25 April 2006

Dear members and friends,

You may have heard that the Lord Avebury, a long time and loyal friend of Eritrea, has been told that he has a lung cancer and is undergoing treatment. He had an operation last week and seems to be recovering well.

It has been stated on a newspaper how transparent the good Lord has been with everything that he does in life.  Twenty years ago, Lord Avebry told the Londoner’s Diary he wanted to give his body to Battersea Dogs’ Home. The paper added, when this offer was turned down, he, as a Buddhist, opted to have his skeleton put on display in a Buddhist monastery in Northamptonshire so that monks could contemplate it.   He is now telling the world in his usual candour way about his illness by posting all his scans, x-rays and biopsies he has undergone at King’s College Hospital on his blog.

Through the long and hard struggle for liberation, Eritrea has come across many good-weather friends who disappear like a thin fog when the going gets tough.  There are, however, few who stood side-by-side with Eritreans through thick and thin.  One of those individuals is Lord Avebury.  Regardless of his view on the internal political developments, he always remained faithful to the people of Eritrea for many years.  He had a firm stance that the conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia should be resolved peacefully and through legal means.  In this regard, no other Member of Parliament or Lord has raised more questions or challenged the government than the good Lord Avebury.

These are two of the many statements he made in the House of Lords:

1. “……….my Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that the reason why the Eritreans declined to accept a visit by Mr Lloyd Axworthy is that it is not they who are responsible for incursions into the temporary security zone; that it is not they who have failed to create the necessary conditions for demarcation to proceed; and that it is not they who have failed to co-operate fully and promptly with the boundary commission? In view of the Ethiopians' continued non-compliance with the Security Council resolution, does not she think that a threat to peace exists that should now be referred to the Security Council under chapter 6 of the charter?”
February 2004

2. “………bearing in mind that Meles Zenawi continues to prevaricate over the final and binding awards of the boundary commission, six years after agreeing that he would accept it, and that it is costing the United Nations £186 million to maintain the increasingly fragile peace, is it now time for the United Nations Security Council to insist that demarcation should begin and that any minor variations in the line which are necessary to avoid splitting communities should be agreed on site?”  

7 November 2005

He has also written a number of letters to Editors of major newspapers. For examples of the letters he wrote to the Guardian click here.

Lord Avebury also initiated a long debate in the House of Lords in 1999 during the height of the border conflict.  Click here for details of the debate.

He was of course attacked for his view and support for the Eritrean cause.  One such attack came from no other than the then Spokesperson at the Ethiopian Embassy in London, Gail Warden.   Click here for one of the attack letters sent to him.

AGE remain thankful to him for not standing idle when a hideous injustice is being committed against the people of Eritrea.  AGE will send a thank you note and get-well-soon card to Lord Avebury.  If you wish to follow up his progress, please visit his blog.