ERITREA – Christian woman tortured to death
10/09/07
Fourth believer in a year killed for refusing to recant
Eritrean authorities tortured a woman to death on Wednesday 5 September for refusing to recant her Christian faith, the fourth such killing in less than a year.
Citing Christian sources in the East African nation, Open Doors has confirmed that 33-year old Nigsti Haile was killed for refusing to sign a letter recanting her faith.
Held at the Wi'a Military Training Centre 20 miles south of the Red Sea port of Massawa, Nigsti was one of 10 single Christian women arrested at a church gathering in Keren who have spent 18 months under severe pressure.
Eritrea outlawed independent Protestant churches in May 2002, closing their buildings and banning them from meeting even in private homes.
Nigsti was a member of a Rhema church, an independent Protestant group.
Before her arrest, Nigsti worked for a relative while studying to complete secondary-level education.
On 15 February, Magos Solomon Semere died under torture at the Adi-Nefase Military Confinement facility outside Assab, four and a half years after the Eritrean regime jailed him for worshipping in a banned Protestant church.
According to one source, the 30-year old Semere died due to physical torture and persistent pneumonia, for which he was forbidden proper medical treatment.
Last 17 October, two other Christians died under torture in Eritrea.
Two days after Immanuel Andegergesh, aged 23, and Kibrom Firemichel, 30, were arrested for holding a religious service in a private home south of Asmara, they died from torture wounds and severe dehydration in a military camp outside the town of Adi-Quala, according to eyewitnesses.
In August, Open Doors became aware that the 10 Christian women arrested earlier were separated from other prisoners and taken to the Wi'a military centre, where they underwent torture for refusing to recant.
On 19 August, ten members of the Full Gospel Church were arrested as they gathered in a house in Kahawata, a suburb of Asmara, sources said.
On 12 August, Leul Gebreab, aged 35, a pastor at the evangelical Apostolic Church, was arrested in Asmara.
No charges filed, no trials
Amnesty International said in a statement yesterday that the detainees from the Full Gospel Church are believed to be held without charge or trial in the Karchele security prison, together with dozens of other pastors and members of banned evangelical churches.
"Amnesty considers Pastor Gebreab and the 10 church members who were arrested in Asmara on 12 August to be prisoners of conscience," Amnesty reported, "as they have been detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their religious beliefs."
Since May 2002, Eritrea has officially recognised only Islam and the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran Christian churches.
At the same time, Amnesty noted, religious persecution has also affected the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
Authorities have deposed and detained the patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, Abune Antonios, due to his criticisms of government interference in church matters, Amnesty said.
The Roman Catholic Church in Eritrea is appealing against an order to hand over all its social welfare organisations – schools, medical clinics, orphanages and women's training centres – to the Ministry of Social Welfare and Labour.
More than 2,000 Eritrean Christians are imprisoned in Eritrea. All have been denied legal counsel or trial, with no written charges filed against them.
Amnesty reported that most of the more than 2,000 imprisoned Christians have been held for more than two years in harsh conditions, with little or no medical treatment.
"Members of evangelical churches have been subjected to arrest, torture and coercion by the security forces to try and force them to deny their faith," Amnesty reported.
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