Dear

I am writing this letter to bring to your immediate attention the fact that the UN Security Council has imposed sanctions on Eritrea based on fabricated and unsubstantiated accusations. It is alleged that the Eritrean government has supplied weapons to Somali insurgents in violation of the Somali arms embargo. I am rather concerned that such far reaching and potentially destructive action can be taken so lightly without any credible evidence. It is even more disturbing that the British government is the main proponent of the sanction and that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has refused to show the evidence used to our community leaders in a recent meeting.

As you are aware, Somalia has been in turmoil since 1991 and it was further devastated after it was invaded by a neighbouring country, Ethiopia, with support from the Americans. The situation is so dire that the UN had called it the worst humanitarian disaster. The UN Security Council Sanctions Committee had confirmed that most of the ammunition available at the Somali arms markets was supplied by the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and Ethiopian forces as well as the peace keeping troops. The evidence put forward as proof by the UN Arms Monitoring Group was rife with unfounded fabrications which were later proved to be false. One example is that they had claimed 2000 Eritrean soldiers had been involved in the fighting in Somalia, but no single Eritrean was found after the Ethiopians invaded.

The measures taken by the British government in pushing for the sanctions to be applied is therefore seen by many in my community as open aggression against Eritrea and its people. In the past, the British government failed to put any pressure on Ethiopia to accept the final and binding decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration on the border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia. To make matters worse, the British government has been providing Ethiopia with huge political, diplomatic and financial supports. This has emboldened the Ethiopian government to violate international laws with impunity, invade neighbouring states and create instability in the region. The British government’s policy has contributed to the disaster that we have witnessed in the area over the last ten years.

The cruelty against a people who have come out of decades of abuse is totally uncalled for and as such, it is creating anger and resentment among the Eritrean population inside and outside the country.

As my representative, I kindly ask you to call on the British government to review its current policy for the region and take measures to repeal the unjust and unfair sanction imposed on Eritrea. I also request for the British government to make the evidence used for the sanction available for scrutiny.

Best Regards,