Eritrea Held 15 G-15 Politicians for 25 Years Without Trial After 2001 Reform Call
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Sep 19
Eritrea Held 15 G-15 Politicians for 25 Years Without Trial After 2001 Reform Call
2 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Sep 19
Summary
Twenty-five years after Eritrea arrested the G-15, families still say they have no proof whether detained politicians such as Petros Solomon and Mahmoud Ahmed Sherifo are alive.
The 15 senior officials were seized in September 2001 after urging President Isaias Afewerki to implement the 1997 constitution and hold national elections, then accused of treason and never brought to trial.
Relatives say the crackdown widened beyond the politicians: Aster Yohannes, Solomon's wife, was detained after returning from the US in 2003, while independent newspapers were shut and editors jailed.
Human rights groups and the UN regard the G-15 as prisoners of conscience and have long demanded their release, but Isaias, now 80, still rules without ever holding an election.
After 25 years of silence, will the families of Eritrea's disappeared G-15 leaders ever uncover the truth behind the 2001 political purge?
How does a nation justify erasing its own liberation heroes, and what happens when international human rights rulings are completely ignored for decades?