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Eritrea

The regime of President Isayas Afeworki, who has officially been in power since independence in 1993, maintains an authoritarian grip over the country. The President uses the continued border dispute with Ethiopia as a justification for his oppressive rule and for severe curtailments on the human rights in his country by claiming that the implementation of the 1997 Constitution would not be possible until the border demarcation with Ethiopia had been finalized. The President himself has described the Constitution as ‘just a piece of paper’.

Political freedom is inexistent. Eritrea is a one-party state with the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ) being the only party allowed to exist. The presidential elections which were planned for 1997 have never taken place. Opposition parties are forced to operate in exile and are making extensive use of the internet.
Security forces frequently resort to torture notably during interrogations. Some of the forms of torture which have been identified and are frequently used are the helicopter technique and Jesus Christ.

The prison conditions in Eritrea are terrible. Prisoners, notably political and religious prisoners as well as draft evaders, are, according to reports and rare testimonies, held incommunicado, underground or in shipping containers. ‘Track B’ for example is a military prison in the suburbs of Asmara and consists of underground cells which are believed to hold about 2000 detainees. Recently the authorities have begun to detain prisoners in houses in the centre of towns in order to obscure the violations taking place. Several high interest prisoners are detained in the notorious and remote Eirareiro centre, which has been named the ‘African gulag’.
Although it is very difficult to monitor the fate and the conditions facing detainees the very few reports and investigations which are carried out reveal that many detainees have in fact died in custody as a result of torture and lack of access to medical facilities. The authorities refuse to allow local and international NGOs to monitor the prison conditions, with the notable exception of allowing the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit certain Ethiopian soldiers and to visit and register Ethiopian civilians. 1 

Arbitrary arrest and detention without trial are a serious problem in Eritrea. Security forces regularly detain people for much longer periods than stipulated in national law. People are regularly arrested without warrants, in particular during clampdowns on draft evaders and members of non-registered churches.
Prolonged and repeated military and national service continue to be compulsory in Eritrea and are violently enforced; the service has become more military in nature as a result of a renewed fear of conflict with Ethiopia. Conscription continues to be enforced through mass round-ups and house-to-house sweeps; the men and women that are detained during the raids are forced to serve for periods much longer than the required 18 months. As a result, almost every week hundreds of young Eritreans seek refuge in neighbouring countries in order to evade conscription. Draft evaders and their families are severely punished. In addition to risking torture – draft evaders also risk their lives:  a number of evaders caught trying to escape abroad have been killed.  Family members have been fined, arbitrarily detained and, according to reports, sometimes even forcefully conscripted, to replace missing relatives. 2

Religious freedom is not respected or guaranteed. In fact members of minority churches, notably Pentecostal churches, continue to be persecuted in Eritrea. The Government still operates according to a 2002 Decree that compels all religious groups to register. The only four religions allowed a certain amount of freedom in the country are the Eritrean Orthodox, Evangelicals (Lutheran) of Eritrea, Islam, and the Roman Catholic Church. Minority churches notably independent evangelical groups, Pentecostals, and Jehovah's Witnesses have seen their registration applications ignored or rejected by the authorities. Public religious activities as private activities involving more than five people of unregistered churches are banned. Members of minority denominations continue to be subjected to intimidation and arbitrary arrests by the armed forces. A considerable number are believed to be held in detention at any one time, some are released, others held indefinitely. Torture is often used against these prisoners in the aim of forcing them to renounce their faith. As a result, an increasing number of members of these minority churches are seeking refuge abroad.

Violence against women, and notably domestic violence, is pervasive. Although the law prohibits domestic violence the government has not enforced it. FGM continues to be widespread. Women undertaking their military service face harassment, discrimination and at times sexual violence. Many high level commanders take women undergoing their service as their ‘wives’ expecting them to do their chores and also carry out sexual favours. Women who fall pregnant of rape in the military are expected to remain silent concerning the identity of the perpetrator.

There is currently no human rights movement to speak of in Eritrea. Human rights organisations can only operate from outside of the country and are perceived by the regime as subversive and as a tool used by the Ethiopian authorities to undermine Eritrean sovereignty . There are currently no international human rights organisations working in Eritrea; the only attempt to establish a domestic human rights organisation, the Regional Centre for Human Rights and Development, only lasted for a year and was closed in 2003. 3
NGOs working on non-rights issues have been systematically dismantled. The authorities have on several occasions expelled international organisations and employees of NGOs, aid agencies and the UN. In fact the staunch registration requirements make it almost impossible for international NGOs to establish a presence in the country.

Freedom of speech and press are largely inexistent in Eritrea.4 Eritreans live in complete dearth of information – with the rare exception of news which they can get from the odd foreign radio station which they can pick up in their country. Private ownership of media and international influence or ownership of media is banned. Eritrea is in fact the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa which does not have a single independent news outlet. The government has had total control over the media since September 2001, following a massive crackdown by the authorities on peaceful protests that were calling for democratic reforms. This ended with the arrest of thirteen journalists and the closure of the few independent media houses in operation. The incarcerated journalists were transferred in 2002 to secret detention centres. As a result of government control over the national media, a fear of reprisals amongst the prisoners’ families along with the tight restrictions on foreigners’ movement within Eritrea it is very difficult to shed light on the fate of these journalists.5 Nevertheless, it appears that several of the journalists are still being held incommunicado in secret locations without being charged or given a fair trial. Furthermore, reports suggest that at least 4 of the journalists, notably Fesshaye ‘Joshua’ Johannes a prominent journalist and intellectual, have died in detention.6 One of the journalists, Fetisha Khaled, arrested has reportedly been forced into prolonged military service.
On the 24th April 2008 Reporters without Borders learnt that Tura Kubaba, who had been working for a state-run radio station had in fact been detained since 2006 and had been transferred to an unknown place of detention in 2007. 7
At least 19 journalists have fled from Eritrea since 2002, and this number could be much higher.8 The decision to flee ones country is never an easy one but in Eritrea it has even more serious repercussions. Those caught whilst trying to escape have been immediately imprisoned and thereafter detained incommunicado. Furthermore, as is the case of the situation facing families of draft evaders, the families of journalists who flee the country have also been targeted with government reprisals.
These defections of journalists are just some of the most recent examples in a long series. As a result, the security forces have retaliated and the number of arbitrary arrests of journalists, which includes those working for the state-run media outlets, has been increasing ever since  2006. The authorities hoped that by carrying out regular arbitrary arrests and heavy handed interrogations they could discourage others from following their counterparts. One journalist, Paulos Kidane, who worked for the state-run media, had been subjected to continual intimidation and harassment within Eritrea, following the defection of several fellow journalists; as a result he sought to flee and seek asylum in Sudan but died along the way of exhaustion in June 2007.9
The very few foreign journalists allowed to operate in Eritrea are under staunch control and risk expulsion at the smallest reference made to the country’s human rights situation. 10