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ERITREA Religious Persecution [EMBARGOED FOR: 7 December 2005] Public amnesty international ERITREA Religious Persecution December 2005 AI Index: AFR 64/013/2005 INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT, 1 EASTON STREET, LONDON WC1X 0DW, UNITED KINGDOM [Embargoed for: 7 December 2005] Public amnesty international Eritrea Religious Persecution Summary AI Index: AFR 64/013/2005 Amnesty International has received disturbing reports of increasing violations in Eritrea of the right to freedom of religion, belief and conscience. While Jehovah’s Witnesses have been subjected to systematic and severe persecution for the past decade on account of their religious beliefs and refusal of compulsory military service, this report focuses on widespread detentions and other human rights violations of members of at least 36 evangelical Christian churches in the past three years, intensifying in 2005. The four main faiths – the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches and Islam – are officially recognized. In 2002, the government banned all minority religious groups and told them to register and provide details of their members and finances. None has been registered so far. In a crackdown since 2003 on the growing evangelical churches, church members have been arbitrarily detained during “home-worshipping” or at weddings. They have often been tortured or ill-treated in an attempt to force them to sign a document agreeing to stop worshipping. Many refused to sign, regarding it as a demand to deny and abandon their faith. Members of new groups of the Orthodox Church and Islam have also been detained on account of their beliefs. At least 26 pastors and priests are detained as prisoners of conscience. Other prisoners of conscience detained on account of their religious beliefs include 22 Jehovah’s Witnesses – three of them detained in Sawa army camp for over 11 years; some 1,750 evangelical church members, including children and 175 women; and dozens of Muslims. The report documents 44 incidents of arrests in the past three years. Some prisoners have been extra-judicially sentenced to prison terms by a secret security committee without any defence representation or right of appeal. Amnesty International is appealing to President Issayas Afewerki and the Eritrean government to release all religious prisoners of conscience and to end the government’s policy of repression of religious belief and freedom of conscience. The organization is renewing its appeal for the release of all prisoners of conscience detained on account of their political opinions, some of whose cases, documented in previous Amnesty International publications, are included again in this report. Amnesty International is also calling on the international community to strengthen efforts to obtain and secure protection of religious freedom and basic human rights in Eritrea. This pattern of severe religious persecution in Eritrea is continuing with no sign of the government paying attention to international publicity and protests. The government has flatly dismissed criticisms from all directions. These violations of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion are contrary to international law, including human rights treaties to which Eritrea is a party and the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, as well as contravening the Constitution of Eritrea (1997). Torture by the tying technique known as “the helicopter” has routinely been used as a punishment for members of minority religious groups , as well as peaceful political opponents and military conscripts. Arbitrary incommunicado detention of government opponents or suspected critics in army camps is widespread and long-lasting. Former government ministers, who were members of parlia ment and veterans of the government’s 30-year armed struggle for independence from Ethiopia, are held in secret. Other detainees include journalists, civil servants, asylum seekers forcibly returned by Malta and Libya, and conscription evaders. Many prisoners of conscience are detained in overcrowded metal shipping containers or underground cells. The containers are often swelteringly hot in the day and very cold at night, with no sanitary facilities and very poor food provided. Many detainees, such as those held in Karchele security prison in Asmara, are in extremely poor health and denied adequate medical treatment. The rule of law in Eritrea is severely undermined by the lack of an effective or independent judiciary. Lawyers do not dare to challenge the government in the courts. Human rights organizations to monitor human rights and press for remedies for human rights violations do not and cannot function inside Eritrea on account of the comprehensive denial of the right to freedom of expression of opinion and belief. Human rights violations by members of the security forces are committed with total impunity. In denying basic human rights and continuing to postpone implementation of the Constitution’s requirements for establishing multi-party democracy in place of the current one-party rule, and in refusing international human rights dialogue and access to the country, the Eritrean President and government have turned Eritrea into a virtually “closed” country in respect of its international community obligations. Amnesty International believes that perceived threats to the security of the country and its borders should not be used by the Government of Eritrea as a pretext for committing human rights violations or a justification for delaying action to protect human rights. This report summarizes a 31 - page document (13,999 words): Eritrea: Religious Persecution (AI Index: AFR 64/013/2005), issued by Amnesty International in December 2005. Anyone wishing further details or to take action on this issue should consult the full document. An extensive range of our materials on this and other subjects is available at http://www.amnesty.org and Amnesty International news releases can be received by email: http://www.amnesty.org/email/email_updates.html INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT, 1 EASTON STREET, LONDON WC1X 0DW, UNITED KINGDOM 2 Contents 1. Introduction: basic human rights denied..........................................................1 Fears of new armed conflict with Ethiopia .................................................................. 2 2. Religions in Eritrea – background to arrests ....................................................3 3. Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses...................................................................6 4. Crackdown on evangelical churches..................................................................8 5. Cases of arrests of religious prisoners of conscience, 2003-2005.....................9 6. Detention of Muslims .........................................................................................14 7. National military service and religion..............................................................15 Militarization of education ...................................................................................... 16 No right to conscientious objection .......................................................................... 16 Military conscripts detained on account of their religion............................................ 17 8. Torture and ill-treatment of religious prisoners of conscience......................17 9. Political prisoners and denial of the right to freedom of opinion..................19 Releases of prisoners of conscience ......................................................................... 21 10. Constitutional rights violated............................................................................21 11. International standards violated on the right to religious freedom..............22 Government’s dismissal of international criticism..................................................... 25 12. Refugees fleeing from religious persecution....................................................26 13. Amnesty International’s recommendations ....................................................27 13.1 Religious freedom............................................................................................27 13.2 The administration of justice and the rule of law ............................................28 Torture and other ill-treatment................................................................................. 28 Arbitrary and unlawful detention ............................................................................. 29 The right to fair trial............................................................................................... 29 Incommunicado or secret detention .......................................................................... 29 Human rights observance........................................................................................ 30 13.3 Recommendations to the international community.........................................30 AI Index: AFR 64/013/2005 Amnesty International December 2005 2 ERITREA: Religious Persecutions AI Index: AFR 64/013/2005 Amnesty International December 2005 ERITREA Religious Persecution 1. Introduction: basic human rights denied Amnesty International has received disturbing reports of increasing violations in Eritrea of the right to freedom of religion, belief and conscience. While Jehovah’s Witnesses have been subjected to severe persecution for the past decade on account of their religious beliefs, this report focuses on widespread detentions and other human rights
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