Eritrea continues to persecute Christians

From Agape Press:

The president of Open Doors USA is encouraging believers in America not to forget Christians in the Eastern African country of Eritrea, who are persecuted for their faith. Sixteen full-time pastors and nearly 900 Eritrean Christians are known to be held in prisons, military confinement camps, and other crowded detention areas after being arrested for meeting secretly for prayer and worship outside government-approved churches.

Carl Moeller is president of the ministry known as Open Doors USA. He says conditions are continuing to deteriorate for Christians in Eritrea. "These situations would be intolerable for any Christian to even conceive of happening in America," he says, with "people being arrested, held for months, even years, without trial, without charges even being brought, in places like underground cells, military internment camps, and even shipping containers."

Moeller says Christians have been detained for extended periods of time without being provided sanitary facilities or any kind of recreation. And very often, he points out, believers in this persecuted region are held without receiving a hearing or any other kind of trial, frequently without even being charged with any crime.

"The crime" the Open Doors spokesman explains, "is simply being a Christian [who is] not in one of the recognized and approved denominations." For instance, he notes, "In January a wedding party of 60 people was arrested and has been in prison every since. If you can imagine going to a wedding and ending up in jail simply for being not a member of one of the approved religious minorities of that country, that's the situation of our brothers and sisters in Eritrea right now."

Eritrea, BTW, is a member of the UN Commission on Human Rights. This is the same Commission that booted the US a few years back, and which also includes such sterling examples of “humanity” as Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

Previous coverage:
Religious persecution continues on Eritrea
US Commission cites religious persecution
Religious persecution in Eritrea
This joke is getting sick
The joke that's not funny any more
The unfunny sitcom called the Human Rights Commission

Posted by Danny Carlton at June 1, 2005 07:40 AM

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