Sometimes she just wants to go back to her roots, says Sabrina Girmazion (29). She and her sister Shewat (24) were born in the Netherlands, but their parents are from Eritrea. And so they regularly go to Eritrean parties, they say in the 'living room' of the Gezana foundation in Rotterdam, which is committed to Eritreans in the Netherlands.
That is why the sisters went to the meeting in Opera Zalencentrum, in The Hague, last Saturday. But what should have been a party turned into an evening full of violence when a group of opponents of the Eritrean regime attacked the venue. They pelted the police with stones, police cars went up in flames and the building was damaged.
According to the police, there were “a few hundred” rioters in The Hague with Dutch, Eritrean or mixed nationality. Fifteen police officers were injured in attacks, including injuries to their teeth and backs. Thirteen people have been arrested.
The Hague mayor Jan van Zanen said he had been aware of tensions surrounding events by Eritrean groups. He wondered “how it is possible that these signals were missed.” Indeed, the violence fits a pattern: previously there were also attacks on parties of the Eritrean diaspora in Rijswijk, Amstelveen and Zaanstad. Germany, the United States, Australia and Israel have also suffered many casualties and injuries from this type of violence in recent years.
Sabrina and Shewat Girmazion are afraid when they visit such parties, they say at the table in the living room of the center. Shewat was pelted in Giessen, Germany, in July last year when she got off the bus on her way to an Eritrea festival. According to opponents, this festival was closely linked to the regime in Eritrea. “You almost feel like a criminal yourself. If you do a lot for the Eritrean community, you are a target,” says Shewat.
In Gezana's living room in Rotterdam it is about what happened in The Hague. People come together here every day to talk, play cards, drink coffee and play billiards. This Thursday there are about twenty people, from different generations and with different opinions about the Eritrean regime. The loudspeakers emit cheerful sounds and the voice of the popular Eritrean singer Abraham Afewerki.
What do people of Eritrean descent think of what happened last weekend in The Hague? Does the violence affect their lives and if so, how? Talked about this NRC last week with fifteen people, both supporters and opponents of the regime and people who want to stay away from politics. Most of them are Eritrean Dutch of the first or second generation, others are still in the middle of their asylum procedure.
Birthdays
Out of concern for their safety, the sisters say, they think twice before attending birthday parties with Dutch Eritreans. “Who is there?” says Sabrina. “Are those people from the Birged Nhamedu?”
The Eritrean anti-regime group Birged Nhamedu, which operates internationally, reportedly also established a branch in the Netherlands four years ago. Supporters of this group are angry that Western countries allow gatherings that in their view function as indoctrination parties for the totalitarian regime of President Isaias Afewerki. According to the police, Birged Nhamedu was also behind the messages on social media, which called for people to come and use violence in the run-up to the party in The Hague.
The leader of the group is a man who operates under the name 'John Black'. He lives in the Netherlands and publishes inciting videos on TikTok. According to Black, violence is necessary. “The [Nederlandse] police know these people [op het feest] supporting the dictatorship,” he says in a video. “We must destroy every police officer who acts. […] If we were peaceful, we would still 'Down! Down! Isaiah!'are shouting.” According to him, previous non-violent protests have not changed anything.
Because of the violence, Eritrean Dutch people are sometimes viewed differently, say the people in the living room of the Gezana foundation. As if they have to answer for the behavior of the rioters. A man who works in construction – and wants to remain anonymous – says by phone that everyone became quiet when he came to work. “We have fifteen minutes for coffee in the morning. Nobody said hello. I just went to work. A few colleagues still don't say anything to me.”
26-year-old artist Saron Tesfahuney, who fled to the Netherlands eleven years ago, says on the phone that she had nowhere to go when she recently wanted to have her daughter baptized. “No one wanted to rent a location to me.” She thinks that the landlords are reluctant because they are afraid of riots. She wonders what else the rioters are capable of.
However, there is also criticism of the meeting in The Hague. Gebrekristos, who is in his thirties, finds meetings like last Saturday's, where the Eritrean flag flew proudly, strange, he says on the phone. He came to the Netherlands two years ago; To protect his family, he only wants his surname in NRC. “You can't celebrate with such a flag while your fellow countrymen are having such a hard time, can you?” Gebrekristos experienced the Eritrean government turning into a totalitarian regime with endless conscription – by the United Nations called forced labor.
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Independence
The differences within the Eritrean community – almost 27,000 people of Eritrean descent live in the Netherlands – are large. Some of them fled their native country before 1991, the year the war against the Ethiopian occupation ended. This applies, for example, to Teklit Girmazion, the father of Sabrina and Shewat, who sits at the table with the sisters in the center. He is an outspoken supporter of the regime; the sisters are more critical, they say. Teklit came to the Netherlands in the early 1990s after fighting for Eritrean independence for thirteen years. When he arrived, he had “twelve bullets in his body.” Traces of it can still be seen in his right cheek and on the back of his neck.
Many refugees from this generation were part of the armed resistance in Eritrea, says Binyam Andebrhan on the phone. He is director of Nieuwlander, an organization that supports refugees. Being part of EPLF, the group of independence fighters, became an important part of the identity of some of these Eritrean refugees in the Netherlands, he says. For example, Teklit Girmazion would like the reporter to write down that Eritrea, unlike the Netherlands, has no wage gap.
In addition, there is a group of people who fled after independence was declared in 1993, from the violence of the Eritrean regime. Refugees like Gebrekristos. “The Eritrean community was already divided. What happened last weekend is a magnification of that,” says Binyam Andebrhan.
Indoctrination
Although they condemn the violence in The Hague, the people NRC spoke to are divided on almost everything else. For example, who were the people in the banquet hall? And what kind of event was it exactly?
Independent researchers point out that cultural events can function as a method of indoctrination for the regime. There are also whispers that money is raised for the regime at such meetings. The people who go there must therefore be supporters of the regime, opponents say.
The table in the living room of the Gezana foundation is becoming increasingly full. People talk endlessly and regularly interrupt each other. They would like to make it clear that they believe this is incorrect. According to them, the rioters are not Eritreans, but people from Tigray. The police say nothing about this. Tigray is an Ethiopian state with which Eritrea has fought a violent battle. It was the deadliest war of 2022: more than half a million civilians were killed.
Shewat Girmazion says about the meeting in The Hague: “It was just a cultural celebration, we had no time to talk about politics at all. We are said to be pro-regime because we carry the flag of Eritrea. But I just love Eritrea, which flag should I use?” She also denies that any money was raised for the regime.
An elderly man who wishes to remain anonymous and is a supporter of the regime says Eritrea is not yet ready for free elections. “The country has just come out of a war and must first be economically stable.”
Others understand the rioters' views. Gebrekristos: “I spoke to Eritreans this week who said: until last Saturday, many Dutch people did not even know we existed. This terrible incident has made people aware of the situation in our country.”
Journalist and PhD candidate at Radboud University Nijmegen Habtom Yohannes does not agree with the rioters' method. “But I understand their feeling,” he says on the phone. Yohannes is originally from Eritrea and is an Eritrea expert. This week he argued in an opinion piece in NRC that there should be no place in the Netherlands for 'celebrations in honor of the Eritrean dictatorship'. On the phone: “According to those young people, the international community is doing nothing about human rights violations. Then they take matters into their own hands. Even with violence.”
Yohannes has feared for his life because of his outspoken criticism of the regime, he says. He said he had to carry a pager with him, with which the police could continuously see his location, because he was threatened by supporters of the regime. He sees that the conflict in the Netherlands is becoming increasingly fierce. “Those young people say: what have you achieved in a peaceful way?”
Nieuwlander director Binyam Andebrhan sees the rioters mainly as vulnerable young people. They are traumatized by what they experienced in Eritrea, and they cannot find their place in the Netherlands. “And then they see people here who glorify the regime. On social media they see people who are against it. That's how you get drawn into it. And suddenly you are standing there with stones and sticks.”
Shewat and Sabrina Girmazion blame Birged Nhamedu, who incites the damaged youth. “Those boys have just arrived in the Netherlands and are immediately throwing away their chance to build a life here with that violence.”
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