CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE URGES EUROPEAN UNION TO ADDRESS HORRIFIC HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE IN ERITREA.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide
For Immediate Release
18 September 2008
CHRISTIAN SOLIDARITY WORLDWIDE URGES EUROPEAN UNION TO ADDRESS HORRIFIC HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE IN ERITREA.
CSW took part in a special hearing today urging the European Union to take urgent action over their policy on serious human rights violations in Eritrea.
Presentations on the dire situation of Eritrean refugees took place in the European Parliament this morning, hosted by Portuguese MEP, Ana Gomes. CSW, one of the co-organisers, presented an overview of the religious liberty situation in Eritrea, where over 2000 Christians are still detained without charge or trial in centres where human rights abuses occur routinely. CSW representative, Dr. Khataza Gondwe, explained how the Eritrean government has systematically targeted all religious groups, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Evangelicals, Orthodox and Muslims. She called on EU officials to push for access to prisons and detention centres.
Mr Kebreab Yimesgen Hailegiorgis, co-founder and former General Secretary of the Eritrean Evangelical Alliance for Africa and the Middle East, also addressed the assembly, sharing his personal experience of close friends, neighbours and colleagues being ‘disappeared’ by the Eritrean Government.
Mr Hailegiorgis called for independent observers to visit the country in order to examine the plight of its prisoners: “These prisoners are detained solely for their religious beliefs. None have been officially charged or brought before a recognised court of law. They are held for weeks, months, even years in police stations, open air facilities in military camps and ordinary jails. Some are held, either in isolation, or with others in metal shipping containers, in cramped, poorly ventilated cells, in underground cells, and even in sealed caves. Many have been subjected to torture, and some have died during or as a consequence of it, while others have been disabled.”
Tina Lambert, CSW’s Advocacy Director said: “We are hugely grateful to Ana Gomes for providing this opportunity to present the horrific human rights situation in Eritrea. It is a travesty that this has received so little attention from the international community and that this silence has been interpreted by the Eritrean regime as tacit support for its brutal policies. We urge the European Union to put respect for human rights at the top of its priorities in its relations with Eritrea and make their concerns crystal clear to the regime. The Eritrean people have already suffered for far too long.”
For further information and/or for interviews with Dr Gondwe or Mr Hailegiorgis please contact Theresa Malinowska, Press Officer at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on 078 233 29663 or visit www.csw.org.uk
CSW is a human rights organisation which specialises in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.
ENDS