Christians in Laos Forced to Revert to Animism

ICC Note: Across rural areas of Laos reports are coming in of Christian communities being pressure to give up their new found faith in Christ. Those who refuse are threatened with forced eviction from their homes. Animism, or the worship of the natural world, is a traditional belief system for many villages in Laos. Last year report also emerged of Christian community leaders being arrested and held in stockades, despite the fact that the Lao constitution guarantees religious freedom. Laos is one of five remaining Communist nations on earth today. 
9/26/2013 Laos (UCANews) – Converts to Christianity in Laos are facing eviction from their village because of their beliefs, according to a US rights group.
Authorities in Huay village, Savannakhet province, accused the Protestant converts of conducting worship in their homes and said they must recant or be expelled, said Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).
The villagers have defied the order on the grounds that freedom of worship is guaranteed under the Laos constitution, said the Tennessee-based rights group.
HRWLRF also said yesterday that it had received reports of Christians in Nonsung village in Savannakhet province being summoned to a village meeting and ordered to participate in animist oath-taking. They refused to do so, it said.
The eviction threat in Huay village is the second reported in Laos in a month.
On Aug 30, HRWLRF said that 50 Christians in central Bolikhamsai province were ordered to reconvert to their traditional animist religion. They too are resisting the order.
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