In the ongoing round-up of “parents of national service evaders”, nearly 50 residents of Tsaeda Christian were arrested in midnight raids on Wednesday morning.

In a move reminiscent of occupation-era practice, residents describe a “camouflaged lady” leading the military police to point out the residences of the parents whose children are missing.

Ever since it instituted its policy of arresting parents for the alleged crimes of their children, the government has been relying on the reports of the local “zoba” offices to conduct its raids.   Parents are required to post 50,000 Nakfa for every “missing” child; if they refuse to comply or pay the money, they face prison terms. 

Meanwhile, the government continues to nab merchants and traders on the allegation that they are illegally engaged in Hawala, or currency exchange.  The latest victim is Mr. Haile Rema, a wealthy merchant who reportedly had 3,000,000 USD at the Commercial Bank of Eritrea.

In the last Cabinet of Ministers meeting which was held in 2004, there had been a great deal of discussion on how to overcome the government’s hard currency shortage.   Mr. Gergis Teklemikael, who heads the Ministry of Trade and Industry, had made a radical proposal then: referring to the dollar bank accounts of private businesses, he had asked: “Why don’t we simply seize this money?" The government seems to have taken his proposal at face value: there are now Eritrean security guards at banks to ensure that no businessman can withdraw more than 5,000 USD and seizing of the assets completely no longer sounds far-fetched: by imposing steep fines and taxes in arrears, it can confiscate their entire net worth and, in effect, “seize this money.”