Reporters Without
Borders
Press release
18 September 2006
ERITREA
What were you doing on 18
September 2001?
Eritrea cut itself off from the world five years ago today. While
the world's attention was still totally absorbed by the 9/11 attacks
in New York and Washington of the previous week, President Issaias
Afeworki shut down Eritrea's privately-owned press on 18 September
2001. The round-ups began five days later. Hundreds of government
opponents are still in prison. At least 13 journalists are still being
held somewhere in the country's detention centres. Reporters Without
Borders calls on African newspapers to publish articles this week
about what is one of Africa's biggest political tragedies of the
last 50 years.
What were you doing on 18 September 2001?
On that day you were probably still reeling from the horrific
scenes of passenger jets being flown into the World Trade Centre in
New York and the Pentagon in Washington. You were still discussing it
with your family, friends and colleagues. And you had no idea that one
of Africa's biggest political dramas of the past half-century was
unfolding in the continent's northeastern corner, in a small country
beside the Red Sea.
On 18 September 2001, Eritrean President Issaias Afeworki ordered the
closure of all of the privately-owned press, silencing all of the
country's independent publications in one fell swoop. Asmara, a city
until then praised in songs for its dolce vita, was stunned. The raids
began five days later, on 23 September. Within hours, the capital was
turned into a hunting ground for the political police. Some of the
country's most brilliant journalists hid in cellars. Government
opponents and presidential rivals were thrown into police trucks and
locked up in the city's police stations.
Some had the courage and energy to flee on foot and eventually reached
refugee camps in Sudan. Others, such as poet and playwright Fessehaye
Yohannes, got tired of living like hunted animals and wanted to show
their solidarity with their independent journalist colleagues, so they
turned themselves in to the police. A former newspaper editor who is
now a political refugee in Sweden says: "It was the end of all our
hopes."
18-23 September 2001 - a black week in the history of press freedom in
Africa
What happened to push Eritrea over the edge after a decade of
independence? The president promised elections, but none were held.
The president promised civil and political liberties, but the police
targeted anyone on the least pretext. With the second war with
Ethiopia barely over, the independent press relayed the calls for
democratisation being made by 15 senior ruling party officials, known
as the Group of 15. But all that came to a sudden end five years ago,
on 18 September 2001.
Since that date, nothing has happened in Eritrea without President
Afeworki knowing about it. There are no longer any independent
publications. For news, the population has to rely on Soviet-style
government media and a few foreign radio stations whose signals can be
received in Asmara.
Along with the hundreds of government opponents, 13 journalists are
languishing somewhere in the country's prisons and detention
centres. Their names are Dawit Isaac, Fessehaye Yohannes, Yusuf
Mohamed Ali, Mattewos Habteab, Dawit Habtemichael, Medhanie Haile,
Temesgen Gebreyesus, Emanuel Asrat, Said Abdulkader, Seyoum Tsehaye,
Hamid Mohamed Said, Saidia Ahmed and Saleh Al Jezaeeri. The few
Eritreans who have managed to flee the country after being released
from detention say conditions are terrible. Prisoners are locked up in
metal containers inside military camps. Some are tortured. Mercury is
poured in their ears. None of them has been tried, or has seen a
lawyer or has been allowed family visits. We do not even know if they
are still alive. Each year, the government repeats that they are
"traitors to the motherland" or "spies for Ethiopia." Since
2001, parliamentarians have supposedly been preparing a report on
their "crimes."
The Eritrean government no longer listens to anyone. Nobody has been
able to make it see reason. Only international public opinion has
enough influence to achieve this.