Supporters of the Eritrean dictator Isayas Afewerki celebrated a festival in Gerlafingen. In response, Eritreans traveled from all over Switzerland to disrupt their political opponents. The police were on site with a large contingent and water cannons.
Source: Solothurner Zeitung
Eritrea chaos after festival: demonstrators throw stones at police – policewoman is injured
Text: Raphael Rohner and Anes Filan, photos: Andre Veith UpdatedMarch 31, 2024, 11:48 p.m
Within a few hours, several people made their way to Gerlafingen to disrupt the festival – with violence if necessary: ”We didn’t flee our homeland, where terror reigns, that people here celebrate this country and its dictator,” says a young person Man from Eastern Switzerland on the phone. In Gerlafingen he wants to take revenge on the regime’s supporters who forced him to flee.
People armed with stones and sticks wanted to take revenge
The young man did not come alone. Screenshots and videos of the ongoing festival in Gerlafingen spread like wildfire via WhatsApp, and several dozen people finally arrived on site. They were already confronted there by the police, who were on site with a large contingent. The media spokeswoman for the Solothurn cantonal police, Astrid Bucher, said in the afternoon: “The police are on site to secure the participants of the festival and to prevent a possible meeting between political opponents.”
According to a statement from the Solothurn cantonal police, there were 180 people on site, some of whom wanted to attack their compatriots armed with sticks, stones and iron bars. The Solothurn cantonal police used, among other things, water cannons, protection dogs and tear gas against the demonstrators.
The regime supporters in Gerlafingerhof were asked by the police to end the event a little earlier. “Both sides were not interested in de-escalation,” writes Kapo Solothurn in the message that she sent late on Sunday evening.
“A police member was slightly injured when a stone was thrown during the operation,” the police said. A participant in the Eritrean group is also said to have been slightly injured. Several people were checked and, according to the statement, no arrests were made. The situation on site became too dangerous for the police media spokeswoman and she withdrew.
“It’s escalating again,” a representative of the Eritrean Swiss Media Association told this newspaper. Several people traveled to the site to calm down the angry dissidents – people who, among other things, fled to Switzerland because of the dictatorship in Eritrea.
However, the police did not allow any mediation with the demonstrators, but instead took direct aggressive action against the people and issued orders to leave them. “We are trying to stop our angry compatriots and of course speak out against the violence,” the spokesman told this newspaper.
However, the matter is difficult and also a challenge for emergency services: “It is extremely difficult to make it clear to people and the police what is going on with these people. They lost everything because of the terrorist regime – and here in Switzerland the supporters of it are simply allowed to celebrate as if nothing were wrong,” says the spokesman for the Eritrean media association, who was there. When he tried to contact the police as an intermediary, he was turned away.
At around 8 p.m., several people reported that the operation was over and that the demonstrators were leaving. According to Kapo’s statement, the approximately 350 regime supporters were also able to be safely driven away from Gerlafingen in coaches thanks to the police presence.
Festivals as a propaganda tool to collect money
TikTok live streams from Gerlafingen showed speeches from friends of the regime and people who hold the regime’s flag. The background to the festival in Gerlafingen is still unclear.
According to several reports by the UN Human Rights Commission and the United Nations (UN), the regime of the Eritrean dictator Isayas Afewerki is considered a terrorist regime. The commissioned special rapporteur, Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, says the country has made no progress in resolving the human rights crisis that has been going on for over 30 years.
Supporters of the regime have been infiltrating Switzerland and blackmailing their compatriots in this country for decades. Research by this newspaper revealed that, among other things, translators on behalf of the dictator in Switzerland were said to have persuaded refugees to give their money to the Eritrean state. For several months now, supporters of the radical group “EriBlood” and the “Fourth Front” have also appeared at events and festivals in Switzerland. According to reports from European secret services, these groups are classified as “highly dangerous” because they call for violence against fellow countrymen who have fled .
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In Switzerland, festivals in the Eritrean diaspora are often misused to spread the dictator’s propaganda and to collect money from refugees. In Europe over the last two years there have been repeated violent clashes between opponents of the regime and supporters of the dictator. In most cases, however, the authorities are completely overwhelmed by the affiliation of the groups. Several organizations are calling for stricter controls from the federal government and the cantons and for festivals like those in Gerlafingen to be banned.
For tactical reasons, the police could not yet say on Sunday evening whether the police had checked the organizers and the people behind the festival in Gerlafingen or whether they were even held accountable.
Martin Plaut 