Human Rights Council , which is expected to be adopted soon, could be promoted and implemented in the best way possible.