Media Watch: UK's Halfhearted Measures on Eritrea's Isaias Afewerki

Ruthless Incommunicado Imprisonment

Over five months into their arrest in the Port of Massawa by the Eritrean navy, the four ex-marines have not been charged with any crime, and their condition and whereabouts remain unknown. The British Government has retaliated by imposing limited travel restrictions on Eritrean diplomats in London and by banning the collection of taxes imposed by the Asmara government on Eritreans residing in Britain.

The four Britons were captured on Dec 24, 2010 as they guarded a merchant vessel against armed Somali pirates operating in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. [Editor's Note: Accounts vary ] President Isaias accused the four British sailors of carrying weapons including sniper rifles when they stopped in Massawa for refueling. The Eritrean complaint is that its maritime laws have been violated. We will not know what the violations are unless the accused can also tell their side of the story.

To this end, the British are asking for a trial. What a naïve request. One thinks the UK would by now know the Eritrean regime does not believe in trials. There are thousands of innocent Eritreans rotting in prisons for over a decade because of their beliefs or views. They never had their day in court. They are being tortured and many have died. And it is very sad the four British nationals also have to be subjected to Isaias’s whimsical decisions.

Britain’s retaliatory action is too weak to make a dent. Isaias is not interested in cooperating with Britain or the rest of the international community in attacking Somali pirates. He sure must have been pissed off when he first learned of the job the ex-marines were engaged in. Isaias is already angry that Britain has failed to approve his military and financial support for the Al Qaeda linked Al Shabab in Somalia. Instead, Britain pushed for an African Union and UN backed resolutions in 2009 imposing sanctions on the Eritrean regime including arms embargo, travel restrictions on officials and freezing of their assets.

The incommunicado jailing of the ex-marines and Isaias’s subsequent dispute with Britain mean the UN sanctions are working to some degree. The feud may also be confirming Isaias’s anxiety that the sanctions could one day be made to apply to the country’s Western-run mining industry which is based on slave labor.

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