Eritrean News Agency (ERINA)

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

Tuesday, November 17, 1998

1. Six hundred sixty one Eritreans who had been rounded up from different parts of Ethiopia were deported yesterday through the front lines at Burie, Assab, by the Ethiopian government. The deportees, who include infants and very elderly people, were rounded up from their houses and had been in prison for four months. The deportees said that they had been suffering from hunger and disease during their period of detention. The Ethiopian government removed four Eritreans from the bus before sending it to the Eritrean border without any justification. So far, the total number of deportees has reached 34,000.

2. Eritreans arriving from Tigray report that the TPLF administration there is continuing its harassment and imprisonment of Eritreans residing in Tigray. These Eritreans fled to Eritrea leaving their property behind. The former residents of Tigray reported that some sixty Eritreans remain in prisons in Tigray without any justification and that the government officials have taken twelve other Eritreans to undisclosed areas. According to reports, officials continue to appropriate Eritrean property. Over 1,300 Eritreans remain in prison in Blattien camp in southern Ethiopia without access to neutral observers to monitor their condition and treatment.

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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