***image1:left***Mr. Solomon Abera, the director of Radio Zara, the state-owned broadcast in Eritrea, has escaped from a close watch of the delegation and their security control in Paris on March 22, 2005 and abandoned the PFDJ.

Solomon was in France to cover a sport event in which the Eritrean delegation was participating.

Major General Romadan Awlyay, commissioner of the Eritrean Sports Commission who replaced Mr. Alamin Siraj (now "frozen"), headed the delegation. The delegation includes Mr. Beyene Russom, who heads a department within the Ministry of Land, Water & Environment while chairing the athletics federation, as well as Tiblets [no last name], a veteran female combatant who is a member of the federation.

Tiblets� primary responsibility is as custodian of passports of all traveling athletes. While in France, the athletes and the Eritrean reporters were guarded by Eritrean embassy security personnel.

In addition to withholding their passports, the ruling party also requires all traveling athletes to post 100,000 Nakfa bail in cash or its equivalent value. This applies to all athletes including those who return home to a "hero's welcome."

Solomon secured his passport on the pretext that he needed it for his press credentialing in France, then abandoned the delegation and is now in Germany.

Reached by telephone, Solomon stated that Eritrea is a nation that has no room for journalists.

Background

Radio Zara was set up as an alternative to "Voice of the Broad Masses" to appeal to the youth of Eritrea.

Solomon Abera has worked for the Ministry of Information since 1991. He was best known for a live TV talk show, which aired on Eri-TV on Sundays and quickly garnered a huge youth following for its uncharacteristic candor. The program format allowed viewers to call in and present their views, mostly critical, about the state of sports in Eritrea, whose athletics, football, and cycling federations are directed by military personnel like Major General Ramadan Awliyay, Brigadier General Tekie Russom,  Colonel Solomon Seyoum, Colonel Amanuel Lijam, and Colonel "Oromo." The show�s schedule was changed to Saturdays which, according to Solomon, made it "inadvertently even more popular." The show was ordered cancelled on January 2005.

Since September 2001, the Eritrean press has been thinned out due to defections and arrests. Those who have managed to escape include Berhane Tewelde, Aron Berhane, Simret, Aziz, Dawit Gebreab, Milkias Mehretab and Semere Ta�ezaz. The arrested include: Fessehaye "Joshua" Yohannes, Yousef Mohammed Ali, Medhanie Haile, Dawit Habtemichael, Amanuel Asrat, Dawit Isaac, Temesghen Ghebreyesus, Mathewos Habteab, Hamed Mohammed Said, Saidia Mohammed, Saleh Aljezaeeri, Zemenfes Haile, Ghebrehiwet Keleta, Selamyinghes Beyene, Said Abdelkader and Seyoum Tsehaye.