Second Eritrean Student Dies in Detention Camp

Addis Ababa, August 21 (ENA)-- A second student held in a desert detention camp in Eritrea for refusing to comply with the government's holiday work program has died, BBC reported.

The student, Yemane Tekee died at the Halibet hospital on Sunday morning where he had been receiving medical treatment for heat stroke, a BBC News report posted on the Internet quoted the president of Asmara university, Woldeab Issak, as saying.

One of the 300 parents who gathered at the gates of the university pleaded with the authorities for leniency.

"Please I beg you to transfer them out of that place. Why did you send them to the hottest place on earth?" one of the anxious parents said.

It was reported last Thursday that another student had also died in the detention camp from sunstroke.

The dead students were among those taken to the site at Wia, about 30 kilometers from the port city of Massawa, known for its scorching temperatures sometimes reaching as high as 49C at this time of the year, the report said.

Some students were reported to have said that about 2,000 of them were being held at the camp with very little food and in poor accommodation.

The students were arrested a week ago in dormitories and at the high court where they had expected to see the appearance in court of their student union president, Semere Kesete.

Kesete was arrested in July for making a speech attacking the compulsory work scheme, the government’s interference in the university’s affairs and inadequate support for the institution.

The students were reported to have said that they would only comply with the holiday work program when their leader is either released or taken to a court of justice.

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