[prisoner-rights] Eritrea: Continued detention of prisoners of conscience and new arrests

News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International
AI INDEX: AFR 64/004/2003     18 September 2003

Eritrea: Continued detention of prisoners of conscience and new arrests of 
members of religious groups


On the second anniversary of their arrests, Amnesty International is urging 
the Eritrean government to release 11 members of parliament and 10 
journalists who have been detained without charge or trial. They are 
prisoners of conscience imprisoned solely for expressing their non-violent 
opinions.

"Although their detention is blatantly unlawful and violates constitutional 
protections for human rights, the government continues to brush aside all 
criticism," the organization said.

The Eritrean government has continually refused to say where they are held 
or to allow access to their families. Three were ill when arrested and 
there have been fears for their safety if they were not allowed medical 
treatment.

"Their families should at the least be immediately allowed to see them 
regularly so as to be assured that they are safe and are not being 
ill-treated," Amnesty International appealed.

A few hundred other government opponents and critics, including children 
and girls, have been arrested since the major crackdown starting two years 
ago on 18 September 2001 against peaceful dissent and an emergent 
democratic reform movement.

In further repression of the right to freedom of opinion and belief, there 
have also been new recent arrests of members of religious faiths. Arrests 
also continue against people refusing military conscription or deserting it.

"The widespread and continuing arrests of prisoners of conscience, 
including peaceful political critics and members of religious groups, and 
their unlawful secret detention without charge, demonstrate a pattern of 
general disregard for the rule of law, the Bill of Rights in the 
Constitution adopted in 1997, as well as the international and regional 
human rights treaties which Eritrea has signed or ratified," Amnesty 
International said.

"This seems to give a message that the protection of basic human rights has 
little meaning in Eritrea. The government must act urgently to free all 
prisoners of conscience. Other political prisoners should be given fair 
trials without further delay; secret detention, torture and 
"disappearances" must stop; and national service regulations should be 
revised to allow the right to conscientious objection."


Background


Members of parliament in prison:
The eleven detained members of the parliament were leading figures in the 
independent struggle by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (now the 
government), alongside President Issayas Afewerki. They include the 
country's vice-president and former foreign minister, Mahmoud Ahmed 
Sheriffo; two other former foreign ministers, Haile Woldetensae and Petros 
Solomon; and the former army chief, Ogbe Abraha. They had led a growing new 
movement calling for democratic reform and a multi-party political system 
with fair and free elections.


Journalists in detention:
The independent press, which had published the views of the dissenting 
members of parliament, was completely shut down at the same time as these 
detentions. Ten prominent and outspoken editors and journalists were also 
detained.

The ten journalists were initially held quite openly but after they went on 
hunger strike they too were taken to secret prisons (of which there are 
many in Eritrea) and have never been seen or heard of since. The detained 
journalists include Fessahaye "Joshua" Yohannes, an EPLF veteran and poet; 
Medhanie Haile, a lawyer; and Seyoum Tsehaye, former head of the state 
television service. Three other journalists in the state media were 
detained later, one was detained in 2000, and Aklilu Solomon, a reporter 
for the US-based Voice of America radio station, was detained and 
re-conscripted in July 2003, despite apparently having a medical exemption. 
This brings to 15 the number of journalists currently held in secret 
detention.


Further arrests including conscripts and returnees:
The 18 September 2001 detentions were followed by further waves of new 
dissenters and critics in the civil service and military particularly. Some 
had publicly called for change, others apparently were held for criticising 
the government in private remarks. There have been numerous detentions in 
the conscript army.

Conscription for men and women between 18 and 40 officially lasts for 18 
months (6 months military training and 12 months development service) but 
in practice is indefinite. There is no right to conscientious objection. 
This has become the main cause of the flight of asylum-seekers.

Over 200 Eritreans - mainly army deserters - who were forcibly returned by 
Malta in late 2002 have not been seen since; others are currently detained 
in Malta and Libya and at risk of deportation. Others have had asylum 
applications rejected in the United Kingdom and elsewhere and fear being 
deported.


Religious persecution:
Religious persecution has risen again in recent months, even though the 
government professes respect for the guarantees of religious freedom in the 
laws and Constitution. On 7 September, 12 members of the Eritrean Bethel 
Church, including two children, were arrested at a prayer meeting in 
Asmara. On 19 and 20 August over 200 teenage school-children sent for a 
vacation course to Sawa military barracks under the new education 
regulations were beaten for possessing bibles. 27 girls and 30 boys are 
still reportedly imprisoned incommunicado in unventilated, over-crowded and 
extremely hot shipping containers, without inadequate food or medical care.

In early 2003 several hundred members of a dozen Christian minority 
churches were arrested without any reason given, tortured and detained 
without charge for several weeks. Three Jehovah's Witnesses have been 
detained for nine years for their faith-based refusal of military service. 
All the minority churches had been closed down in May 2002 and ordered to 
register and submit details of members and any foreign funding (which most 
denied receiving). Currently about 250 church members are detained in harsh 
conditions, including up to 80 army conscripts.

Dozens of Muslims have also been detained incommunicado since 1995 on 
suspicion of links with armed Islamist opposition groups.


Long-term detentions and "disappearances":
Secret, indefinite and incommunicado detention without charge and without 
any pretence of legality has been reported since independence. This has 
become the norm for action against political dissenters or supporters of 
exile political parties or armed opposition groups. Through the long period 
of time, it has become clear that many have "disappeared" and are feared to 
have been extrajudicially executed.

There are also allegations that Ethiopian prisoners of war were secretly 
executed, such as Colonel Bezabih Petros, an air force pilot paraded on 
television after being shot down over Asmara during the 1998-2000 
Eritrea-Ethiopia war. The Eritrean government recently acknowledged his 
death to the War Claims Commission at The Hague, but without giving any 
details of this possible war crime. It had long refused to say anything 
about his "disappearance".


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World Wide Appeal: Jehovah's Witnesses detained for nearly 10 years, take 
action! Please visit http://amnesty-news.c.tclk.net/maabsqZaa0BpFbd5AQwb/

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