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E R I N A - U P D A T E (Eritrean News Agency, Tel: ++291-1-117627, Fax: 127385)
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Press Release Ethiopia’s Atrocities Against Eritrean Civilian Prisoners Ministry of Foreign Affairs Asmara, 11 January 2001
Following the Algiers comprehensive agreement, Ethiopia has started to release and repatriate civilian Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin whom it had arbitrarily imprisoned solely on the basis of their ethnic or national origin. Most have been held throughout the entire conflict in camps like Dedessa, Blatte and several places in Tigray since 1998. Among the released were ninety (90) underage boys and girls. There were also a large number of elderly men and women and a priest. They were held without official charges or trial although they had been accused of spying and other grave charges. Throughout their period of internment, the Government of Eritrea steadfastly maintained that these were innocent men, women and children who had lived in Ethiopia peacefully and contributed to its development for the major part of their lives. It also consistently alerted the international community about the conditions in these concentration camps and had urged for the unconditional release of these Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin. Accounts from the released prisoners have not only confirmed the position of the Government of Eritrea but also the worst fears of the people of Eritrea regarding the conditions of imprisonment:
The summary execution by firing squad, by stoning to death, or by administration of lethal injections of more than thirty (30) young men and women;
The existence of secret prisons particularly in the province of Tigray to which more than two hundred and fifty (250) have been sent and have not been heard from since. Neither the ICRC nor any other third parties had been informed about their existence;
Torture (which has resulted in death or in disability), malnutrition and denial of medical care;
The attempted indoctrination of the youth with a view to making them join or create opposition movements against the Government of Eritrea;
Sexual abuse of female prisoners;
Solitary confinement in small, totally dark cells for up to four (4) months; and
Confiscation of articles of personal and sentimental value.
The Government of Ethiopia has persistently committed--and will continue to commit--these gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law. Once again, the Government of Eritrea requests the international community to call on Ethiopia to release all political prisoners unconditionally, to refrain from committing atrocities against those who are still remaining, and to account for the more than fifteen hundred (1,500) Eritreans and Ethiopians of Eritrean origin who have been made to disappear since 1998. It is well to remember that peace--durable peace--takes root only in the soil of justice.
