prisoners in Eritrea amid reports they have been deported to a feared desert area while at least one detainee died as a result of alleged torture.
Release Eritrea, a well informed religious advocacy group with contacts in the area, said seventy Eritrean Christians, who were arrested at a wedding celebration in the capital Asmara on May 28 were among those sent to the Wea detention centre, one of the most inhospitable parts of Eritrea.
Among those detained was Gospel singer Essey Estifanos, the organization said. Wea detention centre is situated in one of the hottest spots in the world and was originally used by Italian Colonizers as a place of harsh punishment, Release Eritrea said.
"The current government of Eritrea is known to use Wea routinely to punish young people who
exhibited any form of rebellion. In the summer of 2001 around 2,000 university students were
detained there for over a month. Two students died as a result of sunstroke, others still talk
of the horrors that they encountered there."
CHRISTIAN DIES
It came as reports emerged about the death of another Christian prisoner Kelati Awalom as a
result of alleged mistreatment in detention. Awalom was a committed Christian and a member of the evangelical Rhema Church who had been detained on three separate occasions, said Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a human rights watchdog.
It quoted Eritrean Christian website Erishalom as saying that Awalom was beaten "so severely on the head and neck that one of his arms was paralyzed." He reportedly died from the effects of the mistreatment, long after his final release, at his home on July 24.
Awalom was arrested March 17 last year along with his wife and five children. Although his wife
and three of his children were released the following day, Awalom and two of his daughters are
said to have remained in detention for three months, CSW reported.
"DUBED BY FOREIGNERS"
Eritrean officials have not commented on the latest developments. However the Eritrean government has denied there is religious persecution in the country. President Isaias Afworki has been quoted as saying that several Christian groups have been "duped by foreigners" who sought to "distract from the unity of the Eritrean people and distort the true meaning of religion."
The Eritrean Government closed down all independent congregations not linked with the country’s four officially recognized religions, Orthodox Christian, Catholic, Lutheran and Muslim by presidential decree in May 2002.
Hundreds of Christians have been held in prisons and even metal containers in the small African nation because of their religious activities, including children and Christians caught worshipping during military service, said human rights watchdog Voice Of the Martyrs recently.
WORLDWIDE PRAYER
Eritrean Christian website Erishalom reportedly called for "a worldwide day of prayer and fasting for Christian prisoners in Eritrea" Friday, August 5. It was not immediately clear how many Christians had been able to participate in the prayer event.
"The voice of the international community needs to be heard loud and clear by the Eritrean government if we are ever to see any improvement," said CSW Advocacy Director, Tina Lambert in a statement to BosNewsLife News Center. "We are gravely concerned at the escalation of repression in Eritrea."
Eritrea was designated a Country of Particular Concern for religious persecution in 2004 by the United States State Department. "The Government’s poor respect for religious freedom for minority religious groups continued to decline during the period covered by this report," it said in its recent International Religious Freedom Report 2004.
GOVERNMENT HARASS
"The Government harassed, arrested, and detained members of Pentecostal and other independent evangelical groups reform movements from and within the Eritrean Orthodox Church, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. There were also numerous reports of physical torture and attempts at forced recantations," the report added.
There has been growing pressure on the government of Eritrea to improve both religious and political rights for its roughly 4.5 million citizens.
President Afworki was elected president by the transitional legislature but the constitution, ratified in May 1997, did not enter into effect, pending parliamentary and presidential elections. Parliamentary elections had been scheduled in December 2001, but were reportedly postponed indefinitely. Currently the sole legal party is the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice. (With BosNewsLife Research, BosNewsLife News Center, and reports from Eritrea).
