Tuesday marks the 25th anniversary of the imprisonment of three Jehovah’s Witnesses in Eritrea, where they have been subject to torture and allowed little contact with the world outside the prison walls.
Paulos Eyasu, Isaac Mogos, and Negede Teklemariam were detained on Sept. 17, 1994, apparently because they conscientiously objected to military service, according to a report published in August by the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Office of Public Information. They were held at the Sawa military training camp until 2017, when they were transferred to Mai Serwa prison, where they were briefly granted access to visitors for the first time since their imprisonment. None of the three have been charged or granted a hearing.
Their detention has also proven painful for friends and family, and one described his sorrow at losing his friend a quarter-century ago.
“I was with him the night before they arrested him,” said Eyasu’s friend, who asked for anonymity for protection. “Our families spent the whole evening together. That was the last time I saw my friend. He has been imprisoned for the past 25 years. It was very painful to lose such a friend. I know he has not done anything wrong, and he has been suffering for so long, it really breaks my heart. He was a very honest, hardworking, upright man. He was young and a person of impeccable character.”
The men’s families appealed for help to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, but the Eritrean government has ignored their request to allow lawyers, family members, and doctors to visit the three prisoners. Eritrean officials declined to attend a July hearing before the commission, in which the prisoners’ lawyers said they would like to discuss a resolution to the case.
In total, over 50 Jehovah’s Witnesses are currently imprisoned in Eritrea, and all are kept at Mai Serwa prison.
The Eritrean government’s persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses goes back to the early 1990s, when the country became independent after a 1993 referendum. Since gaining independence, Eritrea’s government has required indefinite national service by physically able adults between 18 and 70 years of age. In a 1994 decree, President Isaias Afwerki revoked Jehovah’s Witnesses’ citizenship because they remained neutral during the fight for independence, did not participate in the 1993 referendum, and conscientiously objected to military service.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed to work in government offices, and the state takes away their identity cards. They also cannot receive a complete education: 12th-grade education takes place at the Sawa military camp, but because Jehovah’s Witnesses conscientiously object to military service, they do not register for their final year of education. Male Jehovah’s Witnesses between 18 and 40 often live in hiding, and if found by police, they face torture for objecting to military service.
Detainees and conscripts at military training camps are subject to torture, including a method called “otto,” in which hands are tied together behind the back while victims lie on their stomachs. One man who tried to escape from a military camp was kept in this position for two weeks, while a soldier who refused an order was tied for four hours. Human Rights Watch reported this was “the most common torture method noted by former conscripts and detainees, practiced in all the prisons and in Wi’a and Sawa military camps.”
In one case of torture at Sawa, a witness said unsuccessful deserters were tied to a corpse: “One had been shot running away, the other two had their hands tied to the feet of the dead person. They were paraded round the camp in the back of a Toyota pickup truck. The intention was for everyone to see.”
At Sawa, Mai Serwa, and other prisons and camps, detainees are often held in shipping containers.
Earlier this year, the United Nations Human Rights Committee asked Eritrea “to release all persons arrested or detained for exercising their freedom of religion, including Jehovah’s Witnesses.” They also requested Eritrea to “ensure the legal recognition of conscientious objection to military service and provide for alternative service of a civilian nature for conscientious objectors.”
In their August report, the Jehovah’s Witnesses called on Eritrea to release the 52 prisoners, grant full citizenship rights to Jehovah’s Witnesses, and permit conscientious objection to military service.
