Free Dawit Isaak

For the promotion of Democracy and Human Rights

8 November 2009, Brussels, Belgium

By Meron Estefanos

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today I am here in front of you to talk about Dawit Isaak…a journalist, a writer and playwright, born in Eritrea, came to Sweden as a war refugee in the year 1987 and became a Swedish citizen in 1992.

When the war of independence ended in 1991, Dawit returned to his native country, Eritrea…and quickly became a chief editor of the country's first independent newspaper, known as Setit. However, his service to his own people as a journalist could not last long.

Dawit got abducted on 23 September 2001 by Eritrean security authorities…and he remains disappeared to this date. He has never been charged formally, nor has he been given a fair trial. Neither his family nor his relatives are allowed to visit him.

Of course, rumor holds it that he wrote a letter to his family members, that his health is in poor condition…and thus visited a doctor. But this is only a rumor…or a hearsay. No one has ever come with any concrete evidence that the letter was for sure written by Dawit himself or that he visited a doctor. No one has ever come with an evidence to this day whether he is alive or dead…

Ladies and Gentlemen

I want you to imagine yourself been in Dawit’s position. Imagine you have been confined in a single cell without any kind of communication with the outside world for years on end. Wouldn’t you think that the chances that you become mentally insane, unable to think properly, are highly likely? What worst thing can happen to a human being more than this? Being forcibly isolated from your loved ones and friends for such a long period of time and deprived of all the things that belong to you … Indeed, what worse thing can happen to a human being more than what has happened to Dawit and his beloved ones?

The morning the Eritrean security officers came to arrest Dawit in his home, the child who opened the gate was his daughter. They came as honorable guests, ate breakfast prepared by her mother and finally took her father out of her life Imagine if she were your daughter too … I always think how painful and nightmarish would it have been to my first born son if my fate had been the same as that of Dawit’s? Imagine Dawit’s daughter is yours…Can you imagine your very own daughter passing through that kind nightmare which appears never to end? His daughter can do nothing, there is no way she could know if her father is alive or dead; she can only pray and hope that one day she would see her father face to face, and kiss him on the cheeks. When is that day? Nobody knows. The pain of his daughter and the family is certainly inexplicable. It certainly is terrible for a child….and the grief is beyond words can explain.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

You would obviously ask yourselves, what crime did Dawit commit to face disappearance. The answer is simple: being a journalist is his only crime. That is the way business is simply done in my native country Eritrea. Please kindly take note that more than 15 colleagues of Dawit also remain disappeared in the same fashion and at the same time…and all their independent publications remain banned, a record which makes Eritrea the largest jailer of journalists in the world. But what does it mean for a nation to have its independent press shut down? What does it mean to have the nation’s independent writers disappeared?

For me, this is not only about closing one newspaper or arresting an individual unlawfully. I firmly believe that its implication goes way beyond that. It is an attempt to have any free flow of ideas and information within the society blocked, and this is so detrimental to the society that information starvation would gradually induce brain death. For me any attempt to block free flow of ideas and information within the society for such a long period of time is inhumane and tantamount to a criminal act.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am keen to talk more about Dawit today not only because he is a disappeared journalist, but also because he is a Swedish citizen. I therefore strongly believe that the Swedish Government and the European Union have a moral and legal responsibility to protect and defend the rights and interests of Dawit and his family. Now the question is: are they doing enough to protect the rights of Dawit?.. I would like to leave the answer for both institutions to respond on the matter.

However, by now we all know that the European Union is the major provider of financial aid to the Government of Eritrea, to the very government which is responsibile for the pain and anguish that Dawit and his family, in particular, and the people my home country, in general, are facing. It was only last year we were here to voice our concern, but then the European Union was quick enough to announce its award amount 122 Euro to the Government of Eritrea in the name of “developmental aid”.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is very much painful for me what is happening to Eritrea and its people. It is painful what is happening to all those whose fate is like Dawit…and what worries and confuses me the action of the European Union. Just like Dawit, I am a Swedish citizen, an activist and I also do practice journalism with an exiled Eritrean radio station based in South Africa. I used to feel that my rights and interests would be protected and defended by the Swedish Government and the European Union…for I am a Swedish citizen…a citizen of European Union.

However, after learning what has happened to Dawit and the actions of the European Union, I started to question everything. Now I do not feel secure any longer What would Dawit have said if he ever got the chance to learn that the European Union has turned itself as a major provider of financial aid to the Government of Eritrea? Don’t we think thathe would have felt betrayed by his very own Government?

We may try to justify our actions using different applicable words. We may say it is “developmental aid”…aid to the people of Eritrea. But we should also bear in mind that once we decide to justify our actions, the freedoms of our very own citizens are being violated and eroded…we are ignorimg the security concerns of our very own citizens.

In today’s Eritrea, there is nothing like development … nothing like constructive engagement … only militarization … military and prison building-ups … a key feature characterizing the post-independent Eritrea How would it be possible to provide aid for purposes of development where there is no one in sight? I strongly believe that the financial aid which is being provided by the European Union and other actors to the Eritrean Government is helping no one…is helping no genuine and noble cause…but is perpetuating the increasing militarization of my native home country’s society.

Therefore I, on behalf of the most vocal youth movement I represent, the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights would like to seize this opportunity and respectfully call upon the authorities of the European Union:-

• to put an extra effort to protect and defend the rights and interests of journalist Dawit Isaak,
• to immediately withdraw its financial support to Government of Eritrea, and
• to at least sympathize with the Eritrean peoples’ struggle for greater humanity and freedoms, or at most to actively support it.