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Eritrea jails 18 more Evangelical Christians
Local Protestants confirm 334 members in prison
Special to Compass Direct
Compass (25.11.2003)/ HRWF Int. (26.11.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net -- Eritrean police arrested and jailed another Protestant evangelical pastor on Sunday, taking him and seven of his church members to prison.
Pastor Iyob of the Kale Hiwot Church was arrested off the street about 10:30 on the morning of November 23 in Mendefera, a market town about 30 miles south of the capital Asmara.
In separate arrests the same day, seven of his church members, four men and three women, were taken into custody. Friends of the jailed Christians have not yet been able to confirm the alleged charges against the pastor and his church members.
But the police are treating them like criminals, local sources reported. They are in prison only because of their faith.
A second new arrest of 10 young women from various Pentecostal churches has also been confirmed this week. The women are incarcerated at Sawa, a military training camp in the mountains near the Sudanese border, where they were presumed to be doing their compulsory military service.
Six of the 62 young people locked into metal containers at Sawa this past summer for having Bibles are believed to still be jailed in underground isolation cells at this same camp.
Meanwhile, Compass has confirmed the release earlier this month of two women jailed for the past 21 months in the Assab military prison. Both women had been serving as nursing personnel in the Eritrean armed forces when they were arrested for their involvement in banned meetings for evangelical worship.
Fourteen other women soldiers, along with 63 men, are still being held at Assab, where authorities have used torture, isolation and cruel threats to try to force them to retract their evangelical beliefs.
According to lists compiled by local Protestants, currently at least 334 evangelical believers are imprisoned for their religious beliefs in nine known locations across Eritrea.
While some were arrested by police during meetings for worship in either unrecognized church buildings or private homes, others were accused of possessing Bibles or refusing to return to membership in the dominant Eritrean Orthodox Church.
Last month, military officials evicted the Full Gospel Church from its rented facilities in Asmara, leaving the 4,000-strong congregation without a place to worship. Since the premises were sealed on October 26, soldiers have occupied the complex of buildings and refused church members admission.
The Eritrean government has targeted the countrys 12 independent Pentecostal and charismatic churches since May 2002, when all were ordered to close their churches and stop meeting for worship, even in private homes. Only the Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Muslim faiths are recognized as official religions.
Eritrean government confiscates Full Gospel Church
Six Evangelical youth still jailed at Sawa
Compass (30.10.2003)/ HRWF Int. (03.11.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net -- Government authorities in the Eritrean capital of Asmara confiscated and sealed the complex of the Full Gospel Church during the past two weeks, ordering the church staff and members to evacuate the building permanently.
Located in the Gaza Banda district of Asmara, the large complex had served as the Full Gospel Churchs main headquarters and meeting place for the past 11 years. The rented facility accommodated up to 4,000 worshippers.
An initial standoff over the government-owned complex began on September 17 of last year, when soldiers invaded the property at 9 a.m. and refused to leave, declaring that it was government property. Despite negotiations by church leaders, a contingent of five soldiers have remained in a section of the complex ever since, for the past 13 months.
But on October 15, the church staff and members were ordered by military officials to hand over the entire complex to the government. They were told that as an institution, their church was violating presidential directives, that it was involved in an illegal cell-group ministry, a local source confirmed. They were told that the church will not get any property.
Four days ago, government authorities sealed the premises, refusing church members any further admission. No one from the church is allowed to enter the building since October 26, the source said, so the assumption is that very soon, someone else may start using it.
Since May 2002, the Eritrean government has refused to recognize the Full Gospel Church and a dozen other independent Protestant churches representing some 20,000 members. All have been ordered to close their church buildings and stop both public and private meetings for worship.
Meanwhile, Compass has confirmed that of the 62 young people arrested and locked into metal containers last August for having Bibles in their possession at the Sawa summer military camp, all but six have now been released. None of the teenagers set free have been willing to discuss the terms of their release.
The six youths still jailed have reportedly been moved from containers to underground isolation cells, where there is no light, little air and limited food. They are allowed out once a day to relieve themselves.
Another 12 young evangelicals from Asmaras Dubre Bethel Church arrested during a house prayer meeting on September 7 are still refusing to sign a denial of their faith to gain their release.
On October 5, the police at Asmaras Police Station No. 5 again pressured the detainees parents to persuade their children to sign the denial. While some declined, other parents complied, admitting their jailed children were the familys sole breadwinners.
These arrested Christians dont care about what happens to themselves, a fellow evangelical noted, but many are worried about what might happen to their parents now.
Little information has been learned regarding the fate of 79 soldiers in the Assab military prison, where most have been jailed since March 2002 for their evangelical faith. The detainees, 16 of them women, have received harsh, life-threatening treatment and been refused any contact with their families.
Following other arrests in recent months in Massawa, Adi-Abytoo, Keren, Mendefera, Adi-kualla, Nakfa and Adi-Kihe, a current total of 230 evangelical Christians are known to be jailed for their faith in Eritrea.
The widespread and continuing arrests of prisoners of conscience, including peaceful political critics and members of religious groups, and their unlawful secret detention without charge, demonstrate a pattern of general disregard for the rule of law, Amnesty International noted in a September 18 press release highlighting Eritreas human rights abuses. Hundreds of members of minority Christian churches have been arbitrarily detained and ill-treated during 2003.
Only four official religions are permitted by Eritrean authorities: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran. Nevertheless, the government has issued a blanket denial that any religious persecution exists in the country.
More evangelicals arrested in Eritrea
No word on fate of 57 teenagers jailed at Sawa
Compass (17.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (18.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Police in the Eritrean capital of Asmara continued the country-wide crackdown against independent Protestant congregations this month, arresting another 12 evangelicals on September 7 while they were meeting in a private house for prayer and worship.
With the exception of an older man hosting the prayer meeting in his home, the arrested Christians were described as young people, all members of the Dubre Bethel Church in Asmara.
Yesterday, after nine days in custody at Asmaras Police Station No. 5, the 12 prisoners were given an ultimatum by the police chief. He demanded that each one sign a commitment to deny his or her faith in order to be released.
When the six women and six men refused, the police chief last night ordered that all their food rations be withheld until they signed the agreement.
Up to now, no one among them has been willing to sign the paper, a local source confirmed today.
Parents of the young people who have visited the police station have been told they can only see their children if they agreed to try to convince them to sign the denial paper. Several parents agreed to the conditions and were reportedly promised they could see their children today. Other parents refused, declaring that their children were over 18 and qualified to make their own decisions.
Meanwhile, local evangelical church leaders have not been able to learn anything further regarding the fate of 57 young people arrested and locked into metal containers since August 19 and 20 as punishment for having Bibles with them during their summer military camp at Sawa.
Although the majority were 11th grade students, some have been confirmed to be older conscripts in their 20s who were already in training at Sawa. An additional five of their number who signed pledges to renounce their evangelical faith were released a week later.
Military commanders confiscated a total of 315 Bibles in the Tigrinya language from the military camp barracks at the time of the youths arrest. Translated several centuries ago, the Tigrinya version of the Bible is printed and distributed legally by the Eritrean Bible Society to all churches in the country, including the Eritrean Orthodox Church.
Local authorities have also refused to give any information about the status and whereabouts of 10 evangelicals arrested in Massawa on August 24. However, it was confirmed four days after the arrest that the 10 Protestants had been transferred to a very remote area, down the Red Sea coast toward Assab.
This is a military area, where disobedient soldiers are sent to be punished, one source explained, so we have not been able to find out anything more about them.
At least 230 evangelical Christians are currently jailed for their faith in Eritrea, where the government refuses to give recognition to any faiths except the four official religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran.
Some 12 independent Pentecostal and charismatic denominations which represent 20,000 adherents have been targeted since May 2002, when they were ordered to close their church buildings and stop all meetings for worship, even in private homes.
Eritrean commanders intensify harsh measures
Fifty-seven teenage Evangelicals resist torture, five recant
Compass (27.08.2003)/HRWF Int. (28.08.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Fifty-seven teenage Eritrean Christians jailed last week under severe punishment for having Bibles at their military training camp remain locked in metal shipping containers, inside sources confirmed today.
Five of the 11th-grade students, however, have reportedly succumbed to a week of harsh treatment at the Sawa Military Training Camp where they were arrested. After signing an agreement to deny their evangelical beliefs and return to the Orthodox Church, the five were released.
During the first days following their August 19 and 20 arrests, the 62 young men and women were allowed to leave the containers briefly every morning at 6 oclock to relieve themselves. But their commanders, apparently angered by the failure to force most of the students to renounce their Protestant faith, have since refused the teenage conscripts their basic sanitation necessities.
But the remaining 57 are still strong in their faith, one source stated.
Cramped metal containers are used frequently by Eritrean authorities as makeshift cells to punish prisoners, subjecting them to extreme temperatures, total darkness and near suffocation for days at a time.
Isolated in mountainous terrain close to Eritreas border with Sudan, the Sawa Military Training Camp where all Eritrean citizens are sent for their compulsory national service is located two days drive west of Asmara, the Eritrean capital.
Meanwhile, another 10 Protestants from several independent denominations were arrested in the Red Sea port city of Massawa by local police on August 24. The 10 individuals had gathered in a private home for Sunday worship when a single military truck pulled up, arrested them all and took them off to prison.
The latest Sawa and Massawa arrests bring the total number of evangelical Christians in Eritrea known to be imprisoned for their faith to 218. The longest-held among them are 79 soldiers jailed 17 months ago in Assab, where the 63 men and 16 women are being held incommunicado. Handfuls of other Protestant church members arrested in recent months in Adi-Abytoo, Keren, Mendefera, Adi-kualla, Nakfa and Adi-Kihe also remain in jail.
The Eritrean government routinely justifies the arbitrary arrest of independent Protestants, dissident journalists and political opponents by claiming, despite evidence to the contrary, that the individuals have failed to do their military service.
Some 12 independent Pentecostal and charismatic churches totaling 20,000 adherents have been refused legal status by the Eritrean government since May 2002, when they were ordered to stop worshipping.
The Asmara government categorically denies the existence of any religious persecution in Eritrea, although it only recognizes four official religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran.
Eritrean protestants arrested at prayer meeting
Asmara Police Jail, Punish 56 Prisoners
Special to Compass Direct
Compass (08.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (12.05.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -- Eritrean security police arrested two full-time evangelists and another 54 members of the Rema Church last night in Asmara, hauling them off to a local police station for holding illegal prayer meetings in two homes of their members.
The prayer meetings were in progress in the capitals Kahawta district when security forces raided the homes about 6 p.m., forcing the Protestant believers to stop their worship.
The jailed Christians, 21 women and 35 men, remained under detention today at the No. 7 Police Station in Kahawta, where local sources said they were undergoing severe punishment at the hands of police authorities.
Since mid February, Eritreas local police have subjected more than 300 independent Protestants to heavy beatings, humiliation and death threats to punish them for holding religious meetings without government permission. Most of the banned churches are newly formed Pentecostal and charismatic groups emerging out of local renewal movements begun within the Orthodox Church, although the list includes the long-established Seventh-day Adventist and Presbyterian Evangelical churches.
Since last May, the Eritrean government has revoked official status for all religious groups in the country except the four recognized religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran.
The charismatic Rema Church has formed member congregations in cities and towns across the country. They have been harassed repeatedly in recent months. Rema Church and 11 other independent Protestant denominations have been refused official status for more than a year by the Eritrean government.
Fifty of their Asmara church members arrested during a New Years celebration on January 1 were jailed for 10 days. Further incidents were reported in February of the detention and mistreatment of Rema Church members in Adi-Quala and again in Asmaras Setanta Otoo district in March.
Church leaders braced for arrest
Nine days after 56 other Protestant church members in towns of northern Eritrea were allegedly conscripted for military service, their church leaders in Asmara were reportedly braced for possible arrest as well.
A total of 36 Kale Hiwot Church members and 20 from the Full Gospel Church were taken from their homes or workplaces on April 29 by military police, who claimed they were taking the Christians to the Sawa Military Training Center. As the men and women were led away, their captors taunted them in front of their families and colleagues, declaring that their churchs elders were next to be apprehended.
Their whereabouts is still unknown, a church representative said, and their imprisonment has created fear among their respective church leaders.
Meanwhile, at least 77 Eritrean soldiers, 15 of them women, remain jailed in a military prison in Assab for refusing to deny their Pentecostal beliefs and return to the dominant Orthodox Church. Most have been incarcerated for more than a year, and all are being denied contact with relatives or friends.
At the Assab military prison, the Protestant men and women have been put in 44-gallon drums and then rolled in front of their fellow prisoners to torture them. Some are partially paralyzed from these and other assaults, and others suffer severe eye defects and mental imbalance. Among the women, several have been sexually abused by the prison staff.
The government of President Isayas Afewerki formally denied last week that any religious persecution exists in Eritrea.
According to a Freedom House report last month listing Eritrea as one of the worlds most repressive regimes, the Afewerki regime has taken significant steps backward and maintained a hostile attitude towards civil society this past year. The report said the Eritrean governments policy in the human rights arena appeared to have been forged by years of struggle against outside occupiers, together with an austere attachment to Marxist principles.
Eritrea arrests, conscripts more Protestant Christians
Asmara Government eenies any religious persecution
Special to Compass Direct
Compass (05.05.2003) / HRWF Int. (07.05.2003) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - -- More arrests along with forced conscriptions targeting Eritreas independent Protestant Christians have been reported during the past two weeks, despite a blanket denial by Asmara officials on May 1 that any religious persecution exists in the East Africa nation.
In an incident in the capital city over Orthodox Easter weekend, two members of the government-recognized Evangelical Lutheran Church were arrested and held in detention for three days.
Following a tradition long observed on the eve of Easter by Eritreas Lutheran Christians, a group of young church members took a guitar onto the streets of central Asmara on Saturday night, April 26, to sing hymns about Christs resurrection.
But as they passed a local bar about 11:30 p.m., they were confronted by an irate security officer who came out of the bar. The policeman reportedly told the singers that such activities were not allowed for members of closed churches. When he learned they were in fact members of the legal Lutheran Church, the officer accused the group of misusing the freedoms granted to their church.
Most of the group fled, but two young men who stood their ground were arrested by the policeman and taken to the citys No. 2 Police Station. The two Lutherans were not charged with any crime, and no reason was given for their detention. Both 26 years old, the men were held until the afternoon of April 29, when they were released with a serious warning to not repeat this Easter tradition again.
Taking a more severe tactic last week, military police invaded work places and private homes to arrest 56 members of independent Pentecostal churches in the northern-most province of Sahel. The military swoop, which occurred during normal working hours on April 29, was justified as conscription for military service.
But according to fellow church members of the forced conscripts, most of the 16 women and 40 men picked up had already completed their mandatory military service. Many of those conscripted were teachers, nurses and professionals. They have not been seen since.
The conscriptions targeted 20 members of the Full Gospel Church and 36 from the Kale Hiwot Church living in Nakfa and Afabet, small towns made famous by historic battles during the Eritrean war of resistance.
Although security police told relatives that the conscripts had been taken to the Sawa Military Training Center, family members have so far been unable to confirm their whereabouts.
The fact that all of them are known as Protestant believers is very alarming, a local source said. We are very concerned about their safety.
Another 74 Eritrean soldiers have been incarcerated in the Assab military prison for more than a year, subjected to severe beatings, threats and abuse for refusing to deny their Pentecostal beliefs and return to the Orthodox Church. Thirteen of them are women, and 16 are married men with families. All have been refused any contact with relatives or friends. Last month there were unconfirmed reports that another three Protestant soldiers had been arrested and sent to the Assab prison.
Eritreas 12 independent Pentecostal and charismatic churches representing about 20,000 believers have been targeted in a harsh government crackdown over the past three months. A total of 254 of their members have been jailed, beaten and threatened since the security police attacks began in early February.
The Asmara government has refused since last May to grant official status to any group apart from the four recognized religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran. All other congregations were ordered to stop meeting for worship and close their buildings.
But in a statement issued May 1 to outline what it called the basic facts of religious freedom in Eritrea, the Asmara government declared, No groups or persons are persecuted in Eritrea for their beliefs or religion.
Insisting that all religions are equal, and no religion is more equal than others, the statement added, People are free to worship according to their wish, or to refrain from worshipping or practicing religion.
According to separate sources, 160 members of the Jehovahs Witnesses, a religious sect which declines to be labeled Christian, were arrested in Asmara on April 16. Some 120 of the detainees, including pregnant women and children, were kept under arrest for two days and then released. Most of the remaining 40 have since been released, except for a handful of elders still believed to be under arrest.
Jehovahs Witnesses have been subjected to especially harsh treatment in Eritrea because of their conscientious objector stance toward military service.
According to the U.S. State Departments latest report on human rights in Eritrea, Arbitrary arrests and detentions continued to be problems, with unknown numbers of people jailed without charges and some being held incommunicado.
More Eritrean Protestants attacked
15 hospitalized from severe beatings
Compass (21.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.04.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -- Two new attacks against Protestant Christians have been confirmed this past week in Eritrea, where 15 church members were hospitalized from severe beatings on Thursday and another 11 detained all day Friday by security police.
In Kushte, a small town six miles from the capital Asmara, a Bible study group of 11 men and four women meeting in a private home was forcibly interrupted on April 17. About 10 individuals, four of them reportedly Orthodox Church priests, pushed their way into the room where the group was gathered and began beating them with sticks. Some stones were also hurled at them, members of the group confirmed.
The 15 Christians, all members of a renewal group within the Orthodox Church in Kushte, were injured so severely that they were admitted to Hahaze Hospital for medication and treatment. Most were bleeding from their injuries, and one had a serious eye wound.
Several of them are very badly hurt, a source who had visited the injured Christians said. Although one of the wounded believers was discharged from the hospital this morning, the others remain under medical care.
In a separate incident the following day, 11 members of the Mesert Christos Church in Asmara were detained for a day by security police while meeting at their church building.
The detained Protestants were kept under guard at the church compound for the remainder of the day on April 18 by officers from the citys Police Station No. 6. They were all released that evening, after a strict warning from the police that they should not try to meet again.
During February and March, Eritrean security police arrested, jailed and threatened 170 other Protestant Christians, all members of Pentecostal and charismatic churches that the Asmara government ordered closed last May.
Despite constitutional guarantees of religious freedom for all citizens, Eritrea has refused to grant government registration to any new religions. Only four groups with longstanding official status are recognized: Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Catholics and Evangelical Lutherans.
Eritreas independent Pentecostal and charismatic churches, which now have some 20,000 adherents, have for the most part emerged out of a growing renewal movement begun five years ago within the Orthodox Church.
At least 74 Eritrean soldiers who have refused to deny their Pentecostal beliefs and return to the Orthodox Church have been jailed in the Assab military prison for the past 13 months.
Since May 2001, the Eritrean government has jailed many of its political opponents, including 11 members of Parliament, 18 journalists and even two local staff of the U.S. Embassy. All are being held incommunicado without charges.
Eritrea jails 170 Protestants
Another 74 continue in prison
The Baptist Press (09.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (14.04.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A total of 170 Protestant Christians have been jailed, beaten and threatened with death by Eritrean security forces in a harsh crackdown during February and March, Compass Direct news service reported April 9.
Since the Asmara government closed 12 Pentecostal and charismatic churches last May, the tiny nation along the eastern tip of Africa has stalled official registration status for all of these young Protestant churches, now containing more than 20,000 believers, Compass reported.
In five separate incidents in four cities over the past two months, Eritrean security police barged into worship services and even a wedding ceremony to jail men, women and children for practicing what government officials called "a new religion."
According to Compass, all the prisoners were held incommunicado while under arrest. They were eventually released individually on bail to relatives or friends, who were forced to put up their personal property as bond to secure their release. No formal charges were filed against them, nor did they ever appear before a court of law.
The Eritrean government recognizes only four "official" religions, identified as Orthodox Christian (40 percent), Muslim (50 percent), Catholic (5 percent) and Evangelical Christian, a Protestant church begun in the late 19th century by Swedish Lutheran missionaries, (2 percent).
Compass reported that the jailed Protestants, who were detained in humiliating conditions from three to 15 days, were subjected to repeated beatings, cursing and threats for refusing to return to the historically dominant Orthodox Church faith.
In the first incident on Feb. 16, 17 members of the Rema Church in Adi-Quala, 70 miles south of the capital Asmara, were arrested by security police while holding Sunday worship in a member's home. All were jailed for 15 days, including the widow hosting the gathering and three other older women. Some of the prisoners were reportedly beaten with sticks.
Two weeks later, security police raided a rented hall during a wedding ceremony for a young Pentecostal couple in the coastal city of Massawa. The church leader conducting the March 2 marriage service was arrested after the ceremony concluded and jailed for five days.
The following week, 36 members of the Full Gospel Church were arrested for three days when they gathered in a member's home in Keren, a Muslim-dominated town 55 miles northwest of Asmara. Local police claimed that Muslims in the neighborhood had complained to them about the March 9 gathering. The imprisoned congregation included 16 women and seven soldiers. The soldiers received severe beatings and hard labor punishments when sent back to military duty.
On March 16, 72 members of three congregations in Asmara were arrested during a prayer and preaching service in a member's home in the Setanta Otoo district of the capital. According to Compass, police jailed the worshipers from the Kale Hiwot Church, the Full Gospel Church and the Rema Church in metal container cells at the Maiserwa Military Prison near Keren. Although most of the prisoners were young people, a Rema Church elder in his 60s was among them.
Designed as severe punishment cells, the metal containers had no windows and only a small door, subjecting the prisoners to near suffocation and intense physical discomfort, Compass reported. After 15 days, security police allowed families to "bail" their jailed relatives, issuing a stern warning to them that the Pentecostal believers must never again try to meet for worship or evangelize anyone, anywhere.
In the last reported incident on March 23, members of Asmara's Philadelphia Church were meeting for choir practice and Bible study on Sunday afternoon when some 15 policemen armed with machine guns, pistols and long sticks entered the premises. The 40 people present, three of them children, were taken by bus to Police Station No. 4 in the Paradiso district, where officers reportedly kicked and beat some of the men.
When the church's pastor learned about the arrests several hours later, he took three other church members with him to inquire at the police station. All four were promptly arrested as well, with the pastor isolated from the rest of his congregation.
The morning after his arrest, the pastor was brought out into the prison courtyard and publicly tortured and humiliated in front of his jailed congregation. Guards forced the pastor, who limps noticeably from having polio as a child, to take off his shoes and walk barefoot over sharp, jagged pebbles for a half hour. Although his feet did not bleed, it was "very, very painful," one source confirmed to Compass.
That same morning, the three children who had been separated from the rest of the group were beaten and released, with strict warnings to "never again" attend such religious meetings.
The Philadelphia Church prisoners were crammed into two cells, segregating the men and women. One local source said there was barely room in the men's cell for all of them to lie down to sleep at night. "We were told to relieve ourselves in the cell, but there was no place for that," the source said. "The cell was filthy and very hot, and we were suffocating to get air, a witness said. The cells were kept locked all day except for a half-hour at 5 a.m. when prisoners were allowed out to go to the toilet.
The detained church members were later transferred to the Adi Abito Military Prison outside Asmara, away from their pastor. Although military guards told them that their pastor had denied his beliefs and promised to return to the Orthodox Church, the congregation all refused to believe it. "Anyway, Jesus is our Savior too, not just our pastor's," they reportedly told the guards. "We will not deny Him."
After eight days in jail, the pastor and most of his congregation were released on bail. Relatives who guaranteed bail for them were forced to sign a statement acknowledging that if a bailed prisoner was caught meeting at the church building or even in his home with more than three others, he would be liable for execution.
From an earlier incident, Compass Direct reported, 74 Eritrean soldiers from various Pentecostal congregations incarcerated more than a year ago remain jailed at hard labor in a military prison near the southern port city of Assab for refusing to recant their personal religious beliefs and return to the Orthodox Church.
The soldiers, 13 of them women, were first arrested on Feb. 17 last year, along with 59 civilians from three local congregations gathered for Sunday worship. All 133 worshipers were released the following day, but two weeks later, military authorities re-arrested the soldiers and incarcerated them at the Zone Four Military Prison near Assab.
About 10 weeks after they were jailed, prison authorities put the Pentecostal soldiers in solitary confinement in very small, unlighted cells. For weeks, they were dragged out repeatedly to be beaten all over their bodies with iron rods encased in plastic. "It was very hurtful, and we bled terribly from these beatings," one of the flogged soldiers managed to inform a source. "This was done in front of the others, while our tormentors demanded that we deny our faith in Jesus."
Reportedly, several more soldiers "caught" reading their Bibles or praying in small groups in recent months have been arrested and jailed with the original 74 soldiers.
Families and friends of the jailed soldiers, who range from their early 20s to 40 years of age, have been refused any contact with them over the past 13 months. Several are married with families.
Although the 1997 Constitution of Eritrea guarantees religious freedom to all citizens, Eritrea's totalitarian government has become increasingly restrictive against the newer Protestant churches mushrooming across the country within the past five years. Many are led by former members of the Medhanie Alam renewal movement begun a decade ago within the Eritrean Orthodox Church.
Hundreds of these Christians and their spiritual leaders, excommunicated from the Orthodox Church in 1997, flowed into existing Pentecostal churches. Others began their own local fellowships.
Section Four of Article 19 of the 1997 Eritrean Constitution guarantees that, "Every person shall have the freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such practice." However, representatives of the government's Religious Affairs Department are now insisting that in order to enjoy legal status, religious groups must "conform to local traditions."
Last May, the Department of Religious Affairs ordered the Pentecostal and charismatic congregations, as well as the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Buddhists and the Bahai religious movement, to complete a wide-ranging application process. Until their registration process was completed, the government decreed, these churches and groups were prohibited from meeting.
Among the requirements were audited financial reports for the past 10 years; a list of every member's address, contact information and personal property; names and passport numbers of every foreign visitor; financial dealings with all international sponsors; and a listing of which theological doctrines it holds in comparison with other churches' beliefs.
When church leaders met with the newly appointed director of Religious Affairs on April 1 to address the issue, he declared that he was uninformed on the issue and would have to get back to them later about it.
"They are cheating us by always postponing our meetings about this, changing the director of the department, and claiming our registrations are 'in process,'" one church leader declared. "We have waited now for 11 months. Our government must act seriously, to reply to us in a responsible way."
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