Eritrean Christians tell of torture

Eritrean Christians tell of torture
By Tanya Datta
BBC News, northern Ethiopia

An Eritrean refugee lies contorted on the ground. Balanced on his belly, his hands clutch his feet behind his back, bending his legs back almost double. Paulus is demonstrating a torture technique known colloquially as "the helicopter". It is one he knows well. It was in this excruciating position, he claims, that soldiers left him tied up for 136 hours, in an attempt to force him to recant his faith.

"They kept asking me to sign a document," he recalls, "and agree to not participate in church activities or express my faith in any form. I was told I would be untied and released the minute I agreed to their requests."

Paulus is an evangelical Christian from Eritrea, one of an increasing number fleeing the tiny Red Sea state because of religious persecution. Home these days is Shimelba refugee camp in northern Ethiopia, close to the disputed border with Eritrea. Here, in the Ebenezer Evangelical Church on camp, Paulus is free to worship in a way that is unthinkable back in his homeland.

Jailed

During the past five years, a brutal campaign has been waged in Eritrea against Christian minorities, focusing mainly on the evangelical and Pentecostal movements. Weddings, baptisms, church services and prayer meetings have been raided by security forces. Guests or congregation members have rounded up and detained en masse. According to Compass Direct, a non-governmental organisation reporting on the persecution of Christians around the world, it is estimated that almost 2,000 people are being held in jails across Eritrea because of their religious beliefs.

The crackdown on Eritrea's minority churches followed a government announcement in May 2002 that only its four oldest faiths - Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran and Islam - would receive official sanction. The rest were invited to register and declare their sources of funding. To date, none has been registered.

Beatings

Evangelical Christians who have been arrested face severe pressure to recant their faith. Some prisoners have been held in metal shipping containers. Accounts of torture, lack of food and terrible conditions are commonplace. Samuel (not his real name) is 24 and university-educated. Along with 19 others, he was arrested in 2005 when he attended the wedding of a friend. For the next 12 months, he was imprisoned and forced to do backbreaking manual labour. He was also regularly beaten.

Patriarch Antonious used to have good relations with the president. On one occasion, Samuel said, he was suspended by his arms from a tree for three days in the form of a crucifixion. He was also constantly pressured to leave his faith. "They asked me if I would like to leave it. They asked every night for four months," he said. Some of his friends did recant after endless beatings.

Samuel, as well as Paulus, were repeatedly asked about their links with the US. Evangelical and Pentecostal churches are widely perceived by the Eritrean authorities as having originated in the States, even though many fund themselves. The US is threatening to declare Eritrea a rogue state for its alleged support of terrorists, and the mood of President Isaias Afwerki and his Marxist-oriented government is now openly anti-American. Yet even official, long-established faiths have not escaped government interference. Patriarch Abune Antonios, the head of the Eritrean Orthodox Church - a faith followed by more than 40% of Eritrea's population - has been under house arrest for almost two years.

'No repression'

Four months ago, the 80-year-old who suffers from diabetes was moved to an undisclosed location. Since then, there has been little information about what happened to him. No official reason has been given for his disappearance. His supporters, however, claim that he was arrested after he objected to the jailing of church leaders from the Medhane Alem, a spiritual renewal movement within the Orthodox church.

In May this year, a new patriarch was installed with the support of some Eritrean bishops. But the new patriarch has not been accepted by the Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt. Abba Seraphim is the head of the British Orthodox Church, which is launching an online petition to protest about the plight of the patriarch.

He told me the patriarch was put under house arrest after he refused to do the government's bidding. "The only thing we've heard is that he's being kept in a darkened room. He managed to get a message to someone complaining about this," Mr Seraphim said. But, according to Girma Asmeron, the Eritrean ambassador to Belgium, the disappearance of Patriarch Antonios is far from sinister. The patriarch, he claims, has retired to an isolated monastery and is very much "alive, kicking and praying".

Mr Asmeron denies that there is any repression of religious freedom in Eritrea. He says persecution claims have been made up. And allegations of torture, he says, are stories invented by refugees "simply as a certificate" to enable them to get political asylum. Refugees certainly continue to pour out of Eritrea. In two years, the number of asylum applications by Eritreans to the West has increased by 57%. The UNHCR recently described the exodus as "one of the world's most protracted refugee situations". My last contact with Eritrea's persecuted Christians came in an e-mail sent to me last week.

"The situation in Eritrea is getting worse and worse after the president stated that the US is funding the Pentecostal church in Eritrea," it said.

"Many Christians are suffering in military concentrations [camps] and police stations... Pray for the Christians in Eritrea, and pray for the prisoners and their families."

Click here to listen to the programme.

Michael W Smith - Above All

Verse 1
Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature
And all created things
Above all wisdom
And all the ways of man
You were here
Before the world began

Verse 2
Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders
The world has ever known
Above all wealth
And treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure
What You're worth

CHORUS
Crucified
Laid behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

CHORUS
Crucified
Laid behind the stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all

The Apostles Creed

Worthy is the Lamb

Performed by LatinLabel
Music By- Third Day
Song- "Agnus Dei" (Worthy is the Lamb)
Written by- Michael W. Smith
From the album Exodus

Alleluia, Alleluia
For our Lord God Almighty reigns
Alleluia, Alleluia
For our Lord God Almighty reigns

Holy, Holy
Are you Lord God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb
You are holy
Holy
Are You Lord God Almighty
Worthy is the Lamb
Worthy is the Lamb
Amen

Friends - Michael W. Smith

Packing up the dreams God planted
In the fertile soil of you
Can't believe the hopes he's granted
Means a chapter in your life is through
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

CHORUS:
And friends are friends forever
If the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say "Never"
'Cause the welcome will not end
Though it's hard to let you go
In the Father's hands we know
That a lifetime's not too long
To live as friends

With the faith and love God's given
Springing from the hope we know
We will pray the joy you'll live in
Is the strength that now you show
But we'll keep you close as always
It won't even seem you've gone
'Cause our hearts in big and small ways
Will keep the love that keeps us strong

Amy Grant - El Shaddai

El shaddai, el shaddai,
El-elyon na adonia,
Age to age youre still the same,
By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai,
Erkamka na adonai,
We will praise and lift you high,
El shaddai.

Through your love and through the ram,
You saved the son of abraham;
Through the power of your hand,
Turned the sea into dry land.
To the outcast on her knees,
You were the God who really sees,
And by your might,
You set your children free.

El shaddai, el shaddai,
El-elyon na adonia,
Age to age youre still the same,
By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai,
Erkamka na adonai,
We will praise and lift you high,
El shaddai.

Through the years youve made it clear,
That the time of christ was near,
Though the people couldnt see
What messiah ought to be.
Though your word contained the plan,
They just could not understand
Your most awesome work was done
Through the frailty of your son.

El shaddai, el shaddai,
El-elyon na adonai,
Age to age youre still the same,
By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai,
Erkamka na adonai,
I will praise yo till I die,
El shaddai.

El shaddai, el shaddai,
El-elyon na adonai,
Age to age youre still the same,
By the power of the name.
El shaddai, el shaddai,
Erkamka na adonai,
I will praise you till I die.
El shaddai.

Blinded and deluded...

Anglican Priest Claims to be both Christian and Muslim

Jesus of the Scars

Keith Green - I Can't Wait To Get To Heaven

I Can't Wait to Get to Heaven

Prolog - You know, I look around at the world and I see all the beauty that God made. I see the forest and the trees and all the things. and says in the Bible that he made them is six days and I don't kn
They're a literal six days or not. scientists would say no, some theologians would say yes. but I know that jesus christ has been preparing a home for me and for some of you, for two thousand years. and if the world took six days and that home two thousand years, hey man, this is like living in a garbage can compared to what's going on up there.


Seaside sunset, silver linings round the clouds,
Birds fly, singing, making such a joyful sound.
Thoughts of heaven somehow seem to fill my mind,
But I can't even imagine, what it is I'm gonna find.

I can't wait to get to heaven, when you'll wipe away all my fears.

In six days you created everything,

But you've been working on heaven two thousand years.

Deep green forests, mountains reaching for the sky,
Grasslands and deserts, your creation fills my eye.

Thank you, thank you jesus, though this beauty is just a taste,
Of all your glory I'll see when I pass through those gates.
I can't wait to get to heaven, when you'll wipe away all my fears.

In six days you created everything,
But you've been working on heaven two thousand years.
I can't wait to get to heaven, when you'll wipe away all my fears.

In six days you created all of the world,
But you've been working on heaven,

You've been working on heaven, Holy Spirit,
You've been working on heaven, two thousand years.

Keith Green - Asleep In The Light

Do you see, do you see
All the people sinking down
Dont you care, dont you care
Are you gonna let them drown

How can you be do numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the jobs done

Oh bless me lore, bless me lord
You know its all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear

But he cries, he weeps, he bleeds
And he cares for you needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in
Oh cant you see its such a sin

cause he brings people to you door
And you turn them away
As you smile and say
God bless you, be at peace
And all heaven just weeps
cause jesus came to you door
Youve left him out on the streets

Open up open up
And give yourself away
You see the need, you hear the cries
So how can you delay

Gods calling and youre the one
But like jonah you run
Hes told you to speak
But you keep holding it in
Of cant you see its such a sin

The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just cant fight
cause its asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When youve been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you cant even get out of bed

Oh, jesus rose from the dead
Come on get out of your bed

How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the jobs done
You close your eyes
And pretend the jobs done

Dont close your eyes
Dont pretend the jobs done
Come away, come away, come away with me my love
Come away, come away, come away with me my love

Keith Green - Your Love Broke Through

Like a foolish dreamer, trying to build a highway to the sky
All my hopes would come tumbling down, and I never knew just why
Until today, when you pulled away the clouds that hung like curtains on my eyes
Well I've been blind all these wasted years and I thought I was so wise
But then you took me by surprise

Like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed
Until your love broke through
I've been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me
Until your love broke through

All my life I've been searching for that crazy missing part
And with one touch, you just rolled away the stone that held my heart
And now I see that the answer was as easy, as just asking you in
And I am so sure I could never doubt your gentle touch again
It's like the power of the wind

Like waking up from the longest dream, how real it seemed
Until your love broke through
I've been lost in a fantasy, that blinded me
Until your love, until your love, broke through