Parts of the city center in central Bergen are physically closed in connection with the demonstration. It is not desirable for cars to drive into the city centre, if this can be avoided, the police wrote on X (formerly Twitter) this evening. There was a disturbance in the center of Bergen on Saturday morning, as a result of demonstrations against a party organized by the Eritrean association Hordaland. 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. One person was injured. – We arranged for both parties to be able to express opinions in connection with the event. The parties have moved from the area. It is still the case that they obstruct traffic in the streets, and therefore we plan to remove them, if they have not left the city centre. Then we will go to arrests, says Skeie on Saturday evening. Police helicopter in the air 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 and a police helicopter in the air. As of now, we have control, there are no violent markings now, Skeie said at 4 p.m. – 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. 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. – Our job is to be neutral and ensure that freedom of expression and legal markings are allowed to go away, say the police. The event will 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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Parts of the city center are blocked off – news Vestland
