Hundreds of Eritreans on hunger strike in an Israeli prison
Thursday, 18 October 2012 15:09 Sharon Livne
http://asmarino.com/news/1559-hundreds-of-eritreans-on-hunger-strike-in-an-israeli-prison
Eritrean asylum seeker details recent hunger strike, fear of indefinite incarceration Some 500 asylum seekers held in a prison in the desert recently refused food in protest of a new law that enables Israel to keep them in detention indefinitely. By Sharon Livne “Don’t tell anyone my name, I’m afraid of what they’ll do to me here if they know I talked.” So began a nighttime telephone call with C., age 23, who has been incarcerated for 11 months in the Saharonim prison in the Negev. According to C., the Eritrean detainees in Saharonim began a hunger strike in protest of their imprisonment for a minimum of three years, in accordance with the new Prevention of Infiltration Law. Around one thousand men, women and children held in sections 8, 4 and 3 refused food for a week, ending the strike on Monday. Several hunger strikers felt unwell and were in need of medical attention. Hesitantly, he tells me his story: he fled Eritrea from compulsory conscription that he wouldn’t tell me more about, but told me that after he escaped, the authorities imprisoned his mother. She remains jailed. The authorities are demanding a very high sum (equivalent to $4,000) in exchanged for her release. C., who refused to identify himself for fear he would be punished by the prison management, told me in English that it was 64 women from the women’s section, where they are held with their children, who instigated the hunger strike. He told me that on Monday, the women were taken from Saharonim to an “unknown prison.” C. was also called for a conversation with the guards on Monday, when they made it clear that if he continued with the hunger strike, he too would be taken to another prison, “far away.” When C. tells me this, his voice is filled with horror. For most Eritreans, to be taken to “another” prison signifies torture and even death. In Eritrea, people frequently disappear into prison basements to an unknown fate. The prison guards perhaps don’t bother to explain to C. and his friends where the women and children have been transferred to, and so they are already imagining the worst possible scenarios. “They gave them injections,” he tells me, referring to the prisoners who felt unwell and were evacuated; “I don’t know what’s in them.” The fear is palpable in his voice. “Don’t worry, it’s probably an infusion to rehydrate them,” I say. “I’m sure they won’t harm them, and they’ll be alright.” “They don’t care about us.” he tells me. “They told them ‘Inshallah, you’ll die’ when they took them.” He is perhaps misinterpreting things, because of his background and because he’s foreign, I think, but one can’t mistake the deep despair, the degradation, and the very real fear that he feels for his own safety. C. tells me that in Saharonim, there are a thousand Eritreans, alongside Sudanese and Ethiopians who are held in separate sections. There are sections for men and youths, and sections for women and children. In section 8, one of the larger ones, around 500 Eritrean men and youths are held. The hunger strike, which began in the women’s section, is a result of the growing despair felt by those who have already been detained for many months, and to whom it was recently explained that their detention will continue for at least three years. “The judge told us that there’s a new law, and that we’ll be in prison for three and a half years.” We can’t be in prison. We fled here because we thought it would be better. We’d prefer it if they returned us to Eritrea and we’ll be imprisoned there. It might be an underground facility, and much worse, but there at least it’s our country, and maybe we just have to undergo it. We just can’t be here three and a half years in prison,” he said. At the end of the conversation, he surprises me, and asks in Hebrew, “Do you speak Hebrew?” and he’s excited when I answer him in Hebrew, enjoying his opportunity to practice. He tells me he has a Hebrew-English dictionary and he is studying Hebrew in jail, on his own. An Israel Prison Service spokeswoman said in response: “In the past week, some of the detainees in the Saharonim facility took measures to protest against their custody – this protest was expressed by a small number of meals being returned, but not a hunger strike. Only 500 took part in total, and none were in need of medical attention. Since Sunday, and following a conversation with the prison command, all of them began eating regularly again. Returning a meal is considered a disciplinary offense, and therefore we employ the use of warnings or transfers to another prison. That said, the women who were transferred were moved to a new and improved section in Saharonim, and therefore there was no punishment, but rather an improvement in conditions. “The Israel Prison Service is responsible for facilitating meetings with attorneys, as demonstrated by the stream of attorneys and representatives of the various organizations active in the detention facilities. Any information regarding the actual detention orders and rights of appeal against them is the responsibility of the body that issues the order, and the various procedures on infiltrators.” The Ministry of the Interior, the responsible body, has declared that everything that happens in prison is the responsibility of the Israeli Prisons Service. Elizabeth Tsurkov, an activist with the Hotline for Migrant Workers said, “Extended imprisonment of asylum seekers without trial is unprecedented in the Western world and clearly contravenes Israel’s international obligations. I can see why the refugees decided to go on hunger strike when they understood that, though they are innocent of any crime, they will be imprisoned for at least three years. Asylum seekers, families, children and victims of torture do not belong in detention camps in the middle of the desert. Instead of locking up innocent people without a trial, Israel should review the requests for asylum from those who reach the border, and grant them their rights in accordance with the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which Israel has signed and ratified.”
Asmarino
![[External image reference]](http://asmarino.com/images/tilogo.png){kind=link}
![[External image reference]](http://asmarino.com/images/arlogo.png){kind=link}
Why Two Eritrean Pilots Went Rogue and Stole Their President's Plane
Why Two Eritrean Pilots Went Rogue and Stole Their President's Plane
Until recently, the Eritrean Air Force had a single luxury airplane, an 1970s-era American corporate turboprop. Thanks to a brazen act of defiance, the plane is now in Saudi Arabia. And its pilots, two high-ranking Air Force officers, are attempting to defect from a government that few people seem to want to live under -- even, apparently, among the upper-echelons of its military.
The Free Aster Yohannes Campaign
The Free Aster Yohannes Campaign
It is a paradox to see this happens in the 21st century to the very Eritreans who sacrificed every thing to self govern. The video [http://youtu.be/RgKDf7eXxEw]narrates the beautiful, mother, wife & tigress Tegadalit (Freedom Fighter) Aster Yohannes. There are many more high officials & ordinary citizens that are rotting and dying in the notorious Era-Ero prison and other Prison network in Eritrea without any hope of a trial or due process.
10,000 solidarity calls from the family of Dawit Isaac
10,000 solidarity calls from the family of Dawit Isaac
(Asmara 13-10-2012) Esayas Isaac the brother of Eritrean journalist Dawit Issac made a passionate appeal for the Eritrean public to help him ascertain the welfare and whereabouts of his brother who disappeared after he was taken into custody by security officials. The calls were coordinated by a group known as ArbiHarnet or Freedom Friday (جمعة التحرير) , which has made over 43,00 robo calls and one to one calls, to Eritreans inside the country since its inception on 11-11-11 last year.
2012 Global Hunger Index: Eritrea Last
2012 Global Hunger Index: Eritrea Last
Twenty countries still have levels of hunger that are “extremely alarming” or “alarming.” Most of the countries with alarming GHI scores are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (the 2012 GHI does not, however, reflect the recent crisis in the Horn of Africa, which intensified in 2011, or the uncertain food situation in the Sahel). Two of the three countries with extremely alarming 2012 GHI scores—Burundi and Eritrea—are in Sub-Saharan Africa ...
Ethiopia frees Eritrean war prosoners
Ethiopia frees Eritrean war prosoners
Ethiopia has released 75 Eritrean prisoners of war captured in March during a cross border attack on a military base, officials said on Tuesday.
“The government of Ethiopia believes it is proper to release these captive soldiers of Eritrea and let them go where they want,” government spokesman Bereket Simon told AFP.
Israelis arrested for Hamas Sinai kidnapping plot
Israelis arrested for Hamas Sinai kidnapping plot
Four Israelis were arrested for their involvement in a kidnapping operation in Sinai that involved kidnapping Eritrean migrants and then extorting their family in Israel to pay up to $15,000 in ransom, police revealed on Sunday. Four Jews from Netanya, one of whom is a minor, were arrested for serving as contacts between the Eritrean migrants in Israel and an east Jerusalem man and suspected Hamas operative named Luai Nasser Al-Din. Al-Din allegedly transferred the money to Hamas in Ramallah.
PRISONERS' DEATH RECORDS
Eritrean Human Rights Electronic Archive (EHREA)
Over 10,000 phone messages of defiance sent to Eritrea
Over 10,000 phone messages of defiance sent to Eritrea
(Asmara 18-09-2012) 11,300 mobile phones, businesses and homes in Eritrea received messages condemning the regime and its heinous acts violating the human rights of countless Eritreans. The messages that were sent by a diaspora based youth group ArbiHarnet (freedom Friday), were on the occasion of what the Group and many human rights activists call ‘Eritrea’s Black September’.
EMDHR Commemorates 18 September
EMDHR Commemorates 18 September
The Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights (EMDHR) held a comprehensive seminar on 15 September 2011 as part of its commemoration of the 18th September 2001 when Eritrean reformists widely known as G-15 and independent media journalists were kidnapped and disappeared since.
Black Tuesday, ‘justice delayed: justice denied’
Black Tuesday, ‘justice delayed: justice denied’
Eleven years ago on September 18, 2001, the government of Eritrea decided to shutdown all the once thriving privately owned newspapers in an effort to silence dissent and launched a crackdown on its editorial board members. Within a range of a couple of days more than nine journalists were jailed and never returned back. Consequently, Eritrea became the only country in Africa without a private media and ranked the worst country in the world to be a journalist by Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Ethiopian Ruling Party Confirms Hailemariam as Meles’s Successor
Eritrea: Pirate Transmission Silences Sole Independent News Outlet for Three Weeks
Asmarino Fundraising! Simply because there is so much more to be done!
Support AI
![[External image reference]](https://img1.wsimg.com/rcc/extranet/marketing/banners/50026_ded_v2_250x250.gif){kind=link}
Asmarino English
Hundreds of Eritreans on hunger strike in an Israeli prison
Hundreds of Eritreans on hunger strike in an Israeli prison
“Don’t tell anyone my name, I’m afraid of what they’ll do to me here if they know I talked.” So began a nighttime telephone call with C., age 23, who has been incarcerated for 11 months in the Saharonim prison in the Negev. According to C., the Eritrean detainees in Saharonim began a hunger strike in protest of their imprisonment for a minimum of three years, in accordance with the new Prevention of Infiltration Law. Around one thousand men, women and children held in sections 8, 4 and 3 refused food for a week, ending the strike on Monday. Several hunger strikers felt unwell and were in need of medical attention.
(Photo:The Saharonim detention center, where asylum seekers are imprisoned upon entering Israel)
Why Two Eritrean Pilots Went Rogue and Stole Their President's Plane
Why Two Eritrean Pilots Went Rogue and Stole Their President's Plane
Until recently, the Eritrean Air Force had a single luxury airplane, an 1970s-era American corporate turboprop. Thanks to a brazen act of defiance, the plane is now in Saudi Arabia. And its pilots, two high-ranking Air Force officers, are attempting to defect from a government that few people seem to want to live under -- even, apparently, among the upper-echelons of its military.
2012 Global Hunger Index: Eritrea Last
2012 Global Hunger Index: Eritrea Last
Twenty countries still have levels of hunger that are “extremely alarming” or “alarming.” Most of the countries with alarming GHI scores are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (the 2012 GHI does not, however, reflect the recent crisis in the Horn of Africa, which intensified in 2011, or the uncertain food situation in the Sahel). Two of the three countries with extremely alarming 2012 GHI scores—Burundi and Eritrea—are in Sub-Saharan Africa ...
Ethiopia frees Eritrean war prosoners
Ethiopia frees Eritrean war prosoners
Ethiopia has released 75 Eritrean prisoners of war captured in March during a cross border attack on a military base, officials said on Tuesday.
“The government of Ethiopia believes it is proper to release these captive soldiers of Eritrea and let them go where they want,” government spokesman Bereket Simon told AFP.
Israelis arrested for Hamas Sinai kidnapping plot
Israelis arrested for Hamas Sinai kidnapping plot
Four Israelis were arrested for their involvement in a kidnapping operation in Sinai that involved kidnapping Eritrean migrants and then extorting their family in Israel to pay up to $15,000 in ransom, police revealed on Sunday. Four Jews from Netanya, one of whom is a minor, were arrested for serving as contacts between the Eritrean migrants in Israel and an east Jerusalem man and suspected Hamas operative named Luai Nasser Al-Din. Al-Din allegedly transferred the money to Hamas in Ramallah.
Child torturers of the desert: Horrific footage reveals human traffickers are even targeting BABIES to get families to pay ransoms
Medics travel from Cairo to camps in the heart of the vast sands to harvest kidneys, livers, corneas and corneas from the helpless donors. They then transport the organs back to Egypt in mobile refrigeration units where patients are waiting to receive them. Thousands of refugees are believed to have died as a result of the operations, their bodies bearing tell-tale scars which show where the organs have been removed. But now refugees are facing a new threat on top of brutal beatings, rape and murder - extortionate ransom fees.
Ottawa forces Eritrea to nix ‘2% extortion tax’ on citizens in Canada
Ottawa forces Eritrea to nix ‘2% extortion tax’ on citizens in Canada
The government of Eritrea has agreed to stop collecting a controversial “diaspora tax” at its consulate in Toronto after the Department of Foreign Affairs threatened to send home the repressive African regime’s only diplomat in Canada. The consulate had been soliciting a 2% income tax and mandatory “donations” for its military from Eritreans living in Canada. The RCMP and United Nations have reported that those who refused to pay were subjected to threats, intimidation and coercion. But last week, Foreign Affairs officials sent off a strongly worded diplomatic note making it clear Canada would not renew the accreditation of Consul Semere Ghebremariam O. Micael unless Eritrea agreed in writing to stop the scheme.
Ethiopian Ruling Party Confirms Hailemariam as Meles’s Successor
Ethiopian Ruling Party Confirms Hailemariam as Meles’s Successor
Ethiopia’s ruling party confirmed acting Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn as the successor to the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.
Thousands of Ethiopians attend Meles Zenawi burial
Thousands of Ethiopians attend Meles Zenawi burial
The US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, praised his vision and foresight. "He wasn't just brilliant, he wasn't just a relentless negotiator and a formidable debater, he wasn't just a thirsty consumer of knowledge - he was uncommonly wise, able to see the big picture and the long game, even when others would allow immediate pressures to overwhelm sound judgement," she said. "Those rare traits were the foundations of his greatest contributions."
The paradox of Meles Zenawi
While politics and security issues surrounding Meles' death understandably dominate the assessment of Ethiopia's situation, it is also important to consider three other vital areas where the late prime minister had considerable national, regional and international influence: the economy, development and climate change. Whoever leads Ethiopia, the management of these three interconnected issues will determine levels of peace and stability achieved in the region. On these, Meles embodied the eternal paradox that is Ethiopia: a land of 'great abundance' where so much poverty exists; a Garden of Eden whose potential has never been fulfilled.
(Photo: Tekeze hydro electric dam)