URGENT ACTION

Eritrea: Fear of torture or ill-treatment / prisoners of conscience: Semere Zaid (m), university lecturer, aged in his mid-thirties 18 college students

PUBLIC AI Index: AFR 64/010/2005
20 July 2005

UA 189/05 Fear of torture or ill-treatment / prisoners of
conscience

ERITREA Semere Zaid (m), university lecturer, aged in his mid-thirties
18 college students

Semere Zaid, a lecturer in agriculture at the University of Asmara, and 18
students at Halhale College, part of the University of Asmara, are reportedly
being detained incommunicado and are at risk of torture or ill-treatment.
Amnesty International believes them to be prisoners of conscience, detained
solely because of their religious beliefs.

Semere Zaid was detained on 6 July. He had been detained for a month in
February 2005 and warned to stop his religious activities. He had to report
regularly to a police station in Asmara following his release. He was
rearrested during one of these routine visits. He is reportedly detained in a
special security service section of the Second Police Station in the capital
Asmara, known as "karchele."

On 8 July, 18 students from Halhale College were arrested immediately after
their final examinations. They were reportedly arrested individually on account
of their membership of evangelical churches. It is not yet known where they are
detained.

None of those detained have been charged with any offence. They are being held
illegally, as they have not been brought before a court within 48 hours of
their detention, as is required by the Eritrean Constitution and laws. Others
who have previously been detained on account of their religious beliefs have
been tortured in order to force them, as a condition of release, to sign a
special document promising to stop their religious activities. Many church
members have refused to sign such a document.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Religious persecution against members of minority Christian churches continues
intensively in Eritrea, even though the right to freedom of religion is
guaranteed in the country's Constitution. On 24 June, 50 girls and 30 boys
attending the Asmara Comprehensive School end-of-year party in a public park
were arrested. They were all released without charge after a week in detention.
Some were children. Some 70 members of the Meseret Christos church who were
arrested at a wedding party in Asmara on 28 May are still detained without
charge or trial (see UA 151/05, AFR 64/008/2005, 3 June 2005 and follow-up).

Several hundred members of minority churches in Eritrea, including 17 pastors,
are currently detained. Since 2002, only the official Orthodox, Catholic and
Lutheran Christian churches have been allowed to operate, and evangelical
churches have been banned. There have been frequent reports of the security
forces torturing detained evangelical church members, who have continued
worshipping despite the ban, in an attempt to force them to abandon their
faith. The detainees are held incommunicado in harsh conditions. They are
imprisoned in secret detention centres and army camps in different parts of the
country, including the main military training centre at Sawa. Some are held in
shipping containers and underground prisons. Several have become seriously ill
through denial of medical treatment.