Horn & East Africa Amnesty Action January 2015 Country - Eritrea Aster Fissehatsion Background: Aster Fissehatsion has been held incommunicado without charge or trial since September 2001. She was arrested during a round-up of political dissidents, known as the the G-15. She is said to suffer from stomach ulcers. Aster joined the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front (EPLF) in 1974, becoming a political commissioner and representative of its womens association. After independence in 1991, she worked in various government ministries in Asmara, and was elected to the central committee of the ruling Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice party (PFDJ, formed from the EPLF). In 1996 she was dismissed from government employment on account of her criticisms of the government but was re-instated in 1999 during the war with Ethiopia. During 2001 there was an emerging criticism within Eritreas only political party, the ruling PFDJ, of the way that the President was running the country in general and the party in particular. This dissent became public in May 2001 when a group of 15 senior party officials, including Aster Fissehatsion, (the group has come to be know as the G-15), published an open letter they had written to PFDJ members. The letter described and made proposals for solving what it called the crisis of Eritrea, making a call for correction, a call for peaceful and democratic dialogue, a call for strengthening and consolidation, a call for unity, a call for the rule of law and for justice, through peaceful and legal ways and means. In August 2001, the Secretary General of PFDJ accused the G-15 of attempting to destabilize the country. The G-15 replied in a letter published in a newspaper, calling upon the Eritrean people to help solve the countrys problems. They described the economic conditions in the country and said that in order to solve them the government needed to allow for a free exchange of ideas and full participation of the people in discussing these issues. On the night of 18 September 2001, Aster Fissehatsion and 10 other of the 15 signatories of the letter were arrested. A few days later all the main private-press journalists were also arrested. All have been held incommunicado without charge or trial since. Action: Please send letters to Eritreas President, Isaias Afewerki, and Minister of Justice, Ms Fawzia Hashim, with copies to the Ambassador in the UK, Tesfamichael Geratu. Call for the immediate and unconditional release of Aster Fissehatsion and all other prisoners of conscience detained for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression. Call for all prisoners suspected of a crime to be immediately charged with a recognizable criminal offence or else released. Those charged must be tried promptly in fair proceedings which meet international standards. Call for the whereabouts and fate of Aster Fissehatsion and all prisoners of conscience to be revealed immediately, for them to be granted access to their families and lawyers, protected from torture and other ill-treatment, and provided with all necessary medical care. Send letters to: H.E. Isaias Afewerki, Office of the President, P.O.Box 257, Asmara, Eritrea. Fawzia Hashim, Minister of Justice, PO Box 241, Asmara, Eritrea. Ambassador Tesfamichael Geratu, Embassy of the State of Eritrea, 96 White Lion Street, London N1 9OF
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 11:06:26 +0000
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