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Subject: Persecution report for July 1, 2003.

Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2003 19:42:35 -0600

From: "Bruce Atchison" <ve6xtc@telusplanet.net>

To: "Ted" <thilts@help-for-you.com>

PERSECUTION REPORT FOR JULY 1, 2003.

The Voice Of The Martyrs provides these reports of believers suffering for their faith in Christ.

China;

Arrests, Prison and "Re-Education" For Christians

The Voice of the Martyrs has received a series of reports this week, demonstrating the challenges of being a Christian in China.

(a) In February 2003, Mr. He-Man was arrested and charged with "illegal printing." He was found with various books, Bibles, and CDs and was interrogated for the names of contacts and co-workers. In spite of torture, including having his fingernails torn out, he remained silent. This week we received news that He-Man has been sentenced to five years in prison.

(b) According to a report received on June 21, Christian workers from various provinces were meeting in a home in southwest China to discuss future plans when the Public Security Bureau arrested them. No further information is yet available.

(c) Twelve members of an underground church have been arrested and at least eight face "re-education" in a labour camp, according to a June 18 report from Human Rights in China (HRIC). Those arrested include Wang Qiyou, Huang Yuting, Huang Changshou, Huang Tingyi, Huang Guojie and Huang Shaoxian, all members of a house church in Nanong Village in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

Due to continuing government oppression, the house church had requested official recognition by the authorities. On June 6, officials turned up at four locations where the church was meeting. Church leaders thought they were there to work on the documentation. Instead, the twelve were taken to the Funing County Detention Centre without warrant or notifying their families. On June 13, the families were finally notified that the eight were being held indefinitely on charges of "engaging in feudalistic superstition." A government official told the BBC that they had been sent for re-education through labour; effectively a prison sentence without trial. Other raids are continuing in what sources say is the largest scale crackdown on house churches this year.

VOM also calls on Christians around the world to contact their governments, urging them to put pressure on China to respect the freedom to worship God. Thank you for the many who have contacted authorities about imprisoned believers in China. The Chinese embassy in the US has been so overwhelmed with e-mails recently they were forced to take down their public e-mail address. We encourage you to continue to politely register your protests.

Contact information can be found through our web site at http://www.persecution.net/links.1 htm

Please go to http://www.persecution.net to learn more about persecution and how to help those who are suffering from it.

Christian Aid Mission reports these persecution incidents.

Nepal:

Nepali Believers Released After Four Months

Three Nepali Christian workers who were jailed four months ago were released on June 20, according to a report received by Christian Aid.

As previously reported by Missions Insider, the three had been on their way to visit a Christian family in Pyuthan district when they were stopped and interrogated by police. After finding Bibles and other Christian literature in their bags, the police arrested them on charges of carrying Christian literature, preaching Christianity, and attempting to convert others to Christianity.

The believers never denied their Christian faith throughout all of their hearings, but they did deny ever attempting to force others to become Christians, which is a crime in Nepal. False witnesses were brought forward during their trials to try to condemn them. They were facing three to six years in prison.

Fellow believers brought appeals to a higher court that overturned the decision of the lower court that sentenced the Christians in the first place. The higher court ordered the believers released immediately without bail.

The believers are now with their wives and children, yet their ordeal is not completely over. They must still report to the district court for the next few months until their release becomes permanent.

The Christians thank God for the prayers of the saints around the world that led to their release. They request continued prayer as they continue to maintain their faith in an increasingly hostile environment. To learn more write insider@christianaid.org and put MI-425 702-GOC on the subject line.

Laos:

Lao Authorities Issue Stay Order for Evicted Families

Prayer and public awareness seem to have gained a victory for the five Christian families ordered evicted from their homes in Laos recently.

On June 9, five Christian families were given 10 days to leave Kang village in Sanamchai District, Attapue Province, Laos. Attention to their plight was made known in last week's Missions Insider, as well as in a special e-Alert sent out by Christian Aid on June 12.

Last Friday Christian Aid learned that the Lao National Department of Religious Affairs in Vientiane considered the eviction order illegitimate and ordered the Attapue Provincial Department of Religious Affairs to Vientiane for a special meeting. Meanwhile, the five Christian families of Kang village were told by the national department to ignore the eviction order from the province.

"I see the Lord's mighty intervention in all of this," Christian Aid's confidential contact said. "Please keep praying that we will see religious freedom in Attapue and in all of Laos."

For more information see last week's story, "Lao Authorities Evict Five Christian Families." To learn how you can help, write insider@christianaid.org and put MI-425 730-CFL in the subject line.

Korea:

Testimony of Soon Ok Lee

Soon Ok Lee, North Korean defector and survivor of its brutal political prisoner camps, testified before the U.S. House Committee on International Relations on April 30, 2003. Missions Insider presents her testimony as a resource to help people pray for North Korea.

My name is Lee Soon Ok and I defected from North Korea in February, 1994, with my son and I arrived in Seoul in December 1995. From 1987 through 1992 I was in the political prisoner camp of Kaechon. In addition to this statement, I would like to formally request that my additional written testimony be submitted into the record of this hearing.

Human rights are a universal criterion to measure and evaluate the political and social development of mankind. Today, human rights are most violated and least tolerated in North Korea, a blind spot of the world. Worst of all, the crimes against humanity that have been perpetuating in North Korea for decades have destroyed the humanity and personalities of all North Koreans. The personality cult of the leaders, the father and son, was the norm that came to replace respect for humanity. To achieve this purpose, the North Korean leadership operates secret concentration camps and prisons for political prisoners in at least 12 locations. Their goal is to eliminate all forms of opposition. Over 200,000 innocent victims, including women and children, are detained there for life without a judicial process.

The secret concentration camps and all forms of prisons in North Korea are the sites of the worst crimes against humanity in the 21st century.

Some 6,000 prisoners were in the Kaechon Prison when I was imprisoned there for 7 years. All the prisoners were deprived of all forms of human dignity. From the moment of imprisonment, prisoners are treated as being lower than beasts. I experienced a living hell there during the seven years that I was there. The ordeal at that time was to such an extent that even today I am not sure whether I am alive or merely dreaming.

Kaechon Prison was one of the first prisons constructed by the North Korean regime for political offenders. As the economic situation rapidly deteriorated and food shortage became widespread in the 1980s, even petty commercial offenses, such as buying or selling food in the black market, were treated as political crimes. Consequently, large numbers of innocent citizens were sent to prisons as political prisoners. Kaechon Prison was only for men until 1982. After 1982, the increase in the number of women arrested for trying to find daily provisions in the black market, or for travelling without an official "pass" to find food, made it necessary for the prison authorities to accommodate women prisoners in Kaechon Prison.

Some 2,000 housewives were serving prison terms in Kaechon Prison when I was there. The women were typical victims of the North Korean political system. They were arrested while trying to find food when the government discontinued food rations. The women's appeals were considered an expression of political discontent and they were sentenced as political prisoners. Many of them did not have knowledge of the charges against them or what their sentences were. In prison, they found out for the first time that they had been given sentences of 10 or 15-year terms.

To read the rest of Soon Ok Lee's testimony, how prisoners were treated in prison, please check http://www.christianaid.org

Forum 18 presents these violations of religious rights.

Belarus:

Despite protests, "anti-sect" schoolbook to remain

Pentecostal and Hare Krishna representatives have so far failed in their bid to have the education ministry withdraw a textbook which they say incites religious discord. The book for 18-year-old children, published by the Education Ministry last year, warns that Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist and Jehovah's Witness activity is a breeding-ground for fanaticism. It also puts the Hare Krishna and Zen Buddhist movements on a par with the Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo responsible for the 1995 gas attack on the Tokyo subway, and suggests that Krishna devotees need psychiatric help. The Orthodox are unhappy with a quotation that they say "hurts the feelings of believers". Orthodox Church legal advisor Andrei Aleshko told Forum 18 News Service that once his Church has studied the text it will call on the ministry to withdraw the book.

Georgia:

Police chief bans Pentecostal church

Local police chief Temur Anjaparidze says he will not allow Pentecostal pastor Nikolai Kalutsky to use his home in Tbilisi as a church. "It's not fair on the neighbours," he told Forum 18 News Service on 23 June. "The neighbours won't allow this. What can I do? " His comments came the day after the Pentecostal church was again blockaded by neighbours and self-appointed Orthodox vigilantes, who also made racist remarks to the ethnic Russian pastor. Father David Isakadze, priest in the nearby village of Dighomi suspected of being behind the repeated mob blockades, denied any involvement. "I have no role in this whatsoever," he told Forum 18, despite appearing to be well-informed about the protests.

Turkmenistan:

Heavy fines on Turkmenabad Baptists

In the wake of a raid on a Baptist church in Turkmenabad, apartment owner Yeldash Roziev has been fined nearly 100 dollars for allowing his home to be used for a religious meeting, local Baptists reported in a statement reaching Forum 18 News Service. Officials also threatened to confiscate his apartment. All the others attending the 13 June prayer meeting, who are deaf and dumb, were each fined nearly 50 dollars by the city administration on 19 June. Officials declined to explain to Forum 18 why the Baptists had been fined for meeting for worship in a private home. "Why do you keep on telephoning us!? " assistant procurator Mukhamad Tashliev told Forum 18. "We never have and never will give any information over the telephone!"

Please check http://www.forum18.org to learn about religious rights abuses in communist and former communist lands.

ASSIST News Service presents this report of potential persecution.

Pakistan:

Baluchistan to table Islamic Shari'ah law bill

After Pakistan's North West Frontier Province's adoption of Islamic Shari'ah law, Baluchistan is set to follow suit, 1 according to a report from the Barnabas Fund (www.barnabasfund.org).

Chief Minister of Baluchistan, Jam Mohammad Yousaf, announced on Sunday, June 15 in Quetta that a committee is preparing to table a Shari'ah bill in the provincial assembly.

The committee represents the parties that form the coalition government in Baluchistan, but the move to introduce Shari'ah (Islamic Law) comes from the hard-line Islamist party Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal. Its leader, Maulana Muhammad Khan Sherani, said that Muslims should not oppose the bill.

This announcement follows the party's victory in pushing a Shari'ah bill through the provincial assembly in North West Frontier Province. If Baluchistan votes to pass their bill then half of Pakistan's four provinces will be governed according to Shari'ah. It is likely to be only a matter of time before the remaining two provinces, Punjab and Sind, go down the same route.

The prospect for the approximately 3 million Christians, and other minorities, in a Pakistan ruled according to Shari'ah is grim indeed. In Baluchistan itself there are only 20,000 Christians, however Chief Minister Yousaf said there would be no harm done by introducing Shari'ah to Baluchistan, because "we are all Muslims and being Muslim we should follow Shari'ah."

Please check http://www.assistnews.net to read many edifying news stories.

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