Freedom Friday Calls a National Days of Mourning in Eritrea

Freedom Friday Calls a National Days of Mourning  in Eritrea

(Asmara 04-10-2013) Freedom Friday Movement has called for a three day National Mourning in Eritrea starting from Friday 11th October, to mourn the victims of the Lampadusa Disaster that claimed the lives of several hundred people many of whom are believed to be Eritreans.

A ship carrying about 500 migrants - mostly from Eritrea and Somalia set sail from the Libyan port of Misrata, however the boat began taking on water when its motor stopped working as it neared Lampedusa early on Thursday morn-ing, some of those on board then reportedly set fire to try to attract the atten-tion of passing ships, but it all went wrong, when the fire spread to the rest of the boat. The boat is thought to have capsized when everyone moved to one side.

Italy declared a day of mourning and rescue operations were ongoing on Friday, however rough weather has since halted the operation and rescuers were only able to find 111 bodies and 155 survivors, more than 200 people are unaccounted for.

Many of those dead and unaccounted for are Eritreans. Nonetheless Eritrean state media has yet to acknowledge that fact and the government hasn’t sent any mes-sages of condolences to families of those involved.

Eritreans in the diaspora will be holding various memorial events across the world over the weekend and Freedom Friday Movement is calling on Eritreans inside the country to do the same.

The movement will be making thousands of phone calls throughout the coming week to send messages of condolence into Eritrea and will use the opportunity to call on Eritreans to commemorate their children lost at sea, publicly and in keeping with Eri-trean culture.

Coordinators of the movement said: ‘it is appalling that despite the fact that hundreds of Eritreans have perished, the government refuses to acknowledge this reality. There was a National Mourning in Italy on Friday; there will be more across the Eri-trean diaspora over the weekend. It is only appropriate that this should also happen in Eritrea’

Freedom Friday Movement’s main objective is to link the diaspora based movement for democratic change in Eritrea to that inside the country.
Many of the Eritreans who were aboard the ship that capsized were fleeing human rights violations in Eritrea, including the interminable national service that all Eritre-ans under the age of 50 are subject to.
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