The reported words of an Eritrean military commander to Helen Berhane, a well known gospel singer of the Rema Church who has been detained incommunicado in Mai Serwa military camp since 13 May 2004. She is currently held in a metal shipping container.

Helen Berhane is just one of many people in Eritrea who are locked up because they do not belong to an officially recognised faith. In the last 3 years, at least 26 pastors and priests, some 1750 evangelical church members and dozens of Muslims have been detained by the government. Many have been tortured and churches have been shut down.

Amnesty International today launches a report documenting 44 incidents of religious persecution since 2003. The report, Eritrea: Religious Persecution shows how there have been increasing violations in Eritrea of the right to freedom of religion, belief and conscience. Some who do not follow the officially recognised religions have been sentenced to prison terms by a secret security committee without any legal representation or right of appeal.

"All those detained for their religious beliefs must be released immediately The situation is critical and we are extremely concerned for the safety and wellbeing of hundreds of people facing this reality in Eritrea", said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa programme.

A torture technique known as "the helicopter" is routinely used as punishment for people who do not belong to an officially recognised faith. It involves someone's hands and feet being tied together behind their back. Prisoners can be left in this position for hours. Many are in extremely poor health and denied adequate medical treatment.

"The requirement for registration of religions in Eritrea should be revised to ensure it does not violate the right to practise a religion. The government must end its violent repression and ensure that international law is upheld," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of Amnesty International's Africa programme.

Amnesty International's findings show that the government has increased the violent repression of religious minorities in 2005. The crackdown, that started without any explanation in 2003, is part of a general disregard for human rights by President Issayas Afewerki's government, which has been in power since the country's independence from Ethiopia in 1991.

Background:

The detention of individuals solely because of their religious beliefs is part of the general denial of the right to freedom of expression and association in Eritrea, as well as other grave violations of basic human rights.

In 2002, the government suddenly ordered all unregistered religions to close their places of worship and stop practising their faith until they were registered. Only four main religions were immediately recognised as official faiths; these were the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches and Islam. Since then no minority religious group has succeeded in registering themselves officially.

In the past decade Jehovah's Witnesses have been severely persecuted with a total of 22 currently detained.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a bloody war of attrition

It said the order for the troops to leave within 10 days was unacceptable and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan added his voice to the condemnation.

Relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea are poor amid fears of a new war.

The expulsion would make UN observation of the border almost impossible, a BBC correspondent reports from Eritrea.

There has been no explanation for Eritrea's decision to expel the peacekeepers or why personnel from the United States, Canada and Europe including Russia were singled out.

But diplomats in Eritrea assume it is an expression of Eritrea's frustration that the international community has done so little to finalise the demarcation of the Ethiopian-Eritrean border, the BBC's Ed Harris reports from Asmara.

Reports suggest at least 150 staff may be affected - mainly observers and civilian staff.

Ethiopia has called Eritrea's move "inappropriate and unhelpful".

We have no intention of jeopardising a fundamental principle of the universality of the peacekeeping operation Jean-Marie Guehenno head of UN peacekeeping

The two states went to war in 1998. A peace deal in 2000 led to a border ruling by an independent commission.

'Without preconditions'

Mr Annan said in a statement the Eritrean order was inconsistent with the country's obligations to respect the international character of UN staff.

"The United Nations cannot accede to Eritrea's request and demands that the government immediately and unequivocally rescind its decision without preconditions," he said.

The 15 members of the Security Council did not outline any sanctions against Eritrea but said they would consult on how to respond to what they called "the unacceptable action".

TENSE BORDER June 2000: Peace agreement Apr 2002: Border ruling Mar 2003: Ethiopian complaint over Badme rejected Sep 2003: Ethiopia asks for new ruling Feb 2005: UN concern at military build-up Oct 2005: Eritrea restricts peacekeepers' activities Nov 2005: UN sanctions threat if no compliance with 2000 deal Q&A: Horn's bitter war

Eritrea announced its move in a letter which warned the UN mission in Eritrea it was advisable to comply.

The head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, said his impression was that Eritrea was frustrated with the absence of progress on resolving the border dispute.

Eritrea has complained about Ethiopia's refusal to accept the demarcation of their border by an independent commission following the war.

Mr Guehenno said the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (Unmee) was already in a difficult situation because of Eritrea's flight ban on UN helicopters and other restrictions but that it was not planning to pull out any of the people who had been mentioned.

"We have no intention of jeopardising a fundamental principle of the universality of the peacekeeping operation representing the whole of the international community," he said in New York.

Digging in

There are some 3,300 peacekeepers and military observers from some 40 countries, 191 civilians and 74 UN volunteers working at Unmee.

UN troops, including some 1,500 from India, patrol a 900km long buffer zone which is just 25km wide and falls on the Eritrean side of the old border.

Ethiopia has not yet withdrawn its forces from the town of Badme, which was awarded to Eritrea.

Frustrated with the stalemate, Eritrea has imposed restrictions on the activities of the UN peacekeeping force patrolling the border buffer zone in the past few months.

Both sides have reinforced their military positions.

The BBC News Website examines the main issues behind the border conflict.

How did the border conflict begin?

The border between Ethiopia and Eritrea has been described as a geographer's nightmare.

Dusty Badme was at the centre of the border dispute

It is a nightmare which became a reality as soon as the neighbours' once-friendly relationship turned sour.

From 1962 to 1993, Eritrea was ruled as a province of Ethiopia - and any argument over the borders was little more than a squabble between two local authorities.

So when Eritrea and Ethiopia separated amicably in 1993, no one paid too much attention to the details of the divorce settlement - least of all to a few hundred square kilometres of sparsely populated land in a region called Badme which included a small dusty town of the same name.

But when relations between the two neighbours deteriorated, Ethiopia accused Eritrea of invading a piece of land that was under Ethiopian administration.

The Eritreans replied that the land in question was rightfully theirs.

The result was a war fought on three fronts at the cost of tens of thousands of lives.

Who set up the boundary commission?

The commission was set up by the two countries as part of the Algiers peace settlement signed by both parties in 2000.

It followed a model that has been used in other cases around the world, where arbitration tribunals, instead of the International Court of Justice, have been used.

There were five lawyers - including two nominated by each country, who then nominated a president of the commission who has the casting vote.

So what were the Commission's terms of reference?

The commission was asked to interpret colonial treaties as the basis for the boundary.

This frontier was fixed in 1902 by a treaty between the Italian government, which had colonised Eritrea, and the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II - ruler of what was then one of the few independent African states.

The border is approximately 900 km long, and contains some of the driest, hottest and most hostile territory in the world. Part of it is defined by rivers.

Most of the border area under dispute is sparsely inhabited - barren land used as traditional grazing grounds by local people.

In terms of natural resources, the disputed area has virtually no value at all.

Both countries promised the UN that they would accept whatever decision was reached and there was no right of appeal.

What was the ruling and why was it not implemented?

Much of the commission's ruling in May 2002 was not contentious, but Ethiopia objected to the awarding of Badme to Eritrea - although the town was controversially not marked on Eritrea's map.

After seeking clarification and failing to get the commission to reverse its decision, Ethiopia insisted on talks before it would co-operate with the physical demarcation of the border.

Since then the UN has become increasingly frustrated at the cost of maintaining a peacekeeping force along the narrow buffer zone on the border.

Diplomatic attempts to get the two sides talking have faltered - primarily because Eritrea has refused to discuss the issue until Ethiopia accepts the ruling - something which until now Ethiopia has failed to do.

So what happens next?

Maintaining a state of hostility is not in the interests of either Ethiopia or Eritrea, and the closure of their border is deeply damaging to both sides.

In theory, Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's announcement in parliament that his government accepts the ruling "in principle" could enable talks to begin if Eritrea agrees.

It also permits diplomats to push ahead with efforts to resolve the Badme issue in a way which allows both sides to claim they have not lost.

One possibility is that Ethiopia could continue to administer Badme, while acknowledging Eritrean sovereignty over the area. It might even be possible, with a little goodwill, to agree to a joint administration of Badme.

The reality is, though, that the physical demarcation of the border placing Badme in Eritrea still looks a long way off - and remains a very bitter pill for Ethiopia to swallow.

The danger is that Eritrean frustration might provoke renewed conflict.

What is the role of the UN peacekeepers ?

Shortly after the peace deal in 2000, the UN Security Council set up Unmee and authorised a force of up to 4,200 military personnel to monitor the ceasefire and ensure the security aspects of peace deal are observed by both sides.

Expected to be there for a short period, UN troops are operating in some of the most inhospitable terrain in the world. They patrol an area some 25km wide and 900km long on the Eritrean side of the border with Ethiopia.

At present there are some 3,300 peacekeepers and military observers from some 40 countries, 191 civilians and 74 UN volunteers working for Unmee. Some 1,500 Indian troops provide the largest contingent in the force which is led by Major-General Rajender Singh.

But their continuing presence five years after a peace deal has become a costly headache for the UN. The bill is now $1bn and rising.

With recent restrictions imposed on their activities by Eritrea the UN forces are being left in an increasingly untenable position and with little prospect of border demarcation, the chances of the force being pulled out must be growing.

However, to leave now would be seen by critics as an expensive UN failure.

Almost four weeks after the popular revolt in Addis Ababa in November of 2005 in which more than 100 people were killed according to human right groups, shocking news is slowly emerging indicating that more than 40,000 political prisoners have been detained in open air prisons (read Nazi-style concentration camps) in the Dedessa valley of South West Ethiopia. For the first time in 11 years since almost a million Tutsis were slaughtered by Interhuame militias in the green hills of Rwanda in 1994 and 10 years since the Summer 1995 massacre of Bosnians, another human tragedy is unfolding in the green valleys of the Dedessa region of Ethiopia where Mr. Meles Zenawi's secret troops called Agazi Militia are torturing, starving, and killing political detainees from Addis Ababa. The latest reports indicate that as many as 50 people have already been shot and buried at mass burial sites, and almost as many people have died en-route to the concentration camps. In fact, there is fear that it is a matter of time before diseases, torture and outright random killing by this government Agazi militia fashioned after the monstrous Interhuame militia of Rwanda kill the majority of the more than 40,000 political prisoners from Addis Ababa.

While news has been slowly coming to Addis that Mr. Meles' Agazi militia has built a death camp in the Dedessa valley, it was only this weekend that an international news agency (Channel 4 of the UK) had broken the news to the outside world. Confronted by this frightening news, the usually timid Mr. Tim Clarke who represents the EU in Ethiopia sounded symphatetic to the victims while his colleague Mr. Robert Dewar, the UK's ambassador has preferred to appease the increasingly violent and Nazi-style appetite of Mr. Meles Zenawi. The US is yet to make any official statement on this impending genocide. In the Ethiopian community inside Ethiopia and outside the country, there is increasing nervousness that the only noise that the West will make will be, sadly, after the fact.

At this stage where the lives of more than 40,000 are threatened by an Interhuame-styled Agazi militia in a death camp, Ethiopians plead with the rest of humanity to come to their rescue by stopping this mad man, Meles Zenawi. For the EU which pays almost a billion Euro per year to Meles, and the World Bank which offers him and his cronies another $ 500 million, this is a crucial time where the have to exercise their power to stop this nightmare. It is the $1.5 billion that these two organizations give to Meles that pays for the salary and weaponry of the Agazi militia. Will the good citizens of the European Union and the United States approve their tax money being used to support a murderous militia ready to kill 40,000 innocent young Ethiopians and bury them in mass burial sites?

We think the next 10-15 days leading to Christmas of 2005 will be very critical for the World to stand up for the rescue of lives before 40,000 innocent Ethiopian men and women. All the world has to do is to speak up and stand up to this mad man who thinks he can kill thousands of people to stay in power. The tragedy could be averted if the more than 120 embassies and consulates in Addis Ababa stand up for human life. Sadly, a tragedy of no parallel will indeed occur if all these diplomats representing the weak as well as the mighty powers of the world prefer to appease the new monster of Africa, Mr. Meles Zenawi. History, as Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia said in 1936, will judge the world if no action is taken to save these 40,000 lives!