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Eritrea was supposed to be an example to the African countries in the way of implementing democracy and good governance. However, that is not what has been happening.

Political leaders, journalists, the judiciary, and elders were rounded up in September 2001 and are languishing in prisons with no formal judicial charges. 15 years and with no end in sight!

Amnesty International has made numerous urgent appeals to the Eritrean authorities concerning the prisoners, but received no response. The government has refused to allow an Amnesty International delegation to visit Eritrea to discuss its concerns with the authorities. Even the U.S.A, the European Union and UN could not make any pressure on the Eritrean regime to release prisoners.

Government critics and journalists in Eritrea have been held in secret and incommunicado detention for 15 years now, since the government clamped down in September 2001. Eleven members of the National Assembly (parliament) who were leading figures during Eritrea's independence struggle were arrested for voicing their opposition to government policies. Ten journalists were also arrested in September 2001 when the government shut down all the privately-owned news media. In April 2002 they went on hunger strike in protest at their unlawful detention and were transferred to an unknown dungeon. Dozens of other government critics - civil servants, business people, journalists, former liberation movement fighters, and elders who had sought to mediate between the government and its critics - have been arrested since September 2001.

None of those detainees has been taken to court or charged with any offence. They have been denied all access to the outside world, including their families, and there are serious concerns for their health. The authorities have not provided the detainees' families with formal notification of the detentions or the detainees' or their whereabouts. In some cases, they have refused to acknowledge that the detainees are being held in custody, giving rise to fears for their safety.

However, during his June 20 2016 visit to Paris, the Eritrean Foreign Minister, Osman Saleh, said that the high-ranking Eritrean government officials, journalists and other veteran fighters incarcerated without a court order by the dictatorial PFDJ regime in 2001 were all alive and in good hands and would very soon be brought to court and be released.

EPDP once more calls on the international community to make pressure bear upon the PFDJ-led government of Eritrea to allow the press, the family members of the incarcerated, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human-rights organizations to visit the prisoners and to report their findings.

We have to stand together to put pressure on the dictatorial regime to free political prisoners,

1. By marching on demonstrations in diaspora.

2. Send petitions to free political prisoners to all International communities.

3. All Eritrean opposition organizations and civic societies stand together to end the atrocities.

4. Make up flyers publicizing political prisoners then distribute them at public functions, rallies and bulletin boards, etc.

It is high time for all Eritreans to unite and bring about democratic change in Eritrea soonest.

God bless Eritrea!!!

By Issayas Hagos and Dawit Araya