The dictatorship’s party followers came by bus from Sweden

“Don’t talk about us, talk with us,” shouted several hundred Norwegian-Eritreans protesting in Oslo on Friday. It was the six largest Eritrean organizations in Norway that organized the demonstration.

Consensus in the Storting

The background is the processing of a representative proposal from the Liberal Party on combating transnational oppression of Eritreans in Norway. The associations feel stigmatized and discriminated against by the Storting because they have dealt with the matter without the organizations having been consulted.

In Venstre’s submission it is stated, among other things, that the associations and the Eritrean churches are controlled by the military regime in Eritrea. Furthermore, parties and celebrations are arenas for controlling the diaspora and raising money for one of the world’s worst dictatorships. This also happens through the infiltration of fake asylum seekers. The associations thus contribute to the Eritrean state continuing to suppress refugees once they have arrived in Norway, according to the representatives’ proposal.

The proposal is documented with two reports from Proba’s social analysis on transnational oppression, i 2020 and 2023. There have also been around six hundred anonymous submissions to the case.

The Storting adopted the representative proposal with some modifications. The majority believes that measures are necessary that include all groups that experience transnational oppression. However, the FRP and the Conservative Party will go further and implement their own measures to stop the flow of money to Eritrea. The FRP will also prioritize the review of residence permits and citizenship for refugees who may have been granted residence on the wrong basis.

Want dialogue

Utrop meets event manager Samson Yared at Jernbanetorget in Oslo. He represents the largest associations in Norway that organize many of the approximately 30,000 people with an Eritrean background in Norway.

– We do not feel heard and valued as a minority, and that is what we are trying to convey in this demonstration, says Yared.

He says the organizations have tried to get in touch with both the Liberal Party and the Local Government and Administration Committee at the Storting, without success. They have also sent a written submission to the representative proposal.

– Serious accusations are being made against Eritrean associations and religious communities in Norway. In connection with the consultation process, however, our voices are not heard. Some parties have been selective and have simply ignored our input, despite the fact that we represent the majority of the Eritrean community in Norway, says Yared.

He also discredits the Proba reports and input into the case.

– The Storting has argued on the basis of two unverified reports and six hundred inputs from anonymous people, says Yared.

– Do you think that there is no transnational oppression of Eritreans in Norway?

– We are not against combating this. But then someone has to prove how this happens, he says.

Exclamation points out that the two reports and many of the submissions confirm the same thing.

We mention, among other things, blackmail and threats, infiltration, social control, exclusion from congregations and regime-friendly cultural events.

– There is much in the reports that has not been verified and quality assured, but instead is based on statements from a few informants who want to paint a picture based on their political views. There is also input from six hundred anonymous people, while our input is supported by several thousand, he says.

Yared now hopes that the demonstration will make the Norwegian-Eritrean associations more visible, and that they can enter into dialogue with politicians.

– Then they get to know who we are. This public stigma affects our children the most, he says.

Mobilized from all over Scandinavia

While we are at Jernbanetorget, a group of demonstrators arrives from Gothenburg. A bus tour was organized by The Young People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (YPFDJ). According to its own website, the YPFDJ is «a proud and passionate nationalist Eritrean diaspora youth organizationwhich functions as an integral branch of the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ)”.

The PFDJ is led by President Isaias Afewerki, who has ruled the one-party state and military regime for the past thirty years. A dictatorship that is considered one of the world’s most brutal, on a par with North Korea.

according to Human Right’s Watch report for 2024, Eritrea violates fundamental human rights such as freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of opinion. There is no free press or civil society that can keep the authorities’ military regime in check. The country also operates an almost lifelong and compulsory military service for both girls and boys.

There was also a bus set up from Stockholm, and mobilized all over Scandinavia, according to our sources.

Have lost faith in the media

The Norwegian-Eritrean associations are also strongly critical of the Norwegian media. Yared believes that the press gives an inadequate representation of the Eritrean environment in Norway.

He then refers, among other things, to the coverage of a violent demonstration in Bergen 2 September last year. Here, heavily equipped police had to chase away hundreds of demonstrators who threw stones at a party organized by a Norwegian-Eritrean association in Hordaland. The Protestants claimed the party was in support of the regime in Eritrea. The police eventually cordoned off the area.

Yared believes that such events are sensationalized by the media without investigative journalism.

– The media write that it is Eritreans who fought each other. And instead of bringing out the facts about the Protestants, the focus is on whether our parties are in support of the regime in Eritrea or not, he says.

According to Yared, the demonstrators are a violent group that is behind threats, violence and terror against the Eritrean diaspora in several countries. The group calls itself Brigade N’Hamedu, or the Blue Wave.

– The media tries to justify this group, and that means that they justify violence. While we have never objected to their parties. And then you actually lose faith in the media, says Yared.

He emphasizes that the Norwegian-Eritrean markings have nothing to do with the regime.

– All the days we celebrate have historical and cultural significance for all Eritreans, regardless of whether they are for or against the government of Eritrea. And the participants today also have different perceptions of the regime in Eritrea, he says.

Anti-racists: – the blue wave a violent mob

The Eritrean associations are supported by the Anti-Racist Front, which believes that Norwegian-Eritrean associations are prevented from holding welfare events.

– There are around 28,000 Eritreans in Norway. These want social togetherness through celebrations of their national and public holidays. In practice, they have been denied this both in Bergen, Kristiansand and Stavanger. In these cities, a mob has appeared which triggers street fights with the throwing of stones and bottles, says leader Nina Narvestad in a press release ahead of the demonstration.

Eritrea expert: – the associations are regime-friendly

Utrop also meets Kjetil Tronvoll on Karl Johans gate.

Tronvoll is professor of peace and conflict studies at Oslo Nye Høyskole and a world-leading expert on Ethiopia and Eritrea.

When Utrop spoke to Tronvoll in March, he says there is no doubt that the largest Norwegian-Eritrean associations support the regime in Eritrea.

– So far, no one has organized these so-called cultural events, which are not regime-friendly, says Tronvoll.

The blue wave: – Did not mobilize

When Utrop spoke to representatives of the blue wave earlier, they said that the group does not accept violence.

– Brigade Nihamedu, or The Blue Wave, is a recently established, global youth movement made up of Eritrean refugees. The main goal is to achieve a peaceful and free life without fear of espionage, pressure and control from the regime.

On Friday, they held a counter-demonstration in addition to a marking ahead of the larger demonstration.

Everyone we spoke to believes that the Norwegian-Eritrean associations are controlled by the regime in Eritrea. And several were surprised that they dared to demonstrate.

Kiflom Kidane says the blue wave deliberately did not recruit for the counter-demonstration. They were therefore only about twenty people who stood a good distance from Eidsvoll’s place behind the barricades.

– We have tried to stop young people from traveling to Oslo, because the pro-regime demonstrators we see today are deliberately trying to provoke riots, he says.

One who did show up, however, was Abel, who fled Eritrea nine years ago. He then traveled alone through Libya and across the Mediterranean to Europe when he was 14 years old.

– I want to show opposition to the regime in Eritrea. But it is difficult when we are publicly portrayed as violent, he says.

Due to several riots in the past year, including in Bergen, Kristiansand and in Stavangerthe police lined up with large forces in the area around Jernbanetorget and the Storting.

The police had also informed traders around the Storting to take in objects and the like they had on the street. Parents at nearby primary schools were also warned against possible disturbances in the area.

However, the police had a good dialogue with the demonstrators along the way, and both demonstrations proceeded peacefully.

FRP and Venstre support the counter-demonstrators

Both Ola Elvestuen (V) and Erlend Wiborg (Frp) contacted the counter-demonstrators. However, no politicians approached the Norwegian-Eritrean associations.

Ola Elvestuen (V) held an appeal outside the Storting

– Thank you very much for showing up. It is really quite absurd that we will afterwards have a demonstration in front of the Storting, i.e. the national assembly, in support of the dictatorship in Eritrea, said Elvestuen on Friday morning.

Erlend Wiborg spoke to The Blue Wave about a future meeting at the Storting. Exclamation asks whether Wiborg has been in dialogue with the Norwegian-Eritrean organisations.

– I have not been in direct contact. But I get damn emails, and we have received input for the committee. But again, I believe that it is fairly well documented how regime loyalists are doing in Norway and how they oppress people. There is nothing to discuss, says Wiborg.

Samson Yared is disappointed that no politicians would accept the signature campaign and the appeal from the associations.

– The Storting wants to ignore us. And this is a deliberate act so that we will not speak out. Therefore, I believe this is discrimination, stigmatization and harassment, said Yared in the appeal at Eidsvolls plass.

Yared later tells Utrop that the associations will make another attempt to make contact with the politicians this week.