On the evening of April 17, as members of Eritrea’s Jehovah’s Witnesses Community in Asmara gathered to celebrate the Memorial of the Last Supper, Eritrean security officials surrounded the place and loaded them up in trucks.  After several days of interrogation, all but five have been released.

Using a penal code inherited from the Derg, Ethiopia’s military junta, the Eritrean government has banned congregations of more than seven persons in private homes.  Witnesses who used to worship at their “Kingdom Halls,” no longer can after the 21 May 2002 government decree closing “non-traditional” churches.   

The detained include two elders of the community, Hadas (no last name) and Amanuel Haile.

The memorial of the Last Supper is the only holiday observed by Witnesses.

Beginning in May 2002, the government of Eritrea has targeted for closure the churches of “non-traditional” Christian “sects” including Faith Mission, Seven Day Adventists, Kale Hiwot (Word of Life) and other charismatic and Pentecostal adherents including Mulu Wengel (Full Gospel) and Rema.   In February and March of this year, hundreds of the faithful were arrested and remain incarcerated.

But the government’s targeting of Jehovah’s Witnesses dates back considerably further back than that.

Background

·         During the armed struggle for the liberation of Eritrea, the progressive fronts were suspicious of all religions but particularly those which, in the opinion of the leadership, were manufactured by “imperialists” to deny the oppressed the right to self-defense through use of force.

·         The Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose faith teaches them to disengage from worldly politics, were condemned by the political fronts as unpatriotic;

·         The  April 1993 referendum process had two parts: (a) citizenship registration and (b) casting ballots.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses registered for citizenship and secured ID cards but did not cast their ballots.  Government officials blamed the Jehovah’s Witnesses when explaining why “only” 98.5% of the registered citizens voted;

·         On October 5, 1994, a presidential “decree” was passed revoking the business license of Witnesses, instructing civil servants to report the names of Witnesses, which resulted in their being fired from their jobs; as well as restricting their travel.

·         In 1995, the “national service” proclamation was passed mandating military service on all citizens of certain age groups.  Witnesses refused to participate on the grounds of religious faith.   On March 1, 1995, the government issued a particularly inflammatory statement, which was broadcast over the radio the next day, lecturing the Witnesses of having “watched silently while the Eritrean people were killed indiscriminately, cannot talk about morality now” and warning them that the “Eritrean people developed a strong hatred of them” and “patience has its limits.”

·         Although the maximum penalty for refusing to participate in “national service” is three years, the government has arrested some Witnesses for over eight years.   Like almost all detained Eritreans, the Witnesses have not been charged with any crime, nor have their cases been brought to a court of law.

·         Both Amnesty International and the US State Department report that Witnesses and the faithful have been subjected to “various forms of extreme physical punishment” and “beatings and ill-treatment.”