|
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
AI Index: AFR
64/004/2003 (Public)
News Service No:
217
18 September
2003
Embargo Date: 18 September 2003 01:00 GMT
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
The Baptist General Convention of Texas has
established an "Eritrean Support Fund" to help Eritrean churches
collect money for families in need. "We talk all the time about
caring for Christians suffering around the world," said Patty Lane,
director of the BGCT office of intercultural initiatives. "Here's a
concrete way to help Christians who are suffering for their faith."
In addition to raising money for needy
families, the Eritrean Christians in the United States also are seeking
to raise the awareness level among Americans about persecution in
Eritrea. "If American leaders would put pressure on the Eritrean
government, that can help," said one Eritrean Christian in Texas. He
encouraged Christians to contact elected officials in Congress,
registering concern for the plight of persecuted Protestants.
Especially, the Eritrean Christians in North
America are encouraging other believers to join them in prayer for the
persecuted church. "God can do what seems impossible to us,"
said one Eritrean pastor who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Prayer changes things. We know God hears the prayers of his children."
|
