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VOM Points Out Eritrea's Heightening Anti-Christian Persecution

by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
April 14, 2005

(AgapePress) - An official with Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) says conditions for Christians in one East African nation are becoming increasingly dangerous. Recently, more than 500 believers were arrested by Eritrean government officials as part of a crackdown on evangelical Christianity.

The government of Eritrea has been documented as one of the most repressive regimes when it comes to religious freedom. And according to VOM's Todd Nettleton, the African nation's civil authorities have taken a hard line against Christians for several years. "Three years ago the government called in all the evangelical church leaders and said, 'We're closing you down; you can't have any more meetings,'" he says.

As a result of the state restrictions, many Eritrean congregations were driven "underground" as they looked for ways to continue meeting for worship and prayer in private homes. "Obviously, many of the Christians in those churches said, 'Okay, we can't go to our church anymore; you come to my house this week, and we'll go to your house next week,'" Nettleton notes, "but now we're seeing the police raid those house meetings and lock up all the people."

Last month, Compass news reported on the disappearance of Kidane Weldou, a leading evangelical pastor, who went missing from the streets of Asmara and was presumably being detained by Eritrean security forces at some unknown location. Sources say the minister was driving a church-owned pickup at the time of his disappearance.

Dr. Berhane Asmelash is a coordinator with "Release Eritrea," a UK-based partnership advocating for Eritrea's persecuted Church. He is quoted in the Compass article as saying this latest arrest "makes it clear that far from relenting on this, the government of Eritrea is intensifying the purge" of Christians.

Pastor Weldou's family and congregation members have been unable to learn anything about where or why the minister is being held. Meanwhile, two other leading evangelical pastors have been jailed for the past 10 months without charges or trial, and the Eritrean government has neither allowed anyone to visit the prisoners, nor even disclosed where they are being detained.

VOM Newsletter Documents Plight of Persecuted Church
Voice of the Martyrs was formed in the mid 1960s by Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, who served 13 years in Communist prisons in Romania. Today the ministry publishes a monthly newsletter, and through its pages, believers are able to learn about Christians around the world who have been arrested or who are being subjected to ongoing persecution for their faith.

The ministry's newsletter is designed to inform Christians about the persecuted Church around the world and to encourage them to pray, advocate for, and support their suffering brothers and sisters in the faith, Nettleton explains. "We simply say, 'Here's what's happening with the persecuted Church: Here's what we're doing to meet these needs and to minister to them.' And, really, the rest is between the reader and the Lord," the ministry spokesman says.

According to Compass news sources, literally hundreds of Christian pastors, women, children, and even elderly men and women have been arrested and held for weeks or months over the last three years, all for being caught praying, reading the Bible, or worshipping God. At least 230 Christians are known to have been arrested in five Eritrean cities this year alone.

The U.S. Department of State recently hinted at the imminence of a potential breakthrough in its engagement with Eritrea, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia -- nations listed for the first time last September in the State Department's annual religious freedom report as countries of "particular concern." However, some Eritrean Christians living abroad are questioning whether politics may be behind the State Department rhetoric, and they are choosing remain skeptical until real progress toward religious freedom in Eritrea can be observed.

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