13 December
Semret Seyoum’sPersonal Testimony
at the East and Horn of Africa Journalists’ conference
held atEntebbe, Uganda
from 27/11/06 to 29/11/06
Dear fellow journalists and invited guests,
I would like to thank the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Project and organisations that helped in funding this conference for providing me the opportunity to share a personal testimony with you.
Eritrea has a long history. This is probably not the time to go there. It is more convenient to focus on what happened in September 2001 – 10 days after September 11 or better known as 9/11 – and thereafter.
From my point of view and in relation to private press in Eritrea, the following is what happened in September 2001.
The closing down of 8 independent newspapers and the imprisonment of at least 16 journalists was the final act that strangled the hopeful aspirations for a better Eritrea. It marked the day Eritrean voices were silenced. September 2001 is perceived as the Black September in Eritrea now.
My own personal experience in this tragedy began when I joined the Eritrean liberation struggle in 1978. I was under-age then. After 13 years of service, I was one among those who happened to see the political independence of my country.
To this day, I have yet to see the freedom I was led to believe I would have – in a free and sovereign Eritrea.The first few years of post-independence period looked very promising and I looked forward to my higher education dream at the University of Asmara.After I completed my first year, the Government of Eritrea ordered all ex-fighters who were studying at the University to give up their studies and go back to their respective ministries or units.
There was no explanation.
I felt betrayed by the very leadership we trusted and helped to put in power. To be denied education by a liberation movement that prided itself for championing and providing education to its members and the public was beyond my comprehension.
That was a time in my life when I was attracted by the idea and ambition of setting up a private and independent newspaper. Those who were at the receiving end were unable to discuss or put up any tangible opposition. Had there been private papers at the time, government officials would not have dared take such a discriminatory and unjustifiable action. I still believe it is the case.
In 1996, we were given the permission to be demobilised.
After 4 wasted years, I resumed my university education in 1996.
That was the year we, two friends and myself, managed to set up the first private newspaper in independent Eritrea in accordance to Eritrean Press Law of 10th June 1996.
We called the paper ‘Setit’.
It was put on the market for the first time on the 21st of August 1997.
It was not always a smooth ride.
In the four years, till its final closure in 2001, there were many hostile blocks that tested its resolve. Seven other journalists and myself were arrested and detained for one week in October of 2000 without charge.At the time of our imprisonment, a group of educated Eritreans who later came to be known as group 13 or G-13 sent a document to the President of Eritrea. It was posted on the net. It expressed their disquiet and the concerns they had on what was going on in Eritrea.The rounding up of independent journalists was basically to prevent us from making the content of their letter accessible to the public. There was no doubt about it. Government authorities were trying to send a message of terror and warning. They were worried about the popularity of the private newspapers. Had it not been for the world community and international media campaign, the life of the private papers would have ended in October of 2000.The turbulence, dissatisfaction and disenchantment that began to rumble in October 2000 reached a boiling point in May of 2001. For the first time, high-ranking government officials and ministers, later to be known as Group 15 or G-15, were prepared to air their views and question the President of Eritrea.
As a private media, we felt it was our duty to present the public their side of the story.
In the days and weeks that followed, we interviewed some of the group members and we urged the government and the opponents to show the same commitment and responsibility to resolve their differences on a round table.
This continued for almost four months. Finally, the darkest day in the history of the young nation arrived. It was the day when its democratic and constitutional future was diverted from its natural course.
Our paper was already published on the Tuesday of the 18th of September 2001 when the group 15 members were arrested and all the private papers were closed.
A week later government security forces arrested most of the journalists of the private papers. Aaron who is hear today with us and myself went in hiding. After three months, on 6th of January 2002, we set a foot on a long journey of exile.
Our destination was to go to Sudan.We were not that far from crossing the border when we suddenly realised that we were in the vicinity of an Eritrean patrol unit. They started to shoot in our direction without waiting for our reply.
The distance between the trigger-happy guards and ourselves was so tight that we only had split seconds to react. We run in opposite directions and they chose to go for me. There were four guards and they shouted at me to stop. There was nothing I could do. I had nowhere to run or hide. I just gave myself up.
They asked me whether I had a weapon of any kind. I said “No!” They grabbed me and ordered me to take off my shoes. They then frisked me and took all the money and other things I had. They started their mindless beating. On that day, it all rained on me with kicks, punches, head-butting and all the rest. Barefoot and hands tied behind my back, they took me to a place called Girmayka on foot. There, they tied my feet and hands together until they touched my back and was thrown on bare ground under night stars with no protection from desert cold. I spent the night in extreme chill. At dawn, I was taken to an underground dungeon and was locked up with my hands still tied behind with a guard outside. Late in the evening, they took me to a notorious underground prison called Haddish Me’asker. Once there, the piece of rope that tied my hands was replaced by a proper shackle. Thereafter, the verbal abuse and incessant threats on my life became an endless daily intake.
I went through dreadful interrogations for a long time. They wanted to know how we started out as a private paper. Who was behind the initiative?Who we met when we started?All questions were punctuated by threats to my life. They were intended to imply that there was a foreign hand behind all private papers and that all the journalists were collaborators. I was locked in solitary confinement in a cell the size of a single bed for months. The room was always dark.My hand shackled behind my back and always bare-foot. When I am let out of my cell to use the toilet or to have something to eat, I was not allowed to get close to other prisoners. But those were the only moments my hands were unshackled and I see he light of the day. The food was watery lentil with a piece of bread. Given the prevalence of many contagious diseases like diarrhoea among the prisoners, the medical facility was negligible.
In Eritrea, prisoners do not have access to legal representation.They are not brought to a court of law.I didn’t expect that my case would be handled any different. No prisoner was allowed to write or receive a letter or send one to friends or loved ones. Paper and pen were strictly prohibited and there would be dire consequences for any prisoner if found with any.
No reading and no visits either. One is left with ones thoughts in the dark.
After 8 months in ‘Haddish-Me’asker’ prison, I was taken with one hundred others on a truck and transferred to another underground prison located on the western outskirts of the capital Asmara. It’s still known as Track – B.
The prison was a temporary stop from one prison to another.
They kept me there for 4 months and on the 9th January 2003, I was ordered to collect my belongings and was taken to `Discipline Control Office’. There, I was told that my punishment is over and was sent home.
Soon after my release, I was forcibly conscripted in the Eritrean Defence Force with no salary and no specific task to perform. I repeatedly requested the responsible government departments for my salary and be transferred to the Ministry of Justice – a work place compatible to my qualification.
I was a Law graduate from the University of Asmara.
It didn’t work. It was unrealistic. I knew I was still closely watched and followed by security officers.
I tried my best not to give them an excuse. I limited my movements and interactions with others, but I never stopped thinking of leaving the country for the second time round whatever the consequences.
I was just bidding my time until an opportunity presented itself.At the end of September 2004, I crossed the border and entered Sudan. Although it was not safe for me to stay in Sudan for a long time, I was able to breathe fresh air of freedom. From then on I was never alone.
Within a year and before I left for Sweden at the end of 2005 through the UNHCR resettlement program, I received a lot of support from Elsa Chyrum the Eritrean Human Rights Activist, Amnesty International, English PEN and lots of other friends.
Ever since I left prison and after months of solitary confinement, I suffer from traumatic nightmares. Images of torture and abuse at Haddish Me’asker are still vivid.
I sometimes feel like I am still in that god-forsaken prison. When I wake up, I realise I am no longer there and breath air of relief and gratitude.Having gone through all these, it is not difficult to imagine what the 16 imprisoned journalists in Eritrea are going through.
I admire fellow journalists in the Horn and East Africa and around the world. Your determination and bravery to raise public awareness in the face of repression despite the risks involved in carrying out your duties say more than you can imagine.
Thank you
Semret Seyoum
Entebee, Uganda
28 November 2006
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