Eritrea

Terry Crawford-Browne

Terry Crawford-Browne is a former international banker who became a peace activist during the 1980s. He lives in Cape Town.

It's now been 20 years since three Jehovah's Witnesses in Eritrea have been imprisoned. Paulos Eyassu, Negede Teklemariam and Isaac Mogos were arrested on September 24, 1994. In the early years of their detention they were subjected to severe treatment and torture in Sawa prison camp, but their ill-treatment has lessened in recent years. They have never been charged with any crime. At least thirteen other Jehovah's Witness COs are also detained in Sawa - it is likely to be many more.

A campaign has been launched by Eritreans in Diaspora to stop slavery in Eritrea. They regard military service as slavery since 20,000 Eritreans aged between 17 and 50 years are forced to enrol in national service each year, “required to work for unspecified periods, in slave-like conditions”, or else face incarceration in Eritrea's notorious prison system, where detainees are seldom released.

Sheila Keetharuth, the UN Human Rights Councils Special Rapporteur on Eritrea has published a report on Eritrea in which she blames decades long conscription and "excessive militarisation" for leaving Eritreans with little option but to risk leaving, with more than 4 000 fleeing every month. In a report to the rights council, Keetharuth said rampant violations of citizens' rights in Eritrea were "triggering a constant stream of refugees". The UN refugee agency has registered more than 300 000 Eritreans refugees in neighbouring countries, she added. Her mandate has now been extended for one more year.

Last autumn, the United Nations Human Rights Council appointed a Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation on Eritrea - Sheila Keetharuth.

WRI will be submitting information to Sheila on the reality of military service in Eritrea, and the lack of rights for conscientious objectors. To do this, we will be gathering evidence from Eritreans now living in the UK, Israel, South Africa, Germany and other countries.

The East African nation of Eritrea is amongst the highest refugee-producing countries in the world. There are a number of reasons for this. People flee from 'national service', or as it could be called, 'a campaign of forced labour or slavery'. Or, they leave because of the lack of freedom of expression - the imprisonment of journalists, government Ministers and Generals in 2001 in particular made Eritreans lose their confidence in their ruling party.

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I was born on 27 November 1987 in Asmara and grew up with my four siblings. My mother died in 1996. In the same year, my father was arrested and imprisoned without explanation. After my mother had died, my grandmother on the mother's side took care of us and I had to help her. After she also died in 2001, my grandmother on the father's side came to us. She comes from a village. So I had to assist her and could not go to school. In 2003 I had to interrupt schooling.

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Eritrea is located in the Horn of Africa, and won its independence from Ethiopia after 30 years of a bitter, bloody and costly armed struggle. The war of independence started in 1961 and Eritrea formally declared independence on 24 May 1993, after an overwhelming yes vote in a referendum overseen by the United Nations.

Yosief Ghebrehiwet

The gold rush in Eritrea has attracted many Western companies, among them Canada’s Nevsun Resources Ltd. and Sunridge Gold; Britain’s Andiamo Exploration and London Africa; and Australia’s South Boulder, Sub Sahara Resources, Chalice Gold Mines Ltd. and Gippsland Ltd. And this doesn’t tell all that there is to the involvement of Western companies, for there are many subcontracted companies rushing to get in too, such as AMEC of Canada doing engineering study and Capital Drilling and Geo Drilling of Australia and Boart Longey of Canada doing drilling. But among the stories of the mining boom in Eritrea and the mining companies’ stocks going up and down, the dirtiest secret that has remained untold is the extensive use of slave labor in these mining projects.

A /HRC/13/2/Add.1

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26. NATIONAL SERVICE, UNDER-AGE MILITARY CONSCRIPTION, AND TORTURE (Recommendations 62-63; 67-71) Rejected:

A/HRC/13/2

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II. CONCLUSIONS AND/OR RECOMMENDATIONS

79. In the course of the discussion, the following recommendations were made to Eritrea. These recommendations will be examined by Eritrea, which will provide responses in due time. The response of Eritrea to these recommendations will be included in the outcome report to be adopted by the Human Rights Council at its thirteenth session:

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Human Rights Watch and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) both released extensive reports on the human rights situation in Eritrea recently, requesting from other countries not to deport Eritrean asylum seekers fleeing military service. Human Rights Watch writes: "Enforced indefinite national service is an increasingly important element of Eritrea’s human rights crisis. Conscripts undergo military training, in itself not illegal. However, they are subjected to cruel military punishments and torture (...).