Photo opportunity at 11.30am with protestors holding huge Bible with padlock outside Eritrean Embassy, 96 White Lion Street, London N1

CSW and supporters concerned for religious freedom in Eritrea will be holding a silent vigil outside the Eritrean Embassy in London, to protest at the increasing persecution of Christians in that country.

The vigil which will involve prayer, handing in a protest letter to the Eritrean Ambassador and holding aloft a huge bible with a padlock through it, will take place on Wednesday 10 December, International Human Rights Day.

The main aim of the vigil is to press for a review of the May 2003 governmental decision to outlaw several denominations, affecting hundreds of thousands of Christians. As a consequence, over 300 Christians are currently in detention, and several have been subjected to torture as authorities have sought to force them to renounce their beliefs.

In many cases the mere possession of a Bible is seen as sufficient evidence of guilt, rendering a person vulnerable to abuse, ill-treatment and detention.

A letter of protest will be handed in at the Embassy expressing CSW's deep concern at the severe repression of religious liberties currently taking place in Eritrea.

The latest news is that Eritrean police arrested and jailed Pastor Iyob of the Kale Hiwot Church at about 10.30am on November 23 in Mendefera, a market town about 30 miles south of the capital Asmara, according to news agency Compass Direct.

In separate arrests on the same day, seven of his church members, four men and three women, were taken into custody. Friends of the jailed Christians have not yet been able to confirm the alleged charges against the pastor and his church members.

The arrest of ten young women from various Pentecostal churches has also been confirmed this week. The women are incarcerated at Sawa, a military training camp in the mountains near the Sudanese border, where they were presumed to be doing their compulsory military service.

CSW has asked supporters to write to His Excellency Mr Negassi Sengal, the Eritrean Ambassador, asking him to urge his government to reconsider its policies in regard to demoninations which are legitimate elsewhere in the world. CSW has also worked with MPs to table an Early Day Motion to be circulated in the House of Commons for other MPs to sign.

Tina Lambert, CSW's Advocacy Director, said: Prayer and protest go hand in hand and will send an important message to the Eritrean government who are already the target of a CSW lobbying campaign at governmental level.

We call on the government of Eritrea to grant religious freedom to all Christians regardless of their demonination, in line with existing constitutional guarantees.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Africa's youngest country of four million people is almost evenly split between Christians and Muslims and generally interfaith relations have been good. The main problems for some Christian denominations stem from an alliance between an increasingly repressive state and the Orthodox Church.

On 21 May 2002 the Eritrean government ordered the closure of all churches not belonging to the Orthodox, Roman Catholic or Lutheran denominations. This effectively rendered every other denomination illegal.

The move came in the wake of increasing persecution of the evangelical and Pentecostal denominations. The Orthodox Church, which has a 17-century history in the country, has been alarmed by the growth of what it considers 'heretical' newer denominations, and by the loss, particularly of its younger members, to these denominations.

Repression has increased greatly since the 2002 decree, and there are over 300 Christians currently in detention, the majority of whom were arrested since the beginning of 2003. In possibly the worst incident so far, 57 teenage Christians were jailed after being found in possession of Bibles at their summer military training camp. The news agency Compass Direct reported that the teenagers were held in metal shipping containers. According to a November update, all but six of the teenagers have now been released. More recently, six men and women were detained and deprived of adequate food rations in an attempt to force them to renounce their faith.