September 18th is for all Eritreans a date embedded in their consciousness, but not for the usual reasons that we remember a life-changing date and celebrate it. September 18th is a GRIM Anniversary, a dark date not to be celebrated, but remembered as the start of the most cruel, savage, and evil phase in the history of Eritrea. It means one thing for Eritreans: the end of hope for Democracy, and the end of personal and national Freedom, the end of independent press and freedom of expression. The continuation of a tyranny under Isaias Afwerki, which, sadly has yet to end.
Ten years after Eritrea proudly achieved its independence and freedom from Ethiopia in 1991, all changed for the worse. On September 18th 2001, a group of 11 higher Eritrean officials, including parliamentarians, ambassadors, cabinet ministers and generals were arbitrarily arrested, because they advocated reform and demanded the implementation of the ratified constitution, which remains suspended to this date. Ever since, they have been languishing in prison without due process and some are reported to have died in custody. And not just them; but tens of thousands more have been arbitrarily arrested and have disappeared since then.
Also on that fateful day, all independent media were banned. Along with the 11 officials and politicians arrested, 10 journalists, editors, and directors of independent newspapers were detained as well. Many of those imprisoned are reported to have died in remote jails, after years of incommunicado detention, owing to the appalling conditions they were kept in, which drove some to commit suicide.
Eritrea as a country is one big prison. For even those not under arrest are so restricted, intimidated, and forced to conform to the dictates of a grim oligarchy under the dictator Isaias Afwerki. They do not know the meaning of liberty, or the feeling of freedom.
On this anniversary, let us not forget all of Eritrea’s prisoners of conscience; let us also remember the millions of innocent Eritreans who continue to suffer the loss of almost every human right guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But we shall not despair: for we know that one day this tyranny will come to an end. Be certain of that. Meanwhile, we shall celebrate the sheer courage of the abused and persecuted people of Eritrea! What we can celebrate is not visible on the streets of Asmara— or anywhere else in the country. It lives silently in the hearts of a noble people.
Despite all their suffering, a heroic people have not given up. We must not forget…
- The sheer nobility of those who have opposed a cruel dictatorship,
- The martyrs who have lost their lives for their beliefs;
- The heroes who suffered torture, but still endured, to denounce the villainy at work in Eritrea to a sleeping world.
- The tenacity of those who will not give up, in the face of the apparent hopelessness of the struggle against a rampant evil.
These are qualities that will endure and outlast all tyrannical governments and every denial of democracy.
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Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE)
