Highly Controversial HRW Report Geared to Shift Focus From Fake Ethiopia, Africa´s Worst Tyranny
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
May 02, 2009
In the aforementioned articles, I republished several parts of the controversial and highly ill-timed HRW Report on Eritrea, notably the Contents, the Summary, the Methodology, the Recommendations, and the Background. In the present article, I republish further units of the Report´s second main part which is entitled Human Rights Violations.
In forthcoming articles, I will expand on criticism and investigation of the Report´s purposes. I will also voluntarily publish comments and analyses, denunciations and criticisms by Eritreans and others who find it incredible for the leading humanitarian NGO HRW to waste resources on Eritrea and disregard the aforementioned nations that have been invaded, subjugated and forced to remain within the Amhara Abyssinian (Pseudo-Ethiopian) Hell – until their extinction.
Human Rights Violations
http://www.hrw.org/en/node/82280/section/7
Collective punishment of deserters´ families
There are strict penalties for those who try and escape national service as well as for any Eritreans who leave the country without government authorization. Families are collectively punished if their relatives flee national service, usually by being jailed or forced to pay fines. An officer formerly responsible for chasing down deserters explained how if the soldier could not be found then the family was arbitrarily detained instead:
If one of the men escapes, you have to go to his home and find him. If you don´t find him you have to capture his family and take them to prison. Since 1998, it´s standard to collect a family member if someone flees. The Administration gives the order to take family members if the national service member is not around. If you disappear inside Eritrea then the family is put in prison for some time and often then the child will return. If you cross the border, then [your family] pays 50,000 Nakfa [about US$3,050]. If there´s no money then it can be a long time in prison. I know people who are in prison for six months.[170]
All of the deserters interviewed by Human Rights Watch were fearful for the safety of their families and anxious that they would face the crippling 50,000 Nakfa fines, detention, or some other retribution such as the denial of business permits or the forfeiting of land in lieu of a cash fine.[171]Three former conscripts said their mothers had been imprisoned for four months, two months, and two weeks respectively because they could not afford to pay the 50,000 Nakfa fine.[172] One man, now in Italy, heard that his family´s farm had been taken because he had fled the army:
All the families of those who fled had to pay 50,000 or have their land taken away. This happened to a lot of people I knew. About half of the town suffered this. The area is usually a vegetable-growing area—tomatoes and spinach. When people lose their land they depend on God. If they pay 50,000 they get their land back. The memehidar [local administration] of the town demands the land. Sometimes security officials also take matters into their own hands.[173]
Abuse of female conscripts
Refugees told Human Rights Watch that women are conscripted less now than previously.[174]However, those who are recruited are more at risk of rights violations, rape, and sexual harassment in particular. As one female recruit who served as a conscript for 10 years explained, "First you do your military training then they hold you forever without your rights. The military leaders can ask you for anything and if you refuse their demands then you can be punished. Almost every woman in the military experiences this kind of problem."[175] When she was approached by a commanding officer he punished her when she refused his advances:
The officer who asked me [for sex] was married. I said, ´You are married,´ and he gave me military punishment and made me work without any break. I was tied in otto for three hours in the sun... this disturbed my mind. He was the commander of 100 [a company]. His official rank is marehai. After he untied me he asked, ´Do you know this is your fault?´ I said, ´This is not my fault.´ That´s when he made me work.[176]
No right of conscientious objection
The National Service Proclamation of 1995 makes no provision for conscientious objection to military service. Exemptions are provided for disability (article 15), and those considered unfit for military training must serve "in any public and government organ according to their profession."[177] But in reality, as one Eritrean refugee said, "the only people who don´t go to military service are blind or missing their trigger fingers."[178]
Human Rights Watch takes no position on conscription; indeed in many countries it is legal and well-regulated. However, the right of conscientious objection to military service has become an established international norm—a legitimate exercise of the right of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, as laid down in article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.[179] It is possible, acceptable, and, in most other countries, normal, for individuals to undertake non-military forms of national service, such as community work, construction, or service in the health and education sectors. Many national service conscripts go on to do this kind of service in Eritrea, however their national service begins with a mandatory six months military training.
Jehovah´s Witnesses are particularly affected by the lack of a right to conscientious objection because their faith forbids them to bear arms. Since independence adherents of this faith have been systematically persecuted for what the authorities have treated as their questionable commitment to the national struggle.[180]
Some unlucky youths are viewed by the government as, literally, born to fight. During the war for independence, children born to EPLF fighters were given over to the movement to be raised in communal crèches while the parents fought in the army. These children, called "red flowers" or keyahti embaba in Tigrinya, are not only expected to participate in national service, but are apparently given no choice but to join the military in their parents´ footsteps. One man born during the struggle fled Eritrea because he had no future there except as a soldier: "The government says that the children of yekalo [independence fighters] must join the military; they have to follow their fathers.... I told them I don´t want to be a soldier. They told me I must be because my parents died in the war."[181]
"Psychological derangement" (article 14, 5.1) is also a ground for exemption from military service, and this appears to be a popular way to try and evade service. Recruits who have recently been in Sawa describe a dramatic increase in the number of people in the camp showing signs of severe mental illness. Recruits describe a new disease that has sprung up among young women drafted into Sawa and Wi´a training camps, called "lewt," and only known in the camps. One male draftee explained: "In every cohort at least 10 girls die. The girls cannot handle the pressure and the punishment. The symptoms are a bent back, walking backwards, and some of them shake and fall down. They become like zombies, they just stare at you."[182]But as one said, "I´m not sure if they are genuinely crazy or if they are just pretending to be crazy in order to be demobilized."[183]
"Giffa": press-ganging conscripts
Conscription is generally managed by local councils, the smallest units of local administration, sometimes referred to as kebelle, sometimes as memehidar, a general word meaning "administration." These council officials maintain detailed records on the individual families in their area and ensure that those of age are conscripted. But in larger towns, the police or military also try to capture evaders or deserters through ad hoc round-ups. Round-ups of the population in towns and villages—known as giffa in Tigrinya— are common and constitute a kind of modern press-ganging. Anyone of age found without the relevant documents exempting them from national service is taken to the military camps of Sawa and Wi´a for training.[184]
Even aside from evaders and deserters, any civilian who forgets their identification or travel documents is at particular risk of being rounded up in a giffa and arbitrarily detained. As a young student who was put in Adi Abeto prison for 22 days described: "It was a Saturday and I was having coffee with friends. The police came and asked for papers, I said I would return to Mai Nehfi to get them but instead they took me to prison."[185]
Human Rights Watch spoke to many men who had been apprehended by police or military through giffas.[186]A man who was conscripted in 1998 said he had asked dozens of times to be demobilized. "I have not seen the situation change for 10 years. I asked to leave the military but they tell you, ´we are at war, you cannot leave.´"[187] He did not return after a scheduled vacation but was caught in a giffa and jailed in Aderser prison.
One young man had absconded from training at Sawa camp but was picked up again during a giffa in Adi Keyh town during 2007:
I remember the day because it was a Saturday, a market day. The soldiers surrounded the town the evening before and on Saturday people came to the market for shopping, around 11 a.m. Many people were caught. They ask you for ID card. I tried to escape but because of the crowd I couldn´t get away. They beat me and put me in a military vehicle. Soldiers don´t have any education, they have no respect, they simply take you away. We waited an hour or so in the truck while the soldiers were catching other people. People were crying.
After an hour or two we were taken to Track B [prison] in Asmara. We spent one day there without food except for a single biscuit. Then [we were] taken to Sawa, about 320 of us, almost all men except two or three women. In Sawa, men and women were divided, we were made to kneel down when we got out of the bus, you do it otherwise you will have the stick.[188]
Conscription from school
The preferred method of the Eritrean government is to conscript students into national service straight from school, unless they are continuing higher education. To this end, the final year of secondary school was moved to Sawa military camp in 2003. This 12th grade takes place only in Sawa, under military authority, and incorporating military training. Although many 12th grade students are 18 years old, or less, some are older because they take longer to finish high school.[189] Each round or intake of students incorporates 8,000 to 9,000 students.[190]
Once they are in the camp, however, military service effectively starts then and there. A teacher whose national service involved teaching in Sawa told Human Rights Watch, "The students could not study. They were always being forced to leave the class for some kind of military service."[191] A former student said he did not even enter 12th grade but was ordered straight into national service in July 2007 even though he was less than 18 years old.[192]
National service is deeply unpopular, especially because new recruits know that there is no prospect of it ending. Students have started escaping from Sawa camp during their 12th grade year without completing school.[193] Escape is no mean feat, because, as described above, Sawa is in effect a huge prison. Those who made it described braving machine gun fire, barbed wire fences, and several days of walking through the desert without food and water.[194]
Some students, aware of their fate once they reach 12th grade have begun to deliberately fail classes so that they can remain in the lower grades.[195] Government awareness of this practice has been to simply pull anyone of military age—18 and above—out of school altogether, even though it is normal for some students to take extra years to finish school because they are poor or work on family farms. Several students described being taken to a military camp under false pretences.[196] One of them explained:
I was a student in Adi Keyh in 10th grade. The government told me I was overage and I was forced to leave the school in January 2006. They took 200 of us on a bus to Wi´a, telling us that we would continue our education there. They took everyone from all schools, not just those in secondary school but also those from junior and elementary school, everyone above 19 years. But in fact it was military training. The director of the school had told us that we would be going to school in Wi´a. We were surprised, we did not believe that we would be schooling in Wi´a, in the hot desert. When we got there to the camp, everyone was sad. It was very hot, people were dying from the sun, we buried about five. After four months I was deployed near Assab, a place called Klima. It was very hot too and people were dying there. I was given a vacation and then I escaped.[197]
Wi´a is reportedly the camp where the "not so clever" students go. If it appears that a student will not graduate high school anyway, then the government will send him to Wi´a even before he has finished. One former student who was sent to Sawa explained, "In school, if you are absent more than two weeks, you get sent to Wi´a—for whatever reason. Sawa is supposed to be for educated people. If you get kicked out of school, you are not fit for education anyway, so you go to Wi´a."[198]
Forced Labor
After six months of compulsory military training, national service conscripts are deployed indefinitely in one of several possible activities. Many conscripts are simply drafted into military service and are deployed in regular military units.[199]One refugee interviewed by Human Rights Watch was sent to work as a clerk in a court in Asmara, another was sent to work as a mechanic in a civilian garage repairing trucks in Asmara.[200] Others described working on farms or mines owned by the state or the PFDJ ruling party, or building roads and bridges. Regular military units, conscripted military personnel, and prisoners are all also engaged in similar activities—building, mining, and farming.[201]
According to escaped conscripts, the normal "allowance" during training is 50 Eritrean Nakfa per month (about US$3).[202] After 18 months training while on national service, this is increased to 150 Nakfa a month ($9).[203]This is the same amount paid to former soldiers recalled for service during the 1998-2000 war and still mobilized as well as for the over-50s who have been mobilized to serve in a reserve militia. Some of those conscripted prior to 1998 appear to have been incorporated into the regular army and receive salaries accordingly. Regular soldiers are paid a salary of 330 to 3,000 Nakfa ($20 to $183) depending on rank.[204]
All walks of life have been transformed into national service, so that, in essence, an Eritrean is conscripted, subjected to military training for six months, then assigned to any job by the state. As one young man said, "The government is trying to do every single business in the country. National service people are employed in government enterprises, and every person below 40 is a member of national service. So if I´m assigned to work in a shop, then I´ll be working in a shop and serving my country."[205]
In another example, a professional footballer was told to report for national service. When he finished six months of military training he was assigned to play football again, but as part of his national service. Before military training he was earning 3,600 Nakfa a month ($220). Afterwards, as part of national service, he was paid an allowance of 400 Nakfa a month ($24).[206] He said, "I kept playing because if I didn´t I would have been taken to the military again."[207]
For regular recruits on national service, 150 Nakfa does not constitute a living wage, nor is their labor given freely. Refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch refused to refer to the money they were paid as a salary, preferring instead to call it "pocket money."[208] All complained that it was insufficient to live on and completely inadequate to feed a family. Western diplomats and UN officials confirmed that making ends meet on such amounts was impossible in Eritrea.[209] Nevertheless, an official with an agency that provides significant development assistance to Eritrea argued that national service labor is not necessarily forced labor, but "mobilizing people in a low wage environment."[210]
Under international law—the Forced Labour Conventions and ILO Convention 29—the key points when considering the definition of forced labor are the extent to which: "(i) the works or services are exacted involuntarily; (ii) the exaction of labor or services takes place under the menace of penalty; and (iii) these are used as a means of political coercion, education or as a method of mobilising and using labor for purposes of economic development, as well as means of labor discipline."[211]This is most certainly the case in Eritrea, and it would thus appear that forced labor on the Eritrean scale and for indefinite periods is a gross human rights violation.[212]
Human Rights Watch spoke to dozens of men and one woman who described being forced to do back-breaking work and who were punished when they refused.[213] One man conscripted at the age of 16 in 1996 described doing many different jobs in the military until he fled at the beginning of 2008. After the 1998-2000 war, "when the fighting stopped I did different jobs in the army, planting, agriculture... after that we were collecting stones to build the Asmara-Assab road."[214]
Another conscript finished his training at Sawa camp and was then deployed in Dekemhare on a construction site building houses for military leaders: "We were paid very little, whereas as a civilian builder you can earn. Some other soldiers refused to work and were jailed. If you don´t work you go to prison. You lose your vacation time and your pay—150 Nakfa—is stopped. If you refuse they see it as a political problem."[215]
In its report of a mission to Eritrea, the European Parliament noted, "Via the ´Cash for Work Programme,´ citizens contribute to the public works—such as the building of dams—against payments from the government. While this scheme was described as being voluntary, there is a risk of people being forced to work for the government in order to ensure they can earn their living."[216] Most conscripts don´t openly refuse to work but they vote with their feet, either escaping from the military camps or waiting until their annual leave and then fleeing the country instead of reporting for duty once more.
Forced labor for private gain
The projects on which conscripts are deployed are not just public works for the national good. They are often sent to work on private construction projects, building houses for military leaders, and working on private farms. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both previously documented the use of conscript labor for the benefit of ranking members of the military and the government.[217]
Diplomats admitted that aid projects are implemented by national service labor working for private construction firms with good connections to the government.[218] "All companies are owned by the military or the party," said one diplomat, and another complained that aid projects, "are meant to be allocated through an open bidding process, but in reality only those using conscript labor stand a chance."[219] Several scholars concurred with this analysis.[220]As one wrote:
Since April 2006, only PFDJ construction firms are allowed to engage in construction activities after private firms and individual entrepreneurs were banned from the construction industry as part of the government´s crackdown on the private sector. On 3 April 2006, the government issued a directive ordering all "contractors, consultants, practicing professionals and studio operators" to submit to the Technical Office of the Central Region: their original licenses, detailed accounts, addresses, types and sizes of their projects, owners´ names, estimated total costs, on the day after (4 April 2006) the directive was issued. On 7 April 2006, the government also ordered all of them to cease their activities within ten days. The prohibition is still in force. The major beneficiaries of the ban are the ruling party´s more than forty enterprises which dominate every aspect of the country´s economy, the enterprises of the PFDJ´s mass organizations and the mushrooming construction firms belonging to the Ministry of Defence.[221]
One former EPLF fighter who was in the military administration told Human Rights Watch, "the senior officers have their own capital like shops, bars; they run businesses and the workers are the national service. The conscripts are working for the benefit of the higher ranks: Colonel, Brigadier, Major-General."[222] A scholar who has conducted research in Eritrea over many years noted, "there is a whole class of people whose wealth rests on National Service labor."[223]
Dozens of former prisoners who had escaped and fled the country described being put to work on military construction projects; some built military installations such as barracks and ports, others built properties owned by military leaders.[224] The conscripts deployed to work on commercial farms, mines, or construction projects were often housed in appalling conditions with bad nutrition and minimal pay. One national service soldier who had requested to be demobilized many times since independence in 1993 was deployed in a mine for two months. He explained:
Bad things happened. I had to do work on the houses of the leadership, had to collect sand crystals [some kind of crystalline sand], inside the earth. You use a stick to push the earth...The crystal sand is sharp and when you dig it out of the soil it creates infection in the fingers. When I complained that the fingers were injured they said, ´you have to take punishment for that.´ At one point when I was tired and my fingers were bleeding I stood up and said I couldn´t do more. They asked why I was standing, and took me away. After beating me they asked me ´Why don´t you work?´ I said, I came here accidentally because I didn´t have my ID card and I can´t do more work because my fingers are injured. At last when I said I had been a fighter, [in the liberation war] they stopped the punishment.[225]
It is not just conscripts who are providing cheap labor for the benefit of military leaders. Prisoners are regularly employed and school children are made to work during their school holidays. The national program for school children is called Mahtot. For two months during the break, children in 9th grade and above must report to work camps where they, "plant trees, clean houses, pick cotton and help with other agricultural projects," in the words of one student.[226]Normally the children stay in schools in the area. During the two months their compensation is 150 Nakfa ($9) for their family; the fee is euphemistically called "soap money."[227]
Restrictions on the Freedoms of Expression, Conscience, and Movement
Freedom of expression
Since 2001 Eritrea has been in the grip of a media blackout. All independent newspapers, radio, and television outlets have been shut down. Eritrea is the only country in Africa without an independent media outlet. Many journalists were arrested as part of a general clampdown on dissent in September 2001. Since then, many others have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, the whereabouts of most are unknown and Reporters sans frontières (RSF) believes that at least four have died in custody.[228]The Committee to Protect Journalists believes that as many as 14 journalists and editors are held incommunicado in secret locations; Eritrea is one of four countries in the world which together account for three quarters of all journalists in detention.[229] In its 2008 press freedom index RSF ranked Eritrea last, 173rd, behind North Korea, Turkmenistan, Burma, Cuba, Vietnam, China, and Iran.[230]
In 2006 and 2007, even journalists who worked for the state-run media agency were arrested and detained because some of their colleagues had decided to flee the country rather than continue working for the government.[231]They were suspected of wishing to flee themselves. Paulos Kidane, a popular figure on state television, was among those arrested in 2006. He was detained again in 2007 after he had escaped from jail and was trying to cross the border. He was reportedly arrested at the border and his family was subsequently informed by the authorities that he had "died accidentally."[232]
In February 2009 RSF reported a new crackdown in which the entire staff of Radio Bana, which produces educational programs for the Ministry of Education, was arrested. Although most were released, a few staff remain in custody.[233]
One journalist who had fled the country told Human Rights Watch how he was arrested and sent to Dahlak prison, then later made to work for the military and after that the state television agency. He fled in 2007, and said, "I was a toy for the government."[234]
One of the few permanent foreign journalists in Eritrea, the BBC´s Jonah Fisher, was expelled in 2004 following a broadcast on Amnesty International´s last report on human rights conditions in the country.[235]In an interview with Fisher, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki said, "What is free press? There is no free press anywhere."[236] A freelance successor, Peter Martell, was also thrown out in March 2008 after he refused to disclose to the government the names of his sources for a report on veterans´ disillusionment with the government.[237]
In 1996 the Eritrean government passed a law governing the press which both guarantees press freedom and also provides for censorship if "the country, or part of it, is faced with a danger threatening public order, security and general peace caused by war, armed rebellion or public disorder or where a natural disaster ensues."[238]The government has used the standoff with Ethiopia over the border issue as a catch-all justification for restrictions of rights and freedoms in all areas of freedom of expression.
It is not only the press that has been the subject of restrictions on free speech. Soldiers within the military told how they were detained and tortured for questioning the policies of the government in regimental meetings. One man was imprisoned indefinitely for denouncing the government in a military meeting: "In 2001 I told an assembly in the military that the government was illegal. I was sent to prison in Alla for two years. After two years there they transferred me to Dahlak."[239]
Dozens of former conscripts told Human Rights Watch how they were detained for asking questions about the fate of political prisoners or expressing concern about the policy of indefinite military service.[240]
Teachers and university students who asked questions about the curriculum or who questioned why the authorities were withholding their graduation certificates also faced torture and jail. "Seventy to 80 percent of university students are trying to leave because they feel politically marginalized and they can´t speak freely. If you do they kill or imprison you," said one teacher, a graduate of Mai Nehfi technical institute.[241]When he questioned the curriculum that he was asked to teach secondary school children in 12th grade in Sawa camp, he was warned by the head of the camp: "You are a teacher. We taught you. You are in the university because we helped you. Now you try to go against our curriculum. If you go on you will be in prison, even you will be killed."[242] He told Human Rights Watch that the director of Sawa himself, the man in charge of administration for the camp, had made these threats.
In 2007 graduates of Mai Nehfi institute organized a petition calling on the Ministry of Education to issue graduates their degree certificates and for the college to be internationally recognized as the University of Asmara had been. The Ministry withholds certificates as an incentive for graduates to remain in the country, and refuses to give Mai Nehfi international status for the same reason. Eight hundred students reportedly signed the petition.[243]
One man who was among 50 teachers that presented the petition to Dr. Debrabrehane, administrator of Mai Nehfi college, in early 2007 was arrested by the military in the middle of the night, three days later. He spent five months in a military prison:
There were] no questions just beating...they used to be beat me in the jail, morning and evening, like meals... They were telling us that we are traitors, that we are not ready to help and train the youth throughout the country. They insulted us and told us we were not educated. My family did not know where I was.... I later heard that four or five days later my mum was imprisoned for two weeks, in a civilian prison in Asmara. They asked her for 50,000 Nakfa because she had before signed my wahis [guarantor of good conduct] while I was a teacher. If I make any mistake then she will answer for my conduct.[244]
In December 2008, an Eritrean diaspora website reported that intelligence officers had raided an internet café in Asmara and arrested youth for accessing opposition websites. The article also said that government officials had summoned internet service providers and warned them not to allow customers to access such websites.[245]
Restrictions on religious freedom
In 2002, in a widely documented crackdown, the Eritrean government banned unregistered religious activity, essentially making it illegal for anyone to practice worship of any but four recognized faiths (Catholic, Lutheran, Eritrean Orthodox, and Islam).[246]The unrecognized churches were required to register with a new Department of Religious Affairs, and several reportedly attempted to do so but no registration permits have been authorized.[247]Since then, Evangelical and Pentecostal Christians have continued to be the object of repression and security forces have broken into homes and churches, rounded people up, detained, and tortured them. Admitting to being a Pentecostal Christian or being caught in possession of a Bible is enough to land oneself in jail, be subjected to torture, or denied the right to travel abroad.[248] In 2004, the United States designated Eritrea a country of particular concern because of its repression of freedom of religion.[249]
As mentioned above, Jehovah´s Witnesses have been singled out as a target for repression. After failing to vote in the 1993 referendum on independence and refusing to bear arms during national service they were in effect stripped of their citizenship.[250]Jehovah´s Witnesses cannot access public services or obtain official ID cards or commercial licenses.[251]
Human Rights Watch interviewed 13 Evangelical Christian refugees, all of whom had been imprisoned—and some tortured—for their faith. Evangelical Christians wishing to practice their faith must do so clandestinely. Even then they are not safe from government abuse. Several Christians described holding prayer meetings in private houses during 2006 and 2007 in Asmara, Tesseny, and Senafe. Police or military, possibly acting on information given by informers, disrupted the meetings and arrested those present.[252] One elderly woman who has been a Pentecostal Christian for over 40 years said that because of the threat of informers she has taken to praying with different people, in different places, and different times.[253]
Helen Berhane, a well-known gospel singer, has described publicly several times how she was tortured to renounce her faith while in detention.[254] While holding a Bible-study class for other youth in a secret church outside Asmara, she was arrested and sent to Mai Serwa military prison where she was tortured, beaten, and held in a metal shipping container for over two years.[255] Her experience was typical of many others who have been routinely rounded up since 2002.[256]
According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) by June 2007 over 2,000 Christians were in detention in Eritrea.[257] In late 2008, CSW reported house to house searches and a wave of arrests in numerous Eritrean towns, including Asmara. According to the organization 100 people were arrested in the period leading up to December 12, 2008, and detained in military facilities, some of them dying in custody.[258] Compass Direct, a Christian rights organization, estimated that by late 2008 nearly 3,000 Christians were in detention.[259]Compass Direct reported that three Christians had died in custody in the latter part of 2008, and that in June eight others were transferred to medical facilities because they had been tortured in custody.[260]
Persecution of religious conscripts
Many of those in detention in military prisons are there for practicing their faith whilst on national service. One young Pentecostal man who was arrested while praying with 13 others in Sawa military camp in 2006 told Human Rights Watch that he was locked up along with 20 others in an underground prison measuring four square meters. He was let out twice a day to go to the toilet. He said, "The soldiers told us to quit that religion or else we would be in prison our entire life."[261]
A military policeman in Sawa camp told Human Rights Watch how he was punished for his faith during his lunch-breaks and then ordered back to work. Previously during training for national service, "They punished me for being a Pentecostal Christian: they beat me, handcuffed my hands and feet together, threw water on me... they burned my Bible," he said. "Every time they saw me reading it, they would beat me, punish me. There were so many people there, not just me, for two weeks, with a policeman guarding you, lying in the sun."[262]
A young Christian who was caught praying in Sawa camp was put in jail for one year. He was held with 20 others in an underground cell and let out twice a day to go to the toilet.[263]Dozens of Christian refugees described similar experiences. One woman who was caught with a Bible was arrested and tied with her hands and feet tied to opposite limbs behind the back. Her captors told her, "Jesus will save you now."[264]
In January 2007 a woman on national service in Sawa camp was jailed in a shipping container for three months along with several others for reading the Bible together. She had served in the military for 10 years. She said that, "When I left prison they asked me to sign a paper saying ´We caught you preaching,´ and I signed it."[265]
But it is not just Evangelical Christian worshippers who face restrictions in the military. Adherents of all faiths face problems. As one female Christian jailed for reading the Bible in Sawa camp said, "Everyone, even the Orthodox and the Muslims, are not allowed to worship. Only politics is allowed."[266] A soldier also claimed that no praying of any kind was permitted in the military—whether one was a follower of a Christian faith or Muslim.[267]
Freedom of movement
The Eritrean government´s oppressive behavior and compulsory national service has spawned other restrictions and human rights violations. Severe restrictions on freedom of movement are in place. As more and more of its citizens leave the country, the government´s methods to try and stem the exodus have become more brutal. As described above, a "shoot-to-kill" policy applied to anyone crossing the border without permission is clearly intended to deter movement outside the country. Within Eritrea, movement is equally circumscribed through a variety of mechanisms.
Local government authorities at the village or neighborhood level maintain detailed records of local populations. "They know the exact population, how many children are in the army and so on."[268]Each zone is controlled by a subcommittee drawn from the local population—in essence civilians are employed to keep an eye on each other.
A visitor to Eritrea in late 2008 described buses being frequently stopped and searched and passengers asked for ID cards: some possessed laminated cards showing that they had completed national service, others had letters authorizing travel to a specific place and for a limited period of time.[269] This echoes the stories told to Human Rights Watch by individuals who were frequently detained for not possessing the relevant papers.[270] As one refugee said, "you cannot walk three hours without being asked for a permit."[271]All roads in and out of Asmara and the major cities have checkpoints where military stop and check the documents of passengers.[272]
Escaping conscripts described walking around checkpoints in order to avoid detection on their way to the border.[273] A couple told Human Rights Watch, "we were moving during the night because to travel without a permit is difficult. During the day we stayed hidden under trees. We traveled at night because if we were caught then it would be dangerous, five years in prison or they can kill you, especially if you are a soldier or a university student."[274] One woman who escaped told how she was smuggled over the Sudanese border by a businessman with a permit to travel along the Tesseney-Asmara road.[275]
Denial of exit visas
Due to the large number of people fleeing or refusing to return after being allowed to leave, exit visas are routinely denied for young people who are eligible for national service. Children from the age of 14 are usually denied exit visas but the US State Department has reported exit visas refused for children as young as five.[276] One older woman who had managed to travel to visit her children abroad described the signs in the Foreign Ministry as saying that only men over the age of 54 and women over 47 are eligible for exit visas, she said, "only the old can travel."[277]
Notes
170] Human Rights Watch interview, Djibouti, September 17, 2008.
171] Human Rights Watch interviews, Djibouti and Sicily, Italy, September and October 2008.
172] Human Rights Watch interview with refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 24 and 26, 2008.
173] Human Rights Watch interview with deserter, Italy, October 30, 2008.
174] Human Rights Watch interview with refugees, Italy and Djibouti, September and October 2008.
175] Human Rights Watch interview with former conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
176] Human Rights Watch interview with former conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
177] Government of Eritrea, ´Proclamation of National Service No.82/1995,´ Eritrean Gazette, No.11 October 23, 1995, article 13 (1).
178] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008.
179] See for example UN Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1989/59.
180] For further details on the persecution of Christians and Jehovah´s witnesses in Eritrea, see Amnesty International, Eritrea: Religious Persecution, December 7, 2005, at http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR640132005?open&of=ENG-ERI (accessed February 26, 2009). See also US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, "International Religious Freedom Report – 2008: Eritrea," http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108367.htm (accessed February 26, 2009).
181] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008.
182] Ibid.
183] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, London, November 13, 2008.
184] Human Rights Watch interviews with refugees, Djibouti and Italy, September and October 2008.
185] Human Rights Watch interview with former student, Sicily, Italy, October 29, 2008.
186] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eritrean refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
187] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008.
188] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 24, 2008.
189] Eritrea acceded to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on February 16, 2005, with a declaration that the minimum age for recruitment into the armed forces is 18. http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&id=135&chapter=4&lang=en (accessed February 26, 2009).
190] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 30, 2008, see also UK Border Agency, ´Country of Origin Report: Eritrea,´ Home Office, September 13, 2008, p. 44.
191] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 24, 2008.
192] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 27, 2008.
193] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eritrean refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
194] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
195] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
196] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008 and Djibouti, September 19, 2008.
197] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008.
198] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, London, November 13, 2008.
199] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eritrean refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
200] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eritrean refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 26 and 29, 2008.
201] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eritrean refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008, and Human Rights Watch interviews with diplomats, by phone, January 13 and 22, 2009. See also Amnesty International, You have no right to ask.
202] At time of writing, the Eritrean Nafka was worth US$0.06.
203] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eritrean refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
204] Human Rights Watch interview with former army accountant, Sicily, Italy, October 27, 2008, and with former conscripts, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
205] Human Rights Watch interview with refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 28, 2008. See above for a discussion about the upper age limits for national service.
206] Human Rights Watch interview with refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008.
207] Ibid.
208] Human Rights Watch interviews with refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 2008.
209] Human Rights Watch interviews by phone, December 19, 2008 and January 12 and 14, 2009.
210] Human Rights Watch interview with diplomat by phone, January 22, 2009.
211] See ´Eritrea´s Legal Obligations´, below.
212] The ICCPR exemption from the prohibition on "forced or compulsory labour" only applies to service of "a military character", or that required of conscientious objectors, or "normal civil obligations". (ICCPR article 8(3)).
213] Human Rights Watch interviews with former Eritrean conscripts, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
214] Human Rights Watch interview with former Eritrean conscript (name withheld), Sicily, Italy, October 27, 2008.
215] Human Rights Watch interview with former Eritrean conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 24, 2008.
216] Report of the fact-finding mission of a Delegation of the Development Committee of the European Parliament to the Horn of Africa (Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia) (25 October-2 November 2008), p. 5.
217] Human Rights Watch, World Report 2007, p. 117, Amnesty, You have no right to ask - Government resists scrutiny on human rights, 2004, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR64/003/2004/en (accessed, December 8, 2008).
218] Human Rights Watch interviews with diplomats by phone, January 12, 14, and 22, 2009.
219] Ibid.
220] Human Rights Watch interview with scholar, London, January 11, 2009.
221] Gaim Kibreab, "Forced Labour in Eritrea," Journal of Modern African Studies, 47, 1 (2009), pp. 41-72.
222] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 27, 2008.
223] Human Rights Watch interview with academic, January 11, 2009.
224] Human Rights Watch interviews with former detainees, Sicily, Italy, October 24-31, 2008.
225] Human Rights Watch interview with former soldier, Djibouti, September 18, 2008.
226] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, London, UK, November 13, 2008.
227] Ibid.
228] Reporters sans frontières, Eritrea Annual Report 2008, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=25386 (accessed March 26, 2009).
229] Committee to Protect Journalists, 2007 Annual Report: Eritrea, and www.cpj.org, the other three countries are China, Cuba, and Burma.
230] Reporters sans frontières, Annual Report 2008, http://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/rapport_en-2.pdf (accessed March 26, 2009).
231] Reporters sans frontières, Eritrea Annual Report 2007, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20749 (accessed December 17, 2008).
232] Reporters sans frontières, "Radio journalist arrested as he tried to flee," July 2007,
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=22432 (accessed December 17, 2008).
233] RSF urged the European Union to cut development aid to Eritrea. "Plea to EU to suspend development aid in light of fresh crackdown on journalists," Reporters sans frontières, March 6, 2009, http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30491 (accessed March 27, 2009).
234] Human Rights Watch interview with former journalist, Sicily, Italy, October 30, 2008.
235] Jonah Fisher, "Quick Exit: BBC expelled from Eritrea," BBC, September 10, 2004 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3644630.stm (accessed December 17, 2008).
236] Ibid.
237] Peter Martell, "Not so fond farewell to Eritrea," BBC online, March 10, 2008,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7283293.stm (accessed January 29, 2009).
238] Government of Eritrea, ´Proclamation No.90/1996 – the Press Proclamation´, Gazette of Eritrean Laws, Vol.6/1996 Asmara, June 10, 1996. Part II, article 1a, "the freedom of the press is guaranteed pursuant to this Proclamation."
239] Human Rights Watch interview with former soldier, Sicily, Italy, October 30, 2008.
240] Human Rights Watch interviews with former conscripts, Djibouti and Italy, September and October, 2008.
241] Human Rights Watch interview with refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 24, 2008.
242] Human Rights Watch interview with former teacher, Sicily, Italy, October 24, 2008.
243] Ibid.
244] Human Rights Watch interview with former teacher, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008.
245] http://www.assenna.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1302&Itemid=70 (accessed, January 5, 2008).
246] According to Amnesty International, about 90 percent of the Eritrean population are followers of Sunni Islam or the Eritrean Orthodox church. Five percent are Roman Catholics and two percent are Protestants, belonging to a Lutheran church known as the Evangelical Church of Eritrea, part of the Lutheran World Federation. There are also small numbers of Jehovah´s Witnesses, growing numbers of evangelical or "born again" protestant churches, and a few followers of the Baha´i faith. Amnesty International, Eritrea: Religious Persecution, AF/64/013/2005, December 7, 2005.
247] Ibid. See also See US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2008: Eritrea," February 25, 2009, http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119000.htm (accessed February 27, 2009). See also US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, "International Religious Freedom Report – 2008: Eritrea," September 19, 2008, http://2001-2009.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2008/108367.htm (accessed February 27, 2009).
248] Human Rights Watch interviews with Pentecostal Christians, Italy, September and October 2008.
249] See United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, at http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=154&Itemid=1 (accessed January 28, 2009).
250] See Amnesty International, Eritrea: Religious Persecution, December 7, 2005.
251] Ibid. See also Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Briefing: Eritrea, July 2007, on file with Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Watch interview with Jehovah´s Witness refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 30, 2008.
252] Human Rights Watch interviews with Christian refugees, Sicily, Italy, October 24, 25, and 28, 2008.
253] Human Rights Watch interview with Pentecostal Christian, by phone, December 19, 2008.
254] Helen Berhane interview with BBC World Service, October 24, 2007 http://blip.tv/file/443487 (accessed January 5, 2009) and interview with Human Rights Watch, by phone, December 19, 2008.
255] Human Rights Watch interview with Helen Berhane, by phone, December 19, 2008.
256] See for example, Amnesty International, ´Urgent Action Eritrea: Torture/Prisoners of Conscience´ November 3, 2006 which mentions one hundred and sixty members of banned churches arrested on October 15 and 16 2006. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AFR64/013/2006/en (accessed, December 19, 2008).
257] Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Briefing, 2007.
258] Christian Solidarity Worldwide, "Wave of arrests reaches Asmara," December 19, 2008.
259] Compass Direct, ´Christian Deaths Mount in Eritrean Prisons,´ January 23, 2009. The US State Department relied on these reports for its estimate of at least 3,000 individuals in detention at the end of 2008. US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2008: Eritrea," http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/af/119000.htm (accessed February 27, 2009).
260] Compass Direct, ´Christian Deaths Mount in Eritrean Prisons,´ January 23, 2009.
261] Human Rights Watch interview with former conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 25, 2008.
262] Human Rights Watch interview with former conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
263] Human Rights Watch interview, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
264] Human Rights Watch interview, Rome, Italy, October 23, 2008.
265] Human Rights Watch interview with former Christian conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
266] Human Rights Watch interview with former Christian conscript, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
267] Human Rights Watch interview with former soldier, Djibouti, September 18, 2008.
268] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Rome, Italy, October 23, 2008.
269] Human Rights Watch interview with recent visitor, by email, December 12, 2008.
270] Human Rights Watch interviews, Djibouti and Italy, September and October 2008.
271] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean refugee, Rome, Italy, October 23, 2008.
272] Ibid. and interview with recent visitor, by email, December 12, 2008.
273] Human Rights Watch interview with former conscripts, Sicily, October 24 and 26, 2008.
274] Human Rights Watch interview with refugees, Sicily, October 24, 2006.
275] Human Rights Watch interview with female refugee, Sicily, Italy, October 26, 2008.
276] US State Department, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2004: Eritrea," February 28, 2005. The report states: "Men under the age of fifty, regardless of whether they had completed National Service; women aged eighteen to twenty seven; members of Jehovah´s Witnesses; and others who are out of favor with or seen as critical of the government, were routinely denied exit visas. In addition the government often refused to issue exit visas to adolescents and children as young as five years of age, either on the grounds that they were approaching the age of eligibility for National Service or because their diaspora parent had not paid the two percent income tax required of all citizens residing abroad. Some citizens were given exit visas only after posting bonds of approximately US$7,300 (100,000 Nakfa)."
277] Human Rights Watch interview with Eritrean resident, by phone, December 19, 2008.
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