EPDP Press Statement On Popular Protest in Asmara

2017-11-01 19:14:48 Written by  EPDP Information Office Published in EPDP News Read 3044 times

News from Asmara had it over the week that the PFDJ regime as usual attempted to interfere in the internal affairs of Al-Diaa Al-Islamia School (commonly known as Ustaz Beshir Mohammed Nur private school) in Asmara and was resisted by the teaching staff, students and their parents. The regime interference included an attempt to impose new guidelines by changing existing school curriculum. It demanded that girls and boys of the school should attend same classes, that girls should not use head-covers and that no religious subjects should be given in Al-Diaa Al-Islamica the school. To further intimidate the general public, the regime arrested the school headmaster and some teachers for having opposed the regime impositions in the private school.

 

On Tuesday, 31 October 2017, residents of the Akhriya locality of Asmara and environs as well as compatriots in the Eritrean capital came out to peacefully demonstrate their grievances but were immediately confronted by a shooting spree of regime forces bent at terrorizing the people and silencing the popular resistance. 

 

Reports of various sources indicated during the day that the popular resistance was expanding to the towns of Keren, Agordat and Afabet.

 

The divide and rule tactics of the PFDJ regime and its undue interferences in the affairs of religious institutions and their private properties in the country have been too numerous to list. (Only to cite an example or two), the regime dethroned the legitimate head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church and appointed its own "Patriarch"; interfered in the affairs of monasteries, seizedtheir properties, and even dared to force Eritrean clergy to join its military and "national" services.

 

 

The Eritrean People's Democratic Party (EPDP) strongly condemns the Eritrean  regime's use of raw force against unarmed demonstrators trying to air out peacefully their grievances. The EPDP also demands the release of all incarcerated teachers, students and parents and calls upon all Eritreans inside the homeland and abroad as well as the Eritrean Defense Forces to stand on the side of their victimized people and reverberate theirr grievances and cries.

 

Likewise, the EPDP urges the African Union and the rest of the international community to vehemently condemn the recent actions of the Eritrean regime against all private schools in Eritrea.

  

Victory to Peaceful Popular Resistance!!

Menghesteab Asmerom,

EPDP Chairman,

31 October, 2017

Last modified on Wednesday, 01 November 2017 20:17