Sweden – Sydsvenskan, September 23, 2024
Today marks exactly 23 years since Swedish journalist Dawit Isaak was detained in the middle of his breakfast in the dictatorship’s capital Asmara.
For more than two decades, Dawit Isaak has been completely cut off from the outside world, denied an indictment, a trial and a lawyer. Unlike the Swedish Foreign Ministry, I have no difficulty whatsoever in describing the terrible situation in which Dawit Isaak has found himself as a kidnapping.
Why is Dawit Isaak being punished so severely? The answer is simple. The brave freedom of expression campaigner dared to criticize the dictatorship in Eritrea and called for true democracy. Since independence in 1993, the regime has refused to hold general elections and there is no freedom of the press or expression. Eritrea punishes Dawit Isaak by keeping him in a small three by two meter cell somewhere in Eritrea.
How is it that a Swedish journalist is not free after 23 years? I am asked this question regularly by people passing by in airports, streets and squares. Each time, I am struck by sadness, anger and outrage.
I feel sad that a Swedish publicist has been left behind despite having a Swedish passport and social security number. I feel anger that none of the Swedish governments have conducted a serious campaign to reunite Dawit Isaak with his wife and children. I am outraged that a Swedish passport means nothing. I am even more outraged that no Swedish official has bothered to visit Dawit Isaak in prison.
Many of us want to know how he is doing. Is he allowed to read the books he loves? Is he getting enough food and water? Can he stretch his legs in his cell? Does he get any sleep at all? Dawit Isaak’s family is entitled to a sign of life from his father and husband.
“Silent diplomacy” are two mythical words delivered from the Crown Prince’s Palace every time a journalist asks what Sweden is doing for Dawit Isaak. After 23 years, I have come to understand that “quiet diplomacy” illustrates the failure of Swedish diplomats to secure Dawit Isaak’s freedom.
But Sweden should and can do a lot for an illegally detained Swedish citizen. Dawit Isaak was not kidnapped by a mafia group or a terrorist organization, but by a state that is a member of the United Nations and with which we have diplomatic relations. In fact, in the case of Dawit Isaak, Eritrea is violating several articles of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Since Dawit’s imprisonment, Sweden has had its tenth foreign minister: Maria Malmer Stenergard. Every time a new foreign minister takes office, it raises the hopes of those of us who are fighting for Dawit Isaak’s freedom, a hope that Dawit will be reunited with his wife and three children.
I don’t know if Ms. Malmer Stenergard will prioritize support for freedom of expression, which is being increasingly stifled around the world. But had I been appointed Foreign Minister, my first trip would have been to Eritrea to visit Dawit, the freedom of expression campaigner who has spent more than a third of his life in captivity.
