:: HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2006 ::

Human Rights Watch World Report 2006:
The Eritrean = government=E2=80=99s tyranny=20 became more ruthless

18/1/2006

The Eritrean government=E2=80=99s tyranny became more ruthless in = 2005. Rule by force=20 and caprice remains the norm, as the government aggressively moves to = intimidate=20 the population and to isolate it from the outside world.
The = border=20 dispute with Ethiopia continues to fester and is used by the government = to=20 justify repressive policies. The government of Eritrea seriously = interfered with=20 the United Nations=E2=80=99 ability to monitor troop movements along the = border in 2005=20 and threatened to resume war unless Ethiopia accepts an independent = Boundary=20 Commission decision which it considers favorable.

Arrests, Imprisonment and Torture=20
Suppression of Political Dissent and Opinion, Arbitrary = Arrest,=20 and Illegal Detention
No political party other than the = People=E2=80=99s=20 Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) is allowed to exist in Eritrea = and no=20 national elections have been held since the country won its independence = from=20 Ethiopia in 1993. Using the excuse that Eritrea remains at war, the = government=20 has refused to implement the 1997 constitution, drafted by a = constitutional=20 assembly and ratified by referendum, that respects civil and political = rights.=20
The government has arrested thousands of citizens for = expressing=20 dissenting views, practicing an =E2=80=9Cunregistered=E2=80=9D religion, = avoiding endless=20 military conscription, attempting to flee the country, or on suspicion = of not=20 fully supporting government policies. Mass arrests began in September = 2001 with=20 the detention of eleven leaders of the PDFJ who questioned President = Isayas=20 Afewerki=E2=80=99s erratic and autocratic leadership. The government = arrested=20 publishers, editors and reporters and closed all independent newspapers = and=20 magazines. The arrests continued in 2005 and included three leaders of=20 government-affiliated labor unions, the only unions allowed to operate = in the=20 country.
Most of those arrested are held indefinitely in = incommunicado=20 detention. None are formally charged, given access to lawyers or brought = to=20 trial. Some prisoners are released but are warned not to talk about = their=20 imprisonment or treatment. Some manage to escape and flee the country. = As of=20 September 2005, the World Food Program reported that ten thousand = fleeing=20 Eritreans are in refugee camps in Ethiopia, two hundred of whom fled = since=20 January, with two hundred to three hundred more arriving monthly.=20
Prison Conditions and Torture=20
Prisoners are often held in secret prisons, including = underground=20 cells. Because of the large number of arrests, less prominent prisoners = are=20 packed into cargo containers or in other overcrowded prisons. In = addition to=20 psychological abuse, solitary confinement and abysmal conditions, = escapees=20 report the use of physical torture. Prisoners are suspended from trees = with=20 their arms tied behind their backs, a technique known as almaz = (diamond).=20 Prisoners are also placed face down, hands tied to feet, a method of = torture=20 known as the =E2=80=9Chelicopter.=E2=80=9D =

Military Conscription=20 Roundups and Arrests
Eritreans between the ages = of=20 eighteen and forty-five must perform two years of compulsory national = service.=20 In practice, however, the time for service is repeatedly prolonged. = There are=20 frequent giffas (sweeps) to round up = =E2=80=9Cevaders=E2=80=9D=E2=80=94some of whom have already=20 fulfilled their lawful obligations. The government often uses national = service=20 as retribution for perceived criticism of government policies. Those = accused of=20 evading service are frequently tortured. Conscripts are often used for = public=20 works projects, such as road building. There have been persistent = reports that=20 they are also used as laborers on party, military, and officers=E2=80=99 = personal farms.=20
In September 2005, the Italian newspaper Corriere della = Sera=20 published photographs taken by a diplomat in Asmara who witnessed a = killing by=20 security forces of a young man wounded during a giffa. According to the=20 diplomat, a security agent shot the man at close range, execution-style, = while=20 the victim lay in the road. The government denied the diplomat=E2=80=99s = account and=20 photographs, quoting several persons who lived in the area who asserted = that the=20 only body in the street was that of a drunk.
In mid-2005, the=20 government for the first time made hundreds of arrests of family members = of=20 children who had not reported to the military training camp at Sawa for = their=20 final year of high school or who otherwise did not report for national = service.=20 Although the government issued denials, foreign diplomats confirmed the = arrests.=20
Three separate immigration decisions in 2005, by an appellate = court in=20 the United States (Nuru v. Gonzales, 404 F.3d 1207 (9th Cir.), the = European=20 Court of Human Rights (Said v. the Netherlands, Application no. = 2345/02), and=20 the United Kingdom Immigration Appeal Tribunal (Appeal No: Eritrea CG=20 [2005]UKIAT 00106), granted asylum to Eritreans fleeing conscription on = the=20 grounds that national service is used as a measure of political = repression and=20 that anyone forcibly returned to Eritrea is likely to be tortured.=20
Religious Persecution
The=20 government closed all religious institutions in May 2002 except for = those=20 affiliated with the Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Eritrean = Evangelical=20 (Lutheran) churches and Sunni Muslim mosques. Members of Pentecostal = Christian=20 churches are arrested for possession of Bibles or for attending communal = worship. In 2005, the government intensified its persecution of = adherents of=20 unregistered religions by raiding wedding parties at private homes. Some = clergy=20 of a modernizing wing of the Eritrean Orthodox church were also arrested = in=20 2005. Many of those arrested are beaten or tortured during their arrest = or while=20 in captivity.
Jehovah=E2=80=99s Witnesses have been especially = mistreated.=20 Some have been detained for a decade for refusing to participate in = national=20 military service even though the official penalty is incarceration for = no more=20 than three years. The Eritrean government defends its practices on the = ground=20 that the unrecognized churches have failed to register, but some = religious=20 groups applied for registration in 2002 and have not been registered. = The=20 government announced in April 2005 that it soon would register the = Seventh Day=20 Adventist denomination, but as of November 2005, it had not done so.=20
In September 2005, the United States imposed sanctions after = having=20 earlier designated Eritrea as a =E2=80=9Ccountry of particular = concern=E2=80=9D for its=20 religious persecution.

Suppression of = Human=20 Rights Groups
Neither domestic nor international = human=20 rights organizations are allowed to operate in Eritrea. Indeed, almost = no=20 domestic civil organizations are allowed to function except as an = appendage to=20 the government or to the PDFJ. In June 2005, the government imposed new=20 restrictions on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) providing = assistance to the=20 country. The restrictions require annual registration and prohibit any = NGO with=20 less than U.S.$2 million in capital (if foreign) or U.S.$1 million (if = domestic)=20 from being registered.
No non-governmental sources of = information=20 exist except word-of-mouth. Foreign broadcasts are periodically jammed.=20

Relations with Ethiopia=20
The 1998-2000 war with Ethiopia ended with an armistice = agreement by=20 which Eritrea and Ethiopia agreed to binding arbitration of their = border. An=20 international peace-keeping force, U.N. Mission in Eritrea-Ethiopia = (UNMEE),=20 maintains troops and observers along the twenty-five-kilometer-wide = armistice=20 buffer line between the two countries. The force and the zone are based = on the=20 armistice agreement that suspended the conflict.
In 2003, = Ethiopia=20 announced its rejection the decision of the independent Boundary = Commission,=20 largely because it awarded the village of Badme, the flashpoint for the = war, to=20 Eritrea. The Eritrean government uses the possibility of renewed = conflict as a=20 justification for postponing elections, prolonging national service, and = for its=20 repressive policies. Eritrea has lashed out against the international = community=20 for not compelling Ethiopia to implement the border commission decision. = Eritrea=20 insists that the border be demarcated without conditions and Ethiopia = insists=20 that, while it accepts the Boundary Commission=E2=80=99s decision in = principle,=20 demarcation can proceed only after bilateral discussions. No serious=20 international pressure has been applied to Ethiopia to honor its = commitments.=20
In 2005, President Issayas threatened to resume the war if the = impasse=20 is not resolved. In October 2005, the government declared that UNMEE = helicopters=20 and night patrols could no longer be used to monitor the border. By = November,=20 both Eritrea and Ethiopia had substantially increased troop levels and = armament=20 near the border.

Key International=20 Actors
In January 2005, the African Union = adopted a 2003=20 African Commission on Human and Peoples=E2=80=99 Rights report finding = Eritrea=E2=80=99s arrest=20 of the eleven government officials in 2001 and their continued = incarceration in=20 violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples=E2=80=99 Rights. = In April, the=20 Inter-Parliamentary Union unanimously concluded that continued detention = was a=20 gross violation of fundamental rights under Eritrean and international = law, and=20 inferred from the conflicting justifications given by the government = that the=20 accusations against the eleven were groundless.
The=20 international community's assistance consists of food and other = humanitarian=20 assistance. The European Union announced in 2003 that it would provide = Eritrea=20 an unstated sum under the European Initiative for Democracy and Human = Rights, in=20 addition to a =E2=82=AC 96 million five-year aid package (until 2007) = for social and=20 economic development. The European Union said that its assistance would = depend=20 on the government's willingness to improve civil liberties but has taken = no=20 action to withdraw assistance in the face of government intransigence.=20
With minor exceptions, the United States withholds = non-humanitarian=20 assistance to Eritrea because it has refused to release two American = embassy=20 local employees arrested in 2001. (After four years, no charges have = been filed=20 against them.) In August 2005, Eritrea arrested two more local embassy = staff,=20 allegedly for human trafficking. In early summer, the government = demanded that=20 the U.S. Agency for International Development cease operations in the = country=20 without offering a reason, other than that the government was = uncomfortable with=20 HIV/AIDS programs and wanted assistance to be provided directly to the=20 government. In September, the United States imposed a partial denial of=20 arms-export licenses on Eritrea for its religious persecution. This = sanction is=20 more symbolic than real because the United States exports few arms to = Eritrea.=20 The Eritrean ministry of defense issued a statement calling the sanction = part of=20 a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency plot to =E2=80=9Cinstill = chaos=E2=80=9D in Eritrea and to=20 rescue the Ethiopian government. Despite the official U.S. position of = keeping=20 its distance, high-level U.S. Defense department officials frequently = visit and=20 praise the Eritrean government for fighting terrorism.

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Statement & Reports:

Human Rights Watch World Report 2006:
The Eritrean = government=E2=80=99s tyranny=20 became more ruthless

SUWERA CENTRE

FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Related Links:

Statement & Reports:

Human Rights Watch World Report 2006:The Eritrean = government=E2=80=99s tyranny=20 became more ruthless

Human Rights Watch World Report 2006:
The Eritrean = government=E2=80=99s tyranny=20 became more ruthless