Open Letter to The London Metropolitan Police Commissioner 

Subject – Eritrean Brigade N’Hamedu in the UK

1.      We are Mekete Tigray UK, a community association of UK citizens and residents of Tigrayan Ethiopian origin. We are an independent, open, and democratic and all-inclusive organisation with charitable and humanitarian objectives. We are set up to promote human rights and peace in Tigray and Ethiopia at large and campaign peacefully and legally to end the genocidal war that has been waged against the people of Tigray by the Ethiopian Federal Government, the Eritrean Government and Amhara Region militia and paramilitary forces. The war in Tigray, Ethiopia, has claimed the lives of over 1 million people,  weaponised sexual violence against 120,000 Tigrayan women and girls and the total destruction of the social  fabric, institutions and economic and infrastructure of Tigray as attested  by the UN Human Rights Council Investigation, UK Parliament Tigray Inquiry Report, US State Department Report, and numerous  Statements and Reports by the European Union,  the African Union,  Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

2.      This is to attest that Brigade N’hamedu, a campaigning movement of Eritrean diaspora youth in the UK, is a bona fide organisation set up to resist transnational persecution of the dictatorial regime of President Isias Afewerki of Eritrea. We confirm that the Eritrean regime harasses and persecutes the Eritrean Diaspora who are naturalised British citizens and residents as well as Eritrean refugees and asylum seekers through its network of agent provocateurs organised by the Eritrean embassy in the UK. Methods used to harass and persecute the Eritrean diaspora include the forceful and illegal imposition of the so-called diaspora taxes, persecution Eritrean Diaspora relatives and families in Eritrea and elaborate methods of ‘transnational’ persecution including denying consular services, intimidation and demonisation, social isolation and physical harm. All these are conducted under the guise of an Eritrean festival and fund-raising events organised by the Eritrean Embassy in the UK.

3.      We testify that the Eritrean Diaspora youth organised under Brigade N’Hamedu is expressly set up to promote human rights in Eritrea and to defend against the transnational violence and persecution directed at Eritrean   diaspora, refugees and asylum seekers by the Eritrean Regime. It is on public record that the Eritrean Regime has been designated as having committed crime against humanity in Eritrea by the UN Human Rights Council. Furthermore, according to the UN International Commission Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia Reports in 2023, the Eritrean Regime has been accused of Crime Against Humanity and war Crimes against the people of Tigray in Ethiopia.

4.      According to the US State Department 2023 Report on Eritrea published in 2024: 

“In March 2023 the U.S. Secretary of State determined that the Eritrean Defense Forces committed war crimes during the conflict in northern Ethiopia, as well as crimes against humanity including murder, rape, and other forms of sexual violence. Significant human rights issues included credible reports of enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; political prisoners or detainees; transnational repression against individuals in another country (emphasis ours); arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; punishment of family members for alleged offenses by a relative; serious abuses in a conflict, including reportedly unlawful civilian deaths, abductions, physical abuses, and conflict-related sexual violence; unlawful recruitment or use of children in armed conflict by the government; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including unjustified arrests or prosecution of journalists and censorship; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental and civil society organizations; restrictions on religious freedom; restrictions on freedom of movement and residence within the territory of the state and on the right to leave the country; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections; serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation; serious government restrictions on domestic and international human rights organizations; extensive gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual violence, workplace violence, and other forms of such violence; trafficking in persons, including forced labour; laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual conduct between adults, which were enforced; prohibiting independent trade unions and systematic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association; and existence of the worst forms of child labour.”

5.      Specifically, we would like to convey our view and bring to your attention about the incident of December 312023, outside the Lighthouse Theatre, that put several young British Eritreans in detention while demonstrating their opposition to the Eritrean regime’s use of the annual gathering of its supporters in London and other European cities for raising funds for the running of President Isaias Afwerki’s illegal and unrepresentative government. These Annual gatherings of Isaias Afwerki’s ardent supporters among the diaspora, often known as the Fourth Front, by the regime are euphemistically, called ‘Cultural Events’, However, contrary to the regimes declared objective, their usual activity is spreading hate messages insulting and humiliating the people of Tigray and their Eritrean supporters. The regime has relied on these events to raise the much-needed foreign currency and for campaigning against Eritrean dissidents and their Tigrayan supporters. We believe at that event peace loving young Eritreans were detained while defending themselves against physical attacks from the supporters of the Eritrean regime.

6.      We also believe peaceful demonstrations to denounce the brutality and evil intent of a regime should never have resulted with the detention of young demonstrators who are worried about the brutality with which their loved ones are dealt in Eritrea. As a campaigning human rights movement, Mekete Tigray UK strongly believes and has a reputation for peaceful and legal conduct of its campaigning activities. We understand the Metropolitan Police have the duty of keeping the peace of the city and its citizens but judging by the sheer number of the detainees, we think the purveyors of hate have escaped justice.

7.      Brigade N’Hamedu, is a highly active opposition to the dictatorial regime in Eritrea, where many rights groups refer to it as the “North Korea of the Horn of Africa”. This youthful organisation’s main goal is to defend the Eritrean diaspora against the transnational persecution and to expose the regime in Eritrea which has managed to concentrate all political and economic power in the hands of the dictatorial regime of President Isaias Afewerki. Brigade N’Hamedu is collaborating with Eritrean dissidents from all over the world to promote human rights and democracy in Eritrea. By resisting the government sponsored violent events, their main aim is to defend the Eritrean Diaspora youth, refugees and asylum seekers against the transnational tentacles of the Eritrean regime that seeks to persecute the Eritrean Diaspora though its networks of agent provocateurs who are organised by Eritrean embassies. As a result, the Eritrean regime has said to use its diplomatic tools to defame members of Brigade N’Hamedu and its Tigrayan supporters. Recent events in other European cities show the regime is showing some success in getting its opposition abroad into trouble with the police.

8.      Arresting brigade N’Hamedu sends the wrong signal to the often hired and paramilitary-like supporters of the regime to go on spreading hate messages and be excellent sources of funding Eritrean regime’s genocidal war in Tigray, Ethiopia, which has been ongoing since November 2020. The detention of its strongest opposition abroad has emboldened the Eritrean regime to ignore calls for it to reform its laws to respect citizens’ rights, to establish a constitutional system and to live in peace with its neighbours. At present it is enslaving the people of Irob, and other Northern Ethiopia areas that it forcefully occupies and is fuelling the civil war in neighbouring Sudan.

9.      We appeal to the common sense of decision makers to release members of Brigade N’Hamedu and other peace-loving Eritreans so the long held British value of siding with the underdog is realised. The members of Brigade N’Hamedu being the most vociferous in their condemnation of the Eritrean regime for the war crimes it committed on Tigrayan men, women and children, we feel obliged to appeal to the fair mindedness of the authorities who managed the event and request their release. We believe some aspects of the alleged behaviours seen on the event might be due to the youthful exuberance of some tiny number of the participants. We would also like to ask for the Government of the United Kingdom to denounce the Eritrean regime for all the crimes it commits on its own people and the neighbouring people of Tigray in Ethiopia.

10.   Finally, we would like to emphasize that we do not condone violence in any form or shape, and that nothing we said above implies the metropolitan police abandons its duty of ensuring demonstrations end in peace and mutual respect. For further information we may be contacted at the above address. We thank you for your time and consideration.

Most respectfully,

Mekete Tigray UK

(Community of Tigrayan Diaspora in the UK)

COPY:

UK Cabinet Office,

UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office,

UK Home Office,

UK Ministry of Justice,

Brigade N’Hamedu UK,

The UK Media

UN Agencies,

African Union,

European Union,

US White House,

US State Department