ERITREA RELEASES THREE IMPRISONED FSNS

S E C R E T ASMARA 000509 NOFORN SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR DS/IP/AF, DS/TIA/ITA, DS/ICI/CI, DS/IP/SPC/SO, DS/TIA/PII, DS/OPO/FLD, AF/E, AF/EX LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/17/2028 TAGS: AMGT APER ASEC PHUM KIRF ER SUBJECT: ERITREA RELEASES THREE IMPRISONED FSNS REFS: (A) ASMARA 000444, (B) ASMARA 000417, (C) ASMARA 000412, (D) ASMARA 000371 Classified By: Ambassador Ronald K. McMullen for reason 1.4 (d) ¶1. (S/NF) SUMMARY: Three FSN employees, one held for five days and two held for two months, were released over an eight day period. Two of these employees are senior members of our local guard force and the other is our human resources specialist. Two of the individuals were targeted directly by the Eritrean National Security Organization (ENSO) while the third was simply in a place that raised government suspicions of his behavior. Despite the risks, employees were willing to tell us details of their experience, including the specifics of their interrogations. Their stories indicate a strong interest on the part of ENSO in the activities of our embassy. Our employees also shared information about the stark conditions in secret prisons, including solitary confinement, meager meals, and unsanitary conditions. Eritrean employees working for the embassy continue to face intense pressure from the government to report and to live in constant fear of arbitrary arrest. End Summary. ¶2. (S/NF) Mehari Zemhret: On October 15th, Local Guard Force Commander Mehari Zemhret (protect) was freed from prison after being held for two months. ENSO officials made it clear to Mehari that he would be killed if he discussed his experience. However, Mehari shared some elements of it. Mehari was arrested at his residence on August 18, (reftel C). He was initially kept in a local pAlAce station whFrF ENSO interrogated him about his background and his work at the Embassy. They were interested to know what his national service status was, when he had last paid his income taxes, how long he had worked at the embassy, and what his job entailed. They later asked him if he had ever used an embassy vehicle to spy on high-level Eritrean officials at nightclubs. (He had not.) Mehari was transferred to a small, secret prison facility in Mendefera and kept in solitary confinement. He was permitted to use the bathroom only once per day before sunrise and received two small meals per day. He said he was not beaten. On October 14th, officials brought him, along with another embassy employee, Sirak Asmelash, to a police station in Asmara for release pending a bond guarantee for his unpaid taxes. Mehari said the ENSO may pick him up again in a year to have his medical condition evaluated to determine if he is fit for military service. ¶4. (S/NF) Sirak Asmelash: On October 16th, Sirak Asmelash (protect) was released after two months imprisonment. ENSO picked him up two days after Mehari (reftel B) and held him under similar conditions. Interrogators asked him why the embassy fired its local guard commander, Isaac Abraham, earlier this year. They also asked why the embassy's RSO destroyed an armored vehicle in 2004 and why the embassy demolished computers last year. Finally, interrogators asked why the embassy had hand-held radios in addition to cell phones, and what the purpose of the radios was. Sirak stated that he too owes back income taxes. ¶5. (S/NF) Daniel Isaac: On September 28th, Human Resources Specialist Daniel Isaac (protect) was driving to a party in an area where numerous government construction projects are underway. His presence attracted the attention of soldiers working at the site, who questioned him and then made him abandon his vehicle. A few days later he was summsnsd to collecd dhe car but was instead arrested. Daniel said authorities asked him repeatedly about his work for the embassy, including if human resources work had any connection to human rights. They asked him about his travel history, which included trips to Paris and Washington in 2006 for job-related training. The interrogators asked him if he was taught spying techniques and pushed hard on the subject repeatedly. The circumstances of his imprisonment were similar to Mehari's. Daniel was released on October 8th. He cites three reasons for his release. First, people who were expecting Daniel at the party corroborated his story. Second, he is a single parent of three children and had no one in Asmara to care for them. Third, a former independence fighter took up Daniel's cause and pushed hard for his release. Daniel remains tremendously fearful that he will be rearrested. ¶6. (S/NF) Thirty-three LES have been arrested since 2001, five in 2008 alone (reftel A). Mehreteab Araya, the only USAID employee remaining in Eritrea, was arrested in January and has not been heard from since. Dawit Biniam, a carpenter and also a Coptic priest, was arrested on September 26 and remains incommunicado. Two other employees fled the country to avoid arrest, one on charges related to his national service status and the other because he is a practicing evangelical. Two employees, Ali Alamin and Kiflom Ghebremichael, have been incommunicado for seven years now. They were known to be alive and imprisoned about 30 miles outside of Asmara in 2006. There has been no news of them since then. ¶7. (S/NF) COMMENT: Post generally terminates employees if they disappear for more than two months unless post determines that they were arrested because of their work at the embassy. Mehari and Sirak reported that this policy may have led to their release, as the government would prefer to have them at work and reporting back. The line of questioning to Sirak indicates that the arrests of Mehari and Sirak and the problems of Daniel Haile, who fled the country earlier this year to avoid arrest (reftel D),may be directly related to the termination of Local Guard Force Commander Issac Abraham, who vowed revenge on all three of them. Post is happy have the employees back on duty, but knows that they may be working with clear instructions from ENSO to report on everything that happens here. MCMULLEN