TESTIMONY: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN ERITREA

TESTIMONY: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN ERITREA

I submit the following on the current human rights condition in Eritrea knowing full well that the testimony I am about to give is truthful, unembellished and first hand. I begun visiting Eritrea from my permanent residence, Addis Abeba to the tune of five or six times a year at about the time it voted for independence. My regular visit continued up to the war of 1998. Thereafter, I was deported to Eritrea like thousands of my compatriots before me and thousands more after me. This time I stayed longer than I have intended but worked well since it gave me an opportunity to understand the situation close up and be able hear and fell the heartbeat of the people I met. One year later I travelled to New York and joined my family for some time before my return to Eritrea again in 2001 to work as a volunteer with Danish supported local NGO lead by my friend Dr. Berhane.  

I gathered a lot of things were happening then to make me unease and prudent. Despite many of the atrocities committed by the government of Eritrea leading to the war, however, things were fuzzy and pretty much diluted by the euphoria of independence that I believe have blinded many including rational Eritreans. In actual fact the honeymoon period extended longer only to lose steam when the Eritrean army met a humiliating defeat in the battlefield.  In that case one can argue that the Ethio- Eritrean war of 1998-was a watershed in Eritrean politics by bringing new forces and numerous of them as that to challenge the EPLF leadership. This notwithstanding, there were evidences to support that since the victorious EPLF controlled Eritrea it has sent hundreds of collaborators to the gallows and many received long-term imprisonment without due process of law.  It has imprisoned and shot wantonly many veterans of the armed struggle. One by the name Biteweded Abraha comes to mind, still in prison for nearly two decades deprived of all human contact for simply criticizing the leadership. Moreover, in 1994, the government security rounded up over 150 Muslims from different parts of Eritrea and months later shot them in cold blood.  In a case reminiscent to the Soviet system, a sizeable number of the Eritrean population were striped of their citizenship for refusing to vote or enlist in the army because of their belief. I pray that witnesses will come forward and fill in with facts regarding the specific crimes allude above. 

While attached to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) as ‘adviser’ where my job took me to different parts of the country, I was able to meet ordinary people and interacted with government officials. It is here that I want to share my experience with the Commission of Inquiry on what I believe that the right of citizens to exercise their God given rights might have been violated by the government. In this case I will try to cite five cases of which I am a witness. 

Sometime in mid 1994 there was a landmine incident that took place between Om Hajer and Goluj (Western Eritrea) that made people in the frontier town edgy. I happen to travel through the road a week after the incident. In that exact spot where the landmine was believed to have exploded the bus I was travelling came into screeching halt when flagged by a young boy of 16 or 17 years old presumably needing a ride.  Suddenly soldiers (fighters) took hold of the situation by beating and handcuffing the boy accusing him as a scout for the Jihadist. He was handed over to a higher official in the military camp of Tesenai.  Several moths letter I learned that the boy was taken to Asmara where he disappeared without a trace. 

A young secretary I knew in the MoA was called by the Security Bureau for interrogation and never seen again, at least, for the period I stayed in the country. I was particularly interested in her case as my relationship was not only professional but personal as well. Many of her colleagues attribute her disappearance to minor infraction, which in normal circumstance will result only in dismissal or job termination. They relate a story where she faked a document with MoA seal to a friend who happen to be a National Service member to stay longer in Asmara with his family. This was period of insecurity where desertion was rife and above all challenge from higher officials and the press was open.

In the middle of the war the government begun to target ‘Ethiopians’ resident of Eritrea by asking them to register and later on suspended their working permit, revoke their business licenses and jailing some without due process of law. The case in point is that of Niftalem Kassa born and raised in Asmara with half of his parental lineage connected to Hamasien was jailed and never heard again. Persons close to the regime acknowledge that Niftalem was long dead in one of the hundreds of Gulags established after the fateful year of 1998. Understandably, those whose licenses were revoked suffered serious economic hardship and left to Ethiopia under the auspices of the Red Cross. 

The EPLF and its bureaucracy were particularly disdainful of ordinary people they come in contact with.  During my long stay I was able to observe first hand on how the kebeles, the courts, and service giving offices including the infamous Internal Revenue Office treat the people. Disrespect to septuagenarians, priests, women and the educate was common for even casual observe to notice. I was personally treated badly by a judge in his courtroom for no apparent reason. If this is not violation of my human right what is?

I happen to be friend of a colonel in the army who was building a villa in a suburb of Asmara where he hailed from.  Mind you when my friend left to join the armed struggle in mid 1970s he barely completed high school. In that case, when he and his contingent entered Asmara triumphantly he has neither money nor education to show of.  He relayed mostly on unpaid labor from members of the National Service and financial favor from government to build his dream house. 

Yebio Woldemariam

Professor, York College of CUNY

New York