Reuters
07:05 a.m. Jun 26, 1998 Eastern
By Matthew Bigg
FICHE, Ethiopia, June 26 (Reuters) - The Eritrean detainee leaned forward, looked both ways and whispered: ``If we tell the truth we will suffer tomorrow.''
Beneath the games of volleyball and table-tennis, a climate of fear runs through Ethiopia's internment camp for Eritreans considered a security risk. Inmates speak of isolation cells and beatings by guards.
A total of 664 men are held at Fiche, a camp set on a high plateau in Ethiopia's Oromo region, about 160 km (100 miles) north of the capital.
Camp commandant Mesfin Egziebeher said on Thursday the prisoners posed a danger to Ethiopia and had been transferred there from other holding points in the past two weeks.
A border dispute between the two former allies erupted into conflict on May 6. Hundreds have been killed since the fighting began.
``This is a camp for Eritreans who trained at Sawa training centre (Eritrea's main national service camp) who then infiltrated into Ethiopia,'' Mesfin said.
``In this camp we don't keep them as prisoners ... We treat them as ordinary human beings. In this camp they are free. They can move anywhere in the compound. There is medical treatment and three meals a day,'' he told reporters.
Rarely can an internment camp have appeared so unthreatening. Tall eucalyptus trees dot the large, grassy compound that slopes gently down a hill.
A child could scramble over the perimeter wall.
On Thursday afternoon a game of volleyball and two games of table-tennis were in progress, while a guard -- Kalashnikov slung from his shoulder -- played a lazy game of football with a colleague.
The lack of security is deceptive. None of the inmates speak the regional language, Oromo, and they would be promptly rounded up by villagers were they to try to escape, Mesfin said.
They sleep in long huts made of corrugated iron. There are no mattresses and on Thursday dozens were lying around in the semi-darkness, sleeping, playing cards and draughts, reading or talking in low voices.
``This is spiritual torture,'' said one detainee who said his name was Berhane. ``We don't accept being here. I came here (Ethiopia) to learn English because I was a scholarship candidate. I thought I had equal rights.
``We have nothing to do with the war,'' he added, but most of the inmates said they had undergone military training.
Government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse said on Friday the Eritreans were detained because they had done military training since 1991, when rebels in Ethiopia and Eritrea defeated Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and Eritrea set up its own government.
``Any government, to maintain its national security, has to keep these soldiers in one place. Ethiopia is doing the same. We are not trying to harm anyone,'' she said.
She accused Eritrea of holding 600 Ethiopians without granting them access to the Red Cross, a right which Ethiopia had upheld.
Each of the two countries has repeatedly accused the other of ill-treating its citizens.
At the bottom of the hill, behind an iron fence stood a smaller line of huts cut off from the rest of the camp.
Commandant Mesfin said the huts were empty and would soon house ``newcomers.''
Some detainees told another story. ``They brought more prisoners in lorries three nights ago and they are kept in there. We haven't talked to them or seen them since,'' said one who declined to give his name.
Detainees said some in the main camp had been beaten and pointed out a metal shack they said was used for beating. Mesfin denied beatings took place.
One older prisoner said internment represented a double irony. Fiche is a converted training centre used by Mengistu's Dergue regime. Keflay Gebreamalar, 67, said for 20 years he had fought with Eritrean rebels against the Dergue.
Now, as an old man suffering from diabetes, he was imprisoned by his former brother-in-arms at a camp used to train his former enemy.
``I have some feelings about my situation, but I don't want to express them. I am afraid,'' Keflay said.
He added: ``We (Eritrean and Ethiopian rebels) were fighters.
We passed through so many hard and difficult times together. This prison cannot worry me.''