For Paulus, an Eritrean refugee in northern Ethiopia, a helicopter is not only an aircraft people can spot in the sky above. It is also a form of torture which forces victims to balance on their belly with hands and feet tied together and legs bent behind their back.
The evangelical Christian said he knows “the helicopter” well because, he claims, he was tied in that position for 136 hours in an effort to pressure him to recant his faith.
“They kept asking me to sign a document,” he told BBC News in a report last week, “and agree to not participate in church activities or express my faith in any form. I was told I would be untied and released the minute I agreed to their requests.”
Sitting in Shimelba refugee camp close to the border of Eritrea, Paulus told of different torture techniques he endured in his homeland for being an evangelical Christian.
He is among a growing number of Eritrean Christians fleeing the country to escape religious persecution. Inside Shimelba refugee camp where Paulus lives is the Ebenezer Evangelical Church where he and others like him can worship freely without fear of persecution – unlike back home.
Eritrea, a small country in East Africa on the Red Sea, is one of the worst persecutors of Christians in the world. The government is highly suspicious of newer Christian movements such as the Evangelical and Pentecostal churches and frequently harasses their followers. A harsh crackdown began five years ago on all churches outside of the government-approved Orthodox, Catholic or Lutheran denominations
