Eritrean News Agency (ERINA)
ERINA UPDATE
Thursday, June 25, 1998
1. The Ethiopian government is holding more than 400 Eritrean youth in a detention camp in Fishe, around 90 kms northwest of Addis Abeba. Eighty five of those detained are university students who went to Addis Abeba in previous years in accordance with an exchange programme with Asmara University. The rest are mainly high school students. The detainees have been deprived of any communication with their parents and relatives. There are ominous reports from independent sources of a wider witch-hunt in which thousands more are being held in several camps all over the country.
2. The Government of Ethiopia has ordered the families of those it had summarily expelled last week "to mortgage their businesses and property and leave the country within one month." This contradicts the assurances it had given last week that these families would not be affected in any way. Most of the 1151 expelled so far are prominent businessmen and professionals. The Ethiopian government has also revoked the licenses and confiscated the businesses of Eritreans who own petrol stations in the country.