Eritrea Has 'At Least 10,000' Political Prisoners, Reports Amnesty International
Agence France Presse
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Posted: 05/09/2013 10:45 am EDT
With political opposition banned, independent media quashed and religious minorities targeted, the ex-rebel government uses a system of underground cells and shipping containers to house the prisoners, the report read.
"The government has systematically used arbitrary arrest and detention without charge to crush all opposition, to silence all dissent, and to punish anyone who refuses to comply with the repressive restrictions it places on people's lives," said Claire Beston, Amnesty's Eritrea researcher.
The report says "at least 10,000" prisoners have "disappeared into secret and incommunicado detention" in the Horn of Africa nation, but warns it is impossible to know the exact figure.
The report was released ahead of Eritrea's celebrations of 20 years of independence on May 24, which followed an overwhelmingly vote by the people to split from arch-foe Ethiopia after years of bitter war.
Eritrean rebels battled far better equipped Ethiopian troops -- backed first by the United States, then the Soviet Union -- for three decades until victory in 1991, which was followed by a referendum two years later.
A subsequent border conflict with Ethiopia from 1998-2000 still simmers, which analysts say Asmara uses as an excuse for its continued iron-rule.
Opposition parties are banned and anyone who challenges President Issaias Afeworki is jailed without trial, often in the harshest of conditions.
Reporters Without Borders lists Eritrea below North Korea as the worst country in the world for press freedom.
"In the vast majority of cases, the prisoners' families are not informed of their whereabouts, and often never hear from their relative again after they are arrested," Amnesty added. "Torture -- for punishment, interrogation and coercion -- is widespread."
There was no immediate response from Asmara.
