About 2,000 Eritrean migrants demonstrated in central Israel in support of a UN human rights accusation of Eritrean leaders for crimes against humanity.
The protesters, some of who called for the indictment of Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, gathered outside the headquarters of the European Union’s delegation in Ramat Gan near the coastal city of Tel Aviv to show support for the report published on June 8.
According to the UN report, between 300,000 to 400,000 people have been in slavery in the country in the past 25 years.
Meanwhile, UN human rights investigators accused the Eritrean leaders of crimes against humanity, including torture, rape, murder and enslaving hundreds of thousands of people.
“Atrocities had been committed since the country’s independence in 1991 and were continuing,” the U.N. Commission of Inquiry said in the report that was immediately rejected by the government.
According to the UN agency, Eritrea’s poor treatment of its own people has motivated many thousands to flee the country.
If indicted Afwerki will become the second African sitting Head of State to face ICC sanctions after Sudanese President Omar Bashir, who is accused of genocide and war crimes in his country’s western region of Darfur.
