Amnesty International Report 2007 - Eritrea

ERITREA, http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Africa/Eritrea

Head of state and government: Issayas Afewerki
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: signed

Several thousand prisoners of conscience were detained incommunicado without charge or trial. Some former government leaders were held in a secret place of detention. The whereabouts of many political or religious prisoners, including journalists, were not known. Many were in effect victims of enforced disappearance. An army general remained held after 14 years, and three religious prisoners were still held after 12 years. Many detainees were tortured. Prison conditions, including being held in underground cells or metal shipping containers, amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Virtually no medical treatment was provided.

Background
Two thirds of the population were dependent on international emergency food aid. The government expelled several international NGOs delivering humanitarian assistance. Donors continued emergency humanitarian assistance but most had long suspended development aid because of the government's failure to implement both the constitutional process of democratization and international human rights treaties it had ratified.

As in previous years, human rights defenders were not allowed to operate and independent civil society organizations and unregistered faith groups were prohibited. The only political party allowed was the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), formerly the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). No dissent was tolerated.

The UN Security Council extended until January 2007 the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) but criticized the stalemate in the negotiations over the border. Eritrea continued to demand that Ethiopia implement the International Boundary Commission's judgement following the 1998-2000 armed conflict and refused any negotiation on border demarcation. The UN Security Council criticized Eritrea's increasing restrictions on UNMEE's movements in the temporary security zone it administers on the Eritrean side of the border, and the arrests of several UNMEE personnel during 2006. It also criticized the incommunicado detention without charge or trial of an international UNMEE staff member, held for some weeks on reportedly false charges of trafficking.

The government continued to host armed Ethiopian and Sudanese opposition groups. It sent military assistance and weapons to the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia, according to a UN panel monitoring violations of the Somalia arms embargo. It faced the threat of armed opposition from the Sudan-based Eritrean Democratic Alliance, which Ethiopia also supported.

AI country reports/visits
Statements
• Eritrea: Independence Day call for a year of urgent human rights improvements (AI Index: AFR 64/004/2006)

• Eritrea: Five years on, members of parliament and journalists remain in secret detention without trial (AI Index: AFR 64/009/2006)