Kong Oscars gate in Bergen was blocked off on Saturday due to demonstrations in connection with an event organized by the Eritrean association Hordaland. The police reported a disturbance in the area of Kong Oscars gate, Korskirken and Domkirken at 12.50. Operations leader in the police John-Endre Skeie says that demonstrators had attacked both members of the Eritrean association and the police. – We have also picked up impact equipment, sticks and iron bars, says Skeie. The police had to use tear gas to disperse those involved. There were many police with gas masks in the city. – For now, the situation is unclear, and we ask people to stay away from the area around Kong Oscars gate, says operations manager John Endre Skeie. One person is injured in advance. Police helicopter on the way The party has been criticized for being regime-friendly, something the organizers have denied to BT. But the demonstrators demand that the police stop the party, and say they will give up if that happens. The police say that the event is not planned to end. – The police have staffed up, so we have plenty of people at work. We have drones in the air and a police helicopter is on the way. As of now, we have control, there are no violent markings now, says Skeie. – We have found wooden beams, iron rods and bricks, but no one has been arrested. There have been 80-100 demonstrators, and then there is a party that starts at 8 p.m. The police have not considered stopping the demonstration tonight. – There is freedom of speech in Norway and a legal marking that has been registered in advance. The police had to use tear gas against demonstrators in Bergen on Saturday. Photo: Stian Sørum Røkenes / news One person injured news’s reporter observed planks being thrown during the clashes on Saturday. The police were forced to retreat after this. There were between 80 and 100 demonstrators at the site. The police say that this is about two factions, one for and one against the governing body in Eritrea. The police say they have information that among the demonstrators there are visitors from the Eritrean community from all over southern Norway. – They shout “cancel the party”. Is it relevant to do? – It is an assessment that I have to take in turn. – Our job is to be neutral and ensure that freedom of expression and legal markings are allowed to go away. The event will actually start at 8pm tonight. Eritrean association in Hordaland will then mark the beginning of the war of liberation against Ethiopia. Dramatic in Sweden At the beginning of August, more than 50 people were injured when riots broke out at a regime-loyal Eritrean festival in Stockholm. Several hundred were arrested by the police. The festival is organized annually by people who support the Eritrean regime, and when a group of protesters critical of the regime came to the festival area, there was a disturbance. Several of them must have traveled to Sweden from abroad. According to Expressen, there were said to have been around 1,000 counter-protesters and stones were said to have been thrown, among other things. Several cars and tents were set on fire. At the same time, a similar commemoration is going on in Tel-Aviv in Israel. There are 30 protesters and ten police officers injured, writes the newspaper Haaretz. Woldab Feshatzion says it is young people who have had enough of the regime in Eritrea. Photo: Jørn Tveter / news – A protest Kjetil Tronvoll, one of Europe’s leading experts on Eritrea, says what is happening is an expression of desperation and frustration among Eritrean refugees in Norway and Europe. – It is a protest against Eritreans who support the regime being allowed to organize festivals that mark the regime’s ideology. – But the organizers say that they do not support the regime? – Yes, that’s what all these organizers say. But there is very clear evidence that this is not the case, he says. Woldab Feshatzion has been fighting for a free Eritrea since the 1980s. He does not believe the Eritrean association Hordaland, when they say they do not support the regime in Eritrea. – There are young people who have had enough of the regime in Eritrea, he says about what is happening in Bergen and elsewhere in Europe. – But what do you think about them using violence? – I am generally against violence. The problem is that these young people do not see another way out, says Woldab Feshatzion. The Eritrean association says it does not support the regime in Eritrea, as the protesters claim.
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