Christian rights group over the imprisonment of roughly 2,000 Christians in the African nation, BosNewsLife learned Saturday, November 11.
A delegation of the group ‘Open Doors’ met Eritrean Ambassador Mohammed Suleiman Ahmed on Friday, November 10, to handover more than 60,000 protest cards demanding the release of the believers, signed by Christians in the Netherlands and Belgium, spokesman Jeno Sebok said.
At the same time over two hundred Dutch and Eritrean Christian protestors gathered outside, in front of the Eritrean embassy in The Hague, far less than the 2,000 believers initially expected by organizers. The demonstrators prayed, sang Christian songs, and listened to a speech.
BODY OF CHRIST
"We [as Christians] are part of the Body [of Christ] and we want to show that the Eritrean authorities today," Sebok told the demonstrators. "If one member [of that Body] suffers, all other members suffer also," he added.
Several Dutch politicians supported the action, Sebok told BosNewsLife. In seperate talks with the ambassador he said, "We consider the Eritrean Christians as our brothers and sisters, because we all have the same Father in Heaven," according to written remarks of that conversation obtained by BosNewsLife.
The ambassador said however that the Eritrean government regards "all its citizens as brothers and sisters." Asked why they have been jailed in hundreds of shipping containers, the diplomat said he could not answer that question as he could not even confirm whether Christians are jailed in the country.
"FREEDOM OF RELIGION"
But he confirmed that Eritrea has "freedom of religion enshrined in its constitution" and that he will share "the deep concern of Open Doors and its supporters with the government in Asmara," according to sources who participated in the talks.
At least 2,077 people, most of them Christians, have been jailed for religious reasons in Eritrea, human rights groups estimate.
Many Eritrean Christians gather in private homes since May 2002, when the government closed down all independent religious groups not operating under the umbrella of the government-sanctioned Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran or Muslim faiths.
However even traditional churches and groups are increasingly targeted by security forces, churches say.
