Watchdogs call for release of Eritrean political prisoners
Sept 18, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — Rights watchdogs on Monday renewed appeals to Eritrea to release several political prisoners detained without trial in this Horn of Africa nation since 2001.
Amid fears that some of prisoners may have died due to poor conditions in state prisons, the London-based Amnesty International called on Asmara to form an independent commission to “clarify on the situation of these detainees.”
On September 18, 2001, 11 members of the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) calling for democratic reforms were incarcerated, as were ten journalists working for independent newspapers, which remain banned.
“Amnesty International calls on the government to form an independent and impartial inquiry team to visit the secret prison where the detainees are held, interview them privately and report publicly on their situation and conditions of detention and health,” the group said in a statement released here.
Eritrea, formerly a province of Ethiopia, officially proclaimed independence in 1993 after more than 30 years of armed struggle. It has been led by strongman president Issaias Afeworki and his PFDJ — formerly the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front — under a one-party system ever since.
Afeworki has referred to the prisoners — who were detained as Eritrea was locked in a bitter border war with Ethiopia — as “traitors” and “spies,” but formal charges have never been filed.
Amnesty International “is renewing its ongoing appeals for their unconditional release, as well as the release of all other prisoners of conscience, including those imprisoned on account of their religious beliefs,” the statement added.
While denouncing prison conditions, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) challenged the international community to pile pressure on Asmara to free the detainees.
“The Eritean government no longer listens to anybody. Nobody has been able to make it see reason. Only international public opinion has enough influence to achieve this,” it said in a statement.
“Not only is the government continuing to hold these prisoners without charge or trial, it is withholding even the most basic information about them, including whether they are still alive,” CPJ chief Joel Simon said in a statement released over the weekend.
According to the CPJ, Eritrea is the world’s fourth leading jailer of journalists after China, Cuba and Ethiopia.
In the recent months, Asmara has expelled some international aid groups and is currently at loggerheads with the United Nations, whose force is monitoring a tense border with Ethiopia.
(ST)