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Subject: Persecution report for October 1, 2002.

Date: Tue, 8 Oct 2002 18:50:40 -0600 (MDT)

From: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca

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

Mission Network News reports the following incidents of believers suffering for their faith.

Indonesia:

Militants threaten peace agreement.

Sectarian violence continues in the Sulawesi area of Indonesia. Islamic militants appear to be trying to destroy the peace agreement there. According to Voice of the Martyrs, violence in Central Maluku has claimed five lives and left 300 homes and five churches destroyed. A bomb exploded outside the Maranatha Christian School in Central Sulawesi, injuring three, and more bombs were later found by police and defused. See http://www. time. com/time/covers/1101020923/story. htmlfor the full article.

Ivory Coast:

Troops rescue Christians from uprising.

U.S. special forces in the Ivory Coast have helped rescue Westerners caught in the country’s deadliest uprising. The evacuation of the CB International-owned International Christian Academy came after several days of rebel-fighting that pinned the students and staff under cross fire. CBI’s Rick Allen."French troops were escorting them to the city of Yamoussoukro, which is about 40-50 miles south of Bouake where the school is located, and they would be there just temporarily. We don’t know at this time where the next stop is going to be. We are planning on having personnel there to debrief them." Allen asks people to pray "for the safety of the personnel as they’re leaving, that they would be able to get to, again, where that next destination will be without any problems. And then, for the other people that are still in the country; we think of the missionaries that are spread out—they don’t have that option to leave."

China:

Christians imprisoned for teaching children.

10 evangelical church leaders in southern China have received prison sentences for starting unregistered children’s Sunday School. Voice of the Martyrs reports that the four men and six women received sentences from three to eight years from the Yun Yang County People’s Court. Unregistered churches and Sunday schools are illegal in China and children under the age of 18 are not allowed to attend.

Please see http://www.mnnonline.org to learn about missions news and to hear a weekday audio broadcast.

The Voice Of The Martyrs has the following persecution incidents to report.

Pakistan:

Seven Christians Assassinated.

Associated Press has reported that two gunmen burst into the offices of a Christian human rights organization in Karachi, Pakistan on September 25 killing seven workers and injuring one in the downtown office of Idare-e Amn-O-Insaf or "Organization for Peace and Justice." One other worker was injured. Reports have been mixed as the news is slowly coming out, but the latest report from AP says the gunmen tied the workers to their chairs with their hands behind their backs and their mouths taped shut. They then shot each of them pointblank in the head. According to AP, all seven of the dead were Pakistani Christians, contradicting earlier police reports that three of the victims were Muslim. One worker who survived the attack later died in a hospital, 3 police said. It was not clear who was behind the attack. The Archbishop of Karachi, Simeon Pereira, also raised the possibility in BBC News Online that there may be a link between this attack and the death of the murder of the charity’s chairperson, Ivan Moon, four months ago. Moon had been found dead in his office, injected with poison.

Vietnam:

New Crackdown on Montagnard Christians.

The government of Vietnam has stepped up its campaign against the Montagnard Christians in the central highlands of Vietnam. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 30 Montagnards have been arrested since June. It appears that the recent government crackdown is particularly against Protestant church leaders, land rights advocates, and individuals suspected of guiding asylum seekers to Cambodia. Dozens of Montagnards have gone into hiding, with current whereabouts unknown. Many of the Montagnards have been fleeing to neighbouring Cambodia. However, Cambodia has been sending the refugees back to Vietnam under an agreement with the Vietnamese government. According to a report released by Human Rights Watch today, more than 400 refugees have been returned to Vietnam since April. When the refugees return, they face arrest, harassment, torture, and death. According to a September 19 editorial in the Washington Times, the repression has become particularly brutal since more than 800 refugees were granted asylum in the US this spring after international pressure. Christian pastors and leaders have been under increased surveillance and some villages have had all telephone lines cut to prevent outside communications. In the last month, at least 18 Montagnards have been arrested in Dak Lak province, most of whose whereabouts are currently unknown, other than three who are known to have been sent to the provincial prison in Buon Ma Thuot. Many villages have police posted, often in the homes of church leaders. They have been breaking up religious gatherings, burning literature, and confiscating property. Gatherings of villagers for worship, weddings and funerals are largely forbidden by local authorities.

Colombia:

Priest Working for Peace Murdered.

A Catholic priest who was working for peace in the Medellin area was killed by members of a militia group on September 20. Father Jos Luis Arroyave Restrepo had been working to mediate conflicts between residents in the area as well as serving as a liaison with armed groups. He was killed while distributing leaflets when a young man approached his van and shot him with a sawed-off shotgun. Father Arroyave is the fourth Catholic leader killed in Colombia this year. Violence by paramilitary rebel groups in Colombia has claimed over 300 lives since January.

Please go to http://www.persecution.net to learn more about persecuted Christians and what can be done to help them.

Keston News Service provides these examples of religious rights violations.

Azerbaijan:

Official Outlines Religious Censorship Procedure.

The head of the "expertise" department of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations has told Keston News Service that his department checks between 20 and 30 religious books, magazines and tapes every week before authorising their publication or import, but insists that "This is not censorship.

We just give our expert conclusion as to whether each publication is OK or not." Department officials check religious publications brought in for approval by religious communities, copies of religious books and magazines confiscated from travellers entering Azerbaijan and religious publications sent to them by customs when they open all parcels of books entering the country by post.

Azerbaijan:

Third Time Lucky for Stalled Book Import?

The Baptist church in the capital Baku is hoping its third application to import 3, 000 copies of the Book of Proverbs will be successful, but State Committee in charge of compulsory censorship of all religious literature has only given permission for 500 copies to be released. It has not explained why the State Committee should decide how many copies of any publication a religious community needed. Pastor Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union in Azerbaijan, said the Baptists could only speculate as to why the committee had restricted the quantity."Maybe they don’t want it to be in Azerbaijan, " he declared."It’s a very beautiful book with nice illustrations. Solomon is very popular in Islam and is respected as a prophet. Maybe they’re afraid we’ll give out the book to people." (see separate KNS article)

Armenia:

Prime Minister Widens Council of Europe Defiance.

The government’s failure to guarantee equality of opportunity for all religious faiths has been criticised in a report noting among other things the harassment of Armenia’s Jehovah’s Witnesses and complaints about the new religious affairs council.

Uzbekistan:

New Way of Criminalising Believers?

As the Uzbek government steps up pressure on unregistered communities of minority faiths, some minority religious leaders believe that officials are criminalising believers by alleging that their publications promote "religious hatred." The raid on the Baptist meeting in Chirchik was the latest in a series of incidents in which religious literature has been the focus of accusations. Charges of this kind appear to be being brought mainly in areas with an exclusively Uzbek population, Keston News Service has learnt. However, the spokesman for the Union of Evangelical Christian Baptists of Uzbekistan said he had not encountered such occurrences before.

Uzbekistan:

Baptist Meeting Raided.

Local Baptists in the Uzbek town of Chirchik have filed a formal complaint after four police officers raided a religious meeting in a private apartment on 8 September, Protestant sources have told Keston News Service. The Baptists were warned that as an unregistered religious community they would face administrative and possibly criminal punishment if they continued to hold meetings. An official from the town’s internal affairs department told Keston that the Baptists’ complaint was being handled by the local procuracy, but the procuracy refused to comment. Under current Uzbek law, no religious organization with fewer than 100 members is allowed to register.

Russia:

Construction of Pskov Catholic Church Resumes.

The controversial construction of a Catholic church in the western Russian city of Pskov has resumed, parish priest Father Krzysztof Karolewski has told Keston News Service. Work on the church was suddenly halted earlier this year when the regional authorities demanded that the plans be reconsidered, even though a few days previously the parish had been told they were mostly in order. The authorities’ U-turn occurred shortly after a complaint about the construction was made by the local Russian Orthodox archbishop. Controversy currently centres on the size of the church, which will have seats for up to 500 worshippers.

Please check http://www.keston.org to learn more about religious persecution in communist and post-communist lands.

Yours,

Bruce Atchison: electronic music composer, writer, Jesus freak, and lover of rabbits. Please visit my site at http://gideon.www2.50megs.com Dominion Day Enterprises, P.O. Box 188, Radway, Alberta, Canada, T0A 2V0.

email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca

   

email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca