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Past News on Christian
Persecution
6/28/04 China (CSW)
Christian Aid Worker Set to be Tried
The Japanese aid worker Mr Noguchi, who is
detained in China for helping North Koreans, is due to appear in court in
Nanning on Monday 28th June. We would be very grateful if you could pray
for him. Other aid workers have been sentenced to years of imprisonment
for similar activities and we would be grateful if you could pray that he
will not suffer a similar punishment. Please also pray for the two North
Koreans who were arrested with him. One is a woman in her 40s who was born
in Japan and taken to North Korea by her mother. The other is a man in his
50s who was born in West Japan and moved to North Korea in the early
1960s. Mr Noguchi initially refused to be released over fear of their
welfare and we continue to be concerned over their fate.
6/28/04 Sri Lanka (Missions Insider
www.christianaid.org)
Falsely Accused Buddhists Attempt to Halt the Spread of Christianity
Since the death of one of Sri Lanka's most
venerated Buddhist monks last December, Christians have faced increased
persecution from Buddhists there. This particular monk, who aroused
Buddhist society against Christians, died of a heart attack. Rumors
spread, however, that he was murdered by Christians. Buddhist attacks on
Christian churches and prayer centers began to spread as a result. A gang
of Buddhists recently demanded that a missionary demolish his church
building, which has operated in the region for 28 years. Police officers
were stationed outside of the church after Buddhists damaged the windows
and roof, but they were virtually powerless against the larger number of
the crowd determined to end the presence of Christianity there. "We can no
longer hold open-air and cottage meetings or distribute tracts," a native
missionary has reported. Moreover, they say that since Sri Lanka is a
Buddhist country, the people should not be allowed to change their
religion." In support of the Buddhists, the communist party in Sri Lanka
issued a statement condemning Christian conversions as a threat to the
social fabric and inter-religious harmony in Sri Lanka.
6/28/04 Turkmenistan (Forum 18)
Police Control of Believers Set to Continue
In an apparent sign that they intend to
keep tight control of religious communities, officers of the police sixth
department, which fights organized crime and terrorism, summoned at least
four religious leaders in early June. Officers demanded full information
about current and planned activities, and names and addresses of all
members, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Intermittent raids on religious
communities continue as unregistered religious activity remains illegal.
One Protestant told Forum 18 of serious threats in repeated raids on a
church in Dashoguz in May. A Jehovah's Witness elder said five local
officials confiscated two Bibles in a 10 June raid on a private home,
adding that it is too early for them to apply for registration. "Can we
apply when some of our lads are still in prison? We won't lodge an
application until our community can function freely." Only four minority
communities - the Adventists, the Baha'is, the Baptists and the Hare
Krishnas - have gained registration since March.
6/28/04 Saudi Arabia (CharismaNOW/ ICC)
Indian National Abducted and Tortured by Police for "Spreading
Christianity"
An Indian national abducted and tortured by
religious police for "spreading Christianity" remains jailed without trial
weeks after his detention. Brian Savio O'Connor, 36, was accosted in the
Mursalat district of Riyadh on March 25 by four policemen, Compass Direct
reported. After discovering that O'Connor was a Christian, they beat him
for seven hours. In response to questions, O'Connor admitted that he did
preach the Bible, but denied converting Muslims to Christianity.
Authorities then charged him with preaching Christianity, selling liquor
and peddling drugs. An airline cargo agent for the last six years,
O'Connor currently shares a windowless cell with 16 other inmates at
Riyadh's Al-Hair Prison. At least two of his cellmates have come to faith
in Christ during his imprisonment and others have reportedly asked him to
pray for them. The All India Catholic Union, the Indian Bishops'
Conference and officials of the Indian Embassy have filed appeals to
authorities on O'Connor's behalf, but their inquiries have gone
unanswered, Compass reported. According to O'Connor's older brother,
Raymond, who lives in India, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh told him:
"Everything is in the hands of the Saudis. We cannot do anything."
http://www.charismanews.com/a.php?ArticleID=9307
6/25/04 China (Correspondents Report: ABC Radio National)
Chinese Government Denies Persecution of Catholics
There was major row between the Chinese government
and the Vatican last week, amid accusations that a Roman Catholic Bishop
had been arrested in the country's north for no other reason that his
faith. China has denied the claim, but the incident has underlined the
determination of the communist authorities to dissuade the Chinese people
from believing in anything greater than the party. Religion in China is
too important to be left to the religious. Be it Tibetan Buddhism, Islam,
or Christianity, China’s Communist Party wants to play a part. Religion is
now tolerated in China far more than it ever was in the days of Chairman
Mao. But the Chinese don’t enjoy freedom of worship. This week the Vatican
expressed deep pain over what it called the arrest of an 84-year-old
Catholic bishop in northern China. Bishop Zhao Zhendong, it said, had not
been heard from since late May. Authorities had also picked up two other
bishops in the same province at the same time. But while they’d been
released, the Vatican said Bishop Zhao had not been. Chinese officials
denied the man had been arrested. The State Security Department, and
China’s Religious Affairs Bureau, said the bishop had been receiving
religious policy training, and had returned to a Christian village where
there were no telephones. The American-based organization, the Cardinal
Kung Foundation, says the incident is in keeping with the way Catholics
are treated in China. The foundation tries to help members of China’s
underground Roman Catholic Church. Spokesman, Joseph Kung, says believers
are in full communion with the Pope and the Catholic Church as it exists
around the world. Not like those from the officially sanctioned Patriotic
Association Catholic Church.
The Patriotic Association only preach to answer to the central government
of China. And also, in their Bible, printed in China for the Patriotic
Association, there are references about the authority of the holy father
of the Pope. And when these references to the authority of the Pope were
all scratched out, leaving a blank there. It’s hard to know the exact
truth. But some people estimate there are ten million members of the
underground Roman Catholic Church in China, compared to four million in
the approved church. Life for these and other religious outsiders is hard.
A recent US State Department report said they face official interference,
harassment, and repression. This is at a time when China is undergoing
remarkable change. Life for many people under Communism has never been as
good as it is now. But Joseph Kung believe that things have not improved
for those people wanting to believe in something more powerful than the
Communist Party. The economic improvements in China have little or nothing
to do with religious freedom practiced in China. Yes, the economy has been
improved very much in the last few years, but the practice of religious
freedom in China is getting worse, and they are more restrictive for the
religious beliefs to exercise their religious rights for their activities.
So unfortunately it is not true because the economy is getting better so
the religious freedom is getting better. That is not true.
6/25/04 Iraq (ANS)
Over One Hundred Killed in Iraq as Christians Bury Their Dead
Over 60
people were killed and hundreds wounded as car bombs detonated near a
police academy, a hospital and several police stations in the northern
city of Mosul Thursday, June 24, just as Christians there prepared to
burry two young Assyrian sisters who were shot and killed earlier in
Thursday's violence, the most bloodiest in months, also spread to other
area's and rose the total death toll to over one hundred, news reports and
Iraqi officials claimed. The latest violence linked Islamic extremists,
also underscored fear among Iraq's Christian minority, less than a week
before the American-led coalition officially ends its "occupation" and
hands over power to transitional government.
The violence in Mosul, known in the Bible as Nineveh where prophet Jonah
brought the message of repentance, overshadowed plans to burry two Iraqi
sisters who worked for a big American firm before they were killed in a
drive-by shooting this week near their home in the southern city of Basra,
relatives told the Reuters news service. Janet and Shatha, aged 38 and 25,
worked for the US company Bechtel, which has been awarded major
infrastructure reconstruction contracts in Iraq, their father, Sadah
Audishow was quoted as saying. Audishow, said he had been waiting at the
window for his girls to return from work when he heard gunshots and saw a
white pick-up truck speeding past. “I had been waiting for my daughters to
come home at five ’clock,” said Audishow, an Assyrian Christian who works
and lives in the church with his family. “I picked one of them up and she
was dead. I went to pick up the other but found her dead too,” he told
Reuters, while his shirt still stained with blood from the night before.
Neighbors said men in the truck had opened fire on the girls’ car, Reuters
reported. There have been several killings of Christians that involved
both shootings and cutting of throats in recent weeks and months, human
rights watchdogs and church sources say.
6/25/04 Saudi Arabia (WorldTribune.com)
Saudi Security Knew Johnson's Location
Saudi
opposition sources said Saudi security commanders knew of the location of
Al Qaida chief Abul Aziz Al Muqrin at least three days before he executed
a U.S. hostage. The Washington-based Saudi Institute said Saudi
authorities knew of the whereabouts of the Al Qaida cell that abducted and
threatened to kill Lockheed Martin engineer Paul Johnson. But the
institute said the Saudi government decided not to move until Johnson,
captured on June 12, was executed. "The Saudi government knew the location
of a number of the terrorists but waited until they killed American
hostage Paul Johnson before moving against them," the Saudi Institute said
in a statement on Tuesday.
6/25/04 Kenya (ANS)
Man Brutally Murdered for Conversion to Christianity from Mungiki
On Tuesday
8 June, the head of Simon Ndabi Kamore was found wrapped in green plastic
on the pavement near the bus stop “where he had been preaching his new
found religion three days ago on Sunday”. His body has not yet been found.
(Numerous grisly rumours abound as to what has happened to his torso.)
Simon Ndabi Kamore, a former member of the outlawed Mungiki sect, had
denounced the sect after converting to Christianity and paid the ultimate
price. The East African Standard reports, “The murder comes in the wake of
a recent revelation that fanatical Mungiki adherents have in the recent
past been attacking and killing any sect member who dares to reconvert to
another religion or disassociates himself with the outlawed outfit.”
Earlier this year police placed Mungiki defectors on a 24-hour guard
following the brutal murder of three members and the kidnapping of several
who had openly denounced the sect. The killings have included those of
Pastor James Irungu Njenga and his wife Florence, who were shot dead in
March 2004 at their home in the Kiamaiko slum in Nairobi, in front of
their children. Most Mungiki members have a Christian background.
Multitudes have been recruited from amongst young, nominal, disillusioned
or dissatisfied church members. Some Mungiki members recently have left
the sect and recommitted their lives to Jesus Christ. Last year Mungiki
leaders gave defectors an ultimatum: return to the sect by January 2004 or
be killed. At least 18 people have been murdered since the deadline
expired, allegedly by a highly skilled Mungiki hit squad. Since its rise
in the late 1990s the Mungiki sect has left a trail of arson, murder,
forced oaths, forced circumcision, extortion and terror in its wake. Most
recently, on Monday evening 14 June, Mungiki sect members rampaged through
Mlango Kubwa, Pangani, slashing people with machetes, allegedly in
retribution against residents who had complained to the police that
Mungiki sect members were extorting “protection money” by force. Mungiki
sect members dragged 13-year-old Evelyn Mumbua from her home while her
mother was at church. They took her into the street, slit her throat and
threatened to kill anyone who attempted to assist her. Evelyn Mumbua bled
to death.
6/24/04 Serbia/Montenegro (AP)
Churches and Homes Destroyed in Latest Attacks
Recent
ethnic violence has dealt a ``devastating blow'' to the process of
repatriating tens of thousands of people who fled the 1998-1999 war in
Kosovo, a U.N. official said Tuesday. More than 200,000 Serbs and other
ethnic minorities streamed out of Kosovo in mid-1999 following a NATO air
war that ended a Serb crackdown on the province's independence-seeking
ethnic Albanian majority. Only about 10,000 of Kosovo's displaced have
returned, and a new round of violence against ethnic Serbs three months
ago has slowed that influx significantly, said Peggy Hicks, the U.N.
official in charge of the repatriations. The mob attacks by ethnic
Albanians in mid-March "destroyed the confidence and the trust'' between
the two communities, Hicks said. Nineteen people were killed and over 900
injured in rioting after the drowning deaths of two ethnic Albanian
children were blamed on Kosovo Serbs. Dozens of Serb churches and
monasteries and thousands of their homes were destroyed in just a few days
of rampage. International and local officials hoped that 2004 would see
increased returns. But the rioting in March prompted another 4,000 people
to flee. "The March violence dealt a devastating blow to our hopes for
returns for this year,'' Hicks said, adding that repatriations were three
months behind schedule. Though formally part of Serbia-Montenegro - which
succeeded Yugoslavia - Kosovo has been run by the United Nations since
mid-1999. Most of the displaced people are Serbs who fled real or
threatened ethnic Albanian intimidation. Serbia and Kosovo's Serbs
strongly oppose the Albanian majority's demands for independence. U.N. and
local authorities in Kosovo are revising plans for repatriations as part
of a larger U.N. policy paper that lays out guidelines for the province's
political future, Hicks said.
6/23/04 Iraq (AP)
Islamists Vow to Carry on Jihad Until Islamic Rule is Back on Earth
A recording
purportedly made by the mastermind of bombings and kidnappings in Iraq
threatened to assassinate Iraq's interim prime minister and fight the
Americans "until Islamic rule is back on Earth." The audio recording was
found Wednesday on a Web site that serves as a clearinghouse of Islamic
extremist statements. It is supposedly from Jordanian-born terrorist Abu
Musab al-Zarqawi, whose network has been targeted by two U.S. airstrikes
since Saturday. Al-Zarqawi's group, Monotheism and Jihad, claimed
responsibility for the beheading of American hostage Nicholas Berg and Kim
Sun-il, a South Korean whose decapitated body was found Tuesday evening
between Baghdad and Fallujah. ...In the audiotape, the speaker thought to
be al-Zarqawi told Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, that "we
will continue the game with you until the end." The speaker said "we will
not get bored" until "we make you drink from the same glass" as Izzadine
Saleem, the Iraqi governing Council president killed last month in a
car-bombing claimed at al-Zarqawi's group. "We will carry on our jihad
against the Western infidel and the Arab apostate until Islamic rule is
back on earth," the voice said.
6/23/04 Iraq (ANS)
South Korean Christian Beheaded in Iraq
A South
Korean translator working for a company that supplies equipment to US
liberation forces in Iraq has been executed after a deadline set by his
captors passed. Al jazeera television network reported that in a videotape
it received, the resistance group Jamat al-Tawhid and Jihad said it was
fulfilling a pledge it made that the 33-old-year South Korean translator
Kim Sun-Il would be beheaded if the group’s demands were not met by the
South Korean government. The captors threatened on Sunday to kill Kim (who
was captured last Thursday near Fallujah), in 24 hours if South Korea did
not cancel its plan to deploy 3,000 additional troops to Iraq. South Korea
rejected the demand, Al Jazeera reported, and on Monday said it would send
forces to Iraq despite an earlier video showing Kim begging for his life.
Kim, an evangelical Christian and Arabic speaker had worked in Iraq for a
year as a translator for a South Korean firm supplying goods to the U.S.
military. CNN reported that a senior coalition official in Iraq said the
body, which was found by U.S. military police west of Baghdad, appeared to
have been thrown from a vehicle. “The man had been beheaded, and the head
was recovered with the body,” the official said. CNN reported that
Pentagon sources said the body had been booby-trapped with explosives.
6/22/04 Nigeria (Compass)
Religious Violence Plagues Christians and Nigeria
Religious
violence continues to plague the central Nigerian state of Plateau,
despite the declaration of a state of emergency. Police authorities say
Muslims now employ guerilla tactics to attack Christians. Five people died
on May 18 in coordinated attacks by Muslim militia on four villages in the
Quanpan local government area. A May 28 assault in Langtang left three
Christians dead and 3,000 others displaced after their homes were razed.
Christians aggrieved over the deaths of relatives and neighbors had
earlier launched reprisal attacks on Muslims in Yelwa, killing hundreds.
Muslim leaders responded by threatening a full-scale religious war,
prompting President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare a state of emergency in
Plateau. Christian clergymen publicly criticized Obasanjo for his handling
of the crisis and rejected an invitation from Muslim officials to discuss
ways to resolve the conflict. The incidents illustrate the complexities of
achieving peaceful co-existence in the populous and polarized African
country.
6/22/04 Iraq (AINA)
Terrorist Attacks on Assyrians Intensify
On the
morning of June 7th a civilian sedan containing four masked men drove into
the Christian Assyrian Quarters (Hay Al-Athuryeen) of the Dora district of
Baghdad, where the masked men opened fire on Assyrians on their way to
work. Four locals were killed and several others seriously wounded. The
three men and one woman who were murdered were identified by the Assyrian
Democratic Movement (ADM) as Isho Nissan Markus, Youkhana, Duraid Sabri
Hanna, Hisham Umar, and Ramziya Enwiya (female). On the same day and in
the same district, at approximately 5 P.M. another drive by shooting
occurred, targeting Assyrians returning from work, mostly with the
Coalition Provisional Authority. Three women, Alice Aramayis, Ayda Petros
Bakus and Muna Jalal Karim, were shot and killed, along with their driver.
This incident is the latest in a series of crimes and acts of terror and
intimidation against the Christian Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and
Syriacs) of Iraq since the liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein. Of
special concern to Assyrians and their community leaders is the nature of
these attacks, the overwhelming majority of which have been religiously
motivated. Often these attacks are accompanied by notes demanding that the
Christian Assyrians follow the rules Islam or face the consequences. This
has created an atmosphere of fear in the Assyrian community, not so
different, ironically, from the fear they felt under Saddam's regime,
though the nature of it is different. Assyrians are the only indigenous
group of Iraq; they are also Christians, are ethnically distinct, and
their language is neo-Syriac (modern Aramaic). As such, they see
themselves as the litmus test of any democracy that is established in
Iraq, which must guarantee, above and beyond reasonable expectations,
their ethnic, religious and cultural rights.
6/22/04 Vietnam (Montagnard Foundation)
Christian Crucified By Police
Y-Rung Nie
who was born in 1968 was from the village of Buon Kna, district of Cu Mgar,
Province of Daklak. On April 10-11, 2004 Y-Rung Nie participated in the
peaceful demonstration and then went back to his village. He thought the
Vietnamese government would not hurt him but he was wrong. On May 2, 2004
the Vietnamese police from Hanoi went to his house, arrested him, and took
him away. He was executed and this is how the police killed him: because
he is a Christian, they made a cross and nailed him to it. They drove 4
nails on his feet, 4 nails on his hands, 1 nail on his chest and 2 nails
on his head. Five days later, the police brought a coffin to his family
and told his family that they had killed him because he followed Kok Ksor
and the Montagnard Foundation. The police wanted his family to go collect
his dead body at the nearby coffee plantation. The police threatened
Y-Rung Nie’s family not to tell anyone of this killing or they will come
back to their village and kill them too. On 9th May 2004 Y-Rung
Nie’s family went to the coffee plantation and picked up his corpse
brought him back to their village and buried him. Some of the villagers
have reported to us that they also saw the cross where Y-Rung Nie was
crucified in the coffee plantations this information comes direct from
witnesses inside Vietnam.
6/22/04 Sri Lanka (ICC)
Attacks Against Church Follow After Anti-Conversion Bill
The latest attacks against a local
church began just one day after the government announced that Cabinet has
granted approval for an Act banning religious conversions:
18th June, 2004
At approximately 7:00 pm, a group set off from the Bodhidumarama temple,
Wadduwa in a van with loud speakers announcing, "Let us join together to
rid our village of the fundamentalist plague!"
19th June, 2004
At approximately 3:00 p.m. the monks from the Bodhidumarama temple,
gathered the villagers at the temple. By 6 pm, about 50 monks accompanied
by about 150 persons carrying banners and posters marched to the Church
and staged a protest rally. At this time only the Pastor's two young
daughters were home, together with 2 parishioners from the church. One of
the Bikkus entered the Church building started to chant "pirith!"
at the pulpit. They demanded that the Pastor be brought to them. The mob
became unruly and threw chairs at the Altar and pulled down Scripture
banners that were hung inside the Church. Some members of the mob
surrounded the Pastor's daughters, threatening them with physical harm and
verbally abusing them. The OIC of the local Police arrived at the scene
together with three other Police Officers as a result of a telephone call
given by the Pastor's daughter. Although the Police tried to bring the
situation under control, they were not successful. The mob left after
causing damage to the church. No arrests were made. The Police placed a
guard at the church.
20th June, 2004
At 6:30 am The Police officers responsible for providing protection to the
Church arrived. The pastor had cancelled the worship service, as he had
done the previous Sunday, due to threats. By 9 am, a small group tried to
enter the church by force. Police prevented them entering. In the
meantime, about 10 monks arrived at the scene together with about 200
individuals carrying banners, placards etc... and attempted to break in to
the Church premises. The Police fired tear gas to control the crowd. The
crowd threw several petrol bombs at the church, but only one exploded.
Bricks and rocks were thrown at the building causing damage to the roof
and windows. The mob, angered by the actions of the police, pelted the
Police jeeps with stones. The Pastor was forced to make a public
declaration that he will stop holding meetings at the Church.
6/22/04 Sri Lanka (ICC)
Cabinet Approves Bill Prohibiting Religious Conversion
The Sri
Lankan Cabinet has approved a bill to prevent conversion of Buddhists to
other religions. In may of 2004, the Jathika Hela Urumaya party (JHU) put
forward a bill to paliament on "the Prohibition of Forcible Conversion'.
In addition, the minister of Budhism put forth his own bill to prohibit
"Forcible Conversion" on June 16.
On June 17, the Cabinet approved the Bill to be presented to Parliament.
The scope of the Minister's Act is wider in interpretation than the Bill
tabled by the JHU. This Act effectively makes conversion from one religion
to another an offence under the law. Section 2 of the draft Act stipulates
that no person shall convert nor attempt to convert or aid or abet acts of
conversion of a person to a different religion. This Act, if it is
enacted, will effectively infringe upon an individuals fundamental right
of embracing a religion on his/her choice, by making the very act of
conversion illegal.
6/22/04 Colombia (Compass)
Threats Against Christians Continue
After a pause in threats by illegal armed groups against evangelical
pastors, Bogotá church leaders are once again receiving “vaccination”
extortion demands. Two armed groups fighting in Colombia’s civil conflict,
the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the United Auto-defenses of
Colombia (AUC), have pledged not to threaten, injure or kidnap pastors and
church leaders. However, the largest insurgency group, the Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), has no such agreement with evangelicals.
“From what I know right now, there are threats of kidnapping pastors to
demand money, but the threats have not crystallized,” said Hector Pardo,
head of the Colombia Evangelical Alliance. Pardo declined to disclose how
many such demands have been made or by whom, citing security concerns.
Meanwhile, the FARC has demanded more than $11,000 for the release of
Carlos Herrera, an agronomist and evangelical Christian kidnapped three
months ago in the department (state) of Antioquia.
6/21/04 Sudan (Reuters)
Bashir Orders Groups to Disarm
Sudanese President Omar Bashir has ordered “complete mobilization” to
disarm all illegal armed groups in the western region of
Darfur,
including the Arab militias who have been harassing African villagers. A
statement released by the Sudanese presidency yesterday said all
government agencies should mobilize “to control and pursue all outlaw
groups, including rebels and Janjaweed..., disarm the outlaws and present
them to justice and prevent any groups from crossing into neighboring
Chad”.
The Janjaweed is the local word for the Arab militias whom the Darfur
rebels blame for much of the conflict in the region. The rebels say the
government has backed the Janjaweed but the government has repeatedly
denied that. International organizations have criticized the Sudanese
government for failing to control the militias, who have driven hundreds
of thousands of Africans out of their villages into camps for displaced
persons or into exile in Chad. The United States threatened on Friday to
impose sanctions on Sudanese officials as a way of intensifying the
pressure to help ease a humanitarian crisis in
Darfur.
The State Department is studying whether the militias are responsible for
genocide in Sudan and if it can impose sanctions on individual officials,
spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters. The Sudanese announcement implied a
tougher line against the Janjaweed and a more balanced policy towards the
conflict. Government officials have previously said it would be difficult
to disarm the Arab militias as long as the two main groups — the Sudan
Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement — were active in
the region. It also answers Chadian complaints about Janjaweed incursions
into Chadian territory. A source close to Chadian President Idriss Deby
said on Friday the Chadian Army killed 69 Janjaweed in a clash near the
border on Thursday. The presidential statement also said that the judicial
authorities in
Darfur should set up prosecution offices and
courts to prosecute plunder gangs and criminals “without delay”.
6/21/04 Vietnam (Zenit)
Vietnam Reduces Priest's Prison Sentence Cites "Good Attitude,"
But Some Fear He's Being Drugged
A
priest sentenced to 15 years in prison for speaking out about
anti-Christian persecution received a sentence reduction for "good
conduct," but some observers fear he is being drugged. The 58-year-old
Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, one of the country's best-known dissidents,
was sentenced by a Hanoi court in 2001, after being accused of attacking
national unity. News of the reduction of the sentence was confirmed
Thursday by the official Vietnam News Agency, which stated that, in
addition to his "good conduct," the priest had been very respectful of the
rules of Nam Ha prison. However, sources of AsiaNews, of the Pontifical
Foreign Missionary Works, in Hue said that Father Van Ly wrote and signed
letters in prison praising Vietnamese socialism and the politics of the
Communist Party. According to individuals who were allowed to visit him,
the priest showed symptoms of mental imbalance and seemed to have been
drugged as part of the effort "to re-educate him." A Vatican delegation,
led by Monsignor Piero Parolin, Vatican undersecretary for relations with
states, was able to talk about the Van Ly case with Hanoi authorities
during a visit to
Vietnam
in April. To every question posed by the delegation, government
representatives showed the priest's letters as demonstrating his
"re-education." But a Hue priest voiced skepticism. "This letter shows a
180-degree change," he said. "We suspect that he has been drugged. Now the
government is no longer afraid of him. It seems that soon, they will free
him completely." In 2001, Father Van Ly sent a letter to the U.S. Congress
asking for a delay in the ratification of the bilateral trade agreement
between the United States and Vietnam, citing Hanoi's human rights
violations and religious persecutions. The priest was arrested and
sentenced to 15 years of prison. The punishment was then reduced to 10
years. Now a local court ordered the prison term to be reduced to five
years, with five years of house arrest. American human rights groups
consider Father Van Ly a prisoner of conscience and the U.S. government
has pressured for his release. The news of Father Van Ly's sentence
reduction arrives just before a visit from European Union representatives
in Vietnam for a meeting on human rights, which will also address the
treatment of the prisoners.
6/21/04 Iraq (IOL)
Militants Threaten to Behead S. Korean Christian Hostage
Muslim militants in Iraq threatened to behead a South Korean hostage by
Monday night unless his country scrapped plans to send 3 000 more troops -
a demand rejected by Seoul. A videotape aired on Arabic Al Jazeera
television on Sunday night showed 33-year-old Korean businessman Kim Sun-il
pleading for his life. A banner in the background named his captors as
Jama'at al-Tawhid and Jihad, the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a
Jordanian accused of links to al-Qaeda. "Please get out of here," Kim
begged, referring to South Korean troops already in Iraq. "I don't want to
die." Kim, an Arabic speaker and evangelical Christian who has worked in
Iraq for a year as a translator for a Korean firm supplying goods to the
United States military, was seized in Fallujah on June 17, the day before
Seoul announced its troop plan. "We ask you to withdraw your forces from
our land and not to send any more troops, and if not we'll send you this
Korean's head," one of a group of armed, masked men standing around the
terrified South Korean said in the videotape. The group said
Seoul
had 24 hours to comply.
South Korea's
Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin said the government would do its best
to seek Kim's release.
6/21/04 Saudi Arabia (AP-Billings Gazette)
Saudi Security Forces Helped Kidnappers, al-Qaida Group Says
The al-Qaida
group responsible for beheading an American engineer said sympathizers in
the Saudi security forces provided police uniforms and cars used during
the victim's kidnapping, according to an Islamic extremist Web site
Sunday. The account of the abduction of Paul M. Johnson Jr., who was later
decapitated, highlighted the fears expressed by some diplomats and
Westerners in the kingdom that militants have infiltrated Saudi security
forces - a possibility Saudi officials have denied. The article recounting
the abduction appeared in Sawt al-Jihad, or Voice of the Holy War, a
semimonthly Internet periodical posted by al-Qaida in the Arabian
Peninsula - the group that claimed responsibility for killing Johnson.
According to the account, militants wearing police uniforms and using
police cars set up a fake checkpoint June 12 on al-Khadma Road, leading to
the airport, near Imam Mohammed bin Saud University. "A number of the
cooperators who are sincere to their religion in the security apparatus
donated those clothes and the police cars. We ask God to reward them and
that they use their energy to serve Islam and the mujahedeen," the article
read. When Johnson's car approached the checkpoint, the militants stopped
it, detained him, anesthetized him and carried him to another car, the
article said. Earlier Saudi newspaper reports said Johnson was drugged
during the kidnapping. In a separate article on the Web site, the leader
of the al-Qaida cell behind the abduction, Abdulaziz al-Moqrin, justified
the targeting of Johnson, pointing to his work on Apache attack
helicopters for Lockheed Martin. Johnson "works for military aviation and
he belongs to the American army, which kills, tortures and harms Muslims
everywhere, which supports enemies (of Islam) in Palestine, Philippines,
Kashmir," wrote al-Moqrin.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/06/21/build/world/65-saudi-security-forces.inc
6/19/04 Iraq (Kurdish Media)
Iraqi Christians Denied Aid
Christian
Democrat MEP Albert Jan Maat has asked the European Commission questions
about the distribution the 160 million euro in funds approved for the
distribution in Iraq by the European Commission. These questions, which
regarded the Assyrian Christians of Iraq, were as follows: "The Commission
has decided that 160 million EUR can be devoted to the reconstruction of
Iraq. What guarantees can the Commission give that religious minorities
can benefit from these funds on the basis of proportionality?" "Is the
Commission aware that Assyrian Christians are systematically excluded from
the distribution of aid by local leaders?" MEP Maat cited an element of
religious favoritism as a root cause of the lack of aid being received by
the Assyrians, stating, "International aid is mainly distributed through
regional, and therefore Muslim, leaders and seldom or never reaches the
Assyrians." The Christians of Iraq formerly had one representative on the
Iraqi Governing Council, Younadam Kanna of the Assyrian Democratic
Movement (ADM). Previous to the war, the United States recognized the ADM
as one of the eight significant parties in opposition to Iraq’s Ba’athist
dictatorship.
6/19/04 China (ANS)
China Holds Off UN Torture Investigators
Just over a
month after news leaked that a key house church leader was allegedly
beaten to death while in police custody, China has again postponed a visit
by the United Nations investigator on torture in what human rights groups
say is part of a strategy to avoid scrutiny of its overcrowded labor camps
and prisons. In a statement, the Chinese government said it had postponed
a planned two-week visit this month by the Special Rapporteur on Torture,
Theo van Boven, until later this year to allow "more time to prepare"
given the many different authorities, departments and provinces involved,
news reports said. China's controversial decision followed detailed
reports by human rights groups this week about a major Beijing-backed
crackdown on underground congregations including the arrests of over 100
evangelical officials, and after family members said 28-year old house
church teacher Gu Xianggao was beaten to death on April 27 by Chinese
Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers. However one former detention center
inmate told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that any outside investigation will
never uncover the truth, as despite official promises the U.N. inspector's
itinerary would be kept secret in advance, China almost certainly would
make "major preparations" at all the prisons and law enforcement centers
on his visit. “Two days before a visit by city leaders, let alone the
United Nations, detention centers and police stations in every district
start cleaning up their act for the visit,” Liu Anjun was quoted as
saying. “They tell you what to say. You can’t get it wrong. You have to
learn it off by heart. If you don't you get beaten.”
6/18/04 Uzbekistan (Forum 18)
Threats Against Lawyers Wife and Young Children
It is believed that the Uzbek authorities
are behind anonymous night-time telephone calls and continuing threats
being made against the wife and young children of Rustam Satdanov, a
lawyer forced to flee Uzbekistan and seek political asylum in the USA for
his work defending Jehovah's Witnesses. Satdanov received political asylum
on 11 May. His wife, Asiya Satdanova, and their young children, who are
still in Tashkent, told Forum 18 News Service that they are being
anonymously threatened with "serious difficulties" if Satdanov does not
return immediately to Uzbekistan. He himself told Forum 18 that if he
returns the authorities would, using fabricated criminal charges, punish
him for defending religious believers.
6/18/04 Russia (Forum 18)
Do Foreign Missionaries Bear "The Hallmarks of Espionage" in Khabarovsk
Region?
Local Orthodox in Khabarovsk share the
concerns of Orthodox in Sakhalin region about foreign missionaries,
complaining to Forum 18 News Service of "espionage" and "Catholic
expansion". However, throughout most of Khabarovsk region, Baptists,
Catholics, and members of the New Apostolic Church have told Forum 18 that
they have not recently encountered problems regarding access or visas for
foreign missionaries. One exception appears to be access by foreign
religious personnel to closed cities, which is reportedly very difficult
to obtain, even though US citizens are employed at a military facility in
one such city. This issue particularly affects Catholics, as the majority
of Catholic priests in Russia are foreigners. One anonymous Protestant
source has also told Forum 18 that it is now practically impossible for
foreign citizens to conduct informal religious work in the Russian Far
East.
6/17/04 Iraq (ANS)
Baghdad Blasts Kill 41 As Christians Face New Wave of Attacks
As
Iraq's Christian minority already struggled to overcome an unprecedented
wave of attacks and kidnappings, a sport utility vehicle packed with
artillery shells slammed into a crowd waiting to volunteer for the
American backed Iraqi military Thursday June 17, killing at least 35
people and wounding 138. Another car bomb north of the capital killed six
members of the Iraqi security forces as part of efforts by foreign
militants "to turn Iraq into a graveyard," Iraqi officials said. "As it
neared the gate, the vehicle exploded, throwing bodies, body parts, and
metal along a nearby four-lane road. The force of the blast hurled a car
into the center of the roadway," said Voice of America (VOA) reporter
Alisha Ryu, in Baghdad. There were no reports of American casualties. The
explosion, the deadliest attack since a bombing outside another recruiting
center in February, came shortly after church leaders expressed concern
about growing Islamic extremism ahead of the transfer of sovereignty to
Iraqis on June 30. Barnabas Fund and Amnesty International, have also
reported an increase in violence against Christians, although a bishop
cautioned that ordinary Muslims are suffering as well. "Not only Kurds are
being killed, but also Shi’ites and Sunnis; those who collaborate with the
Americans – even laundry workers – and those who do not collaborate; those
who work in the electrical energy sector; those who oversee the pipeline,"
said Chaldean Bishop Jacques Ishaq in an interview with AsiaNews, an
internet news service.
6/17/04 India (Time News Network of India)
Christian Priest's Wife Kidnapped
The
wife of a Christian priest, who had gone missing since about two weeks
from Fatehpura taluka of Dahod district, was found in the custody of some
lumpen elements, after which the police registered an offence of
kidnapping. The pastor, Dharmesh Ninama, had left for Ahmedabad on May 29.
On the same day, his wife Manjula, went missing — never returning from the
market she had gone to. When Ninama returned to Fatehpura, inquired with
his father-in-law, Dhanji Mahida, but to no avail. Ninama then went to the
Fatehpura police station and was told to look for her with his relatives.
One of his relatives in Vavdi village of Fatehpura taluka, Sardar Pargi,
told him that he was informed that "on May 29, one Devji Pargi along with
nine others of Vavdi village kidnapped Manjula. This man was carrying a
sword and was in a drunken state". Ninama approached the Fatehpura police
station once again on June and submitted an application mentioning the
names & addresses of the kidnappers. He was then informed that his wife
was held captive in the house of one Shanker Maal at Sagdapada village.
Ninama and his father-in-law Dhanjibhai Mahida reached Maal’s house and
saw Manjula tied and gagged. Ninama narrated the incident to the police,
who raided Maal’s house in Sagdapada village. By then, Manjula had been
shifted to another place. She remains untraceable since. All-India
Christian Council executive member Samson Christian criticized the police
inaction and said that the police agreed to register a case only after the
council intervened.
6/16/04 Indonesia (WSWS)
Ambon Communal Violence Flares Up Amid Indonesian Presidential Poll
Communal violence in Ambon, the capital of Indonesia’s Maluku province
(previously known as Molucca), over the past month has sparked fears of a
return to fighting between Christian and Muslim militias that claimed up
to 6,000 lives before a peace deal in February 2002. The violence erupted
on April 25 following a provocative incident involving the separatist
Front for Moluccan Sovereignty (FKM), about which many questions remain
unanswered. Over the ensuing fortnight at least 38 people were killed—more
than half as a result by gunfire from as yet unidentified snipers. As the
unrest spread, hundreds of homes and other buildings were torched leaving
as many as 10,000 people homeless. The violence took place in the lead up
to the July 5 presidential election, raising further questions about
possible political motives. That includes incumbent President Megawati
Sukarnoputri. Far from calming the volatile situation, she sought to blame
the Christian-based FKM for the death and destruction. The FKM, however,
is a tiny organisation with only several hundred active members among the
province’s population of about two million. It is a remnant of the
movement for an independent Republic of the South Moluccas (RMS) promoted
by the Dutch to undermine opposition to its colonial rule immediately
after World War II. On May 22, Megawati flew into Ambon for a two-hour
visit under heavy security. She used her meeting with the province’s
religious leaders to declare that the RMS movement had to be crushed. “All
forms of separatism should be wiped out because they threaten the Unitary
Republic of Indonesia,” she said. Her comments amount to a rather crude
attempt to appeal to nationalism and anti-Christian sentiment among the
country’s Muslim majority. The security forces have set out to arrest all
FKM members.
6/16/04 China (AsiaNews)
An Ancient Church Becomes Home to Two Protestant Communities
The 135-year old Holy Trinity church will
be re-opened soon. For many years authorities have used it as a facility
for government offices and as a movie theater. The agency Xinhua spread
the news emphasizing how Chinese authorities grant religious freedom in
the country. Before the end of the year the “red church” – named after the
color of the bricks – will become home to two official Protestant
communities. These are the National Committee of Three-Self
(Self-administration, Self-supporting, Self-propagation) Patriotic
Movement of the Protestant Churches in China, and the China Christian
Council. According to Ding Guangxun, chairman of the two committees, this
is another act of the government finalized to favor religious freedom in
the country. In truth, some analysts affirm that the re-opening of the
church is just a move made by the government in order to control Christian
activities.
The re-opening of the church, as well as the official acknowledgment of
two Protestant communities, serve to mitigate the persecution against some
unregistered Evangelical leaders.
6/16/04 China (ANS)
100 Evangelical Leaders Arrested as China Launches Major Crackdown
Two
human rights watchdogs appealed to China Tuesday, June 15, to release over
100 evangelical church leaders who they say were arrested last week after
the Communist government issued a "secret directive" to launch a massive
crackdown against religious groups and promote Atheism. Christian
Solidarity Worldwide said it had joined China Aid Association (CAA) in
urging the Chinese authorities to release the leaders of China Gospel
Fellowship who were "arrested June 11" at Wuhan city, Hubei province,
where that retreated together. CAA said it had also learned that in a
separate incident China Gospel Fellowship Pastor Shen Xianfeng was put
under house arrest at a residential area in Wuhan city after PSB officers
"thoroughly searched a house where Mr. Shen was recovering from illness of
his crippled legs." CAA said it has learned from an internal source within
Chinese Communist Party that the Politburo had recently convened in a
special secret meeting discussing “how to deal with religious affairs in
China”. It quoted the source as saying "a secret directive was issued
after the meeting calling every level of the Chinese government and the
Party to crack down" against “illegal religious activities.” The directive
also urged the Communist Party's Department of Propaganda to carry out a
special media campaign to promote atheism, CAA said.
6/16/04 Sudan (ANS)
Sudanese Christian Woman Beaten and Fined Under New Harsh Law
A young Christian woman displaced by
decades of war was fined and whipped by police for not wearing a headscarf
in public in Khartoum, at a time when the military government of Sudan is
re-imposing shari'a (Islamic law) on all citizens residing in the capital,
human rights watchdog Barnabas Fund said Tuesday, June 15. The
organization, which investigates the plight of Christians in the troubled
African nation and other Islamic countries, said it had learned that
27-year old Cecilia John Holland was detained after she traveled on a
minibus at Badr Gardens to her home in the suburb of Haj Yousif for not
wearing the headscarf on April 13. "Ten police forced the bus to stop and
dragged her from it," Barnabas Fund added. It claimed that the policemen
"forced her into their vehicle, striking her in the process." Four other
women were already inside (the vehicle) and "seven more had been arrested"
apparently for a similar offense. After a night at the police station,
Cecilia was taken to Sizana Islamic Court where Muslim policemen testified
against her, Barnabas Fund said. "She was not allowed to make any kind of
statement or speak in her own defense (and being) accused of "standing
near a garden at night" and not wearing a scarf on her head. They also
misrepresented Cecilia by stating that she was "jobless", refusing to
register her employment," the human rights organization explained. The
Islamic court declared Cecilia guilty and sentenced her to 40 lashes on
the back and fined her 10,000 dinars, about $38, and the equivalent to one
third of her monthly salary. She was released that afternoon after being
whipped and paying the fine, Barnabas Fund said.
6/16/04 Pakistan (ANS)
Pentecostal Preacher Escapes Islamic Captors In Pakistan
A
Pentecostal preacher abducted by Muslim militants in Pakistan's
southwestern region has escaped from his captors, the evangelical
CharismaNOW news service reported Tuesday, June 15. CharismaNOW quoted the
Reuters news agency as saying that Wilson Fazal, 41, who pastors a church
in the city of Quetta, disappeared May 16 after receiving threatening
letters from an unknown group of Islamists who urged him to convert to
Islam or face unspecified consequences. Fazal told police that he had been
kidnapped and taken to the northwestern city of Peshawar, about 375 miles
northeast of Quetta (apr. 600 kilometers), when he managed to escape
recently. No details of his escape were immediately available, CharismaNOW
said. Fazal's son, Jerry, told Reuters that a hand-written letter
delivered to their home in early May warned Wilson to stop preaching
Christianity. Several Christians, including foreign missionary workers,
have been killed in recent Islamic violence. Islamic extremists have
linked Christians to the American led international crackdown on terror.
6/15/04 India (AsiaNews)
Donations meant for poor are funding Christian persecution
New
Delhi (AsiaNews) – Foreign donations given for widows and orphans are
being used by the militant Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to distribute
weapons and hate literature against Christians and Muslims. The group
plans to triple its presence in India’s tribal belt within the next two
years. The VHP is the religious wing of the
former ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which still currently controls
the Central India state governments of Gujurat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,
Chhatisgarh and Jharkhand and will remain in control in all but Jharkhand
for the next 4 years. The group works in cooperation with the Vanvasi
Kalyan Ashram, which is notorious for inciting tribal members against
Christians and Muslims, and attacking Christian institutions and
personnel. According to John Dayal, secretary general of All India
Christian Council, a large source of VHP’s funding comes from non-resident
Indians in the United Kingdom, United States and other countries, as well
as official, government and church organizations who believe the money
will go for programs for the welfare of widows and orphan children.
6/15/04 Laos (Forum 18)
Laos: The Disturbing Prospect For Religious Freedom
Between 20 April and 15 May, local
officials detained 12 ethnic minority Christians in the southern province
of Savannakhet for refusing to renounce their religious belief, the
Paris-based Lao Movement for Human Rights reported. In March, district
officials in the northern province of Luang Prabang ordered 35 Christian
families to renounce their faith, US-based Christian Freedom International
reported. When they refused, officials moved in with the families and
threatened to stay until they complied with the demand. Just one month
earlier, officials in another southern province, Attapeu, issued an
ultimatum to local Christians to renounce their faith, leave the village
or - if they insisted on staying put and keeping their belief - face
death, according to British-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide. These
are just the most recent of continuing reports about how Christians in
Laos, particularly those who are members of ethnic minorities, have been
forced to renounce their faith, with severe consequences for those who
refuse.
6/15/04 Saudi Arabia (Dallas Morning News, CRF)
Saudi Persecution: Christian's Plight Should Stir Consciences
For
the past six months, Brian Savio O'Connor, a citizen of India and a Roman
Catholic working in Saudi Arabia, has been held in prison by the Saudi
religious police, the mutaween. The charges? Preaching Christianity
and selling drugs, both of which carry the death penalty in the kingdom of
the Wahhabis. Mr. O'Connor's family and Catholic Church officials maintain
that he merely was seen praying and that the drug charges are trumped up.
They also report the prisoner has been tortured and pressured under pain
of death to renounce his faith and embrace Islam. The Indian Bishops
Conference recently sent an official letter to the Saudi embassy in New
Delhi, asking about the prisoner, but was ignored. This is unacceptable.
The Saudi religious police, you'll recall, are the same vicious fanatics
who caused 15 Saudi girls to burn to death two years ago in Mecca, when
their school caught on fire. The mutaween forced the female
children to remain in the burning building rather than run outside without
Islamicly correct covering.
6/15/04 Nigeria (Compass)
Nigerian
Town Riots on Anniversary of Preacher’s Murder
Violence broke out
between Muslims and Christians in the town of Numan, Nigeria, on June 8,
resulting in the deaths of at least nine people. Places of worship
belonging to both faiths were also destroyed in the clash. The Numan riots
marked the one-year anniversary of the murder of a Christian preacher in
the town. On June 8, 2003, Mohammed Salisu, a Muslim, stabbed to death
local Christian pastor Mrs. Esther Jinkai Ethan as she was returning home
from a session of street evangelism. Violent clashes between Muslims and
Christians following Ethan’s murder left 10 people dead. Tensions between
adherents of the two religious groups have reportedly escalated in recent
weeks. Muslims insist on rebuilding a mosque destroyed in the 2003 riot,
but Christians object, contending that the mosque is too near the house of
a Christian community leader and to Numan’s Lutheran cathedral.
6/15/04 Turkey (Compass)
Diyarbakir
Church Refused Legal Zoning Status
Zoning status recognizing the Diyarbakir Evangelical Church as an official
place of worship has been rejected by a local committee of the Turkish
Ministry of Culture. Pastor Ahmet Guvener was informed last month that
Turkish law requires places of worship be situated on at least 2,500
square meters of property. The Protestant church property covers only 116
square meters. With 175 mosques open for worship within the Diyarbakir
city limits, only the Ulu Camii (Grand Mosque) meets this 2,500
square-meters requirement. Ironically, word of the zoning rejection came
just three days after the May 12 landmark decision in which Guvener was
acquitted on criminal charges of trying to open an “illegal” church. The
Turkish state prosecutor himself called for Guvener’s acquittal, stressing
that Turkey’s agreements with the European Union guaranteed all Turkish
citizens the right to conduct public and private worship. In a June 11
appeal to the Ministry of Justice, Guvener wrote that, “any obstacles to
the free expression of a citizen’s beliefs and the opening of places of
worship for the exercise of their beliefs must be lifted.”
6/14/04 China (China Aid)
Large Arrests Reported
China Aid is reporting that more than 100 leaders of China Gospel
Fellowship (CGF) were arrested on June 11, 2004. The massive arrest took
place at Wuhan city, Hubei province while these church leaders were having
a retreat together. About 50 police (PSB) raided the church meeting around
2:00pm and arrested all of the participants including one of the senior
CGF leaders Mr. Xing Jinfu. Mr. Xing Jinfu, 39-year-old, was arrested at
least three times in the past for his church activities. He was sentenced
to three years re-education through labor in 1996 for his accused illegal
preaching. The whereabouts of the arrested are still unknown. At the same
day, the well-known leader of CGF pastor Shen Xianfeng(photo attached) was
put under house arrest at a residential area in Wuhan city after the PSB
thoroughly searched a house where Mr. Shen was recovering from illness of
his crippled legs. China Gospel Fellowship was established in mid-1980s.
It is one of the five major Chinese house church groups with estimated at
least five million members. CA is also reporting that the Politburo of the
Chinese Communist Party had recently convened a special secret meeting
discussing how to deal with religious affairs in China. According to the
source, a secret directive was issued after the meeting calling every
level of the Chinese government and the Party to crack down the illegal
religious activities. The directive also urged the CCPs Department of
Propaganda to carry out a special media campaign to promote atheism. Given
the recent massive arrests of unregistered religious leaders in different
areas in China, the international community should be alarmed and take
concrete actions to urge the Chinese government to fulfill her signed
pledge to protect her citizens religious freedom mandated by relevant
international human rights covenants. People of conscience in the US could
send a letter of concern to the Chinese embassy in Washington DC:
Ambassador Yang Jiechi
Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20008
Tel:(202) 328-2500 Fax:(202) 588-0032
Director of Religious Affairs: (202) 328-2512
6/14/04 China (ANS)
Chinese Christians Fear For Life of Disappeared House Church Leader
Chinese house church leader Xu Shuangfu’s whereabouts and condition are
unknown, and Chinese Christians fear for his life after another believer
was tortured to death by Chinese police, the Voice Of the Martyrs (VOM)
said Friday, June 11. Xu, leader of the 500-thousand strong house church
group "Three Grades Servants" in Henan Province, northeast China, was
arrested April 26th, and since then family members have been prevented
from seeing him, reported VOM, which investigates the plight of persecuted
churches. He was detained by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Harbin
City, Heilongjiang province, along with other believers including Gu
Xianggao, a teacher of the group. Gu, 28, was beaten to death the next day
while in the custody of PSB officers, his family and human rights
watchdogs say. If Xu is convicted of leading a so-called “Evil Cult,” he
could also face the death penalty, and he may be executed already.
6/14/04 Ivory Coast (ANS)
Priest Stabbed to Death
At around 4am on Monday 7 June, unidentified gunmen
entered the town of Gohitafla, a frontline town in divided Cote d’Ivoire
(CI) that lies on the south end of the demilitarized “zone of confidence”
policed by French peacekeepers. The group of around 30 gunmen entered the
farming village of Gohitafla from the rebel-held north only hours after
President Gbagbo had flown out of CI for a 9-day visit to the USA.
Suspicion abounds that the rebel forces had attempted to re-ignite
hostilities in President Gbagbo’s absence, and in his native region.
Djedje Augustin, reporting for
http://www.ivoirealites.net, writes that the
gunmen were members of Guillaume Soro’s rebel forces, although the rebels
deny that they were responsible for the attack.
6/12/04 Indonesia (Herald Sun)
5th Attack On A Church In A Week
A
petrol bomb has been hurled at a Catholic church in the fifth attack this
week on a church in Indonesia, police said yesterday. The attack on the
Santo Yusuf church in the Sleman district of Yogyakarta city took place
early on Wednesday, according to a duty officer at a local police station.
He said the attack in the Central Java city caused a small fire which
burned part of the front gate and the fence. No one was hurt. Mobs
attacked four churches in two neighbouring suburbs of the Indonesian
capital Jakarta on Sunday, slightly injuring a priest and causing some
damage. Three of those churches were in buildings in commercial areas that
had no permit for use as places of worship. Such unauthorised churches
have come in for attack in the past. Indonesia is the world's largest
Muslim-populated state, with 88 percent of its 212 million people
following Islam. Some eight percent are Christians. Islam is not the
official religion and the constitution provides for freedom of worship.
6/11/04 Vietnam: (Asia Pacific News)
Vietnam Faces Call To Free Pastor
Human
Rights Watch calls for release of pastor. "The Vietnamese government
should immediately release the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, a human rights
defender and activist leader of the banned Mennonite church in Vietnam",
the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement received Friday.
"Quang's arrest appears to be part of the Vietnamese government's mounting
repression of activists who promote human rights or religious freedom,"
said Dinah PoKempner, general counsel at Human Rights Watch.
6/12/04 Vietnam/Cambodia (VOA)
Cambodia To Allow Montagnards Refugee Status
Cambodia will ease restrictions preventing some Vietnamese refugees from
gaining asylum in the kingdom. The decision means the Montagnards cannot
be forced out of Cambodia against their will. The Cambodian government
says it is softening its stance and will allow the United Nations to
extend refugee status and protection to the Montagnards, a primarily
Christian tribal group from Vietnam. The Montagnards fled to Cambodia
after accusing the communist Vietnamese government of religious repression
and land confiscation. Last April, Vietnamese security forces cracked down
on a Montagnard political demonstration, killing several and forcing
hundreds to flee. Under the new agreement, the United Nations can issue
international identification cards and relocate the refugees to
non-hostile third countries.
6/11/04
Sri Lanka
A.O.G. Church Attacked
The A.O.G. Church, in the District of Gampaha, which was attacked on the
previous Sunday the 16th of May 2004 (reported 18th May 2004), came under
attack again on Sunday May 23rd 2004. During the intervening week, the
Pastor received information that his Church would be attacked on the 23rd.
However, the worship service was held as usual. At the end of the service,
while the congregation was still there, a group of about 20 persons
arrived, some armed with clubs and sticks. The Pastor hid from the mob,
fearing that they would attack him. He succeeded in calling the Police
from his hiding place. Meanwhile, the mob proceeded to verbally abuse the
congregation and assaulted some of them. They also assaulted a lady,
mistaking her for the Pastor's wife. Chairs, the pulpit, and musical
instruments were broken. When the Police arrived on the scene, the
attackers ran away. However, one of them was caught by the Police. A
Police entry has been made, identifying some of the attackers. It is
commendable that the Police and the local grama sevaka have acted
impartially in this case. Investigations are continuing.
6/11/04 Iraq (Jihad Watch)
Assyrian Community Faces Decimation
Facing a June 30 deadline for transfer of power, a temporary constitution
that reads, in Article 7, that Islam is the "Official Religion of the
State," and the most recent humiliation for the community -- the failure
to receive even one position on the Executive Council and only one
ministry post, the Ministry of Emigration -- the Christians of Iraq are
voting with their feet. "On a recent night the church had to spend more
time on filling out baptismal forms needed for leaving the country than
they did on the [worship] service," says Amir, a deacon at a local church
who does not want his full name published. "We have been flooded with
parishioners desperate to leave the country, and as they cannot get an
exit permit without a baptismal certificate from the church we have been
swamped with requests. ... In recent days nearly 400 families as far as we
can tell have filled out baptismal forms to leave the country. Our
community is being decimated. "Most of the Christians in Iraq are
Assyrians -- people who claim to be the original inhabitants of Iraq. The
Assyrians were the people of Nineveh -- present-day Mosul -- the city to
which God sent the biblical Jonah. Because they are Christians and seen as
allies of the West, the Assyrians have long been subject to persecution.
The Assyrian Church, known officially as the Assyrian Church of the East,
is the oldest continually existing church in the world. Assyrians are the
only people in the world who still speak Aramaic, the language spoken by
Christ.
6/11/04 Sri Lanka (EFI)
Controversial "anti-conversion law"
The
controversial ‘anti-conversion law’ bill will be presented before the Sri
Lankan Parliament in the coming weeks. The lawyers of leading Buddhist and
Hindu organizations in the country have prepared a draft Bill, titled,
Protection of the Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion Act, seeking
the approval of the government for enactment. This draft bill is closely
modelled on the Tamil Nadu anti-conversion law.
General Secretary of All Ceylon Hindu Congress, Attorney-at-law, Kandiah
Neelakandan said that the proposed Act prohibits all actions impairing
freedom of religion of any person by coercion or allurement. According to
the Bill, "proselytizing" which shall mean, to make, persuade or influence
a person to renounce his religion or religious belief becomes a punishable
offence under the proposed Act. The Act strictly prohibits remitting,
holding, or keeping in custody, transferring or using funds or any
resources for the purpose of engaging in any activity to incorporate or
register body of persons with the object of proselytizing persons of other
religions. Given the communally charged environment, the Evangelical
Fellowship of India (EFI), fears the introduction of the new
anti-conversion law in the country will only increase the environment of
religious disharmony.
6/9/04 Vietnam (MFI)
The Crackdown Continues: Pastors arrested and Tortured
On May
14, 2004 Vietnamese police went to the village of Plei Blang “3”, to
arrest Puih Hyi because he was a preacher for Degar Christians who did not
want to follow the officially recognized Protestant Church. Puih Hyi was
fearful police would torture him so he escaped to the jungle. 14 days
later he went back home because he could not cross the Cambodian border as
Vietnamese and Cambodian police sealed the border off and would arrest and
possibly kill him. On May 29, 2004 the Vietnamese police arrested him at
his house, handcuffed him and beat him from his house along the way to the
police station in the district of Ia Grai. The police beat him and
tortured him repeatedly until they broke his skull and he died on May 31,
2004. Then the police tore up his shirt, made a rope and hung him like he
had committed suicide. The police told his family that he had hung him
self with his own shirt but the family examined the body and found out
that his skull was smashed. In another incident, at approximately 8:00 AM
on May 14, 2004 the Vietnamese police arrested a Degar Christian at his
village of Plei Khop, The reason for his arrest was that he refused to
follow the officially recognized Protestant Church. The police handcuffed
him and beat him. Blood was coming out of his nose, mouth and ears. He
is now imprisoned in the district of Ia Grai and we don’t know if he is
alive or dead.
6/9/04 Iraq (ANS)
15 killed in Car Bombs as Christians Flee
At least 14
Iraqis and one American soldier were killed in two car bomb explosions
that rocked separate cities Tuesday, June 8, adding to anxiety among the
country's minority Christians, many of whom are reportly fleeing the
troubled nation. One of the car bombs blew up as a convoy of provincial
council members passed by in the northern city of Mosul, news reports
said. The council members escaped injury but at least nine people died and
about 25 were injured, including the Mosul deputy police chief. In another
attack, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb during rush hour outside
the American forward operating base War Horse in Baqouba, about 50
kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Baghdad. Elsewhere, six coalition
soldiers — two Poles, three Slovaks and a Latvian — were killed in an
explosion while defusing mines in Suwayrah, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south
of Baghdad, authorities said. In a more positive development American
special forces freed three Italian and a Polish hostages Tuesday, June 8
south of Baghdad, in the first successful commando raid to rescue
foreigners caught up in Iraq, military officials explained. The apperant
lack of security came as church officials claimed that Iraqi Christians
"are voting with their feet" by leaving, amid fears that the country will
become an undemocratic Islamic state under a new government. Reverend Ken
Joseph Jr, who is an Assyrian and directs internet website http://www.assyrianchristians.com,
said the June 30th deadline for transfer of power will be accompanied by a
Temporary Constitution that reads in Article 7 , "Islam is the Official
Religion of the State." He also cited "the most recent humiliation for the
community - the failure to receive even one position on the Executive
Council and only one Ministry Post -the Ministry of Emigration" in the
36-member cabinet as reasons why Christians are leaving Iraq. The new
president, Ghazi Al-Yawer is a Muslim, as is prime minister Iyad Allawi.
6/8/04 Iraq (WorldNetDaily)
Fallujah Becomes Taliban-Like Society
In the wake of the
U.S. Marines pullout, the Sunni city of Fallujah has become a
Taliban-style theocracy, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global
intelligence news service. In the city of 300,000, about 30 miles north of
Baghdad, al Qaida-inspired clerics are the ruling authorities, backed by
the guns of Saddam loyalists who have imposed their own version of Islamic
law.
6/8/04 Islam
(WTOV9)
Rumsfeld Says We May Be Winning War Against Terrorism, But
Not Against Islamic Extremism
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the United States
and its allies are winning some battles against terrorism -- but may be
losing the broader war against Islamic extremism. Rumsfeld spoke at an
international security conference in Singapore before traveling to
Bangladesh, a mostly Muslim nation that has denounced terrorism. He said
he fears "zealots and despots" may be turning out newly trained terrorists
faster than the United States can capture or kill them. And he said it's
"quite clear" that "we do not have a coherent approach to this." Rumsfeld
said thwarting terrorists isn't enough. He said ways must be found to
persuade young Muslims that "the way of the future is through education
and opportunity, not through suicide and terrorism."
6/8/04 Sri Lanka
Anti-Conversion Law Moving Forward in Parliament
While the Jathika
Hela Urumaya party Monks who are in Parliament have reiterated their
commitment to bring in legislation limiting religious conversions, the
newly appointed Minister of Buddha Sasana Minister Ratnasiri
Wickremanayake who is a member of the government, at a press conference on
31st May 2004, pledged he would bring in necessary legislation to enact
recommendations of the report of the Buddha Sasana Commission of 2002. The
minister further revealed an intention to introduce legislation forming
"Sanghadhikarana" (courts presided over by monks), to settle problems
and disputes affecting monks and also villagers at the local temple
without going to the police station or a Court. Following the Minister's
statement, there are speculations in the local press that the proposed
anti-conversion bill will be tabled in Parliament soon.
6/7/04 Russia (Forum 18)
Permit Law Prevents Christians From Obtaining Places of Worship
An
unofficial "red line" bars non-Russian Orthodox from securing new places
of worship in the centre of the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk,
Protestants and Catholics reported. The local authorities "don't let us
anywhere near the city centre," Pentecostal pastor Aleksandr Pankratov
complained to Forum 18 News Service. One local lawyer says no Protestant
church has been allocated a plot of land in central Khabarovsk for four
years. The Immaculate Conception Catholic parish is even unable to regain
its historical church, confiscated in 1933. "Twelve of our elderly
parishioners were baptised and made their first communion in that
building," parish priest Fr Joseph McCabe told Forum 18. Admitting the
existence of this ban, regional religious affairs official Mikhail
Svishchev maintained that "every city tries to preserve its historical
part."
6/7/04 Iran
(Compass)
Iranian Pastor's Wife and Children Released from Prison;
He Remains Detained
The wife
and children of an Iranian Christian pastor have been released from jail a
week after their arrest in northern Iran, although the pastor and three
other local church leaders remain imprisoned in an unknown location.
Pastor Khosroo Yusefi’s wife Nasrin, the couple’s 18-year-old son and
15-year-old daughter were allowed to return home to Chalous, a town near
the Caspian Sea in Mazanderan province, on Sunday evening, May 30. Two
other church leaders arrested a month earlier on unspecified charges were
also released on May 30, sources in Iran confirmed to Compass. But the
same day, Iranian police arrested another Protestant church leader off the
street in Nowshahr, less than 20 miles from Chalous. The latest Christian
under arrest is believed to be jailed together with Yusefi and two other
Christians arrested earlier in May.
6/7/04 Indonesia
(Compass)
Churches Attacked in Coordinated Effort
Mobs armed with sticks
attacked four churches in Banten province, Indonesia, on Sunday June 6,
doing minor damage to church furniture and windows. Attackers punched one
pastor in the head, although he was not seriously injured. Captain Hamdani
of the local police department said the attacks were a reaction to
churches meeting in unregistered places of worship. Under Indonesian law,
churches must apply for permission to construct a building or meet in
privately owned or rented facilities. However, permission is rarely
granted, forcing some churches to worship without the required permit.
Muslims object to the presence of unregistered churches, and observers
believe this is the reason behind the recent attacks. A similar incident
occurred on April 6 in Menteng, southern Jakarta, where a clinic operated
by the Huria Kristen Batak Protestan (HKBP) church was attacked and church
property damaged. Ten churches which met in a shopping mall in Tangerang
were forced to close on March 1 because they did not have the required
permits.
6/7/04 India (AsiaNews)
Orissa Believers Being Persecuted by Police
Christians in Orissa are suffering violence and persecution
for their faith, guised as a fight against leftist rebels: “We are getting
a lot of trouble from the police”, says Father George Puthenkandam, who
heads Berhampur diocese's Vincentnagar parish. Police come from Bathili
station in Andhra Pradesh, though police of one state have no jurisdiction
in another state. Bishop Joseph Das of Berhampur stated that he has taken
the matter up with police and civil officials in Orissa, who, he said,
promised action. Vincentnagar parish has mostly tribal believers. The
Naxalites, a regional rebel Maoist network, also have tribal members.
Louis Kumar said that the police come wearing the particular kind of
clothing that Naxalites wear: “They say that if they shoot and kill us
after making us wear that dress, no one could question them, because they
could declare that the Naxalites were killed in a police encounter.”
Michael Kumar Majhi, a parish catechist, was arrested in mid-May: He was
tortured during the six days he was locked up in the police station:
“Police physically abused me, verbally abused me and the Church, and threw
away my Bible and rosary” he explained. Also Protestants are subjected to
violence and abuses in Orissa. Pastor Subas Samal and his associate pastor
Dhaneshwar Kandi of Kilipal village were arrested and charged with
“conversion by inducement” under the Orissa Freedom of Religion Act (OFRA).Mr.
Babajee Das, representing the Hindu villagers of Kilipal, has accused
pastor Subas. Babajee, saying that Subas had forcibly converted 25 Dalit
villagers over a period of 10 years, taking advantage of their illiteracy
and luring them with financial enticements. Christian reports instead
stated that Babajee took this action because his daughter had shown a
strong interest in the Christian faith.
6/7/04 Kosovo (ERPKIM)
17-Year-Old Serb Murdered
Seventeen year old Dimitrije Popovic was
murdered this past weekend in the center of Gracanica. An unknown person
shot with an automatic rifle at the Serb teenager who was in a hamburger
shop with other three Serb teenagers who were returning home from a disco
club. Except Dimitrije Popovic, no one else was injured in the attack.
Popovic was hit in the head, it was advised by the Health center in
Gracanica. Kosovo Police authorities confirmed that Dimitrije Popovic was
killed but they could not offer any additional information this morning.
KFOR police made a two hours investigation at the spot. According to the
testimony of eyewitnesses an "Audi" car from which attackers shot at a
Serb teenager sped towards Pristina after the attack. At the moment the
road through Gracanica is blocked and many inhabitants of Gracanica and
the neighboring villages have gathered to express their peaceful protest
against this heinous crime.
6/7/04 Vietnam (MFI)
Montagnard Foundation President Kok Ksor Pleads for
International Help As Vietnam Government Threatens His Family
President of the
Montagnard Foundation Mr. Kok Ksor states:
“This is not the first time the Vietnamese authorities have committed such
brutality against my innocent relatives. In May 2001 the security police
first arrested my mother “Ksor H’Ble” who is over 80 years old. Because
she refused to denounce MFI’s human rights activities the police beat her.
She suffered broken ribs and was admitted to hospital. The security forces
then threatened her over and over they were going to kill her. Recently
this year in May 2004 the Vietnamese police also had my half-brother
handcuffed, tied to a flag-pole and beaten publicly on May 10, in the Ceo
Reo District. I confirm that my mother, who also attended the Easter
Demonstrations and got back home only after her son was publicly beaten,
and my sister in law were forced by the Vietnamese Government to denounce
me and to admit their “wrongdoings” publicly. MFI also received reports
that their forced denunciations have been broadcasted by the Vietnamese
Television.I plead for the international community to urgently intervene
on behalf of my mother, my family and for all the Montagnard Degar people
inside Vietnam who suffer under Vietnam’s policies of repression. We are
not terrorists as Vietnam claims but indigenous people who only want to
live peacefully on our ancestral lands without the fear of being driven
into poverty and persecuted for being Christian. I also plead to the
international community to beware of Vietnam’s false claims that
Montagnard Christians are terrorists. The UN cannot allow succeeding
Hanoi’s underhanded plan to suspend the UN consultative status of human
rights NGO’s (who support Montagnard human rights) such as the
Transnational Radical Party. The UN must be kept free from intimidation
tactics by repressive regimes like Vietnam.We ask international Monitors
be granted access into the Central Highlands as recommended by the United
Nations Human Rights Committee and that Cambodia abides by the Refugee
convention by ceasing the forced repatriation of our refugees back to
Vietnam. The situation facing our people is extremely serious and the
latest Human Rights Watch report of 28 May, 2004 called for an
international investigation into the 2004 Easter killings of our people,
stating: “Fearing torture and arrest by Vietnamese troops, hundreds of
Montagnards in the Central Highlands have resorted to hiding in village
graves or pits dug in the forest, Human Rights Watch said today in a
briefing paper. “ Unless urgent action is taken many more Montagnards will
suffer and die.
6/5/04 (Serbia)
(Bill
Fancher)
Anti Christian Violence Ignored?
Radical Muslims have been attacking
Christian Serbs in Kosovo for many years, but the violence has escalated
over the past six weeks.
Institute on Religion and Public Policy
president Joseph Grieboski says the persecution of Christians in Kosovo
has been going on since the international intervention that ended the
civil war in that nation. "Since 1999, prior to the March 17 event, you
had 117 churches destroyed, 2,600 people killed, [and] 250,000 Serbian
Orthodox 'cleansed' from Kosovo," he says. Grieboski is concerned that
this anti-Christian violence has gone on under the "watchful eye" of NATO
and United Nations peacekeepers and that it is likely to continue. Over
the past three weeks, another 30 churches have been destroyed, hundreds of
Christians killed, and their homes torched.
6/5/04 India
(Compass)
RSS To Increase Targeting of Christians?
India’s
extremist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has
announced plans to establish a number of Raksha Sena or “Defense Army”
groups in Chhatisgarh, central India. In a two-day training session held
for recruits in mid May, Dilip Singh Judeo, former Minister of Forestry
and Agriculture, encouraged the recruits to “move into the interior parts
of the country to check religious conversions.” Christian leaders are
concerned about the development. “We have enough evidence that they are
targeting Christians,” says John Dayal, general secretary of the All India
Christian Council (AICC). AICC sources claim up to 20,000 Christian
members of tribal groups have been forcibly “reconverted” in a campaign
initiated by Judeo over the past five years. “Local RSS leaders, including
Judeo, have gone on record saying their main target is Christian
missionaries,” John Dayal told Compass.
6/5/04 Sri Lanka
(ICC)
Church Set Ablaze
An
A.O.G.
Church in the Navatkerny, Batticaloa District was set ablaze on the night
of 25th of May.
The structure was completely destroyed. A Police entry was made on the
26th May. The church continues to meet for worship services in a
make-shift tent. Navatkerny is a majority Hindu area.
6/5/04 Saudi Arabia (ICC)
Catholic Church Leader In India Asks Saudi King To Release Prisoner
ICC has been
working on the case of Brian O'Connor in Saudi Arabia. Brian is an Indian
National in Saudi who was arrested, tortured and jailed for his faith
about 6 months ago. (http://www.persecution.org/news/Press_Releases/PR_2004/pr2004-3-31-Saudis_Arrest_Torture_OConnor.htm
). The leader of the All India Catholic Union (in India) has called on
King Fahad bin Abdulaziz al Saud to release this prisoner
of conscience. “We request His Majesty to take appropriate steps to see
that the religious police stop the torture, and that Brian is given a fair
trial and released”.
6/5/04 Indonesia (AFP)
Government To Arm Prosecutors After Murder of Christian Prosecutor
Indonesian authorities will arm some prosecutors, especially those working
in trouble-spots, following the murder of a lawyer in Central Sulawesi, a
news report said Sunday. Ferry Silalahi, who helped try terrorism cases in
the sectarian violence-plagued province, was shot several times in his car
on Wednesday. "Firearms are now a necessity, seen from the high-risk roles
of prosecutors,' said deputy attorney general for Intelligence Affairs
Basri Arief, according to the Koran Tempo newspaper.
6/5/04 Eritrea
(Compass)
Three Prominent Pastors Jailed
Eritrean police have
jailed three prominent pastors and a popular Christian singer over the
past three weeks, escalating a two-year government crackdown against the
country’s evangelical Christians. Haile Naizgi, chairman of the Full
Gospel (Mullu Wongel) Church, and Dr. Kifle Gebremeskel, chairman of the
Eritrean Evangelical Alliance, were arrested at 6 a.m. at their homes in
Asmara on Sunday, May 23. Four days later, Pastor Tesfatsion Hagos of the
Rema Evangelical Church in Asmara was arrested while visiting the port
city of Massawa. Helen Berhane, 29, who recently released an album of
music popular among youth, has been incarcerated since May 13 in a
shipping container at the Mai Serwa military camp. A member of the Rema
Church, Berhane has reportedly refused demands that she sign a paper
recanting her faith in Christ and that she promise to stop participating
in Christian activities in Eritrea. To date, none of these Protestant
Christians have been produced in court or charged with legal offenses, as
required by law within 48 hours of arrest.
6/5/04 Russia (Forum 18)
Missionaries Face Restrictions
Local religious believers in Sakhalin
region sometimes face state restrictions on sharing their faith, Forum 18
News Service has found. Pentecostals have been banned from showing the
'Jesus Film', and have also encountered local state bans on open-air
evangelism, whilst the Jehovah's Witnesses have faced obstacles in
distributing their literature. One official told Forum 18 that
unregistered religious groups "can meet in private flats but not attract
other people or disturb those around them."
6/4/04 Afghanistan (ANS)
Christian Aid Workers Concerned After Recent Attacks
Christian aid organizations in Afghanistan
expressed concern Thursday, June 3, about growing Islamic extremism in the
troubled country after five workers of Doctors without Borders were shot
in an attack on their vehicle near the village of Khairkhana, about 350
miles (560 kilometers) west of the capital Kabul. The Brussels- based
Nobel Peace Prize-winning aid agency has suspended its work in Afghanistan
following Wednesday's violence in which three foreigners and two Afghans
were killed apparently by Islamic militants linked to the previous Taliban
regime. Doctors without Borders named the dead as Afghans Fasil
Ahmad and Besmillah, Belgian Helene de Beir, Egil Tynaes of Norway, and
Dutchman Willem Kwint, Bloomberg news agency reported. It came also as a
major setback for Christian organizations like International Aid (IA) who
fear the latest accident is part of a new trend, reported Mission Network
News (MNN), a mission news service and broadcaster.
6/4/04
Eritrea (Compass)
Three Pastors and Christian Musician Arrested
As Crackdown Against Christians Intensifies
Eritrean police have jailed three prominent pastors
and a popular Christian singer over the past three weeks, escalating a
two-year government crackdown against the country’s evangelical
Christians. Haile Naizgi, chairman of the Full Gospel (Mullu Wongel)
Church, and Dr. Kifle Gebremeskel, chairman of the Eritrean Evangelical
Alliance, were arrested at 6 a.m. at their homes in Asmara on Sunday, May
23. Four days later, Pastor Tesfatsion Hagos of the Rema Evangelical
Church in Asmara was arrested while visiting the port city of Massawa.
Helen Berhane, 29, who recently released an album of music popular among
youth, has been incarcerated since May 13 in a shipping container at the
Mai Serwa military camp. A member of the Rema Church, Berhane has
reportedly refused demands that she sign a paper recanting her faith in
Christ and that she promise to stop participating in Christian activities
in Eritrea. To date, none of these Protestant Christians have been
produced in court or charged with legal offenses, as required by law
within 48 hours of arrest.
6/4/04 Russia
(Forum 18)
Jesus Film Prevented from Being Shown
Local religious
believers in Sakhalin region sometimes face state restrictions on sharing
their faith, Forum 18 News Service has found. Pentecostals have been
banned from showing the 'Jesus Film', and have also encountered local
state bans on open-air evangelism, whilst the Jehovah's Witnesses have
faced obstacles in distributing their literature. One official told Forum
18 that unregistered religious groups "can meet in private flats but not
attract other people or disturb those around them."
6/4/04 Pakistan
Praise:
Anwer Masih Released from Prison
Pakistani
Christian Anwar Masih, who was imprisoned in December 2003 on the charge
of committing blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed, was bailed out of
jail this morning by the High Court Lahore Justice Tassadque Hussain
Jilani. Masih was arrested after commenting on an old friend’s beard
who had converted to Islam since they last met. He asked him about
the beard, and his friend got infuriated and started telling him that the
beard was the
Sunnah and every prophet had a beard. Naseer started scolding him
for asking these questions. The matter was settled after a couple of
minutes and they both left. He was arrested shortly thereafter.
Masih’s wife and four children were left alone and in fear after his
arrest. On ICC’s last visit to Pakistan we were able to lend prayer
and financial support to his family. It was unknown at that time
when or if Masih would be released from prison. His bail is a huge
relief for his family, a blessing from God, and a victory for Christians
in Pakistan.
6/4/04 Indonesia
(The Star)
Police Arrest Suspect Accused of Killing Christian
Police
have arrested a man suspected of gunning down a Christian district
attorney who had prosecuted Muslim militants accused of terrorism in
central Indonesia, authorities said Friday. The suspect was detained on
Wednesday in the town of Palu in Southeast Sulawesi province, police Brig.
Gen. Taufik Ridha said. He gave no more details on the arrest or the
identity of the suspect, saying that doing so could jeopardize the hunt
for three other people believed to have taken part in the slaying.Four men
opened fire on prosecutor Ferry Silalahi on May 26 as he left church in
Palu. Silalahi died instantly and the gunmen rode off on motorcycles.
Police have declined to speculate on a motive for the killing. Silalahi
had been working in Palu, 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) northeast of
Jakarta, for the past year prosecuting terrorism suspects. One of his last
cases centered on three dozen Islamic militants accused of killing 12
Christian villagers in Central Sulawesi in October. The first seven
defendants in the attack went on trial last month and face possible death
sentences if convicted.
6/3/04 North
Korea
Cell Phone Banned Since May 19
The use
of cellular phones in North Korea has been officially prohibited since May
19, according to a North Korean official from the National Security Agency
(NSA) who has been in close contact with the Democracy Network against
North Korean Gulag. This prohibition resulted from a special directive
given by the National Defense Committee. The investigation of the
Ryongchon train explosion on April 22 led the NSA to believe that special
groups were involved in plotting the explosion. They also discovered that
these groups used cellular phones to communicate and to organize this
alleged "criminal act," and the NSA concluded that this explosion had been
plotted in advance. After the investigation, the NSA asked Kim Jong Il to
order the prohibition of cellular phones, as their use was believed to
promote the spread of information and the collapse of the society.
Cellular phone users in North Korea, including sources in Pyongyang, have
expressed dissatisfaction with the prohibition. Citizens were required to
pay about US$1300 for each cellular phone, including a registration fee,
but none of the users have received compensation for the
government-imposed ban. Many sources in North Korea continue to believe
the Ryongchon train explosion was part of a plot to kill Kim Jong Il.
6/3/04 China/NK (DNANKG)
Chinese Authorities Tightening Security on NK Refugees
Recently the number of North Korean refugees
is rapidly increasing because of the serious food deficit in North Korea.
The Chinese Security Police is now more strengthening their control over
these refugees especially around the regions by the border line. One North
Korean who traveled to China with South Korean passport was arrested by a
Chinese Security Police without any reason, and he said that there were
over thirty North Korean refugees at the prison. Regardless of the
criticism from the world society, the Chinese government continues to have
more strict control on the North Korean refugees. The Chinese government
is more generous to North Korean refugees who are exposed to the mass
media than those who are not. However, they treat the rest of the North
Korean refugees with violence and unconditional repatriation back to North
Korea.
6/3/04 India
(BBC)
Textbooks to be Changed to Reflect Secular Tradition of Country
The state government in the Indian capital
Delhi has decided to change school educational text books. It will replace
the national curriculum one with state school books in government-run
schools. Analysts say the move is an attempt to row back from efforts by
the previous central government to introduce a Hindu nationalist agenda in
some textbooks. The new state-produced text books on all subjects
including maths and English will be introduced this year. Secular
traditions 'reinforced.' They will be used by all grades until the eighth
grade when children reach the ages of 13 or 14. For those above the eighth
grade, the national syllabus will remain. The Delhi Chief Minister, Sheila
Dixit, said the decision to change the curriculum was taken after feedback
from students and experts. The chief minister says the new textbooks
reflect India's secular traditions She told the BBC that care had been
taken to make the new books more attractive and interesting. "Nothing had
been done to distort history and these books reinforce the secular
traditions of India," she said.
6/3/04
Turkmenistan (Forum 18)
Adventists Register With State Under New Law
Seventh Day
Adventists have confirmed that, on Monday 1 June, they were given state
registration, the first religious group to be registered under the new
state registration rules, and Bahai's are likely to be confirmed later
today (3 June) as the next group to be registered. Other religious groups
have expressed cautious optimism that they too may be registered, however,
the state registration changes this do not affect groups which refuse
registration on principle, such as the "initiativniki" Baptists.
Unregistered religious activity remains, against international law, a
criminal offence, and it remains unclear how far newly-registered
religious groups will be permitted to operate without being persecuted, or
without the imposition of the heavy state control imposed on Sunni Muslims
and the Russian Orthodox Church, the only groups to be state registered
before 1 June.
6/2/04
Philippines (Jihad Watch)
Muslim With Link to Miltant Group Arrested
The Philippines arrested a Muslim with links to a local
militant group and seized improvised explosives, preventing an attack on a
ferry in the south of the country, navy officials said on Monday.
Captain
Geronimo Malabanan, a navy spokesman, said the man was caught on Monday
during a raid on a suspected hideout of the Abu Sayyaf group on the island
of Jolo. Another man escaped. Improvised explosives, bomb-making materials
and documents were found hidden in the ceiling of the house, Malabanan
said. "He was caught red-handed," Malabanan told Reuters. "He belonged to
an urban terrorist cell of the Abu Sayyaf led by a certain Alhabsi Misaya,
an expert bomber." A senior navy official said the arrest may have
prevented planned attacks by Abu Sayyaf on passenger and cargo ferries in
the southern Philippines.
6/2/04 Vietnam
(Mercury News)
Montagnard Foundation Leader's Family Forced to Admit 'Wrongdoing' in
Vietnam
Family members of a U.S.-based exile - accused by Vietnam
of being a terrorist - were required to participate in public
"self-criticism" sessions in the communist country's restive Central
Highlands region, an official said Wednesday. Five relatives of Kok Ksor,
including his mother, publicly admitted to "wrongdoings" during a May 26
session before their village of Bon Roai in Gia Lai province, said Nay
Hem, a local official. Ksor, who heads the South Carolina-based Montagnard
Foundation, has been accused by Hanoi of organizing several mass uprisings
in the Central Highlands, including recent Easter weekend protests that
drew an estimated 10,000 ethnic minority villagers. The village official
said the five family members confessed they were directed by Ksor to
attend demonstrations and incite other villagers to protest. None of them
were detained or arrested, he said.
6/1/04 China
(Freedom House)
Some Christians Released; Church Leader Remains Detained
Freedom House’s
Center for Religious Freedom hails the release by Chinese authorities of
two Catholic priests and a Protestant pastor, Zhao Wenquan. However,
well-known Christian evangelical leader Xu Shuangfu, founder of the
independent Three Class Servants church, detained on April 26, remains in
custody. In press releases last month, the Center urged the U.S.
government to press Beijing for their freedom. According to China Aid, a
Pennsylvania-based rights group, Zhao’s family and church members credit
international pressure for his recent release and report that he was only
“lightly beaten” while in jail. Zhao had been arrested in Anhui province
in east-central China on May 9 during a large outdoor harvest celebration.
6/1/04
Russia (Forum 18)
State Restrictions Imposed for Sharing Faith
In the Far Eastern Russian region of Khabarovsk,
religious believers can encounter state restrictions in sharing their
faith, but to a lesser extent than in neighbouring Sakhalin region, Forum
18 News Service has found. Pentecostals, for example, have told Forum 18
of restrictions on missionary activity beyond the location where their
church is registered, whilst Baptists have spoken of having to obtain
permission for street evangelism concerts. Interviewed by Forum 18 about
access to prisons and hospitals, the regional state religious affairs
official commented that religious activity in state institutions is
determined by each individual institution, which by now is well aware
whether or not the religious representatives coming to them are "sound."
5/29/04 Middle
East
Baptist IMB Urges Christians To Pray
Southern Baptists are encouraging tens of thousands of churches to join in
prayer and fasting this Sunday in observance of an annual event that
emphasizes evangelism of those peoples around the world that have not yet
been reached for Christ. The "Day
of Prayer and Fasting for World Evangelization 2004"
is spearheaded by the
International Mission Board
(IMB) of the
Southern Baptist Convention.
Every year on Pentecost Sunday, members of the denoination devote the day
to prayer for a people group that has not yet heard the gospel of Jesus.
Dr. Clyde Meador of the IMB says there are some 50-million people
living in the seven countries of the Arabian Peninsula, which include
Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and
Yemen. "A couple of those countries just absolutely do not allow any
expression of Christianity at all. Christian churches are banned," he
says. The IMB is urging Individual missions-minded Christians to get
involved in the Day of Prayer and Fasting; but Meador also encourages
entire families to join in the initiative. "There simply is not anything
close to an adequate access to the gospel for the peoples of that part of
the world, so it is more than appropriate for Christians to be praying
that doors would open and that those peoples could have access to the good
news of Jesus," he says.
5/29/04 Indonesia
(ICC)
Christian Prosecutor Slain In Sulawesi
ICC
has learned that Fery Silalahi, a Christian
prosecutor working on the Bali bombing case has been assassinated in
Central Sulawesi. Sulawesi has seen many Christians assassinated in the
past year but Fery is the first high profile person to die. He had been
working on keeping three men convicted for the bombing in jail who were
members of Jemaah Islamiah (JI-a radical Islamic group with ties to Al-Qaeda
that is responsible for thousands of Christian deaths in Indonesia). The
victim was working to keep three JI's in jail. He had helped convict these
men for their involvement in the Bali bomb conspiracy. Police have not
named any suspects but it is assumed it is a JI (Jemaah Islamiah) killing.
The assassins shot him in his car in Palu and then fled on two motorcycles
(the preferred method of escape).
5/29/04 China (China Aid)
House Church Leader Released
Well-known house church leader Zhao Wenquan was released from custody
Tuesday, 14 days after his May 9 arrest in Hegou Town, Meng Cheng County,
Anhui Province. Sources in China say Zhao suffered only “minor beatings”
during his incarceration, and was in good spirits after his release.
Members of his house church group expressed their thankfulness for
international prayer and protest after Zhao’s arrest. “This is a positive
response to the international concern.” Zhao was arrested when the
Domestic Security Protection Division Team of the Meng Cheng County PSB
raided a group of more than 4000 Christians gathered for a special harvest
celebration. It appears that his 14-day “administrative detention” will be
the only punishment for his involvement in this gathering. The original
charges of “disturbing the social order” and organizing an “illegal
religious gathering” appear to have been dropped after the international
outcry. Zhao, who is more than 60 years old, has been working in China’s
unregistered churches for more than 30 years. About a dozen other church
leaders who escaped arrest on the day of the harvest celebration are still
on the run.
5/28/04 Pakistan (ICC)
Christian Attacked By Muslim Policeman for Blasphemy Dies
Samuel
Masih, the Christian that was attacked by the policeman with a hammer for
blasphemy has died. He had been in the hospital for a few days and was
closely guarded by the police. A source at the hospital was able to
ascertain his condition and had reported that he was probably brain dead.
The policeman reportedly told people that he attacked Samuel so that he
(the policeman) could "gain a place in paradise." This is only the latest
in a long string of attacks on Christians for "blasphemy". He was
originally arrested because he threw trash by the wall of a Mosque.
President Musharraf has introduced legislation that would abolish the
blasphemy laws. He has done this at great danger to himself. Please pray
for courage for legislators to pass this bill. They fear a backlash from
the radicals. Original story on 5/26/04.
5/28/04 Indonesia-Ambon (ICC)
Ambon Still Troubled
Although
the Maulukus/Ambon have been relatively quiet since the major recent
disturbances, there is still a lot of fear and suffering going on in
Ambon. Many residents have sent out cries asking for international
help/attention knowing that unless media attention is turned on the local
government there will be no solution. Here are just a few of the
resident's cries sent to ICC. Please continue to pray for the Christians
of the Malukus and Ambon.
May 22, 2004
We, the
Maluku Nation are wiped out a little by a little. The community were
suppressed, but we faith that through the praying the enemy will be
paralysed and through the praying the struggling will be accelerated.
Please asking for the International aid to
stop Indonesian Barbaric Action.
May 23,
2004
"the destroyed of Ambon city has been unbelievable. Bombed and victimed in
turns. The situation is critical."
May 24,
2004
"asking for the peace keeping forces come down to Maluku."
May 26, 2004
Ambon city has to be an object of the terrorist.
In
just last two days, there were tens bomb founded. Tonight there are two
bomb blasted but I don’t know where.
May 27, 2004
We extremely need the peace keeping forces come down to Maluku/Ambon as
the best solution to settle/cut all of the Indonesian
egregious act in Maluku and let the Maluku people live in peace same with
all civilize people in the world.
5/28/04 Sudan (ICC)
Historic Peace Accords Signed
An historic
peace accord was signed on weds. between the Arab north Government of
Sudan (GOS) and the Christian Black South
Sudanese People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM). It is the official end to a 20 year war that
has taken the lives of 2 million people. Let us pray that the GOS
negotiated in good faith and will follow the accord and stop the genocide
of Darfur.
5/28/04 Sudan (ICC)
Sen. Brownback Applauds Peace Protocols
Urges Government
of Sudan to Take Additional Steps
U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today
commented on the historic peace protocols signed in the Sudan this week.
The Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement signed
three key peace protocols Wednesday, which were signed by Sudanese First
Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLM/A leader John Garang.
“These agreements mark an important and
hopeful step in ending the longest running war in Africa and
getting desperately needed humanitarian aid into the Sudan,” Brownback
said. “A key factor in this process was President Bush’s personal
leadership on the issue. The tireless efforts of human rights and
religious communities around the world maintained the pressure on the
government of Sudan for many years. My hope is that all parties will seize
the momentum of this breakthrough and make all efforts to rush aid to
those who need it most.” Brownback
continued, “The process of normalizing a bilateral relationship with the
Sudan and the United States can only happen in the context of a
comprehensive peace agreement and resolution of the situation in Darfur.
This includes ending the violence being perpetrated by the militias,
protecting civilians, facilitating unrestricted humanitarian access
through the issuance of visas and travel permits, cooperating in the
deployment of international monitors, and creating conditions for the same
return of displaced people. “The government
of the Sudan should be held accountable for ensuring the
humanitarian crisis in Darfur has ended. The credibility of the peace
process is at risk if the government of the Sudan does not cooperate in
this area, especially in Darfur.”
5/27/04
Tajikistan (Forum 18)
Islamic Group Murders Missionary?
It is not
yet certain who killed Baptist pastor Sergei Beserab in Isfara, but
reliable sources insist to Forum 18 News Service that a previously unknown
Islamist group called Bayrat was behind it, a group said to be associated
with the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan's Taliban.
The authorities state they have arrested a group of Bayrat members for the
murder and other crimes, but some local Muslim politicians have denied to
Forum 18 that Bayrat exists. Echoing a local newspaper attack on Beserab
just before his murder, Isfara's mayor, interviewed by Forum 18, attacked
Beserab's missionary work, referring to his past criminal convictions and
alleging that the killing was solely drug-related. The mayor produced no
evidence for his allegations and Tajikistan's Baptist Church has firmly
refuted them, pointing to the spiritual rebirth Besarab underwent when he
became a Christian in prison, and his subsequent active growth in faith.
The man thought to have carried out the murder, Saidullo Madyerov, is the
son of the former imam of Isfara's central mosque. Isfara is one of the
most devoutly Muslim regions of Tajikistan.
5/27/04 Uzbekistan (Forum 18)
Islamic Professor to Female Students: It Would Be Better For You To Be
Prostitutes Than To Read These Christian Books"
A Nukus
medicine lecturer, Alima Urazova, has searched the accommodation of female
Protestant students, confiscated Christian literature, and forced the
students to move to university accommodation so as to monitor their
religious activities. Referring to the Christian literature, Urazova told
the students that "It would be better for you to work as prostitutes than
to read those dreadful books." The university rector, Oral Ataniyazova,
has admitted to Forum 18 News Service that Urazova had no right to do
this, and has claimed that students' religious freedom will in future be
respected. But before claiming that religious freedom would be respected,
Ataniyazova alleged that the students were exploiting their faith to avoid
being expelled, telling Forum 18 that "Protestant students have understood
that they have the support of western organisations and have begun to take
advantage of this." This is not the first attack on Protestants at the
university, and attacks on religious freedom continue elsewhere in
Uzbekistan.
5/27/04 Pakistan
(ICC)
More News On Christian Attacked By Policeman for Blasphemy (Story on 5/26)
Samuel Masih was arrested
originally arrested on 8/23/03 under section 295 (blasphemy law) that he
put filth on the walls of a mosque in Lahore, hence insulting the sanctity
of the mosque. Due to his stay in jail awaiting trial he contracted TB and
was sent to Gulab Devi Chest Hospital on 5/22/04. A policeman Faryad Ali
reportedly attacked him in the hospital by striking him in the head with a
brick hammer. The policeman's motive was apparently a desire to earn a
place in paradise (obeying a call to kill a blasphemer). The hospital
switched him to the Neurosurgery Department. The policeman was sent to
jail after a case was lodged against him. The police continue to guard the
Samuel (even though he appears to be brain dead) and are giving deceptive
answers as to how he was injured.
5/26/04 Iran
(Compass)
Iranian Pastor Arrested
Iranian
police arrested a Protestant Christian pastor in northern Iran three days
ago, jailing him along with his wife and two teenage children. Pastor
Khosroo Yusefi and his wife Nasrin were arrested on May 23 in Chalous, a
town along the Caspian Sea coast. Together with their 18-year-old son and
a daughter age 15, they remain imprisoned without known charges. “The
police have found out that people have come to Christ in that city, that’s
all,” an Iranian Christian told Compass today. “We don’t know whether
somebody was spying on them, or what.” Reportedly dozens of believers from
two of Yusefi’s church groups were jailed in the first week of May and
later released. However, Sunday’s arrest marks the first time that the
entire family of a Christian leader has been taken into custody. The
majority of Christians meeting in secret house-church groups in Iran are
former Muslims. For More Details go to
http://www.persecution.org/news/In_Depth/Breaking_news_208.htm
5/26/04 Pakistan
(ICC)
Christian Attacked By Police for Blasphemy-Victim in Hospital w/o Vital
Signs
ICC is receiving reports that a Christian
man (Samuel X) has been admitted to General Hospital (Ward no. 18, bed no.
1) in Lahore as a result of being attacked by a policeman. The
understanding at this point is that the policeman attacked him regarding
his comments about Islam (blasphemy). Possibly this was done during an
interrogation as Samuel was previously being held at the police station.
We do have a reported quote from the policeman stating that he had "done
his religious duty" (in trying to kill him for blasphemy). Samuel is said
to be on life support and not showing signs of life according to a
hospital source. Our representatives have attempted to gain access to
Samuel but access to him is being blocked by the police. Doctors in
attendance are also not cooperating. This is only the latest incident in a
long string of attacks and abuses against Christians in Pakistan.
In January, Pastor Mukhtrar was murdered followed by the torture and
murder of a Christian student (Anjum) and only two weeks ago a pastor was
kidnapped and tortured but managed to escape. We will provide details as
they become available. Please pray for the Christians of Pakistan.
5/25/04 India (Zenit)
Indian State To Repeal Anti Conversion Law
News is
coming from Tamil Nadu in India that the States Anti Conversion laws will
be repealed. The law, in force since October 2002, obliges those who
wanted to convert to another religion to ask permission from the local
magistrate. It establishes severe sanctions, including imprisonment, for
anyone who resorts to force or bribery to get another to embrace a new
creed. The announcement of the desire to repeal the law, made by state
Prime Minister Jayaram Jayalalitha, "is a positive sign that infuses new
hope in the Christian community and in all religious minorities," said
Father Babu Joseph Karakombil, spokesman for the Catholic bishops'
conference. "When the measure was approved, there were many protests by
religious minorities in Tamil Nadu and in the whole of India," the priest
told the Vatican agency Fides. "We said at the time that this law was an
attack on the fundamental right of every citizen to be able freely choose,
profess and practice his own religious faith." He noted: "The new election
results have seen the defeat of the Bharatiya Janata Party and of the All
India Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam, of which the prime minister of the state
is a member." The latter, he said, "has understood that it has made some
decisions that have made its government unpopular and has tried to repair
it." This is why it has announced the "repeal of the law on conversions,"
Father Karahombil said. "Now we await the approval of the State Assembly,
which will come easily." "Now we expect and request energetically that it
also be removed in four other states of the federation in which a similar
measure is in force: Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Orissa,"
he continued. "We are confident of the support of large sectors of Indian
society, of all the religious minorities, and also of progressive and
liberal Hindus, who have opposed this type of measures from the
beginning," the spokesman added.
5/25/04 Indonesia
(NewsAsia Intl)
Another Bomb Blasts Ambon
A bomb
killed one person and injured 13 people in the Christian sector of
Indonesia's Ambon city and police defused another device planted near a
church. The blast at Batumeja market at around 10:30 am -- the third in
the city in three days -- sparked panic among residents and shoppers. A
nurse at Bakti Rahayu hospital nine injured people were being treated, of
whom three were in serious condition. A nurse at the Maluku Protestant
Church Hospital said five people were admitted and one of them later died.
City police chief Leonidas Braksan said officers defused a bomb planted in
the grounds of Maranatha church. He said a suspected bomb at the tax
office turned out to be a false alarm. The city in the eastern Maluku
islands is still recovering from an outbreak of Muslim-Christian violence
which began on April 25. Some 38 people were killed and hundreds of homes
and other buildings were torched. Two blasts on Sunday injured five
Christians in what national police chief Da'i Bachtiar described as an
attempt to provoke more trouble.
5/24/04 Turkmenistan (Forum 18)
Unrecognized Religious Activity Still Illegal
Unregistered religious activity remains illegal, an official of the Adalat
(Fairness or Justice) Ministry has confirmed, despite a presidential
decree abolishing criminal penalties for worshipping without state
approval. "If people act without registration they will be fined," Murat
Muradov, a specialist at the ministry, told Forum 18 News Service. The ban
on unregistered activity in the religion law has not been amended and
Article 205 of the Administrative Code, which spells out fines of up to
ten times the minimum monthly wage for leading or even taking part in
unregistered worship services, remains in force. Muradov denied any
harassment of believers in Turkmenistan, describing those who had told
Forum 18 of such harassment as "sick". More than ten weeks after the
president reduced the number of members required to register a community
from 500 to five, no new communities have yet been able to register.
5/24/04 China
(China Aid)
House Church Leader Arrested
In east-central China, well-known house church
leader Zhao Wenquan was arrested May 9 in Hegou Town, Meng Cheng County,
Anhui Province. More than 4000 Christians had gathered in the village for
a special harvest celebration, sponsored by a six-year-old local house
church. The church usually has only 2-300 for gatherings, so the large
meeting was quickly noticed by officials. The Domestic Security Protection
Division Team of the Meng Cheng County PSB raided the large gathering.
Zhao, who is more than 60 years old, was arrested after the harvest
celebration ended. He has been working in China’s unregistered churches
for more than 30 years. About a dozen other church leaders escaped and are
still on the run. Zhao has been charged with disturbing the social order
and with organizing an illegal religious gathering. He is believed to be
incarcerated at the Meng Cheng County PSB Detention Center. He could be
sentenced, without a trial, to three years of so-called _re-education
through labor.
5/24/04
China (China Aid)
House Church Leader Beaten To Death By PSB
Meanwhile, Gu Xianggao was beaten to death on April
27 while in the custody of Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers.
He was 28 years old. Gu was a teacher in a controversial house church
group known as "Three Grades Servants" in Heilongjiang Province, northeast
China. The leader of the group, Xu Shuangfu (also known as Xu Shengguang,
which means "holy light"), has been a well-known house church leader since
the 1980s. Xu Shuangfu has been arrested more than 20 times, and spent
more than 20 years in prison. His group is known for the secrecy of its
work, but is believed to have more than 500,000 members.
5/24/04 Indonesia
President Megawatti Visits Ambon
New Bomb Explosion Wounds Six
President
Megawati Soekarnoputri arrived in Ambon on Saturday, May 22, to meet with
local religious leaders and public figures, and inaugurate a number of
development projects.
The President confirmed that she had ordered the
eradication of the separatist South Maluku Republic (RMS), blamed for the
renewed clashes in Ambon. She said: “All forms of separatism must be wiped
out because they threaten the Undivided Republic of Indonesia.” She quoted
a presidential decree issued in 1950 by president Soekarno, her father, by
which the existence of the RMS was outlawed. She also said the RMS should
not be associated with Christians; there are also Muslims active as RMS
members. “Thus the Christian stigma should be lifted from the FKM/RMS, in
order to prevent continuing religious conflict in the Moluccas”, she said.
"The RMS has nothing to do with religion: it is an wholly political
issue." In other news,
six people were wounded this morning in a bomb explosion in Ambon. Two of
the wounded were seriously wounded when one of them opened a biscuits
canister he had found at the side of the road in Halong Baru, not far from
the Naval Base. The canister turned out to contain a home-made
low-explosive bomb, which exploded upon opening. Another home-made bomb
exploded some 30 minutes in the Batumerah area. There were no casualties.
5/24/04 Sri Lanka
Church Attacked
On Sunday, May 23rd
the A.O.G. Church in the District of Gampaha in Sri Lanka was attacked.
During the intervening week, the Pastor received information that his
Church would be attacked on the 23rd. However, the worship service was
held as usual. At the end of the service, while the congregation was still
there, a group of about 20 persons arrived, some armed with clubs and
sticks. The Pastor hid from the mob, fearing that they would attack him.
He succeeded in calling the Police from his hiding place. Meanwhile, the
mob proceeded to verbally abuse the congregation and assaulted some of
them. They also assaulted a lady, mistaking her for the Pastor's wife.
Chairs, the pulpit and musical instruments were broken. When the Police
arrived on the scene, the attackers ran away. However, one of them was
caught by the Police. A Police entry has been made, identifying some of
the attackers. It is commendable that the Police and the local grama
sevaka have acted impartially in this case. Investigations are
continuing. The attack followed one that occurred the Sunday before.
5/22/04
Vietnam (ARN)
4 Hmong Christians Arrested
Authorities in Vietnam say four ethnic Hmong Christians have been jailed
for "disturbing public order". Officials in the mountainous province of Ha
Giang say the four men were sentenced by the Hoang Su Phi district court
for up to three years in jail. The charges are said to relate to the
organisation of six illegal gatherings between October and November last
year. However, a US-based human rights group, the Centre for Religious
Freedom, says the men were only meeting for Christian worship, and are
victims of religious persecution. The Vietnamese government has
consistently denied that people in Vietnam are persecuted for their
religious beliefs.
5/22/04 Sudan Institute on Religion and Democracy
Govt. Ransacks Episcopal Property
Sudanese Govt. Ransacks Episcopal Cathedral Property
in Khartoum-Demonstration Called For
The Sudanese Govt. evicted Episcopal personnel from their provincial
office at the Episcopal Cathedral in Khartoum on May 20. This was done
right after the US lifted sanctions against the Sudanese govt. The IRD has
called for a protest march/demonstration beginning at Dupont Circle and
ending at the Sudanese Embassy for Weds. May 26. The demonstration will be
for the continuing human rights violations of the Sudanese Govt.
5/22/04
Azerbaijan (Forum 18)
New Crackdown On Adventists
Adventist Pastor Khalid Babaev - forced by death threats out of
Nakhichevan in February - was fined on 20 May in Sumgait, an industrial
city near the capital Baku, for leading a congregation without
registration. "They failed to register their place of worship," the local
police officer told Forum 18 News Service, though he was unable to say
which law requires this. A week earlier, two Adventist pastors in Gyanja
were fined for failing to register their place of residence in the city.
"We don't agree with these fines," Adventist leader Pastor Yahya Zavrichko
told Forum 18. "All we want is to be able to function freely." Local
officials are also seeking information about the Baku congregation in an
apparent bid to step up pressure.
5/19/04 Pakistan (Compass)
Kidnapped Pastor Escapes From Islamic Captors
A Protestant
pastor kidnapped last Sunday morning escaped from his Islamist abductors
overnight Monday, some 40 hours after he had disappeared on his way to
church services in Quetta, capital of Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.
Pastor Wilson Fazal, 41, managed to jump out of the vehicle in which his
kidnappers were driving him to Peshawar late on the night of May 17. “He
himself said he could not believe he could escape, that he got free from
those people,” a church source said. “It was a very big miracle.” Fazal
re-appeared early yesterday morning at the official Islamabad lodgings of
a Quetta parliamentarian. Fazal was severely beaten by his captors, who
also subjected him to electric shocks, stabbed him through the tongue,
shaved off his hair and mustache and taunted him with savage death threats
if he refused to convert to Islam. Fazal’s wife Nasreen and six sons left
Quetta yesterday to be reunited with Fazal at a protected safe house in an
undisclosed location.
5/19/04
Sri Lanka
Pastors Harassed
On May 16,
the home of a pastor in Yakala was stormed by a mob of about 50 people led
by a Buddhist monk. They demanded that the pastor should stop conducting
worship services in the Church and threatened him. Christian literature
and tracts that were in the house were confiscated & taken. Another pastor
in Mahawewa was building his personal residence when rumors started to
circulate that he was building a church. His home was surrounded by a mob
of 400 people on the 17th. Only minor damage was done to his property. He
was warned not to approach the police.
5/19/04 Sudan (MENAFN.com)
US Removes Sudan From One Terror List; They Remain on Another
The United States Tuesday removed Sudan from a list of
governments that do not cooperate with U.S. efforts to fight terrorism.
Sudan, however, would remain on a second list of "state sponsors of
terrorism" that bans U.S. arms trade with the African country. Soon after
removing Sudan from the first list, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
complained that Sudan was not allowing humanitarian assistance to reach
strife-torn Darfur region. "Sudan has taken a number of positive steps on
cooperation against terrorism over the past few years," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher told a briefing in Washington. "The
U.S.-Sudanese bilateral counter terrorism information sharing has improved
remarkably." The spokesman then added that Sudan would remain on the state
terrorism list because of the presence of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic
Jihad in the country and because of "some other concerns." Despite Sudan's
removal from the list of governments that do not cooperate with the United
States in the war against terror, U.S. officials have made it clear they
still have several reservations about that country. One of the major
issues being debated with Sudan is the need for immediate humanitarian
relief to refugees in the western Darfur region. U.S. and U.N. officials
estimate that government-supported Arab militias have killed more than
10,000 African Muslims in Darfur since last summer. The fighting also
forced about 1 million people to leave their homes and seek refuge in
neighboring Chad and in other places inside Sudan. A truce reached about a
month ago was to have ended the fighting but more violence has been
reported in recent days.
5/19/04 Indonesia
Ambon Update
Tensions have eased
since the Ambon Riots that began on April 25 and claimed the lived
of 39 people and the torching of churches and homes. Although yesterday
several streets were barricaded by Muslim crowds, nothing materialized
from it. Human Rights organizations are calling for an investigation
into the sniper killings that occurred during this time, and for the
prosecution of the guilty. On May 22, President Megawati will pay a
visit to Ambon to access the damage from the riots.
5/19/04 China (Asianews.com)
One Man Beaten to Death and 90 Others Arrested in Church Crackdown
One man was beaten to death and 90 worshippers arrested in
the northeastern province of Heilongjian during a crackdown on an
underground Protestant church, a US religious rights group says. Li
Shixiong, chairman of the US-based Committee for Investigation on
Persecution of Religion in China, said government officials were trying to
suppress the Three Grades of Servant church, which authorities saw as
being second only to Falun Gong in terms of its threat. Authorities are
said to have declared the church illegal and "evil" as early as 1999. It
claims to have several million members. The committee says the church's
spiritual leader, Xu Shuangfu, has been abducted and is being held by
police. Authorities have accused Mr Xu of deifying himself and collecting
money from church members. The group said Mr Xu was abducted by people
driving a police jeep as he was making his way to Harbin airport on April
17. A spokesman for the Heilongjiang Public Security Bureau denied Mr Xu
was being held and claimed to have no knowledge of the case. The committee
said 90 other church members were arrested after Mr Xu's abduction.
Meanwhile, another church member, Gu Xianggao, 28, died in the custody of
Harbin police on April 26. Officers initially told his family that he had
been detained on suspicion of robbery and murder, according to his sister,
Gu Xiangyan. But Ms Gu said that when family members traveled to Harbin
early this month, they were told he had been arrested for being a member
of the church.
5/19/04 Vietnam (Asianews.com & Freedom House)
Four Hmong Christians Arrested and Sentenced
Four
Hmong Christians who organized and led weekly worship services in a house
church in Vietnam’s remote province of Ha Giang have now been officially
sentenced for the vague offense of “disturbing public order.” According
to information just obtained by Freedom House’s Center for Religious
Freedom, the four Hmong Christians were sentenced to terms of 26 to 36
months in late March 2004. The men were arrested in November and December
of 2003. The Center for Religious Freedom obtained a copy of a lengthy
document of accusations against them which described meetings of 50 or 60
people taking place over six consecutive Sundays. The four are: Ly Chin
Sang, age 60, a Christian since 1991, sentenced to 36 months. His
wife is Giang Thi Ca and they have a 19-year-old son living at home. Ly
Sin Quang, 28, son of Ly Chin Sang, above, has also been a
Christian since 1991. He and his wife, Vang Thi Da, have four young
children. [No length of sentence given]. Vang Chin Sang, age 56, sentenced
to 36 months and a Christian since 1999, is married to Ma Thi Pang. They
have a 13-year-old son at home. Vang My Ly, age 24, has been a Christian
since 1991.
Due to international pressure, Vietnamese authorities have recently begun
to avoid referring to Christianity when making charges against believers,
using the term "illegal religion" instead. The government recognizes as
legitimate only Christians who were believers before the 1954 communist
revolution.
5/18/04
Nigeria (AP)
President Declares State of Emergency
Nigeria's
president declared a state of emergency in a troubled central state on
Tuesday, invoking sweeping powers in a bid to halt religious and ethnic
bloodletting that he said posed a ``great threat'' to national unity. The
declaration came amid reports of new violence by suspected Muslim
militants against four predominantly Christian villages in Plateau state,
wracked for months by cycles of revenge raids. Survivors of Tuesday's
attacks spoke of gunmen opening fire on fleeing civilians and burning
homes. President Olusegun Obasanjo sacked Gov. Joshua Dariye and dissolved
the legislature in the central state of Plateau, saying elected officials
had ``wittingly and unwittingly encouraged acts that have subverted peace
and tranquility.'' The state of emergency - announced in an address on
national radio and television - came after months of violence in the state
of hilly farms and pastures.
5/18/04 Greece
(Forum 18)
Religious Freedom Non-Existent in Greece
In the
run-up to the August 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Dr Altana Filos presents a
survey of religious freedom in Greece. This is the only European Union
country to ban proselytism in its Constitution, despite condemnation by
the European Court of Human Rights in 1993 for this. Dr Filos finds that
there have been improvements since 2001, however, religious minorities are
still banned from corporately owning places of worship and being
represented in court, and the police can still prosecute religious
communities who operate or build places of worship without the permission
of the government and the Orthodox Church. Religious freedom is the
Achilles' heel in Greece's human rights record.
5/18/04 Pakistan
(Jihad Watch)
Pakistani President Calls for Review of Islamic Laws that
Discriminate Against Women and Non-Muslims
Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf called on Saturday for a review of
controversial Islamic laws that human rights groups say are discriminatory
against women and non-Muslim minorities. Speaking at a convention on human
rights, Musharraf said the strict Islamic laws passed under the military
dictatorship of late General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq in 1979 should be studied
afresh to ensure they were not misused. Musharraf said the country's
blasphemy law should also be reviewed. The blasphemy law prescribes the
death penalty for insulting Prophet Mohammad, other prophets and holy
books, but rights groups say it is often used to settle personal scores.
Musharraf also called for a law banning honor killings, in which male
relatives kill women deemed to have brought disgrace on their families by
having a relationship with a man, or marrying without consent or bringing
an inadequate dowry.
5/18/04 Egypt
(Compass)
Victory: Egyptian Court Reverses Religious Identity Card
In an unprecedented
verdict on April 13, an Egyptian court ordered the Interior Ministry to
return formal Christian identity status to a Coptic Christian who had
converted to Islam 11 years ago and then returned to her Christian faith.
The decision resolved a six-month stand-off with state security officials
and required them to return the Christian I.D. card of Mira Makram Gobran
Hanna to her possession. Now 30, Hanna had signed papers in March 1993 to
convert to Islam but obtained the approval of the ecclesiastical council
to return to the Coptic Orthodox Church 13 months later. Last October,
security police forcibly confiscated Hanna’s national I.D. card. Egyptian
citizens 16 years and older are required to carry their I.D. cards at all
times. The recent ruling in Hanna’s favor upholds the principle of freedom
of belief enshrined in the Egyptian Constitution, according to her legal
counsel Nagib Gibrael. “This verdict indicates the reliability of the
Egyptian courts,” Gibrael told Compass. Under the Egyptian government’s
long-standing interpretation of Islamic law, Muslims have been forbidden
to convert to another faith.
5/18/04 Vietnam
Military Sent Into Central Highlands
ICC is receiving reports that
military units have been sent into Pleiku and Dak Lak provinces in
Vietnam. These regions are in the Central Highlands where over 200
Montagnard Christians were killed over the Easter Holiday. Since
that time the Vietnamese government has had the region sealed off to all
outsiders, and it is believed that the military has been sent in to ensure
that this sealing off of the region from the public eye continues.
It is reported that 9 divisions are being sent in, which is a huge number
of military personnel for a small region. It remains to be seen how
they will go about ensuring that the region remains sealed.
5/18/04 China (DeepikaGlobal.com)
Two Chinese Priest Arrested
Chinese police
arrested two underground Catholic priests last week in Hebei province, the
U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation announced today. The religious rights
organization said in a statement the two priests Lu Genjun, 42, and Cheng
Xiaoli, 40, were taken into custody on May 14, in An Guo, in northern
Hebei province. The two men were arrested as they were about to attend
classes on family planning and moral theology, the group said. Lu Genjun
had been arrested twice earlier, once in 1998 and again in 2001, when he
was held for three years at a labour camp in Hebei. He had just been
released from the labour camp when he was arrested last week. Foundation
President Joseph Kung said that despite repeated efforts by the Catholic
Church to open dialogue with Chinese officials on religious freedom,
detentions have continued. ''It is disappointing to see China again
arresting these two underground priests within such a short time,'' Kung
said. ''The arrest of Father Lu and Father Cheng is yet another ongoing
religious persecution in China. This proves that religious persecution is
not something of the past. It is still there.
5/17/04 Vietnam (Compass)
Vietnamese Christians Face Propaganda War
During Easter weekend, April 10 and 11, Montagnards in Vietnam’s Central
Highlands attempted to stage public demonstrations to call attention to
harsh injustices they suffer at the hands of communist authorities and
ethnic Vietnamese settlers. Vietnamese security forces dressed in civilian
clothes attacked the demonstrators, using weapons such as clubs with
embedded nails, iron bars, chains, hoes and machetes. An unknown number
were killed, hundreds were injured, and many are missing. The Vietnamese
government later admitted that the demonstrations involved thousands of
people. They mounted an aggressive propaganda campaign to justify its
repression of the demonstrators. This week, government officials publicly
blamed the U.S.-based organization Montagnard Foundation Inc. (MFI) for
organizing the demonstrations. Officials vowed to punish anyone inciting
further unrest in the Central Highlands. Human rights organizations said
that while MFI may have acted unwisely, the organization should not become
the government’s scapegoat for the heavy repression at the root of the
unrest. One thing is certain: the controversy is sure to cause greater
hardship for the Montagnard Protestant church.
5/17/04 Pakistan (Compass)
Pakistani Pastors Feared Kidnapped
After a series of handwritten threats sent to Christian leaders in the
Pakistani city of Quetta last week, at least one Protestant pastor has
been reported missing by his family, with the whereabouts of another six
uncertain. Pastor Wilson Fazal, 41, was reportedly enroute to Sunday
morning services at the Pakistan Gospel Assembly in Quetta’s Bashirabad
suburb when he disappeared yesterday. In a letter delivered to his house
five days ago, Fazal was told, “Christians of Quetta, you are displeasing
God … Accept the faith of jihad. … Get ready, ready, ready, or else.” Six
other Pentecostal church leaders in the city are also missing and may have
gone into hiding to avoid capture. According to unconfirmed reports, a
local pastor has received a letter from Fazal’s kidnappers, declaring they
will not release him until local churches comply with their demands to
close down their Christian institutions. Pakistan’s Christian churches and
institutions have been the violent target of repeated terrorist attacks
since September 2001.
5/17/04 Egypt (Compass)
Christian Couple Escape After Ordeal of Torture
Thirteen months after Egypt jailed and tortured a Coptic Christian
pharmacist for marrying a former Muslim woman, Boulos Farid Rezek-Allah
Awad was finally allowed to emigrate from Egypt to Canada in March. A few
weeks earlier, his wife Enas Yehya Abdel Aziz had escaped the country to
claim refugee status abroad. Egyptian security police officials told Rezek-Allah
last November that he was permanently blacklisted from leaving Egypt; they
vowed to track down and punish his wife for her “illegal” marriage to a
Christian. During his two subsequent attempts to leave for Canada, he was
turned back by Egyptian authorities. Rezek-Allah told Compass that he
assumed that the Egyptian authorities somehow learned that his wife had
managed to slip out of Egypt without being identified and arrested. “So
after they lost hope of catching Enas, they allowed me to depart from
Egypt,” he said. His wife plans to enter English language classes and he
is studying for his final pharmacy-license exams in Canada this coming
August.
4/15/04 Sudan
Darfur - (Middle
East Times)
"Nothing
Left to Burn"
A fragile
calm has returned to Sudan’s western Darfur, wracked by 15 months of war,
but only because “there are no more villages to burn,” a UN official said
this week. “Because there are no villages left to burn, the situation has
calmed down,” said UN emergency relief officer Daniel Augstburger, who
visited Darfur from April 28 to May 1. Since rebels in Darfur signed a
ceasefire pact last month with the Khartoum government, systematic attacks
on civilian populations in the north and south of the region have dropped
off, but the far west has seen no change, he said. “Forced movements of
populations have stopped to a certain extent,” said Augstburger, adding
that “harassment of civilians was continuing,” especially incidents of
gang rape. UN human rights chief Bertrand Ramcharan last week accused the
Sudanese government of conducting a “reign of terror” and “repeated war
crimes and crimes against humanity” by supporting militia and nomads who
have been driving black Africans out of the region. An estimated 1 million
people have been displaced inside the country, and a UN report has said
the government was deliberately starving some of them. More than 100,000
others have fled across the border into Chad.
5/14/04 TURKMENISTAN (Forum 18)
President Revokes
Criminalization of Religion
Under intense international pressure over its repression of religious
life, Turkmenistan's president Saparmurat Niyazov has today (13 May)
revoked the punishments introduced into the Criminal Code last year on
those involved in unregistered religious activity. Before these
punishments were introduced, Turkmenistan already had tight controls
-which it still maintains - on unregistered religious activity. All Shia
Muslim, Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist, Armenian Apostolic, Lutheran,
Hare Krishna, Jehovah's Witness, Baha'i and Jewish activity was de facto
if not de jure treated as illegal. Believers were, even before the de jure
criminalization of unregistered activity, fined, detained, beaten,
threatened, sacked from their jobs, had their homes confiscated, banished
to remote parts of the country or deported in retaliation for involvement
in unregistered religious activity. De jure decriminalization is not
expected to change the established pattern of de facto criminalization.
5/21/04 India
(Compass)
Elections Still a Victory for India Despite Ghandi's
Decision to Not Accept the Position
Christians in India hailed
the victory of Sonia Gandhi’s Congress Party in this month’s general
election as a triumph for religious freedom. However on May 18, five days
after the election results were announced, supporters of the former
government launched a propaganda campaign against Gandhi, claiming that as
an Italian-born Roman Catholic she would support the conversion of Hindus
to Christianity. In a surprise move on the same day, Gandhi resigned from
party leadership, nominating former finance minister Manmohan Singh as her
replacement. While bitterly disappointed at Gandhi’s resignation,
Christians throughout India continued to celebrate. “Civil society is now
looking forward to the rejection of the Hindutva (Hindu nation)
agenda that has affected many areas of Indian life,” said Dr. Joseph
D’Souza, president of the All India Christian Council. “A national
anti-conversion law is now out of the question.”
5/21/04
Azerbaijan (Forum 18)
New Crackdown on Adventists
Adventist Pastor
Khalid Babaev - forced by death threats out of Nakhichevan in February -
was fined on 20 May in Sumgait, an industrial city near the capital Baku,
for leading a congregation without registration. "They failed to register
their place of worship," the local police officer told Forum 18 News
Service, though he was unable to say which law requires this. A week
earlier, two Adventist pastors in Gyanja were fined for failing to
register their place of residence in the city. "We don't agree with these
fines," Adventist leader Pastor Yahya Zavrichko told Forum 18. "All we
want is to be able to function freely." Local officials are also seeking
information about the Baku congregation in an apparent bid to step up
pressure.
5/20/04 Somalia
(Jihad Watch)
Doctor's Life Threatened After Saving Life of Woman
A
maternity hospital in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has been forced
to close after a doctor who removed a woman's womb in a life-saving
operation received death threats from her family. The doctor insists the
surgery was essential, but her family says she is "as good as dead"
because she can no longer bear children. Members of the family, who are
reportedly claiming compensation of 50 camels, hired gunmen to threaten
staff at the city's SOS hospital.Patients were evacuated and medical
workers went on strike on Monday, complaining of intimidation by the 20 or
so hired gunmen, who have been prowling the hospital grounds and harassing
staff. The woman's uterus was removed by Bashir Sheikh, head of obstetrics
and gynaecology at the hospital. He said the operation was vital because
the woman was carrying a dead fetus. "I was waiting to be thanked, but
instead I am receiving death threats," he told the BBC.The cause of the
fetus’s death was not known, but the most likely cause of complications
was that that the mother had been circumcised. During female circumcision
in Somalia, the vagina is sewn together to leave a tiny aperture, causing
internal damage and prolonging childbirth for up to 10 days. Elders,
religious leaders and women's groups have been calling on the family to
withdraw the militiamen, but they say they will back down only if they get
the 50 camels - the traditional Somali compensation for taking a woman's
life.
5/20/04 Islam (Jihad Watch)
German Intelligence Says Islamists Pose Greatest Threat
Germany's Office for
the Protection of the Constitution (BFV), one of three national
intelligence services in Germany that is charged with gathering
information on domestic as well as foreign extremist and terror groups
active on home soil, stressed on Monday that Islamic terrorism posed the
biggest security threat in Germany. Presenting the annual domestic
security report 2003 in Berlin, German Interior Minister Otto Schily said,
"Unfortunately we still face diverse dangers in Germany of which Islamic
terrorism and Islamic extremism form the focal point.” Schily added that
recent terrorist attacks such as the ones in Madrid in March this year
that killed almost 200 people targeted so-called soft targets worldwide.
“We can't assume that Germany lies outside the reach of such targets,"
Schily warned, saying that in the eyes of Islamic terrorists Germany
counted as an ally of the United States and Israel and was also actively
involved in the war against terrorism through its peacekeeping deployment
in Afghanistan.
5/19/04 India (Compass)
Six Villagers Arrested for
Shaving the Heads of Christians in Orissa, India
Six people were arrested on
May 3 in connection with a February 10 incident regarding residents of
Kilipala village in Orissa state shaving the heads of a local pastor and
eight Christian women. Tonsuring, or shaving the crown of the head, is
seen as the mark of a Hindu convert and caused great humiliation for the
Christians concerned. The arrests were made after a Public Interest
Litigation was filed on behalf of the victims. The villagers had
previously accused Pastor Samal of forcibly converting two girls in the
village; “forced conversion” is banned under the Orissa Freedom of
Religion Act. Pastor Samal denied the charges, and the two girls signed an
affidavit saying they had converted of their own free will. Despite this
evidence, an arrest warrant was issued against Pastor Samal just a few
days after the villagers responsible for tonsuring him were arrested.
Concerned Christian and secular organizations in India are proceeding with
further appeals on behalf of Pastor Samal and the eight women, who remain
in sheltered housing in the state capital.
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