Local police circumvent release of Ethiopian Protestants- (09.12.2002)

Ethiopian Evangelical Killed By Orthodox Church Mob- (02.08.2002)

Local police circumvent release of Ethiopian Protestants

Two Evangelical leaders still jailed after eight months

by Barbara G. Baker

Compass (09.10.2002)/ HRWF Int. (10.12.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Two evangelical Christian leaders jailed in northern Ethiopia more than eight months ago remain underpolice detention without charges in Maychew, despite lower court orders to withdraw the case pending against them.

Under apparent pressure, the presiding judge has given local police until December 11 to produce solid evidence against the two church leaders, or she will order them released.

Both elders in local Pentecostal churches, Kiros Meles and Abebayeh Desalegn were arrested in the wake of a two-day rampage last April which left Maychew's five evangelical churches looted and in shambles at the hands of a mob of Orthodox extremists.

Meles, 46, and Desalegn, 35, were accused by local police as "suspects" in the death of an Orthodox church member, a young man identified only as Haile, shot dead during the last day of the riots. Although the fatal bullet was apparently shot into the air from the local police chief's gun, and an off-duty policeman was also taken into custody over the incident, the two Pentecostals have been detained without bail during the prolonged murder investigation.

Since Meles' arrest on April 23, followed by Desalegn's detention on May 10, the two men have been summoned to court at least eight times, only to have each subsequent hearing postponed. "All the postponements were because the police were trying to cover up their guilt and asked for more time to investigate," a local source told Compass. Finally, in a court decision handed down on October 29, the presiding judge of a Maychew lower court ordered the case against the two Protestants withdrawn. In her ruling, the magistrate declared there was not sufficient evidence against them to file charges. Accordingly, the two were transferred from prison back to the Maychew police station, where under Ethiopian law they could not be detained for more than 48 hours.

But local police still refused to release Meles and Desalegn, and after a week, moved them back to prison again. "It seems [that] the police are again investigating the possibility of a new charge against them, to be brought before the High Court," a source confirmed to Compass. "No one dares to confront them."

At the last hearing on November 29, police told the magistrate they had evidence to prove the men's guilt and again requested more time for their investigation. The judge declared that she was giving the police 14 more days "only because the High Court is forcing me to do so." She commented that since the police had failed to produce any proof after eight months, she could not understand how they were going to produce it within two more weeks.

On December 5, Meles' wife Abeba traveled to Mekele to petition the High Court for resolution of the case. She reported that when a Mekele official telephoned the police in Maychew in her presence to inquire about it, he was told they had "finished the investigation."

At the next hearing set for December 11, the court must either release the two men or charge them with murder on the basis of solid evidence. "We are very positive and full of hope that they will be released then," a source said. The policeman, believed by the community at large to have fired the fatal shot, is still being held in the main prison.

According to local church sources, the two jailed evangelical leaders are "still standing strong," although the pressure placed upon them and their families is "taking a toll." In late October, the wives of the two jailed men confirmed that they continue to face harassment, with unknown attackers stoning their homes at night, breaking glass windows and doors.

Recently, the prisoners' families and other members of their congregation have taken on the care and protection of two young men, both convicted thieves, who had met Meles and Desalegn while serving four months in jail on robbery charges. After their release in August, Atkilt Mesfin and Asmelash Mariam were thrown out of their own homes when they declared they had become Pentecostal believers while in jail.

The men told the jailed Protestants' wives that they had hated and actively persecuted Pentecostals before meeting their husbands, who shared the word of God with them. "My resistance to God started to melt away like salt in water," Mesfin said, and within a week he put his faith in Christ. "I was totally renewed, and even the life in prison got better," he said.

According to reports, the detained Protestants have not been physically mistreated while jailed and have been allowed short weekly visits by their families and friends. Although the men's wives are subjected to a thorough physical search every time they visit the jail to prevent them receiving any letters, they have been able to tell their husbands about dozens of messages coming from Christians around the world who are praying for them.

Despite a moderate stance by prominent leaders of the long-dominant Ethiopian Orthodox Church, some local clerics violently oppose the government's constitutional guarantees of religious freedom instituted in 1994.

An estimated half of Ethiopia's population claim Orthodox membership. But since communist rule collapsed in 1991, the nation's fledgling Protestant community of mostly Pentecostal congregations has mushroomed to some 12 million, nearly 20 percent of the population. Extremist Orthodox elements have denounced these groups as "cults," with some firebrand priests urging their members to attack them verbally and physically.

In a separate incident in the town of Merawi this past July, Orthodox priests led an attack in which the evangelical pastor of the Full Gospel Church was left to bleed to death from ax wounds to his head.

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Ethiopian Evangelical Killed By Orthodox Church Mob

Local police fail to respond during attack

by Barbara G. Baker

Compass (02.08.2002)/ )/ HRWF Int. (05.08.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A mob of Orthodox Church members led by priests attacked and killed an evangelical Christian pastor in his home two weeks ago in Merawi, a town in northwestern Ethiopia.

According to an Ethiopian evangelical who visited Merawi on July 21, Brother Dantew was fatally injured on the evening of July 17, several hours after he had asked for police protection for his church's new property and its members.

A teacher by profession, Dantew was the leading elder in Merawi's Full Gospel Church. Last May, authorities allocated land to the congregation for a church compound.

But when the congregation started to fence their new property on July 15, local Orthodox Church leaders reacted violently. That evening, a mob came and tore down the fence the church had built. Dantew informed the police and applied for their protection in writing. The next day they started constructing the fence again.

A night later, priests from the Mecha Wored Orthodox Church organized a larger, agitated mob to attack the compound; the attackers dismantled the fence and a storeroom on the property. Dantew sent messengers to the local police station for help. Oddly, they found it unmanned.

By 9 p.m. that night, the evangelicals had fled to their homes, which they locked and barricaded after hearing gun shots. "We were hoping that the police would come to our rescue," said some of the evangelicals. "But it did not happen."

A half hour later, eyewitnesses said, a large mob surrounded Dantew's house, throwing stones and breaking down the fence and main gate. They smashed the doors, tore windows out of their frames and even dismantled the roof.

When Dantew's wife, Tsige, was hit in the face by a stone, he begged her to try to escape from the house, which she managed to do. When the attackers got inside, they assaulted Dantew, finally felling him with an axe blow to the head. This left him bleeding from a gaping wound.

Dantew's two teenage sons, 15 and 17, hid under the bed with a woman servant. When the attackers discovered them and wanted to beat them, the Orthodox priest directing the attack ordered them not to harm them, reportedly saying, "We want only the main leader."

The attackers ransacked the house, stealing or smashing everything, then left guards behind to prevent anyone from rescuing Dantew through the night. This included a neighboring doctor who asked to treat his injuries.

The house servant was allowed to leave, but Dantew's two sons spent the night in the same room with their dying father. When the guards left the next morning, Dantew was alive, but very weak. He died mid-morning on July 18 while his wife was taking him to the hospital.

The homes of eight other evangelical families also came under attack that night, which left their furniture and belongings destroyed. A believer identified as Melkamu was hospitalized from a severe beating with axes and sticks. His wife broke her left leg jumping from the fence around their compound while attempting to escape. The next morning, some 50 evangelicals fled to Bahir Dar, 25 miles away, to take refuge in the Full Gospel Church there.

Local police who failed to intervene in the attack later declared that the situation was "beyond their capacity," the visiting source said. Reinforcements summoned from Bahir Dar only arrived mid-morning on July 18, after the incident was over.

Full Gospel Church leaders requested a formal investigation into the attack by Bahir Dar authorities, resulting in the arrest of some 40 Orthodox Church members, including six priests. Three of the priests were identified as Melake Selam, Merigeta Bekatu and Meriget Addis.

Some 60 miles northwest of the capital Addis Ababa, Merawi has two evangelical churches -- the Meserete Kirstos Church and the Full Gospel Church.

Since Protestant activities began in the area in 1987, both churches have faced growing persecution from the majority Orthodox Church leadership, who consider them a heretical sect and call them derisively "Pentes," or Pentecostals.

"Persecution has happened sporadically, by means of beatings, robbery and social isolation," one evangelical believer said.

Over the past 40 years, Protestant Ethiopians have grown rapidly from less than 200,000 to 12 million, nearly 20 percent of the population.

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