WFP EXPATRIATE ILLEGALLY DETAINED BY UNIDENTIFIED

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ASMARA 000016 SIPDIS SIPDIS LONDON, PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/04/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM ER SUBJECT: WFP EXPATRIATE ILLEGALLY DETAINED BY UNIDENTIFIED GSE OFFICIALS ASMARA 00000016 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: AMB SCOTT H. DELISI FOR REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) Summary: On December 17, a Belgian national working for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) was threatened and arrested by unidentified GSE authorities while taking photographs of street scenes in downtown Asmara. He was detained at a police station overnight before being released the following day. During his detention, he requested and was refused telephone contact with WFP and the Dutch Embassy. On December 26, the UNDP Resident Representative protested the detention to the MFA's Chief of Protocol. The incident has been reported to the UN Security Office in New York. The detention underscores a range of problems that the international community regularly faces in dealing with the Government of the State of Eritrea (GSE) to include: blatant disregard for international protocols including immunities for personnel covered under the Vienna Convention and host country obligations to notify the responsible Embassy in the case of arrest of foreign nationals; unlawful detention and absence of due process; difficulties in locating responsible GSE authorities after-hours; and the seemingly autonomous authorities of the secretive National Security apparatus. End Summary. ¶2. (C) On December 29, the UNDP Resident Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator outlined to DCM the details of the December 17-18 detention of a Belgian national working for the UN's World Food Programme. According to the UNDP representative, the WFP employee was taking pictures of street scenes and people in downtown Asmara with a newly purchased digital camera on Sunday morning, December 17. He was approached by two men in street clothing who demanded to know why he was taking pictures. While he was talking with the two men, two uniformed men with guns joined them and also demanded to know what the Belgian was photographing and told him to present his identification. (Comment: There are government office buildings in the general neighborhood where the WFP employee was photographing. However, the buildings are not marked or otherwise clearly identifiable as government offices and there are no signs indicating that photography is prohibited in the area. The armed men were presumably soldiers serving as guards for these buildings, although none of the men ever clearly identified himself. End Comment.) ¶3. (C) The WFP employee presented his UN identification. Regardless, the uniformed men informed him that he would have to "come with them". At this time, an unmarked van, presumably called by one of the four men, pulled up. The WFP employee started to walk away from the men, at which point the uniformed men told him that if he continued to move, they would shoot him. He reported that he was then forcibly shoved into the van and taken to Police Station No 1. The WFP employee also told the UNDP representative that he was very relieved when he arrived at a bona fide police station, as he did not know where his unidentified arresters were taking him. The men refused to provide him any information, except to accuse him of "spying". ¶4. (C) At the police station, the WFP employee's camera and cellphone were confiscated and the station officials ignored his requests to telephone WFP co-workers or the Dutch Embassy (which has responsibility for Belgian citizens in Eritrea). At no point during his initial "arrest" did anyone look at the pictures on his camera. The WFP employee was then told that he would have to wait for the Officer-in-Charge who would handle his case. He was locked in a small cell occupied by two other Eritreans. During the day, eleven other Eritreans were brought to the same, cramped cell. He was kept in the cell overnight with the 13 other detainees. As the cell had no beds, he and the other detainees slept on the floor. No blankets were provided by the authorities, despite the coolness of the night; however, he apparently was able to borrow a blanket from one of his fellow detainees. The WFP employee noted that he was offered food but chose not to eat, fearing that he might get sick. ¶5. (C) On Monday, December 18 around 3 PM, the WFP employee was taken from his cell to meet with the police ASMARA 00000016 002.2 OF 003 Officer-in-Charge. The Officer-in-Charge explained that he had "been away" until that afternoon and would be responsible for resolving his case. After viewing the digital pictures on the camera, the Officer-in-Charge said that he saw nothing sensitive in them and commented that the WFP employee should not have been detained. He added that the soldiers would not have shot him, despite their warning, as they "are not authorized to do so." The WFP employee was released around 4:30 PM. His camera (with all pictures intact) and cellphone were returned and he was able to call the WFP office to inform them of his whereabouts. (Note: Until his call, WFP had no idea what had happened to him, only that he had not shown up to work on Monday morning. End Note.) ¶6. (C) On December 26, the UNDP representative met with MFA Chief of Protocol Fesseha Ghebrehiwet to protest the illegality of the detention and provide him with a memorandum laying out the facts of the case. Ghebrehiwet seemed genuinely surprised to learn of the detention and speculated that the detention likely occurred because some passerby on the street was unhappy with having his/her picture taken and complained to the authorities in the area. Ghebrehiwet said he would look into the facts of the case (although he made no mention of discussing the issue again with the UNDP representative after his inquiry). He also said that he would reissue a memorandum to all police stations reminding them that personnel with diplomatic and UN identification could not be summarily detained. ¶7. (C) The UNDP representative told DCM that he had informed the UN,s Security Office in New York of the detention. He believed that the Security Office planned to take follow-on action, possibly a protest to the Eritrean delegation to the UN. The UNDP representative also speculated that the men who arrested the WFP employee were likely National Security employees, and not police. He further opined that the incident was likely fueled by the repetitive anti-UN and anti-western rhetoric which has become commonplace and increasingly strident in the GSE-controlled media over the last few months. Any white foreigner with a camera, he commented, could have been an equally likely target for accusations as a spy. ¶8. (C) Comment: The WFP employee almost certainly would have been released much earlier if the arrest had occurred on a normal workday when the Officer-in-Charge would have been on duty. The difficulty in reaching appropriate authorities to handle emergency requests during weekends and holidays is a common, recurring problem within Eritrea. The detention does underline serious problems the international community and the Eritrean citizenry face in dealing with the GSE,s increasingly dictatorial and closed regime, including its clear disregard for its obligations as a hosting nation to diplomatic organizations and a distressingly casual approach in trampling on human rights through summary arrests and absence of due process. ¶9. (C) Comment, Cont: The incident also raises the recurring question as to the structure and authority of the shadowy National Security organization and its relationship to the other GSE ministries. It is likely that Ghebrehiwet and the MFA were not, in fact, aware of the detention until the UNDP representative's protest. While the National Security apparatus is regularly cited by local citizenry as the entity responsible for the bulk of human rights violations within the country (to include the frequent round-ups of youth for national service duty and secret detentions),the most basic details about the department remain murky. No one seems to know for sure how the department is organized or how many people (and who) work for National Security. The elusive National Security department chief, General Abraha Kassa does, however, work within the operational framework of the Office of the President and we believe, as do many others, that he reports directly to the President. Regardless of how the inner workings are managed, the National Security department's apparently autonomous authority to run rough-shod, at will, over the local citizenry, the international community and other GSE ministries remains unfortunately clear to Eritreans and expatriates alike. ASMARA 00000016 003.2 OF 003 DELISI