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| Africa: Horn |
| Eritrean Moslems Debate With Eritrean Christians About Religion |
| 2005-01-16 |
| From Compass Direct Eritrean authorities extended their crackdown on organized religion this past week to Roman Catholic citizens, arresting and jailing 25 members of the Catholic Church during a wedding rehearsal in Asmara. The victimized bride and groom had met with their wedding party on Sunday morning, January 9, to rehearse their planned ceremony two weeks before the wedding. But police inexplicably entered the building, a facility rented by the Tebadasso renewal group of the Catholic Church, and stopped the proceedings. The entire group present, including the wedding couple, was jailed at Asmara's Police Station No. 1, where they remained under arrest as of yesterday. .... The same Sunday morning, security police swooped down on a wedding ceremony being held in Barentu, a town in western Eritrea, arresting the 67 evangelical Christians present. Participants had been escorting the bride to the wedding venue when police intervened and took them all to prison, including the wedding couple. Three clergymen among the prisoners were identified as pastors Oqbamichel and Simon from the Kale Hiwot Church, and Hagos Tuomai from the Full Gospel Church. Reportedly the 67 prisoners were to be taken to the Sawa Military Training Center for "military punishment." ..... Still a third arrest was reported on January 9 in the Beleza district of northern Asmara, where four men meeting for morning prayer were arrested by the police. All members of the Kale Hiwot Church, the men are currently being held under military confinement in the Mai-Serwa camp north of Asmara. Meanwhile, Compass has confirmed that 25 of the 60 Rema Charismatic Church members arrested at a New Year's Eve celebration in Asmara have been released after signing a pledge not to participate in such meetings again. The pastor's wife had previously been set free on January 4, leaving her husband, Habteab Oqbamichel, and 33 other Rema believers still in custody at Mai-Serwa. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |