Eritrea
Despite a Pyrrhic victory in the 1997-2000 border war with Ethiopia,
Eritrea remained a country under siege--from its own government. In April
2002, a boundary commission established under the cease-fire agreement
between the two countries gave a ruling favorable to Eritrea. Although the
exact boundary between the two countries was still to be demarcated, many
of the most intensively disputed areas would fall on the Eritrean side of
the border. The government continued to use the war as an excuse for not
implementing a constitution ratified in a 1997 referendum and for not
holding elections. Nine years after Eritrea obtained its independence, no
institutions existed to restrain government abuses, and presidential rule
by decree continued unfettered. The ruling People's Front for Democracy
and Justice (PFDJ) was the sole political party allowed to operate.
Ignoring penal code requirements, the government continued to detain
without charge eleven members of the so-called Group of 15 (G-15),
prominent critics in the PFDJ central council arrested in September 2001
after publishing an open letter to President Isayas Afeworki requesting
democratic reforms. In response to criticism by the European Parliament,
the government asserted that the eleven had participated in a "conspiracy
to oust the president illegally," had attempted to negotiate independently
with the Ethiopian government during the war, and had engaged in
"sedition" by infiltrating government offices and the military through the
creation of "clandestine cells."
In April eleven editors and reporters arrested in a September 2001
clampdown on the independent media, and since held at a police station in
the capital, Asmara, began a hunger strike to demand their release. After
three days, the government moved them to secret locations and cut off all
contact by the detainees with the outside world (they had previously been
allowed family visits). One of the journalists, Dawit Isaac, was briefly
hospitalized, reportedly as a result of torture while in police custody.
None of the journalists were charged with a crime as of October 2002.
Three other journalists, one of whom had been arrested in July 2000,
remained unaccounted for.
All private newspapers remained closed. The government controlled all
sources of information within the country. It operated the sole radio and
television stations and news agency and published all remaining newspapers
and magazines. There were unconfirmed reports that the government used its
control over the only local internet server to read e-mail traffic to and
from Eritrea.
The government arrested dozens of others it deemed sympathetic to its
critics, including a former consul general, journalists working for the
government press, businessmen, the solicitor-general, local government
administrators, and members of the families of people previously arrested.
Also in detention were two local employees of the United States embassy,
who had been arrested in September 2001, reportedly for trying to arrange
political asylum for G-15 members. Their whereabouts, at an Asmara police
station, were not kept secret; but they, too, were not charged or allowed
visitors.
In January 2002, the government reconvened an interim "National
Assembly" that had not met since September 2000. The assembly consisted of
seventy-five PFDJ central committee members and seventy-five party members
selected by the leadership in 1993. The assembly approved the government's
arrests and press closings. It accused those arrested of having committed
"grave crimes." A resolution claimed that the closed newspapers had been
"foreign-funded" and had "engaged in defamation and rumor-mongering."
The assembly approved an election law designed to preserve the PFDJ's
monopoly on power. Under the law, no political party other than the PFDJ
would be allowed to operate. The assembly resolution criticized previous
attempts to permit political pluralism. The election law disenfranchised
anyone who commits treason or "crimes against the nation." It permitted
members of the armed forces to be candidates for office. Although
President Isayas appointed a five-person electoral commission at the end
of January 2002, no elections had been scheduled as of October.
As government repression intensified, several government officials
resigned; they included the ambassador to Sudan and the chargé d'affaires
in Djibouti, both of whom left their posts in September. In mid-2002, the
government extended mandatory national service obligations for another two
years, providing cheap labor for government projects. Widespread
enforcement round-ups were carried out around the country, and as a result
hundreds of Eritreans fled to neighboring countries and beyond. In
October, Malta deported over two hundred recent refugees. They were
arrested upon arrival in Asmara, taken to a military camp, and held
incommunicado. Eritreans caught attempting to flee the country were
reportedly beaten and tortured.
One of the more notable escapes was that by University of Asmara
student union president Semere Kesete. He had been arrested in July 2001
after protesting the university's management of a forced labor national
service program for university students. Semere had been imprisoned in an
Asmara police station but was never charged with a crime. In July 2002 he
managed to escape to Ethiopia with the assistance of one of his
guards.
In 2002, the government ordered all houses of worship other than those
affiliated with the Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Lutheran
Christian faiths and Moslem mosques to close. The ban affected Jehovah's
Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and Pentecostal adherents from
practicing their religions. Jehovah's Witnesses were especially harshly
treated because of their religious practices and beliefs. Four Jehovah's
Witnesses were still imprisoned after more than five years without charge
or trial for refusing to participate in the national service program, even
though the maximum penalty for refusal to serve is three years. Jehovah's
Witnesses were denied national identity cards, making them ineligible for
government employment and government permits, such as passports and
driver's licenses.
In a positive development, Eritrea acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on
August 27, 2001. Mine survey, clearance and mine risk education activities
increased greatly. The United Nations (U.N.) Mission in Ethiopia and
Eritrea (UNMEE) Mine Action Coordination Center reported that from
November 2000 through December 2001 over 10 million square meters of land
and 989 kilometers of roads were cleared.
Only one human rights organization has been allowed to exist in
Eritrea, Citizens for Peace. It limited its advocacy to the rights of war
victims. It was not reported as active in 2002.
The European Union remained critical of Eritrea, but the United States
muted its criticism in light of Eritrea's potential importance as a
military ally in the region. Speaking at Eritrea's eleventh independence
anniversary celebration, President Isayas repudiated widespread
international criticism: "To those few who intervene in our internal
political matters and who pretend to be our mentors of democracy, . . . we
have this simple message. We shall not choose slavery to get their
assistance."
United Nations
The U.N. expected to provide U.S.$120 million in assistance in 2002,
primarily in food aid. Forty-two hundred peacekeeping troops assigned to
UNMEE patrolled a twenty-five kilometer-wide buffer zone between Eritrea
and Ethiopia. (See also Ethiopia.) The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) concluded that by the end of 2002 Eritreans in Sudan would no
longer automatically be entitled to refugee status but could apply
individually if they feared persecution on return to Eritrea. UNHCR
reported that it had voluntarily repatriated fifty thousand Eritreans from
Sudan between May 2001 and mid-October 2002. Even so, well over one
hundred thousand Eritreans remained in refugee camps in Sudan as of
October 2002.
African Commission
The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights wrote to President
Isayas asking for the release of political prisoners. The letter stated
that incommunicado detentions without trial and violated the African
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights.
European Union
The E.U. and its member states frequently voiced complaints about the
government's human rights record; the European Commission limited its
financial assistance largely to humanitarian aid. A total of €23.775
million (U.S.$23.47 million) was newly allocated to projects including
refugee support and resettlement assistance; food aid and food security;
demining and border demarcation; and emergency assistance. In September
2002, the commission committed €27 million ($26.49 million) to support
military demobilization, a program the Eritrean government frequently
proclaimed in 2001 and 2002 but rarely implemented. Denmark, which
provided about 40 percent of the Ministry of Agriculture budget, announced
that it would end financial assistance to Eritrea by 2005 because it did
not "want to maintain dictators in power." In September Eritrea and Italy
named new ambassadors, healing the diplomatic rift created by Eritrea's
2001 expulsion of the Italian ambassador--who was also the European
Union's representative--after he delivered a demarche expressing concern
for about deteriorating human rights conditions. In response, Italy had
cut off further assistance and had expelled the Eritrean ambassador.
United States
Although U.S. aid to Eritrea remained small, U.S. Defense Department
officials saw Eritrea as a strategic ally. The commander of the U.S.
central command visited Asmara in March and was reported to have expressed
interest in creation of a naval bombardment and gunnery range along
Eritrea's coast with the southern Red Sea. The Defense Department's
African affairs director told the Voice of America that a
"military-to-military" relationship with Eritrea would provide "a lot of
benefits" but that the American government had not yet decided to proceed.
One stumbling block to a closer relationship was the continued
incarceration of the two U.S. embassy employees.
In mid-October 2002, the State Department issued a press statement
demanding release of the two employees or a fair and open trial for them.
Referring to the detention of government critics and journalists, the
shut-down of the private press, and restrictions on religious affiliation,
the statement also called on the Eritrean government to "return to the
basic values of democracy and human rights, as it has repeatedly committed
itself to do." Eritrea labeled the statement "unacceptable" and accused
the CIA of unlawfully having attempted "to change the government" during
the war with Ethiopia by conspiring with "some senior [Eritrean
government] officials," presumably those arrested in 2001.
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