3 Journalists Believed to Have Died in Secret Prison

African Gulag
By Richard Prince
Maynard Institute
Feb. 02, 2008

An independent journalist arrested seven years ago with 10 newspaper publishers and editors is being held in a secret prison camp in Eritrea where at least nine other prisoners, including three journalists, are believed to have died, the international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday.

Eritrea, a small nation that was formerly part of Ethiopia, sits on the Horn of Africa.

"Seyoum Tsehaye, the most recent winner of the Reporters Without Borders - Fondation de France press freedom prize, is still alive and is being held in a secret prison camp called 'Eiraeiro,' located near the village of Gahtelay in a mountainous desert region north of the Asmara-Massawa road," the organization continued. "Seyoum is in cell No. 10 of block A01, which is reserved for the most sensitive political prisoners," the organization said on Wednesday, urging action by members of the African Union and the European Union.

"Reporters Without Borders learned this and other details this month from an Eritrean who has had access to the prison, where many political leaders are held. The source must remain anonymous for his protection.

"According to this source, Seyoum was transferred to Eiraeiro in about 2003. He was seen being beaten by guards a year or two after arriving in the camp. Very agitated, with his head shaved and a long beard, he rebelled several times against the guards in charge of him, refusing the prison food and repeating: 'I did my duty,' 'it is my responsibility' and 'I don't care if I die here.'

"Head of public television immediately after independence, Seyoum subsequently went back to being a freelance photographer and filmmaker. He and around 10 newspaper publishers and editors were arrested in the course of a round-up ordered by President Issaias Afeworki and his aides in September 2001 after several leading members of the ruling party (the only one permitted) and the military had publicly called for democratic reforms.

" . . . According to information obtained by Reporters Without Borders in Asmara and abroad in 2006 and 2007, at least nine prisoners had died in Eiraeiro including Tsigenay editor Yusuf Mohamed Ali, believed to have died on 13 June 2006, Keste Debena deputy editor Medhane Haile, believed to have died in February 2006 and Admas editor Said Abdulkader, believed to have died in March 2005.

"Reporters Without Borders subsequently learned that poet and playwright Fessehaye 'Joshua' Yohannes, co-founder of the now banned weekly Setit, died in detention on 11 January 2007. The source interviewed this month confirmed Fessehaye's death in detention. He said he was held in cell No. 18. He also said there is a cemetery 'behind the administrator's building where at least seven people are buried.'"

Describing what it called an "African gulag," the organization said, "The leaders attending the three-day African Union summit that begins on 31 January must not turn a blind eye to the fact that the Eritrean government acts with extraordinary cruelty towards all those it regards as a potential threat to its survival."

It urged "that the governments of the African Union member states and the leading democratic nations summon the Eritrean ambassador in each of their capitals to express their revulsion at the inhuman treatment of political prisoners and to request their release," that "The European Union should adopt targeted sanction against the officials responsible for repression and prison camps," and that specified Eritrean government officials "should at the very least be banned from visiting EU countries."