Print this pageJehovah’s Witnesses in Eritrea
January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2004
Abuses of Religious Freedom
There are 20 Jehovah’s Witnesses currently in prison in Eritrea.
Ten men are in Sawa Prison as conscientious objectors to military service. (Aron Abraha, Paulos Eyassu, Mussie Fessehaye, Isaac Mogos, Negede Teklemariam, Ambakom Tsegezab, and four other Witnesses who are unidentified)
Eight Jehovah’s Witnesses remain in Mai Serwa prison. (Males: Asmerom Beraki, Tsegabirhan Berhe, Tekle Ghebrehiwet, Tecle Kebede, Yemane Tsegay, and Hagos Woldemichael. Females: Akberet Ghebremichael and Rebka Ghebretinsaye).
Two young men are in prison since July 2004 in an undisclosed location (Fessehaye Gebretsadiq and Yohannes Guish).
Background
In 1994, Eritrea’s president decreed that Jehovah’s Witnesses had revoked their citizenship by not participating in the national referendum and not participating in military service. He therefore decreed that Jehovah’s Witnesses were not allowed to work in any government offices; he revoked their business licenses and rescinded their identity cards and travel documents. This mistreatment continues until the present and has created great economic hardship and, in the case of some, long-term imprisonment.
Approximately 250 families who are Jehovah’s Witnesses have fled Eritrea and sought asylum outside the country because of the hardships. At least 100 Jehovah’s Witnesses lost their employment because of their religion, and this has affected at least 325 persons. Thirty-eight Jehovah’s Witnesses were denied their business licenses. Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot be issued national identity cards, and thus they cannot purchase land for homes, legalize their marriages, and receive driver’s licenses, passports or other travel documents. At least 36 families have been expelled from their homes. Because of societal and governmental pressure, Jehovah’s Witnesses have problems renting homes.
Thirty-one children who are Jehovah’s Witnesses were expelled from school because they refused to buy a membership ticket of the political party called NUEYS (National Union of Eritrean Youths and Students) and refused to salute the flag. For Witness schoolchildren, education is possible only up to and including the 11th grade. The government decreed that all high school students must go to Sawa after completing the 11th grade and may only continue their education in Sawa after completing military service. However, the many pressures related to conscientious objection to military service make expulsion likely for Jehovah’s Witnesses even before the 11th grade. Jehovah’s Witnesses cannot receive any higher education because of the obligatory national military service. Some Witness children remain for a year or two without education until their parents can put them into a private school.
In May 2003, the Eritrean government denied visas to an attorney of Jehovah’s Witnesses from the United States and a senior representative of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Kenya when they sought to travel to Asmara and meet with officials to discuss the ongoing problems facing Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Religious Persecution
In mid-2002, the Eritrean government threatened action against all religious “sects” in the country. The government commanded the military police to close all meeting places of what the government terms religious “sects” and ordered them not to meet anymore. Only four major religions in the country are not affected. With this new development, some of Jehovah’s Witnesses whose homes have Kingdom Halls (houses of worship) in their compounds received verbal warnings from government officials that they would have to discontinue religious meetings in their homes or the government would shut them down. It was not a vain threat.
On April 16, 2003, Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Hadas Alem Congregation in Asmara had just completed the Memorial commemoration (an annual religious observance of the death of Jesus Christ) when the meeting place was surrounded by police. There were 164 in attendance, including children. All present were held in custody and interrogated throughout the night of April 16. Some children and interested persons (non-Witnesses who were in attendance) were released the next day. All remaining children and interested persons were released after three days, 65 adults after eight days, and all remaining imprisoned Witnesses were released on May 14, 2003, almost one month after their detainment. Further acts of religious persecution occurred in 2004, as detailed below.
- On January 24, 2004, thirty-eight Jehovah’s Witnesses and interested persons from the Saba Congregation in Asmara were arrested. They were attending a religious meeting in a private home. The police took this group of 38 men, women, and children, ranging in age from 6 to 90, to the police station, where they were detained. Items in the meeting place, such as chairs and publications, were confiscated.
- On January 26, one woman who worked at the Norwegian Embassy was released, following a discussion between her manager and the police. On January 27, after three nights in detention at the police station, nine children were released. Five minors remained in police custody along with the adults.
- The 28 remaining detainees were transferred to the Mai Serwa prison facility outside Asmara, although initially their location was unknown to their families. Two Ethiopian Witnesses from the Saba Congregation were separated from the others and sent to the Mai Temenai prison in Asmara. No one was allowed to see any of the Witness prisoners. Some prisoners were released during the following months. The remaining Witnesses were confined in metal shipping containers that served as prison cells. All the men were put in one metal shipping container and the women in another.
- In early June 2004, three other Witnesses from the Kahawta Congregation were arrested and imprisoned in the Mai Serwa prison, apparently in retribution for the escape of a relative who had been in prison in the Sawa camp. The escaped prisoner’s father and mother, Tecle Kebede and Askalu Ghebrehiwot, both 55 years old, and his 19-year-old sister, Shulamit Tecle, were arrested by security personnel. Hagos Woldemichael, a full-time minister of Jehovah’s Witnesses who was merely visiting the family at the time, was also arrested and imprisoned in Mai Serwa.
- Two more young men who are Jehovah’s Witnesses (22-year-old Fessehaye Gebretsadiq and 20-year-old Yohannes Guish) from the Saba Congregation were taken in July 2004 while they were sharing their faith with others. We are not aware of their location or condition.
- On August 27, 2004, two Ethiopian Witnesses (Tedros Atsbaha, 25 years old, and Samson Tesfaalem, 24 years old) were released from prison but were forced to leave Eritrea and were sent to Ethiopia by means of the Red Cross. They were among those arrested from the Saba Congregation back in January and confined in the Mai Temenai prison in Asmara. While in prison, they were severely beaten in an attempt to force them to compromise their religious convictions, which they refused to do. They are now separated from their families who remain in Eritrea, where they had lived their whole lives.
- On September 2, 2004, three male Jehovah’s Witnesses (Ghebresilassie Adhanom, 94 years old; Gebrehiwot Tedla, 78 years old; and Sertsu Yilma, 55 years old) were released from the Mai Serwa prison, after enduring harsh living conditions in the metal shipping container.
- During the week of September 11, 2004, one of the women prisoners from Mai Serwa, 19-year-old Shulamit Tecle, was released on bail to an Asmara hospital for medical care. Although initially her condition seemed critical, she is now improving. After she was released from the hospital, she went to a relative’s home since her parents were in prison.
- As of December 2004, there are eight Jehovah’s Witnesses who remain in Mai Serwa prison.
Males: Asmerom Beraki, 50 years old; Tsegabirhan Berhe, 41 years old; Tekle Ghebrehiwet, 40 years old; Tecle Kebede, 55 years old; Yemane Tsegay, 41 years old; and Hagos Woldemichael.
Females: Akberet Ghebremichael, 30 years old, and Rebka Ghebretinsaye, 39 years old. - Additionally, there are two young men who have been in prison since July 2004 in an undisclosed location.
Males: Fessehaye Gebretsadiq, 22 years old, and Yohannes Guish, 20 years old.
Conscientious Objection to Military Service
The national military service requirement has no regulations or provisions for conscientious objection. To avoid being arrested by the ever-present MPs who patrol the streets, most young men who are Jehovah’s Witnesses between the ages of 18 and 40 are in hiding. If arrested, they are taken to a military camp, where they are detained, severely beaten, and undergo various other forms of torture.
Three Jehovah’s Witnesses (Paulos Eyassu, Isaac Mogos, and Negede Teklemariam) are still imprisoned in the Sawa Prison after ten years. They are denied any visitors, including their families. They were imprisoned on September 24, 1994 because of their conscientious objection to military service for religious reasons. No charges have been filed against them and they have never been given a trial.
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of their arrest (September 24, 2004), a press release entitled “A decade in an Eritrean prison, without charges,” was posted on the official media Web site of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It states: “The families were deeply grieved at first. Every day since then, worry is added to their grief. They are afraid to speak about it or share what little they do know, for fear of adverse consequences on the men in prison.” This is how friends describe the plight of the families of Paulos Eyassu, Negede Teklemariam and Isaac Mogos—imprisoned in Eritrea on September 24, 1994, without charges or trial. These young men refused to join the military and take up arms. Had they been charged for that “crime,” the maximum prison sentence for conscientious objection is three years. Yet a decade later they still await a fair resolution. They are detained in the Sawa Prison and are denied visitors, including their families. The three men are now 33, 32 and 30 years old respectively.”
Additionally, another seven Jehovah’s Witnesses are imprisoned in the Sawa Prison for conscientious objection to military service. These include Aron Abraha, who was arrested in May 2001; Mussie Fessehaye, who was arrested in 2003; and Ambakom Tsegezab, who was arrested in February 2004. Ambakom has reportedly been put in iron chains. Four male Jehovah’s Witnesses (no names available at this time) were taken on different occasions to Sawa since July 2004. We have not yet heard from them to report on their condition.