On Monday morning, September 17, the Government of Eritrea arrested former Finance Minister Berhane Abrehe in Asmara, Eritrea.
The former minister had published a two-part book in Tigrinya highly critical of the Isaias Afwerki government which was published by his family in the United States and whose excerpts were disclosed on August 30, 2018. Subsequently, on September 1, Berhane Abrehe issued an audio message telling the world that he indeed published the books and he was calling on the President to reconvene the National Assembly, suspended for more than 16 years, and to prepare for the National Assembly to elect a new chairman.
The Minister also challenged President Isaias Afwerki to a televised debate to account for his governance.
Reports indicate that he was having breakfast with his son in an Asmara restaurant when security officials hauled him presumably to jail.
The government never charges those it arrests and never accounts for them: they disappear and many die in jail. The most well-known senior government officials, collectively known as G-15, have disappeared since September 18, 2001 with an escaped prison guard reporting that they are held in solitary confinement in remote Eila Eiro prison.
Mr Berhane Abrehe who joined the armed struggle in 1975 after completing graduate studies in the United States, fought for Eritrean independence from Ethiopia for 16 years and served in the Eritrean government since 1991 in various roles including a ten-year stint as its Minister of Finance until, according to awate.com, his falling out with Isaias Afwerki over proper accounting and budgeting.
Reactions
The reactions from Eritreans, human rights organizations and one Ethiopian media outlet has been swift.
An EPLF veteran, awate.com commenter, and author Mahmud Saleh submitted a raw and emotional video demanding that the government immediately notify the people why it has arrested him, bring him to court and release or at least provide due process to all those who have been imprisoned without charges:
Human Rights Concern – Eritrea (HRCE) issued a release demanding on the “international community to put pressure on the Eritrean regime to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which it is a signatory.”
HRCE also disclosed that Berhane Abrehe’s wife, Mrs. Almaz Habtemariam “was also arrested at the beginning of 2018 and has been jailed incommunicado. She is a veteran of the liberation struggle who joined the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) in the mid 1970s at a very young age.”
Amnesty International started a campaign demanding the government disclose his whereabout and immediately release him:
Take Action: Tell the #Eritrean government to reveal whereabouts of Berhane Abrehe and immediately release him from unlawful detention. He was arrested after publishing a book criticizing President Afewerki, asking Eritreans to speak out #FreeBerhaneAbrehe https://t.co/BvGXn34EHJ pic.twitter.com/V3064salxm
— AmnestyEasternAfrica (@AmnestyEARO) September 19, 2018
Perhaps most surprising, and a welcome relief from the generally uncritical coverage the Ethiopian media has been showering on President Isaias Afwerki’s government, Ethiopia-based Addis Standard tweeted the news, citing Amnesty International:
#Eritrea: Ex-minister arbitrarily held after book release: Berhane Abrehe https://t.co/AuJDFggMTP
He was taken to an undisclosed location by security agents on 17 Sep.. His arbitrary arrest and incommunicado detention come just days after he published a book pic.twitter.com/XIeYWSFHfs— Addis Standard (@addisstandard) September 19, 2018
Eritrean activists have initiated a telephone campaign to reach out to the president’s office to demand of the government to disclose the whereabout of the Minister and to release him immediately.
Another activist has initiated the #QuestionforIsaias campaign:
An absolute honour to launch the second phase of the #QuestionForIsaias campaign at @CNN!
Yesterday we were silent in solidarity and today, we continue to raise our voices https://t.co/o4d56W7YhA
— Vanessa Berhe (@VanessaBerhe) September 19, 2018
Finally, an Eritrean exile, Aloniab, reached out to the son of Berhane Abrehe, the 25-year old Ephrem, and conducted a telephone interview to confirm the news that the arrest of Berhane Abrehe is accurate. The shaken son disclosed that what he feared had indeed happened and that he now expects the government to try him in the public opinion court by inventing crimes and defaming him.
Q: Hey Efrem, do you have any news about your mother ? [his mother was arrested one year ago, no charge yet]?
A: No, I have no news.Q: yesterday I read the news that your father has been arrested. Is that true?
A: Yes, it is true. First I thought it is rumor, but then I could confirm it. We have been expecting that this will happen, because that is how the government has been dealing with dissents. And still it is shocking…he is my dad.
Minister Berhane Abrehe’s two-part book is called My Country, Eritrea. While Book 1 (210 pages) provides the context for Eritrea’s history by touching on the formation of nation states, it is Book 2 (199 pages) which focuses on Eritrea, with a critical assessment of its governance. Chapter titles include: “Isaias The Tornado”, “Establishment of Military Rule in Eritrea”, “Organized Corruption”, “Endless Treachery of Mr. Isaias” and “Foiling Dictatorship.”
The books are sold here, and many Eritreans who have bought them have been sending digital copies to Eritrea, where they are banned.
Meanwhile, the usually verbose Eritrean Minister of Information had no news to shed on the matter, tweeting instead on his government’s role in reconciling an armed Ethiopian group it was hosting with the government of Ethiopia.
Given the intolerance of the government for dissenting views and its history of “disappearing” critics, the Eritrean discourse has focused more on why he hadn’t been arrested for two weeks instead of why this government behavior should be condoned. Whatever it is worth, Minister Berhane Abrehe had clarity on what life in prison is like: in Book 2, he writes the following:
Courage is to know what awaits and to still do what’s necessary. Here’s excerpt and translation from his book which led to his arrest by Government of #Eritrea pic.twitter.com/5ciAhT8pM2
— saay (@saayounis) September 19, 2018
The final call of Minister Berhane Abrehe was for the living members of the 150-member National Assembly, whose last meeting on February 2, 2002 was to condemn the G-15, to uphold its obligation and call on the chairman (President Isaias Afwerki) to convene a meeting.
Hundreds of prisons reportedly dot the land with thousands of Eritreans imprisoned without a day in court. Despite the fact that Eritrea has normalized its relationship with Ethiopia, whose hostilities it used as a reason to govern the country with an undeclared state of emergency for 20 years, the Eritrean government is yet to take any measures to reform its policies which even its supporters can no longer justify. These include: denial of due process, disappearances of citizens, indefinite military services, indifference to hundreds of thousands in refugee camps, no private press or constitution.
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Comment
I listened to the interview with Ephrem, Berhane Aberhe’s son. Typical Eritrea Off-position presentation—unethical and detached. Despite tricking the interviewee that it was a private phone conversation at first, this douche bag interviewer did not get what he really wanted to hear.
To his credit, Ephrem tried to tell him that what is being said online and what’s happening on the ground is often at odds, without going to specifics. He also told him to focus on the people and not on one man LOL!!