Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Sir, as I think you appreciate, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and major human rights organizations have reported on persistent and pervasive human rights violations in Eritrea. That has included systematic patterns of detention, of torture in detention, violations of freedom of religion and freedom of expression, of forced conscription. I myself have also met with and heard directly from Eritreans themselves, where, for example, they spoke of forced labour, of military conscripts being used by local companies that have been subcontracted by Nevsun.
My question is this: how do you feel about your involvement in a country that has been described as the North Korea of Africa with respect to human rights violations, and what has been your involvement...? I know that your CSR strategy has spoken of this, but one of our witnesses said, in a critique of your CSR strategy, that it's been “mostly at the level of philanthropy and platitudes”. But there has been “no evidence”, to use their words, that you've engaged at all with the government in order to help address and redress this widespread and systematic pattern of human rights violations that amount to crimes against humanity.