Earlier this fall, Grassroots International founder and current board member Dan Connell was the keynote speaker at the Symposium on Human Rights in Eritrea, where he said:

The struggle for basic democratic rights waged by the people of Eritrea has been long and complicated. It spanned more than a century of rule by an array of outside powers from the Ottoman Turks and Egypt to Italy and Britain, and finally Ethiopia. It thrust them into battle with successive superpowers, as first the United States and then the Soviet Union threw their weight behind Ethiopia's claims. And it tested them again through post-independence conflict with neighbouring states (Yemen, Sudan, Djibouti and Ethiopia). Meanwhile, it faced corrosion from within.

The event took place on Sept. 19, 2005, in London, and was sponsored by Eritreans for Democratic and Human Rights.

To read the rest of Dan's talk, click here.