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Persecution Report Tuesday, 10Dec2002

Mission Network News has these persecution incidents to report.

Thailand:

Terrorists may seek safer countries.

Security officials say anti-terrorism crackdowns in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines may force Muslim extremists to seek safer havens and develop logistical bases in Thailand and Myanmar. Due to existing persecution their people have reported, FARMS International’s Steve Salowitz explains they are concerned about the report. "In one of the nations bordering Thailand, the people have actually drawn the attention of the government because of the economic boost that our program has given them...and that isn’t necessarily good in that respect." Because of the import, Salowitz says they are investigating the reports further. "If that’s happening, then it could have an impact on our rural programs because it seems as though these insurgents tend to gravitate towards rural areas because they have more freedom to do what they want. So, I haven’t heard of anything specifically related to Thailand, but there is a potential that our programs could be impacted in the rural areas."

Nepal:

Missionary’s appeal postponed indefinitely.

The Supreme Court in Nepal has postponed the appeal of a Nepalese missionary accused of murder. Originally scheduled for late November, there is no new date. Gospel For Asia’s Manja Tamang faces twenty years in prison for a crime that he did not commit.

Kenya:

Al Qaeda could be operating in East Africa.

Attacks last week in Mombasa, Kenya are spurring concerns that Al Qaeda operatives are active throughout East Africa. Mounting security issues are also playing a role in future missions work. Evangelist Sammy Tippit . "One of the things that I have discovered is that when nations are facing turmoil, as such is happening in Kenya and all throughout East Africa, then that’s the time the Gospel really needs to go forth. I don’t believe that we need to act out of fear from Osama Bin Laden or Al Qaeda network, but we need to act in faith that God is going to work in a mighty way." Despite State Department warnings, Tippit says his team is still making preparations for February’s events. "What has transpired has called into question whether we should be so visible in doing that, but we have great peace that God is going to protect us, that God is going to take care of our team, and we’re going to move forward."

Central African Republic:

Rebel attacks force missionaries to flee.

Sporadic fighting between government and rebel forces continues in the north of the Central African Republic since an October coup attempt. With little progress toward peace, the U.S.Embassy recommended Americans leave Bangui (BAHN-gee). Mission Aviation Fellowship last month evacuated more than 14 people from the Central African Republic. All are missionary refugees from Bangui.

Ivory Coast:

City-wide mission cancelled.

More rebel violence has claimed another evangelistic outreach opportunity. Michael Cassidy of African Enterprise says they were hoping to hold a city-wide mission this week in Abidjan, but it just wasn’t possible. "Both the local churches and the various embassies all advised that this wasn’t the time to go ahead. People were too preoccupied with the crisis. The churches couldn’t think about something like the city wide mission because they were coping with refugees. Therefore, with very, very great regrets,we were asked to put the mission on hold." Cassidy says the cancellation came at a pretty large financial cost. "Missions of that kind cost in the region of 60,000 some dollars. I wouldn’t say we lost our shirt completely on it, but we’re going to have to "re-find" the funding to go back in there. So, just to end the year in the black is a tremendous challenge to us."

Kenya:

Another mission agency robbed.

Evangelical ministries are responding to the recent terrorist attacks in that nation. Tom Dudenhofer of Audio Scripture Ministries of Holland, Michigan says he expects conditions to get worse. "There is an element of unsureness about the ability of things to remain stable when it comes to the safety of missionaries, the protection of property and things like that. I don’t believe it’s specifically directed to the terrorist situation. I think it has more to do with the disintegration of law and order." Dudenhofer says Audio Scripture ministries has been affected by that. "Our facilities over there were robbed. Our security guards were drugged. The robbers made entrance with a ladder over a fence and then cut a hole in a roof -made off with all of the electronic equipment from our recording studios, and stole a car."

China:

Teaching materials confiscated by authorities.

Evangelism Explosion is thanking God for the clinics they held recently in China. According to EE’s Buddy Gaines they held six EE clinics this year where 126 clinicians were trained. He says at one clinic police came and seized the materials and equipment. At the police station they wanted to know where the materials came from and where the EE offices were located. Despite the trouble, EE is planning eight more clinics next year, with a goal to train church leaders in evangelism in all of China’s provinces by 2008.

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

The Voice Of The Martyrs has these incidents to report.

China:

Updates on South China Church prisoners.

Reliable sources in China have informed The Voice of the Martyrs that Pastor Gong Shengliang started a hunger strike on November 14 to protest the confiscation of two documents by officials of the prison in Jingmen City, Hubei province where he is serving his life sentence. The two confiscated documents were written after his trial in October, an appellate paper (about 20,000 words) and another containing historical facts on South China Church (about 30,000 words). The prison authorities are very angry over the release of news on the vast practice of torture in the prison and subsequently denied Gong’s right of appeal. VOM sources indicate that Pastor Gong’s heath was very fragile even before the hunger strike, given the numerous tortures he has been subjected to. He is reportedly not able to stand up at all now. A journalist from Radio Free Asia called No. 1 Prison of Jingmen City yesterday to verify Pastor Gong’s condition. In an interview with Bob Fu of China Aid Association, she recounted how she was strongly cursed with very dirty abusive language from an official there. "I can imagine how they treat prisoners if they treated a journalist like me [in this fashion]," she said. If you understand Chinese, you may go to www.rfa.org to listen to the original recorded message she aired last night. VOM has also received reports that the appeals, of the four women declared to be innocent by the court on October 10 but rearrested only hours later and immediately sent to the Shayang Laogai Camp of Hubei for "re-education through labour", were denied by the Hubei provincial Re-education through Labour Commission.

Jordan:

Advocacy urged on behalf of widow.

Over the past several months, The Voice of the Martyrs has been following the story of Siham Qandah as she fights for custody of her two children in Jordan. Allegedly her husband, Hussam Rasmi Issa Jibreen, a UN peacekeeper, converted to Islam before his death in Kosovo in 1994. According to Jordanian law, if the father is a Muslim, the children are Muslims and orphan benefits can be paid only to a Muslim. To avoid a court-appointed guardian, Siham asked her estranged brother, Abdullah al-Muhtadi, to be a guardian, since he had converted to Islam twenty years before. However, as the children became more active in the Baptist church, al-Muhtadi filed a civil suit for full custody of the children. Siham was never told that her husband had converted to Islam and there is no evidence of the conversion, other than the court document that was signed by two witnesses but not by Jibreen himself. In the place of his signature was an "X." Such a document, however, cannot be contested in court. On October 7, Siham lost her final court battle for custody. She has since gone into hiding with her children. While advocacy and legal efforts have stabilized the situation so that no action has been taken to this point, the issue remains unresolved. Price Hassan, brother to the late King Hussein, has taken interest in the case and has discussed it with King Abdullah, who has agreed to personally study the case.

Pakistan:

Harassed, threatened, discredited, jailed.

The Voice of the Martyrs continues to receive reports from Pakistan of Christians suffering harassment and persecution at the hands of Muslims that we would ask you to uphold in your prayers. Last week, one of our coworkers, with family in Pakistan, learned that her elderly father had been arrested and forced to spend two days in jail before being released on bail. A diabetic who has suffered two heart attacks and is in poor health, this 69-year-old brother lives with his cousin in one of two units located in a house in central Hyderabad in a predominantly Christian section of the city. A group of Muslim men live in the other unit and for some time had been trying to force the Christians to vacate the premises so that they could move some of their friends in next door. The property’s landlord was happy to have these two Christian men live in his house. Still, the harassment became more and more severe.

The matter came to a climax on the weekend of November 10, when the two men heard a knock on the door. Opening the door, they saw three women there, asking if they could come in. Wishing to be hospitable, the elderly gentleman agreed and seating his unknown guests, proceeded to offer them tea. Five minutes later, the police arrived and arrested the two men. Unknown to the two Christians, the three women were prostitutes sent to their residence by their hostile Muslim neighbours, who then proceeded to report them to the police. For two days, the older man was jailed until finally friends were able to raise bail for his release. The police refused to release his 2?-year-old cousin, however, claiming that they suspected him of drug smuggling. It took over a week until authorities finally released him as well. No charges were ever posted against the men, and the bail money was not returned.

As Christians, this sort of harassment and financial exploitation by the police is common. Upset by these actions, the house’s landlord ordered the Muslim men to vacate the premises, but these two men live in fear of further retaliation. The older man, in particular, does not want to leave this part of Hyderabad because of its strong Christian community, but he is afraid to remain in his home. His son, who also used to live with him, is afraid to visit his father except during the night. A couple of months ago, he lost his job because he was a Christian and now lives in fear of further harassment.

China:

The Voice of the Martyrs launches legal defense fund.

A year ago, 17 members of the South China Church (an unregistered denomination in mainland China), including the church’s founder Gong Shengliang, were put on trial for various false charges, including rape, assault and for being members of an illegal cult. Pastor Gong and four others were sentenced to death for their involvement in illegal church activities. The other twelve were given sentences ranging from two years to life. On appeal, the Hubei Supreme Court in September threw out the sentences and ordered a new trial. Tragically, on October 9, 2002 Pastor Gong and two other church leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment. Eight others received jail terms of two to 15 years for assault and damage to property. Four women who had been abused in prison were declared to be innocent by the court but were rearrested only hours later and immediately sent to a labour camp for "re-education through labour." Chinese authorities were apparently afraid that the four would sue the prison officials who had abused them.

For each of the families of the 17 who are originally arrested, the cost of their legal defense has forced them and, in many cases, their close relatives, into financial bankruptcy. All their houses were demolished by Chinese authorities, church offerings were confiscated (about 3 million RMB Yuan - $572,000 CDN; $363,000 USD) and all their useful assets were taken away by the local authorities. The families still owe the lawyers about $40,000 USD for the expenses of the second trial. The church was able to raise $10,000 USD, which is an incredible feat when one considers that many of them only earn $200- $1000 a year and that the denomination’s assets had been seized. In addition, the church now has no funds available to appeal the arrest of the four women who were thrown into a labour camp following their acquittal.

Please go to http://www.persecution.net to learn more about the world-wide suffering of believers and how to help them.

ASSIST News Service has the following stories to report.

India:

Police harass Dalit organizations.

Even as various Dalit organizations begin completing the final preparation for the en mass embracing of non-casteist faiths on December 6^th, 2002, the Tamilnadu state machinery has begun making attempts to stop the event. Early this morning, police from the SELAWUR Police circle barged into the house of the owner of the premises at 145 Valacherry Main Road, Kamrajpuram, Thambaram, Chennai, threatening him with dire consequences if he permitted the organizers to go ahead with the ceremony. The police have forcibly taken some of the people constructing the tents for the event, and have asked the tent constructors to stop the construction.

At the same time, at Selangor in interior Tamilnadu, police have threatened Dalit leaders with the same consequences if they take part in the ceremony in Chennai. The news is that the police will be used to prevent the Dalits to come for the event from within and outside of Chennai. Mr P Ranganathan, the Dalit leader has announced that no matter what, the Dalits will still come to the premises and go ahead with embracing Christianity and Buddhism. Udit Raj, who led in the conversion event last November and suffered violation of fundamental rights, has stated the government cannot use brute force to keep us in Hinduism. This is keeping us as slaves within the caste based religion and using force, threat and allurement to keep us in that system.

North Korea:

Christians suffer as political prisoners.

Hwang Jang-yop was once a spokesman for late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and his son and successor, Kim Jong Il. He has lived under the protection of South Korean intelligence since becoming the most senior defector from the North in 1997. AFP quotes Hwang as saying, "The suffering and pain of the North Korean people under the current dictatorial regime are much more severe and tragic than what we experienced during the 36 year colonial rule by the Japanese or what we went through during the Korean War."

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report entitled "The Invisible Exodus: North Koreans in the People’s Republic of China," November 2002. The HRW report makes no mention of religious freedom or religious persecution. Presumably HRW assumes that all readers understand that religious belief and expression is a serious political crime in North Korea.

The HRW report, particularly sections II. "The Migrant’s Story: Contours of Human Rights Abuse," and III. "A Well-founded Fear: Punishment and Labour Camps in North Korea," is essential reading for anyone who wishes to understand the suffering of Christians in North Korea. It is estimated that some 100,000 Christians are political prisoners in this nation that was once a land of revival, whose capital, Pyongyang, was once known as "the Jerusalem of the East."

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report covers all areas of experience, from escaped prisoners, defecting guards, and starving economic migrants. Through testimonies, it exposes the intolerable oppression and suffering in North Korea, the horrific, inhumane conditions in prison camps, the dangers involved in escape (such as the trafficking of women), the risks involved in assisting escapees (such as imprisonment), and the consequences for escapees who are caught and returned (imprisonment, torture and death). The report also looks at the responsibilities of China and the International community and offers recommendations.

When North Korean refugee Soon-Ok Lee testified before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on 24 January 2002, she made it very clear that Christians were regarded as "political criminals". Soon-Ok Lee said that hundreds of the 6,000 inmates in the prison camp in which she was held were there because they were Christians. She said that guards would tell the Christians they could save their lives and be freed if they would refuse to worship God and instead worship Kim Il Sung, the deceased founder of the Marxist regime. She also said that Christians were regularly singled out for the most extreme treatment and toughest punishments. It was the love, grace and steadfast faith of North Korean Christian prisoners in the midst of the most extreme suffering that drew Soon-Ok Lee to Jesus.

Please see the report at

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/northkorea for further details.

Please check http://www.assist-ministries.org for awide variety of Christian news items._

   

email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca