?We demand the truth’: Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee lead calls for proof of life of disappeared Eritrean

From top to bottom, left to right: Temesgen Ghebreyesus, Dawit Isaak, Dawit Habtemichael, Seyoum Tsehaye, Fessehaye ‘Joshua’ Yohannes, Medhanie Haile, Amanuel Asrat, Said Abdelkadir, Sahle ‘Wedi-Itay’ Tsegazeab, Idris Said ‘Aba Arre’, Yousif Mohammed Ali, Matheos Habteab.

Photograph: PEN InternationalBooks‘We demand the truth’: Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee lead calls for proof of life of disappeared Eritrean writersMore than 180 writers sign letter renewing calls for information on 12 authors detained incommunicado since 2001 crackdown on free speech by Isaias Afwerki.

Prefira o Guardian no Google Mais de 180 escritores assinaram uma carta ao presidente eritreo Isaias Afwerki, pedindo comprovação de vida de 12 escritores presos em 2001.

Nobel laureates Olga Tokarczuk and JM Coetzee join prominent writers including Colm Tóibín, Elif Shafak, Isabel Allende, Ben Okri, Yann Martel, Kamila Shamsie and Tsitsi Dangarembga in signing the letter organised by PEN International and dated 18 September, marking 25 years since a government crackdown on the independent press.

It lists 12 writers who have been held incommunicado since 2001, including the poet Amanuel Asrat and playwright and journalist Dawit Isaak.

Juntamente com Asrat e Isaak, os outros autores citados na carta são Dawit Habtemichael, Fessehaye “Joshua” Yohannes, Mattewos Habteab, Medhanie Haile, Sahle “Wedi-ltay” Tsegazeab, Said Abdelkadir, Said Idris “Abu Are”, Seyoum Tsehaye, Temesgen Ghebreyesus e Yousif Mohammed Ali.

Six of the writers were profiled in the Guardian in 2015.

A carta, assinada por 188 escritores no total, pede “prova imediata e verificada de vida de todos os escritores e críticos eritreanos arbitrariamente detidos”.

Other signatories include Andrei Kurkov, Anthony Doerr, Chloe Aridjis, Lauren Groff, Lemn Sissay, Maaza Mengiste, Madeleine Thien, Margaret Busby, Max Porter, Philippe Sands, Preti Taneja, Tice Cin and Viv Groskop.

Eritrea operates as a repressive dictatorship under Afwerki, with no national elections held since independence in 1993.

Earlier this year, PEN International launched a petition, open to the public, which also calls for proof of life.