Eritrean News Agency (ERINA)

(Tel: ++291-1-117627, Fax: 127385)
ERINA Update

Tuesday, September 22, 1998

1. Eight hundred seventy Eritrean families who were recently deported through the front line at Badme, leaving behind all their property, have been granted financial and material aid by the Eritrean government and people. The aid includes money, tents, home furniture, blankets and clothing.

Eritrean farmers who were deported from Ethiopia had earlier been provided with two hectares of land each, by the government, to enable them to be self-dependent. The government also provided the farmers with the use of tractors to help in ploughing their fields.

2. Over 5,000 innocent Eritreans are wallowing in Ethiopian prisons according to 95 deportees who recently arrived in Eritrea. The 95 deportees who arrived in Assab through Burie on September 20, 1998, are mostly underage and long time residents in Ethiopia. They had been imprisoned for ten to sixty five days prior to their deportation. Reports also stated that Eritreans imprisoned in Blattien, on a racial and political basis, are being coerced by the Tigray People's Liberation Front officials to sign documents affirming POW status.

Veronica Rentmeesters, Information Officer
Embassy of Eritrea to the US
1708 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington DC 20009, USA
TEL: 202 588 7587 FAX: 202 319 1304
E-M: veronica@embassyeritrea.org

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