Eritrea: The Number of Christian Prisoners Doubles
November 8, 2005
The number of Eritrean Christians confirmed to be jailed for their religious beliefs has shot up to a total of 1,778, nearly double the documented count six months ago.
Although most of the prisoners are members of the independent Protestant churches banned since May 2002, an increasing number of key leaders within the officially registered churches are also being arrested.
At least 26 full-time Protestant pastors and Orthodox clergy are in jail, their personal bank accounts frozen by government order. As a result, one source said, “Their family members are suffering [to] a great degree.”
Held in prisons, military camps and police stations, Eritrea’s Christian prisoners are located in at least 12 different locations across the country. A total of 175 women are among them.
According to the latest breakdown, 561 Christians are jailed at Wi’a, 333 at Mai Serwa, 238 at Gelalo, 175 at Adi-Abyto, 100 at the Massawa police station, 95 at Track C Military Camp, 72 in Asmara police stations, 69 at Sawa, 46 at Assab, 35 in the Mendefera police station, 27 in the Keren police station and 27 in Asmara’s Wongel Mermera investigation center.
“Many believe that the number could be far more,” one source said.
Patriarch’s Adviser Arrested
Since the regime of President Isaias Afwerki stripped Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios of his ecclesiastical authority on August 7, his close associates have also come under fire.
It has been confirmed that Marigetta Yetbareke, a well-educated theologian and teacher in the Eritrean Orthodox Church, was recently forced to resign his advisory post to the patriarch, under pressure from the government-imposed administrators who have taken over the church.
“He didn’t resist,” an Asmara source told this reporter, “so he wrote his resignation and left his responsibility.”
But in late September, Yetbareke was arrested at his home at 6:30 in the morning, reportedly for “actively criticizing” the new church administration. He remains jailed in Asmara’s Wongel Mermera investigation center, where most of the Protestant pastors and three Medhane Alem priests are also incarcerated.
Kangaroo Courts
In late September, three Protestant leaders imprisoned months ago by Eritrean authorities were handed jail sentences of two and three years by kangaroo courts, all conducted by a committee of military commanders.
The extrajudicial prison sentences were meted out to Full Gospel Pastor Kidane Gebremeskel, three years; Eritrea University Prof. Senere Zaid of the Living God Church, two years; and Full Gospel Pastor Fanuel Mihreteab, two years.
The three men had been transferred this summer from Wongel Mermera to Sembel Prison, located on the outskirts of Asmara. Under prison rules, the sentenced prisoners are allowed visitors only once a month, for 25 minutes.
It is not known if the condemned Christians were actually present at their sham court sessions in Asmara. The alleged “crimes” for which the men were sentenced also remain unknown.
According to widely circulated but still unconfirmed reports, even stiffer sentences of five years have been passed against three other Protestant pastors arrested 18 months ago, as well as against the three Orthodox clerics from the Medhane Alem movement jailed this past March.
But to date, there has been no official announcement from government authorities confirming the sentencing of Dr. Kiflu Gebremeskel and Haile Naizgi of the Full Gospel Church, Tesfatsion Hagos of the Rema Church; the Rev. Futsum Kuluberhan; the Rev. Dr. Tekleab Mengisteab; and the Rev. Gebremedhin Georgis of the Medhane Alem Orthodox Church.
One jailed church leader, Full Gospel Pastor Abraham Belay, has been transferred to Wi’a to perform his military service.
Wave of Raids
Meanwhile, an orchestrated set of police raids last month in several locations of Asmara and the town of Kushete landed at least 51 more Protestant Christians in police detention.
Central offices of both the Kale Hiwot and Rema churches in Asmara were invaded about an hour after they opened on Monday morning, October 3.
Security police arrested all 25 people present at the Kale Hiwot office in the Paradizo district – including the church’s general secretary, identified as Brother Oqbamichel, his administrator, staff members and several visitors. Keys to the office, which oversees several humanitarian aid projects and an orphanage, remain in the hands of the police, who later confiscated the computers, office equipment and files from the building.
That same morning, authorities arrested five women in Rema Church offices in Asmara’s Teravello district and hauled off their computers and other assets. In still another arrest in Kushete, a small fellowship group of seven people meeting just outside Asmara were detained and sent to police station No. 5.
The previous evening, two leaders in the Full Gospel Church were arrested at their homes in Asmara. One of them, Pastor Hagos Teumai, had been jailed previously for three months in Sawa, after being arrested while attending a wedding ceremony in Barentu.
The other, evangelist Berhane Gebremidhane, was just completing his honeymoon when police arrested him, along with the 11 visitors feting him and his wife in their home. When his new bride went to police station No. 7 the next day to inquire about him, she was also arrested.
Seven mothers with children left at home were among those detained at Asmara’s police station No. 5 from the October 3 Kale Hiwot raid. After three weeks of appeals to the Department of Religious Affairs to negotiate with security officials for their release, the women were finally set free on bail last week.
On one positive note, sources have confirmed that the 20 members of the Hallelujah Church arrested at a September 4 wedding in Mai Teminai were all released on bail the first week of October. (See related article below)
On September 23, Eritrea became the first nation ever sanctioned by the U.S. State Department under the 1998 Religious Freedom Act for failure to address severe violations of religious freedom.
Accusing the United States of “orchestrating a game of ‘religious politics,’” the Eritrean Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed in an October 5 statement that reports of religious persecution in Eritrea were based on false allegations, exaggeration and “baseless fabrication.”
THE CENTRALITY OF THE CROSS
Jessie Penn-Lewis
“It is because we Christians get away from the ‘fixed point’ of the Cross, that we wander into all kinds of cul-de-sac places, where we lose the balance and right perspective of truth. At this opening chapter we will gather around this fixed point - the Cross of Christ - so that we may get to know more of the Christ of the Cross. From this the Holy Spirit will enable us to open out other aspects of truth in their relationship to the Cross.”
Six chapters to be obtained on request.
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SOURCE:
Intercessors.Network
Related Article:
Eritrea : Prisoners From Wedding Roundup Mocked, Beaten
August 25, 2005
Three months after 250 wedding guests were arrested in the Eritrean capital
for attending a Protestant Christian wedding, 129 of them remain jailed
under severe conditions.
Initially 70 of the arrested guests identified themselves as members of the
government-approved Orthodox, Catholic or Lutheran churches, after which
police officials in Asmara released them.
Compass has confirmed that the remaining 180 wedding guests were held at
Asmara's Police Station No. 5 for six weeks. The majority belonged to either
the Meserete Christos or Full Gospel churches, in addition to members of
Tebadasso, a renewal group within Catholicism.
Some of the prisoners had their Bibles confiscated and burned in front of
them, and all were subjected to insults and mocking because of their faith.
The male prisoners reportedly were subject to beatings.
Accused of Trying to Overthrow Government
In mid July, the police station commander assembled the 121 men and 59
women. He told them they were in prison because they and their church
leaders were working for the United States to "disrupt the peace and unity
of the Eritrean people" and eventually would try to overthrow the Eritrean
government.
Shortly afterwards, all the accused were transferred to the Adi-Abeto
military camp and placed in solitary confinement. Since then, 51 of the
women have been released after signing a pledge not to attend any Protestant
Christian activities in the future, including weddings.
Military authorities have so far refused to release the last eight women,
two of them minors. Until they sign a complete denial of their evangelical
faith, they were told, they will stay in solitary confinement.
The 121 men who had not yet done their compulsory military service have been
relocated from Adi-Abeto to the Wi'a military training center, 20 miles
south of the Red Sea port of Massawa. Included among them are a pastor of
the Meserete Christos Church, an evangelist from the Kale Hiwot church, and
the nationally known gospel singer Esayes Stefanos.
Under tightening surveillance by military and security police authorities,
wedding couples in Eritrea's banned churches are now forced to scale down
their traditional marriage celebrations. Since singing or other Christian
activity in a public place is considered illegal, local evangelical
believers have stopped inviting any wedding guests, for fear of exposing
them to arrest and imprisonment.
"Illegal" Christian's Businesses Targeted
In still another crackdown, the national Security Office recently ordered
all regional administrative offices to identify any Protestant Christians
among those applying for new or renewed business licenses. To date, nine
Protestant men and women have been victimized under this process, their
right to conduct legal business revoked or denied.
Three Pastors Relocated, One Released
Meanwhile, Compass has confirmed that Eritrean authorities have shuffled the
prison locations of three of the 17 jailed Protestant pastors, released one
and possibly reviewed legal charges against two of them.
Full Gospel Church pastors Kidane Gebremeskel and Fanuel Mihreteab have been
transferred from the Wongel Mermera investigation center in central Asmara
to the Sembel Prison on the city's outskirts. Eritrea's largest prison,
Sembel usually houses prisoners whose cases are under high court review.
Local church authorities have been unable to learn whether actual charges
were filed against them or any verdict has been reached on their case.
Full Gospel pastor Abraham Belay, who was arrested with the other two last
January, has been relocated to Adi-Abeto, "presumably to be sent to Wi'a for
military training," a source said.
"Final Warning" Given to Pastor Upon Release
After nearly seven months in prison, Rema Church pastor Habteab Oqbamichael
was released last week from the Mai-Serwa military camp. The camp commanders
handed down a "final warning" to him, declaring he would be executed for any
further religious activities. But Oqbamichael was reported by fellow
Christians to be "in good spirits, and [seemingly] not threatened by the
warning he received."
But Kale Hiwot church pastor Oqbamichael Haimanot, who suffered a mental
breakdown three months ago under harsh treatment at the Sawa military
training center, is reported to be in very poor health. Arrested last
January, Haimanot continues to be subjected to hard labor for refusing to
renounce his faith and help convince his congregation to return to the
Orthodox Church. (See Compass Direct, "Eritrea Now Holds 16 Pastors, Nearly
900 Christians in Jail," April 20.)
Another jailed Protestant, evangelist Girmaye Ambaye, has endured severe
punishment at Asmara's Police Station No. 1 since his May arrest. This is
the second months-long arrest by Eritrean police for Ambaye, 45, who has
continued to witness about his faith despite his deteriorating physical
condition.
The exact whereabouts or condition of 12 other evangelical pastors arrested
and jailed incommunicado over the past 15 months remains unknown.
Over 1,000 Still in Custody
More than 1,000 of their church members also remain under custody in
prisons, military confinement camps, police stations and metal shipping
containers, accused of breaking the law by worshipping outside
government-approved churches.
Popular Christian singer Helen Berhane has been locked in a shipping
container at the Mai-Serwa military camp since March 2004. She was arrested
for her latest music tape, accused of "corrupting" Eritrean young people.
In May 2002, the Eritrean government banned all religious groups outside the
Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran and Muslim faiths. Authorities have since
refused to legalize the country's 12 independent Protestant denominations,
arresting and jailing any of their 20,000 members caught praying, singing or
worshipping in now illegal church buildings or even in their own homes.
SOURCE:
Lars Widerberg
Intercessors Network
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