Europe must pressure Eritrea over rights-RSF

20 September, 2008

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Senior Eritrean officials should be banned from travelling to Europe to pressure the Red Sea state into improving its human rights record, a media rights group said on Wednesday.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said the ban would cut Asmara's ability to raise funds from thousands of Eritreans living abroad, who provide the country with the bulk of its foreign currency reserves and a third of its gross domestic product.

"Without threatening the aid that is vital for the Eritrean population, it would sever the government's key link with the large diaspora in Europe and would protect political refugees from the surveillance and threats to which they are exposed," RSF said in a statement.

"It would also send a strong signal to the civilian and military leaders in Asmara that the criminal silence surrounding the political prisoners, including the dozen or so journalists held incommunicado since Sept. 2001, is no longer acceptable."

Eritrea denies accusations by foreign-based human rights groups, saying those organisations are working on behalf of certain world powers to undermine the country's sovereignty.

Senior Eritrean officials routinely travel to Europe to attend conferences and give seminars on what state media calls the "objective situation of the homeland".

Critics say Asmara uses the meetings to raise funds. RSF accuses Eritrea of imprisoning journalists without trial and of crushing dissent. (Editing by Daniel Wallis)