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Subject: Persecution report for May 6, 2003.

Date: Sun, 4 May 2003 20:54:38 -0600

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

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

The Voice Of The Martyrs reports these incidents of Christians being persecuted.

Pakistan:

Life sentence for blasphemy.

A Christian in Punjab, Pakistan was sentenced to life in prison on April 26 for blasphemy for allegedly damaging an Islamic signboard five years ago. Ranjha Masih has been held without bail since he was arrested on May 8, 1998 following the funeral procession for Bishop John Joseph who committed suicide in protest against the blasphemy laws in Pakistan. During the procession, violence erupted and an Islamic signboard was knocked over. Ranjha was blamed and was beaten by mobs and later arrested and charged under Pakistan's blasphemy law, Section 295-C.

Islamic militants had been demanding the death penalty but Ranjha denied any involvement and, according to observers, there was insufficient evidence to prove that he was involved. Despite this, on Saturday, Faisalabad Additional District and Sessions Court judge Mohammed Shahid Rafique fined Ranjha 50,000 rupees (over $1200 CDN) and sentenced him to life in prison. Ranjha will be appealing the conviction.

Moldova:

Street library shut down.

Authorities in Bendery (Tighina) in eastern Moldova have begun action to shut down a street library run by local Baptists. According to an April 29 report from Forum 18 News Service, police have confiscated the books and detained the three Christians running the library on two occasions in the past month. Each time, Vyacheslav Bachu, Vladimir Boligar and Dmitry Masterov were detained and questioned about the internal life of their unregistered church. They were later released, but the books were kept without explanation. A similar library in the village of Krasnoe was raided in January but the books have since been returned.

The Baptists belong to the International Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, which rejects state registration on principle, having seen the abuses of registration during the former Soviet Union.

Please go to http://www.persecution.net to read about persecuted Christians and ways to help them.

Updates of past stories can be found on the http://www.persecution.net/updates.htm web page.

Mission Network News presents these persecution stories.

Eritrea:

Evangelical Christians request our prayers.

Eritrea, Somalia and Sudan are among the world's most repressive regimes, with believers reporting widespread persecution in all three countries. Open Doors' Jerry Dykstra says there have been two new brutal attacks against evangelistic Eritrean Christians over the last two weeks. "Although the 1997 constitution of Eritrea guarantees the freedom of religion to all citizens, actually, Eritrea's government has become increasingly restrictive against newer Protestant churches. So, a lot of churches have been put at risk, facing beatings and arrest." Dykstra adds, their support of the church carries on, as do their prayers. "We continue to support the church there with Bibles and with training, and a lot of the Christians there have asked us to continue the prayers. Specifically, they pray for protection, they pray for safety, pray for wisdom in shepherding their flock, especially the pastors there."

India:

Work hampered by anti-proselytising law.

Persecution against Christians is now having an impact on ministry. That's the word from the Bible League's Jay Kumar. Kumar says an anti-conversion law in the state of Tamil Nadu has scared churches. "When the ordinance was passed of course a lot of churches kind of cancelled their programs with us. The church kind of had to regroup and figure out what they had to do to advance the Gospel. A lot of them are still moving forward and preaching the Gospel and I think there's only been one reported case where they're actually trying to enforce the law." However, Kumar says the news isn't all bad. "The church across India is determined to have the Gospel spread and I don't think the government would be so opposed to it if there wasn't some progress to the Gospel. So, opposition often signals to us that we're making some forward progress." Kumar says there are still 500-thousand villages without an evangelical church. He's praying that will change soon.

Sudan:

Lifting sanctions sends the wrong message - says VOM.

U-S sanctions against Sudan will be lifted because Sudan has cooperated with the efforts aiming at an end to the conflict with the rebels in the south. While some praise the move, Voice of the Martyrs' Todd Nettleton is unconvinced. He says their sources report little has changed for the Christians. "When a country with such an atrocious record on human rights and a government that has literally attacked its own people, when that government can be told, 'You know what?, You guys are doing okay', I think obviously, that raises some serious questions about the U-N's ability to manage and motivate human rights." Nettleton urges vigilance for Christian workers. "Pray for the Christian people in south Sudan. They are worshipping, they are growing in their faith, their churches are growing. I think also we need to pray for the groups and the workers who are working in south Sudan, for their safety. Pray that humanitarian and spiritual aid can get to the people that need it most."

Please check http://www.mnnonline.org for missions news and a weekday audio broadcast.

Christian Aid Mission presents this persecution incident.

Laos:

Lao authorities recently took over the parsonage of a local church and then declared that there were "no Christians" in the province.

On April 29, Lao authorities confiscated the parsonage at Kengkok village, Champon District, Savannakhet Province, and forced all three families living in it out into the street. Authorities then destroyed parts of the parsonage, converted the main section into a village meeting hall, and placed a sign to that effect in front of it. The church building was confiscated earlier and turned into a preschool.

"The Champon District official declared publicly that there are now no more Christians in his district," a contact from Laos told Christian Aid. "They have been doing their best to live up to their declaration. However, Christians in Champon District continue to be steadfast in the midst of persecution."

The three families, headed by Mr. Vang, Ms. Mata, and Mr. Hiang, are comprised of 14 individuals and are seeking temporary shelter with other believers in the village.

For more information write insider@christianaid.org and put MI-417 730-CFL on the subject line.

Please go to http://www.missionaid.org for missions news.

Forum 18 News Service reports the following persecution incidents.

Croatia:

Free Churches unhappy over government agreements.

The Alliance of Baptist Churches has refused to sign a joint agreement with the government together with other Protestant denominations, complaining about the way the process has been handled and the way the agreement is phrased. It has decided to ask the government for an individual agreement. "We will insist on this," Giorgio Grlj of the Baptist Alliance told Forum 18 News Service. Earlier this year the government excluded some Protestant denominations previously involved in negotiations including the Baptists - from the possibility of signing individual agreements, and is pressuring them to join larger denominations in a joint agreement. While the Free Churches remain unhappy over the whole process, other religious communities are prepared to accept the government's offer. "No-one is really happy about the agreements, but we have to be realistic," Bishop Endre Langh of the Reformed Church which expects to sign its joint agreement with the Lutherans in May - told Forum 18. "At least we'll have a clear situation where we're recognised by the government."

Tajikistan:

Secrecy surrounds new draft religion law.

Religious leaders know nothing about the amendments to Tajikistan's law on religion which officials expect to be adopted in the second half of the year. "We have only learnt about the proposed changes to the law from you," Said Negmatov of the Islamic Centre told Forum 18 News Service. "My main worry is that the draft law is being prepared behind the scenes without public discussion," Baptist pastor Aleksei Tsirulev declared. Said Akhmedov, chairman of the government's Committee for Religious Affairs, told Forum 18 that under the new law, individual religious communities will need to present a list of 100 members to get registration. While Muslim, Russian Orthodox and Jehovah's Witness representatives said this would not be difficult for them, Tsirulev was concerned, warning that "this will mean that in many towns and villages our fellow believers will be deprived of the opportunity to observe religious rituals".

Latvia:

Registration "refuseniks" to challenge "discriminatory" law.

The two churches refused registration as an association under Latvia's religion law the Confessional Lutheran Church and the Autonomous True Orthodox Church are preparing protests against the article of the religion law that does not allow more than one association of any one denomination to register. "We have asked for this discriminatory article to be abolished," Archbishop Viktor Kontuzorov, leader of the Autonomous Orthodox Church, told Forum 18 News Service from Daugavpils. "No European state apart from Latvia has such a discriminatory article. It's absurd that an Orthodox Church still has to live in the catacombs." Asked whether he believed this article of the religion law was just, Janis Filipsons of the Justice Ministry's Religious Affairs Board told Forum 18: "It's the law. We work with the law as it is."

Please visit http://www.forum18.org for full versions of these, and other, stories of religious rights violation in communist and post-communist countries.

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