On the occasion of the 9th anniversary of the brutal, excessive and heartless oppression of media practitioners in Eritrea, the Eastern Africa Journalists Association (EAJA) is appalled by the sustained merciless, inhuman and undignified detention of more than thirty journalists in that country for merely exercising their universal and fundamental choice for free press and right to free expression.
The journalists detained since September 2001 without charges and without trial are facing constant ill-treatment and torture. Some of them, about 5 journalists, have already died in horrendous and callous conditions in the metal and underground prisons where they are detained incommunicado. Some of the journalists are also being held in secret, harsh and remote military detention camps and are frequently tortured.
“The Eritrean government is the worst enemy of press freedom and the greatest violator of human rights in Africa. Democracy and rule of law have totally been suppressed in the country, and replaced by cruelty, brutality, and heartless oppression. The Asmara regime has ensured that journalism as a profession cannot be practised in the country and has become the greatest jailer of journalists and dissidents in Africa,” said EAJA Secretary-General, Omar Faruk Osman.
Besides making sure the local journalists, political reformists and dissidents continue to die one after another in prison, the Eritrean regime has barred journalists from neighbouring countries and other foreign media organisations from visiting the country, so that they could continue hiding the atrocities being perpetuated by the despotic regime from the attention of the world.
EAJA is seriously concerned about the apathy by the world community on the continued persecution of journalists and the oppression of the ordinary people by the Eritrean regime.
“There is talk of some members of the international community saying they are using ‘quiet diplomacy’ which has so far borne no fruit. There is no more time left. Our Eritrean colleagues continue to die in this ‘quiet diplomacy’ and the remaining journalists could also die so long as this lack of action from the international community continues,” Osman said.
The conditions in which the journalists are detained in Eritrea, alongside reformists and “dissidents” are but very desperate. They are dying one after the other in the Eiraeiro high security prison, with no access at all to the outside world and with no authorisation to communicate with the other prisoners. The imprisoned journalists are held in solitary cells, and are referred to by numbers so that nobody knows their names. Jailed journalist Seyoum Tsehaye, for instance, is prisoner number 60. Reportedly, some of the jailed journalists have developed mental illness due to the unbearable abuse and prison conditions while others are in very critical ill health, which could lead to their death anytime.
There is absolutely no plan to release these detained journalists or even to put them on trial by the Asmara regime. “We understand that the objective of the Eritrean government is to let them die slowly in prison” Osman added. “We want the UN sanctions against Eritrea voted in December 2009 to be implemented fully and without any hesitation because the repressive regime will not change its attitude and its course against the rights of the people of Eritrea, including journalists”.
“The world community must immediately apply strong and practical measures against the Eritrean regime in order to force it to stop these grave violations of human rights. We call upon the European Union to stop any aid and trade cooperation with Eritrea because the proceeds of such engagements are used by the totalitarian regime to fund actions and programmes aimed at stifling democracy and press freedom. The regime uses the external aid to feed its unruly state officials and state apparatus,” Osman added.
On 18 September 2001, the Eritrean regime outlawed the entire practice of the independent press in the country and journalist Solomun Abera, who currently lives in exile, was forced to read this new edict. Consequently, fourteen journalists were arrested for protesting against the edict. The edict was issued through the then Minister of Information, Naizghi Kiflu, who is currently being treated in the UK for kidney dialysis. Kiflu is known for leading the onslaught against the media and journalists in September 2001. Journalists were arrested after being ‘suspected of treason', a crime punishable by death, for publishing articles calling for a democratic reform in the country.
Eritrea is the only African country that does not entertain any opinion that is different from the one held by the regime and its leaders and which does not categorically tolerate any independent media in the country. In June 1996, the Eritrean Press Law was enacted which allowed private ownership of the print media. The broadcast media solely remained under the tight control of the government.
The Eastern Africa Journalists Association calls on:
1. UN Security Council to implement its sanctions on Eritrea of 23 December 2009, which particularly place an arms embargo on Eritrea, impose travel bans on the country’s top political and military officials, and freeze the assets of the country's senior political and military leaders.
2. European Union (EU) to stop all e bilateral cooperation with Eritrea because there is no freedom of expression, democracy, human rights, good governance, rule of law and justice.
3. Countries that host Eritrean diplomatic missions to cease all the diplomatic privileges and immunities for Eritrean diplomats as they use these facilities to continue undermining human rights of the Eritrean people.
4. African Union (AU) to impose sanctions on Eritrea because of crimes against journalists, reformists and dissenters in line with the Union’s Constitutive Act and to particularly implement its objective of “to promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and other relevant human rights instruments”.
5. Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) to tackle severe conditions of coercion of freedom of expression including illegal detention of journalists, reformists and dissenters.
6. International Community to take any possible collective action against repression of freedom of expression, human rights and democracy in Eritrea and to free Eritrean journalists who are dying in prisons.
“No More Journalists Dying in Eritrean Prisons, Save Eritrean Journalists”