Human Rights Concern - Eritrea (HRCE) is an independent non profit making, human rights organization based in UK. The organization is dedicated to the promotion and protection of the human rights of Eritreans at home and all over the world. HRCE believes that all human beings are equal regardless of race, religion, gender and political affiliation and strives for a peaceful Eritrea where fundamental human rights are respected.
What you are about to read is a transcript of an interview given to Human Rights Concern – Eritrea by Mr Eyob Bahta who was a prison guard from September 2001 until his escape from Eritrea in 2010.
A few months ago, a number of workers from Bisha-Nevsun Project (owned by the Eritrean government and Canada’s Nevsun Resources Ltd.) have managed to escape to Ethiopia, and they are now living in one of the refugee camps located in Tigray. Two of them, Abadi Ghebremeskel and Legesse Berhe, have been extensively interviewed so far. HRCE (Human Rights Concern Eritrea) has kindly provided us with the audio version of those interviews. In due time, we will provide the video version of the interview. Since the interviews are about three hours long and conducted in Tigrigna language, below we are summarizing them in English in a categorical manner, supplemented with our interpretation of what is going on the ground based on the data extracted from the interviews. The content of this summary depends on the interviews in the audios and follow-ups.
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Eyob Bahta Habtemariam, a man who credibly claims to have been a guard at the notorious Eiraeiro prison camp in the desert of Northern Red Sea province, in northeastern Eritrea, fled the country a year ago and found refuge in neighbouring Ethiopia. Elsa Chyrum, Director of Human Rights Concern Eritrea, interviewed him. Watch the interview.
A documentary from HRCE of young Eritreans recollection of torture and suffering they experienced under the Eritrean government. A story of their determination for freedom and the price they had to pay to achieve it. Watch the documentary.
A. didn’t even think he was disobeying an order. “I’m taking them to the base,” he announced plainly on the radio to the company commander. A. contacted his commander after he took into his vehicle a group of Africans that had crossed the border during the night between Friday and Saturday.
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Lawyers and activists argued on Monday that Sweden and the EU are legally bound to work harder to secure the release of Dawit Isaak, an Eritrean-Swedish journalist who has been held in Asmara for nearly a decade without trial.
Egypt, a state that over the past four years has allegedly shot and killed more than 80 African migrants trying to cross into Israel over the Sinai Desert border, became chair on Friday of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees executive committee, sparking criticism by human rights groups of Egypt’s refugee policies.
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In September 2001, Aaron Berhane made the heart-wrenching decision to escape Eritrea.
He left behind his wife and young children, as well as his prestigious job as editor-in-chief of the country’s largest circulation newspaper, Setit. It was his work that left Aaron with no option but to flee the country. Read the rest of this entry »
‘The biggest prison for Journalists’ is a fitting label for PFDJ’s Eritrea. It is 9 years since the dozen Eritrean independent journalists have been detained; and their whereabouts is unknown.
Soon after their detention, they went for a hunger strike demanding their case to be brought into court, but their condition got worse.
Some are believed to have died due the harsh prison conditions. This is an eyewitness account how their hunger strike came about.
Click here to watch:YouTube: Eritrean Journalits’ Hunger strike testimony
Bereket Yohannes often lies awake at night in his East Kildonan home and wonders where his relatives are or if they’re even alive.
His sister, Esther Yohannes, her husband, Petros Soloman, and their three children are among Eritrea’s many missing and unaccounted for citizens.
“My brother-in-law was arrested on Sept. 18, 2001,” Yohannes said, visibly nervous just talking about the subject.
“It was just after the terrorist attacks in the United States and the president took the opportunity, while the world’s attention was focused elsewhere, to get rid of his enemies.”
YOU ARE NEXT, ISAIAS!
Now that the eyes of the world are on those who wish, as we Eritreans do, to depose the dictator, there has never been a better moment to demonstrate and protest publicly. With this in mind, and ignoring freezing weather, a 20-strong group of mainly Eritrean protesters gathered outside the Eritrean Embassy in Islington yesterday, the 28th February. Unfortunately, this will not go down as a historic day in Eritrea, but it is a new beginning at a time when we should really seize the moment that the spirit of the times seems to be offering us. Isaias Afewerki is a dictator every bit as bad as Mubarak and Gaddaffi, the main difference being that he has a much lower media profile and this is our opportunity to raise that profile by protesting in public and letting the world know at this time when it seems to be watching that we have the worst tyrant in Africa and he must go, and he must go NOW!
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea
London, U.K
1 March 2011