When Eritrea silenced its critics

Witness History

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2021

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2001, the Eritrean government suddenly arrested prominent critics and journalists, and shut down the country's independent press. None of those detained have been seen since. Eritrea, once hailed as a model for Africa, was accused of becoming one of the most repressive states in the world. We hear the story of Eritrean journalist Semret Seyoum, who'd set up the country's first private newspaper. He went into hiding and later tried to escape.

Photo: Getty Images

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
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0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds.
0:29.2	Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex
0:38.2	Last.
0:39.4	And today we go back to 2001 and a turning point in the modern story of Eritrea in the Horn of Africa
0:46.2	when in the space of just a few days the Eritrean government arrested top political
0:51.2	critics and journalists and banned the independent press.
0:55.0	None of those detained have been seen in public since.
0:59.0	This is the story of one Eritrean journalist who managed to get away.
1:04.0	Around midnight we tried to cross the border and the landscape is flat. It's a semi-desert area.
1:18.0	Very dark you cannot see anyone around the place.
1:22.0	In the dead of night in early 2002 two Eritrean
1:25.7	journalists Semrit Seum and Arum Brahani set out on foot across the flat arid
1:31.2	scrubland in remote Western Eritrea. It was the last stage on a risky
1:35.8	journey. For months they'd been hiding in the capital Asmara, but they'd managed to slip out
1:41.2	of the city and travel west in a bid for freedom.
	...

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