prisoners, amid reports that a pastor suffered a mental breakdown due to what Christians call "harsh physical and emotional mistreatment."
Pastor Oqbamichel Haimanot of the evangelical Kale Hiwot, or ‘Word of Life’ Church, was reportedly arrested four months ago at a wedding along with 64 church members and confined at the military training center in Sawa region. He is believed to be one of 16 pastors and nearly 900 Eritrean Christians jailed for meeting to pray and worship without government approval.
Release-Eritrea, a global partnership fighting religious persecution, said it was "particularly concerned about those prisoners who have been held incommunicado, without due legal course", for at least one year, including three other prominent Church leaders identified as Dr. Kiflu Gebremeskel, Rev. Haile Naizghi and Pastor Tesfazion Hagos.
"Concern is also mounting for other vulnerable prisoners like Demoz Afworki a 67 year old gentleman" the head of Christian organization Gideons International in Eritrea who was detained in March and "Helen Berhane, a 30 year old woman who has now been incarceration mainly in shipping containers for nearly two years," the organization added in comments monitored by BosNewsLife News Center.
DIABETIC DENIED MEDICATION
In addition "it has also come to our attention that medical care has also been unforthcoming to some prisoners. It is particularly disturbing to hear that Rev. Dr Tekleab Mengisteab, who is an insulin dependent diabetic had to be taken into hospital critically ill at least on one occasion, due to the fact that he was unable to obtain the medication he depends on. His family were unable to contact him in hospital even during this critical time."
"I am really distressed to hear about the continued incarceration of my friends and colleagues with whom I have served the Lord over the years," said Release-Eritrea Director Berhane Asmelash. "I have absolutely no words to excuse the actions of a government, they have served, faithfully and dutifully, treating them with utter disdain befitting condemned criminals. This is in total breach of the Eritrean constitution, our penal code and indeed international treaties that we have entered into."
The US-based human rights group Jubilee Campaign said it would joining friends at Christian Solidarity International in hosting a rally in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, May 25, "to protest the Eritrean government’s repression of religious minorities and to call on Eritrean officials to release immediately and unconditionally all prisoners being held solely for religious reasons."
THIRD ANNIVERSARY RALLY
The rally is being held to mark the third anniversary of an order by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki to require all religious groups to register with the government and to close down all "unauthorized" congregations pending registration.
"In the months following this decree, however, it became clear that the government had little intention of registering even those groups that complied with the strict and intrusive demands of the registration process," Jubilee Campaign told BosNewsLife News Center.
Eritrea recognizes only four religious groups: Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eritrea Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church of Eritrea, an umbrella group of denominations associated with the Lutheran Church. "All others are subject to arrest, detention and inhumane and humiliating treatment," Jubilee Campaign alleged. "Even the authorized groups, however, have not entirely escaped the dragnet. A Catholic wedding party was broken up late last year, and Jubilee Campaign has received credible reports that reform movements within the Orthodox Church have experienced a crackdown as well."
OTHERS ALSO "SUFFER"
In addition to Christian groups, Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of the Baha’i Faith have also had their congregations shut down and "suffered a great deal of persecution," the group said. Eritrea is among countries which the United States recently designated as ‘countries of particular concern for several violations of religious freedom’.
The Eritrean government has denied there is religious persecution in the country. President Isaias Afworki has been quoted as saying that several religious groups have been "duped by foreigners" who sought to "distract from the unity of the Eritrean people and distort the true meaning of religion" in the African nation. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Eritrea, and the Unted States).
