Torture
and Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Treatment
The
internationally accepted definition of torture includes any act that involves
the
intentional
infliction of severe mental or physical pain or suffering for such purposes as
the
extraction
of information or a confession or as intimidation or punishment.94 Torture is
routine
in Eritrea, both for those detained in prisons and as punishment for those in
military
service.
Political
prisoners, including journalists or teachers, interviewed by Human Rights Watch
described
torture in custody to force them to disclose collaborators, whilst those
punished
for
their religious beliefs described being tortured in order to renounce their
faith. In many
cases
former detainees were beaten or tortured in order to extract information, but
in other
situations
they were simply beaten, tied up, or left to suffer in the sun without any
obvious
intention
to gather information, simply as punishment.
According
to eyewitness accounts gathered by Human Rights Watch, torture and cruel,
inhuman,
and degrading treatment or punishment by military officers and commanders are
systematic
and “normal.”95 While some form of discipline or
punishment for insubordination
or
for military crimes such as desertion is usual in a military context, torture
is unlawful in
any
circumstance. In Eritrea, deaths in custody are common as a result of
ill-treatment,
torture,
and denial of medical treatment (see below section “Deaths in Custody”). Some
deaths
appear to be deliberate killings
91 Human Rights Watch interview with former
conscripts, Sicily, Italy, October 2008.
92 Human Rights Watch interview with female
former conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
93 Human Rights Watch interview with
Pentecostal pastor, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
94 See the Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Punishment or Treatment, art. 1,
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm
(accessed January 28, 2009). Ethiopia acceded to the Convention against
Torture
on April 13, 1994.
95 Human Rights Watch interviews with
survivors of Sawa and Wi’a
camps, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
Service for Life 30
.
Torture methods
Some of
the torture methods are inherited from the Italian period, whilst others are
the
methods
used by successive Ethiopian governments against suspected Eritrean liberation
fighters
during the struggle. All of the torture methods described in this report are drawn
from
victim and eyewitness accounts gathered by Human Rights Watch in 2008, from
individuals
who were interviewed independently in different locations, and with different
translators.
The methods described below correspond closely to the findings of Amnesty
International
in 2004 but this is not a comprehensive list.96
“Helicopter”: the victim’s hands and feet are tied
together behind the back, sometimes
opposite
limbs, i.e. left hand to right foot, and the victim is left face down, often
outside in
the
hot sun. Detainees described seeing this procedure in most of the prisons
mentioned in
this
report, in particular in Alla prison.97
“Otto” or eight: Otto, meaning eight in Italian, is a
punishment where the hands are tied
together
behind the back and victims must lie on their stomachs. This was the most
common
torture method noted by former conscripts and detainees, practiced in all the
prisons
and in Wi’a and Sawa
military camps.
One man
interviewed by Human Rights Watch said he was tied for two weeks in the otto
position,
even when he slept, because he tried to escape from Wi’a
training camp.98 A
soldier
deployed to Assab on the coast refused an order and
was tortured by being tied in
the
otto position: “My leader ordered me to go
into the sea and I refused because I have
problems
in my left ear. I was punished with otto for
four hours. Four hours of otto in Assab
is
very bad because it’s so hot,” he said.99
“Ferro”: Ferro
is an Italian word for iron. The method is similar to otto described above
except
that the wrists are bound with handcuffs. The prisoner may also be left in the
sun.
96 See Amnesty International, Eritrea: 'You have no right to ask' - Government resists
scrutiny on human rights, AI Index: AFR
64/003/2004, May 18, 2004,
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR64/003/2004 (accessed February 18,
2009).
97 Human Rights Watch interview with former
inmate of Alla, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008.
98 Human Rights Watch interview with former
conscript in Wi’a camp, Djibouti, September 18, 2008.
99 Human Rights Watch interview with former
conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
31 Human Rights Watch | April 2009
According
to a former army officer detained in Alla, ferro was often the punishment for those
suspected
of trying to escape from the army. “If someone is suspected of escaping then they
are
tied up—just hands or hands and feet, or ferro, he said. “Individuals decide what kind
of
punishment
is given, there’s no law. They do not have any crimes but [people are punished
because]
they hate the military or hate to be a soldier. That is the main reason.
Because
everyone
in Eritrea hates to be in the army.”100
“Jesus Christ”: As the name suggests, the victim is
crucified by being tied with rope to a tree
or
a cross and then left to hang, and sometimes beaten while hung.
A
conscript who answered back and then struck his commanding officer described
being
punished
in this way:
My
leader [of the unit] ordered me to make charcoal that he wanted to take
home
to his family. But I told him, I am in training, this is not my job, so I told
him
‘No.’ He hit me. I said he cannot hit me so I hit him also...That captain
together
with other leaders beat me. I still have the scars on my head [he has
visible
wide scars on his head and neck]. They tied me in a crucifix style to a
tree,
with my hands behind me, for two hours at a stretch, off the ground. We
call
it a cross—the hands are tied to wood and you are hanging in the air.
They
left me to sleep outside [on the ground] while tied up. It was hot. I got
one
cup of water for half a day and bread. They asked me no questions
during
punishment, there were many other people punished at the same
time.
Every day people were getting different punishments. In front of
everyone,
with them all watching.101
“Goma”: Goma is a method involving a radial truck
tire. The victim is forced to double up
inside
a tire for long periods of time.
A
conscript who was caught fleeing towards the border in 2005 and imprisoned in
Prima
military
camp was suspected of links to the Ethiopian-backed opposition to the Eritrean
government
because his mother was Ethiopian. He suffered this form of torture:
...[T]he
worst is when they put you inside a tire [goma]. You are tied inside
the
circle of the tire and they [beat you with a stick and] ask who is
100 Human Rights Watch interview with former
officer, Djibouti, September 18, 2008.
101 Human Rights Watch interview with former
conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 28, 2008.
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supporting
you [in Asmara], who guided you, what kind of program did you
have
in Ethiopia... Another way to make you suffer is to tie the hands behind
your
back, sometimes the legs as well. This is called otto, then you are
tied to
a
tree and punished by hanging from a tree. There are those who died from
punishment
but I was fortunate. Twice they punished me by goma. They use
a
Ural truck tire. I was rolled in the tire for six hours... Luckily I am not
fat. The
fat
man suffers even more.102
Mock drowning: Called by many different names around
the world, in Eritrea this method of
torture
involves submerging a person’s head in water so that s/he believes s/he will
drown
and
was originally used by the Derg in Eritrea. A man described to Human
Rights Watch his experience in Alla military prison
of being put in a barrel head first, upside down and forced to answer questions
after he had tried to run away from the army four times:
They hit
me everywhere in every prison—on the head, on the feet—
sometimes
the body swelled. The first time they hit you is when they catch
you—they
hit me—and after two months my body became weak. They put me
in
a barrel of water, with the head under water and the legs out. They beat
people
with electric wire in the barrel of water. After three days when the
inspector
came and if you didn’t accept or respond to his questions then
you’d
be punished like this. I was interrogated with questions like: ‘Who is
helping
you?’; ‘How did you get around without permission?’; ‘How did you
reach
the border?’; ‘Who had the master plan?’; ‘Who was your guide?’; ‘Are
you
a soldier?’ I was in the barrel five times.103
Beating: Beating is commonplace to the point of “normality”
and is often preceded or
followed
by other torture methods. Nearly every former detainee interviewed by Human
Rights
Watch described regular beatings, often daily, severe, and resulting in lasting
physical
damage.
102 Human Rights Watch interview with former
conscript, Djibouti, September 16, 2008.
103 Human Rights Watch interview with former
conscript, Djibouti, September 17, 2008.
33 Human Rights Watch | April 2009
Helen Berhane, a famous Eritrean Christian gospel singer was
beaten whilst in detention and warned to renounce her faith. She was eventually
released and sought asylum in Denmark but her legs were severely injured as a
result of the beatings.104
Another
conscript who tried to escape described being beaten by intelligence officials:
“When I
was captured they beat me badly. After three months of beatings they started
asking:
‘Whose idea was it to go?’ That was the main reason for the beating. When they
are
beating
people they divide you into three groups: those they believe, those they don’t
believe,
those they are preparing to beat.”105
Another
former conscript and detainee told Human Rights Watch he now has problems with
incontinence
as a result of the beating he received in detention. He said, “Beatings were
like
food
in prison—every day.”106
There
are myriad ways in which military superiors torture subordinates or try and
scare them
from
escaping military service. One of the most egregious accounts gathered by Human
Rights
Watch concerned unsuccessful deserters from Sawa camp
being tied to a corpse. A
witness
said: “One had been shot running away, the other two had their hands tied to
the
feet
of the dead person. They were paraded round the camp in the back of a Toyota
pick-up
truck.
The intention was for everyone to see.”107
Many
political prisoners have suffered the full gamut of torture methods. One
government
journalist
who was arrested and detained in 2004 because of an article he had written
raising
questions of government policy was punished first in a police station in Asmara
before
being sent to Dahlak prison—a facility on an island
in the Red Sea exclusively for
political
prisoners (see Prison Conditions below).
I was questioned in police station 6 in Asmara. There are different
types of interrogation:
physical and psychological. The first step is asking questions if I had a hand in
the G-15. Then they change methods, try to get the truth by force. There is a big fence in the
back of the 6th police station, with a tree—
they
tie you up, then throw you down on the ground, again and again. They
tie
you up in the number eight position. Everybody will taste these kinds of
104 Human Rights Watch telephone interview
with Helene Berhane, December 19, 2008.
105 Human Rights Watch interview with former
conscript, Djibouti, September 16, 2008.
106 Human Rights Watch interview with former
conscript, Djibouti, September 17, 2008.
107 Human Rights Watch interview with former
student, London, November 13, 2008.
Service for Life 34
punishment,
it is normal, like flu... Before I went to Dahlak I
was hung up like
Christ
for 24 hours. Then after 24 hours I was thrown on the ground and they
put
milk and sugar on your face and the flies come and eat your face.108