Eritrea: Shocking Violation of Women´s Rights

Photo: Asghedet Mehreteab

"Eritrean women enjoyed more respect and equality under the defunct Ethiopian Derg dictatorship than under the current Eritrean PFDJ government," said Asghedet Mehreteab, a veteran Eritrean Independence fighter. Asghedet was addressing a gathering last week in Oakland, California, in commemoration of this year´s International Women´s Day.

Asghedet, who is Chair of the opposition ELF-RC, US Western Region and one of the most dynamic Eritrean leaders in exile, lamented the locking up of Eritrean mothers in prisons leaving crying babies behind as a punishment against the departure of their children to foreign lands. They were released if they brought their children back home or if they paid 50,000 Nakfa ($3,300). The Ethiopian Derg was bad, but did not treat Eritrean mothers this way, added Asghedet.

According to Asghedet, many childless and lonely female ex-fighters continued to suffer from societal and official discrimination and neglect. These heroines sacrificed their youth for the independence struggle forfeiting their desires and interests to build families.

She said respect for human rights of women was a barometer of our progress. Asghedet pointed to the suffering of fleeing Eritrean women refugees in such places as Malta, Libya and Sudan. Many of these women have gone through gruesome ordeals of abuse and horror under the PFDJ regime.

Recently, Asghedet spoke from California by phone with one of the many young Eritrean women who had fled to Sudan to escape repression and abuse. They had sneaked across the border into Sudan in defiance of the shoot-to-kill directives against Eritreans attempting to be free.

At the Oakland gathering, Asghedet narrated the ugly and guilt-ridden ordeal of a 20-year old refugee. The victim, whose name is withheld to protect her family in Eritrea, recounted her story to Ashgedet:

"First, armed troops collect us in the dawn after ruthless roundups. They then take us to Sawa military camp in a big truck. When we get there, the soldiers first take us to the senior military officers who pick up the most attractive girls. The next stop is where the lower officials are, who also get to choose some of us. After that, we go to the last stop where the lowest military ranks are stationed. That is where they make fun of us. They say, ´here are the riff raffs´. We are made to feel worthless. From that moment on, all we think is just to escape."

Asghedet condemned what she described was a perverted practice sanctioned by the PFDJ regime in which young women were blatantly abused sexually and emotionally leaving them with permanent psychological wounds.

Many Eritrean women draftees, especially the young, have been forced to serve as sex slaves of the worst type under the whims of some cruel, repressive military officers acting with the approval of the Eritrean Commander-in-Chief, Isaias Afewerki.

Amnesty International and other human rights agencies have long recorded different kinds of violence against Eritrean women conscripts including rape and sex slavery. Consequently, these agencies have been putting pressure on the Eritrean authorities to end the abuse. Still, there are no signs of a let up. There have been no reports of court-martials against perpetrators.

None of this is likely to happen because hardly anyone expects any meaningful or radical change in the thinking and attitude of the Eritrean regime.

Indeed, critics believe that sexual service in military camps is an encouraged government policy. Young women ´conscripts´ are systematically scattered in every military camp through out the nation with a new supply of younger women to replace older ones each year. It is thought that women sex slaves are Isaias´s prized weapon to preserve and ensure the loyalty of many of his ranking officers who have to be emotionally satisfied in exchange for their service to protect and uphold fascism.

Like their commander-in-chief, most of these military officers adhere to no clear ideology of any value. Nor are they required to be guided by Eritrea´s time-tested spiritual or moral values to help them think and live beyond their impulses and respect the innocence of our young women.

The plight of Eritrean women will not change unless fascism is purged and destroyed from the face of the nation. Fascism is one of the worst isms the world has ever seen. It is worse than all the isms combined – Maoism, nationalism, communism, imperialism, and all the rest. Fascism can only be removed through an all out revolution led by fearless and selfless Eritrean women and men who will stand and fight to make freedom, human dignity and justice a reality as promised by the country´s long struggle for liberation.