Swedish reporters plan prison protest
Published: 1 Oct 11 16:24 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/36476/20111001/
Two Swedish journalists are planning to go to jail of their own accord in a bid to draw attention to the plight of other writers in captivity.
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Swedish-Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaak has been held in an Eritrean prison since 2001 without trial and is considered a traitor by the Eritrean government.
Amnesty International has highlighted his case frequently and has called for his immediate and unconditional release.
Freelance reporters Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson have been held in an Ethiopian jail since the beginning of July, facing terrorist charges.
The two Swedish journalists were allegedly in the country investigating Lundin Petroleum, a Swedish oil and mining company, at the time they were arrested together with members of the ONLF guerilla, according to reports in the Swedish media.
Wirfält told daily Dagens Nyheter (DN), ”This is a new way to draw further attention to the imprisoned Swedish journalists Dawit Isaak, Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson. We want to show our criticism of the foreign ministry, which has been the case with Dawit for several years, but also in the second case (Schibbye and Persson). We also want to highlight the vulnerable situation that freelance journalists find themselves in when they go out without having the back-up of an editorial team.”
He added that they are hoping many more journalists will join in with their action, claiming that 40 others have already pledged their support.
The protesting pair plan their prison stay sometime before October 15, when the trial of Schibbye and Persson is set to take place in Ethiopia.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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We must distinguish between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
Maybe we should give the usual quiet diplomacy a chance. What we shouldn't be doing right now is making too much noise about Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson - because that way - confrontation - by which we want to make right out of wrong, might get the Ethiopians' backs up and may put the Ethiopian Government in a position from which they would not like to back down or lose face, insisting on their sovereign territorial rights.
In 1978, I was about to set foot on Finnish soil for the umpteenth time and without a Swedish passport (I had been to Ruisrock a few times a few years earlier,and with no passport control in sight ) but this time I found myself on the same boat back to Stockholm with the Visa Control man's words still ringing in my ears: "Do you think that this is Sweden?"
When it comes to Dawit Isaak, in the eyes of the Eritrean Authorities - even if that authority is all concentrated into the hands of one man, he who personifies authority in the land, namely President Isaias Afewerki - in his eyes and in the eyes and many of his sympathisers including many of the Eritrean-Swedes, there is a significant difference between the the born Swedes Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson and the Eritrean home boy Dawit Isaak. Isaak's Swedish passport not withstanding, on Eritrean soil he is supposed to be loyal to Eritrea and not to be perceived as working for Swedish interests only. I gather that their view is that an ordinary Swedish passport is not enough to give him diplomatic immunity.....
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/05/SwedishPassportVisas.PNG
Dawit was supporting the war of Eritrea against the "evil" Ethiopia with a high amount of patriotism. Probably re-thinking his opinions when forced to pick a soap up the floor whenever his cellmate Ahmed Ibn Jihad wishes so, after his beloved revolutinaries decided that he was too much of a hassle when writing against THEM.
He took the risk. He lost in his gamble. "Attention to imprisoned journalist" would not assist to remove the "freedom fighters" that are in charge there. I understand the actions of Sweden, but seriously, going TO these countries to write wonderful articles against these governments is equal to playing a russian roulette with 5 bullets in the chamber. Big boy. Pays for being an idiot.
How unforgettably you explain Dawit's predicament !
No easier said than done. It should be easier to move than to remove the "freedom fighters" that are in charge there."
Easier to move them to make their hearts more acceptable to some compassionate influence, even financially induce or convince them - your money or your wife ? Pay them some ransom money, don't treat Afewerk any better than a Somali Pirate but don't insult him - some of the Ethiopians say insults are specially reserved for Mengistu and his donkey.
Easier to induce them to granting clemency to a double agent than to remove the "Freedom Fighters".
What you say the Swedish journalists instead of incarcerating themselves for free in some luxurious prison hotel, could form a commando unit to bring back Dawit?
Then they'd probably wind up facing terrorist charges just like Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson.(I almost wrote Göran Persson).
And then we'd be back to square one and maybe have to send more journalists.
Re-inforcements.
Another commando unit. Or to voluntary imprisonment in protest as a way of extending awareness about the matter
If only one or two of them could have the fortitude to overcome gastronomical temptations for a while, abandon life in voluntary, luxurious freedom and go on a hunger strike instead.
Put their mouth where their stomach is.
Great Uncle, it's being said that it's Addis that's keeping Asmara in power, and Addis is living life without that Eritrean Port ...And grudges about Bad-me and other lost territories now completely under Eritrean occupation ha ha after 29 years.....
It would probably take much more than 29 years to topple the first generation of the Eritrean Revolution....
Ogaden (ONLF) Islamic terrorist massacres, ignored by $$$ hungry Swedish reporters:
BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6588055.stm
REUTERS:
http://af.reuters.com/article/ethiopiaNews/idAFLDE74D0CU