Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s National Director, Stuart Windsor, says: “The mass arrests of Christians, and of any Eritreans deemed disloyal to the country, have now been proven beyond dispute. Moreover, statistics compiled by agencies working to assist refugees worldwide testify to the rapidly increasing numbers of Eritreans who are risking their lives to cross deserts and seas in order to escape severe repression at home. By choosing to disregard these facts and to instead defend the indefensible, the Eritrean government does itself no favours. It merely dissipates any international credibility it has left.”

This year Sudan-based Eritrean opposition sources put the number of people crossing the Sahara into Sudan at around 400 to 600 per month. An unknown number have died attempting to escape via the desert to Sudan. Most recently, news emerged of the death of Eritrean Television’s Amharic program journalist Paulos Kidane as he attempted to escape to Sudan.

During the interview Gebremeskel also claimed that Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based organization that campaigns for the rights of imprisoned Eritrean journalists, is “largely funded” by shadowy US institutions that seek to “advance certain policy objectives of the US Administration.”

Gebremeskel also justified the detention since September 2001 of 11 ruling party members who had requested democratization by claiming they had committed “acts of treason.”

For more information, please contact Penny Hollings, Campaigns and Media Manager at Christian Solidarity Worldwide on +44 (0)20 8329 0045, email pennyhollings@csw.org.uk  or visit www.csw.org.uk.

© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission