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Persecution Report for Tuesday, 18-Feb-2003

Mission Network News reports this incident of Christians being persecuted.

Colombia:

Another pastor is singled out and assassinated in Colombia.

The Evangelical Council of Colombia says gunmen murdered Reverend Jose' Lozada Corteza in front of bystanders, after pulling him off a public bus. Authorities think the shooters were members of an illegal armed group fighting the country's government. These leaders in ministry appear to be targeted by the rebels because of the message and peace of the Gospel.

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

Christian Aid Missions reports the following instances of believers suffering for their faith.

Vietnam:

Brutal persecution continues; 67 pastors in prison.

Reports received by Christian Aid state that 67 Christian pastors are imprisoned in undisclosed locations by Vietnamese authorities.

These 67 included 11 Hmong pastors in the North, and another 56 Ede and Mnong pastors in the Central Highlands who were taken from their homes without any reason given by the police. Their families have not been successful in locating the whereabouts of their abducted husbands and fathers.

Recently discovered secret government documents describe a program of systematic persecution of Christians called "Plan 184." The 2002 list of persecution countries published by Open Doors ranks Vietnam as the fourth worst persecutor of Christians worldwide, behind North Korea, Laos and Saudi Arabia. The persecution is brutal.

In Lai Chau Province, a Hmong pastor was tied up and tortured at his house until he was unconscious. Two police then carried him to the local police station and put him in jail. Later, police forced him and all members of the 21 families that attend his house church to perform public work. Then, to pressure these Christians to renounce their faith, police set fire to several of their homes. In desperation, all 21 families fled to the jungle in fear for their lives.

In another instance in the same province last September, 17 police and local authorities destroyed the houses and belongings of two Hmong pastors. They chased them out of the village and the families escaped into the jungle to keep their faith.

Vietnamese police often enter house churches, breaking up the worship services, ripping Bibles and songbooks from the worshipers' hands, driving the people out of the house and threatening them with death. Many are forced to sign a paper recanting their faith. At least 356 house churches have been closed by authorities.

Last June in Quang Ngai, a Hre pastor was beaten unconscious by five police officers as he was on his way to visit church members. His family took him to the emergency room of the local hospital. To hide any evidence of this atrocity, the police went to the hospital and his home and destroyed all paper work and x-rays of his treatment. Though partially recovered, he still has recurrent headaches and dizziness. Yet he can't return to the hospital for a check up because he is under house arrest and forbidden to leave home.

A nine-day meeting of Vietnam's Communist Party's powerful Central Committee in mid-January called for the establishment of Communist cells within every approved religious body.

Aid has been sent to Vietnamese ministries to help care for some of the families, enabling them to obtain basic necessities. To learn how you can help, write insider@christianaid.org and put MI-406 740-VEC on the subject line.

Jordan:

Qandah watch continues.

"No news is good news" is certainly true of the situation concerning the Jordanian Christian widow who has been ordered to turn over her teenage children to be raised as Muslims or be arrested and jailed.

Though the court's deadline was last Wednesday, as of last night, no arrest had yet been made. Christian Aid's contact in Jordan suggested that police might be waiting for the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice to conclude.

In any case, the only way out for Mrs. Siham Qandah and her two children is if King Abdullah II overturns the court ruling or lifts the ban on their leaving the country. Mrs. Qandah has a Christian relative in a neighboring country who would receive her and her children.

Short messages to the king can be made at his website

http://www.kingabdullah.jo by clicking "feedback." Letters also can be faxed to his royal office at (011) 9626-535-3025.

Mrs. Qandah's Christian husband died in the conflict in Kosovo. When she went to collect widow's benefits, she was told she could receive nothing because her husband had converted to Islam before he died. Now, Jordanian courts have ruled her children must be raised as Muslims.

More details and a photo of Mrs. Qandah and her two children, Rawan (15) and Fadi (13), can be found on Christian Aid's website at www.christianaid.org.

India:

Anti-Christian tensions mount.

The pace of harassment, intimidation and persecution of India's own missionaries seems to have quickened since the state of Tamil Nadu passed its anti-conversion law last October. The law seems to have emboldened India's Hindus to greater audacity.

One Indian newspaper falsely said in December that 1500 Hindus were forcefully converted to Christianity, fanning hostilities even further. "It did not happen," said a Christian leader in Bihar State. "It was published by anti-Christian groups to put the Christian community in trouble."

In Orissa State, radical Hindus fabricated false charges of forced conversions against a certain missionary, and acts of harassment and intimidation have been going on for weeks. His very life might be in danger.

"Missionaries in Chattisgarh are facing tough opposition," says a mission leader in Maharashtra State. Chattisgarh State was carved out of Madhya Pradesh State in 2000. One pastor could not even conduct a prayer and fasting meeting in his own church due to interference by Hindu radicals.

Last November, Hindus in Maharashtra attacked the home of a native missionary while he was away. They destroyed furnishings, a signboard and frightened his wife and children who were home at the time. The family moved to another community for their own safety.

A film team in Madhya Pradesh was attacked with stones and clubs, putting one of the members into a coma. Police were called and the team members were hospitalized. They since have been dismissed, but now must pay huge hospital bills.

In Andhra Pradesh, a children's home that last year moved into new facilities for 300 children was suddenly cut off when a hostile neighboring Hindu landowner claimed the home's driveway was on his land and brought in heavy machinery to dig a huge trench through it. The highly volatile matter is still unsettled.

Recently, American Joseph Cooper was charged with illegal religious activity in Kerala State, attacked with clubs and irons in the street, and then deported after he was released from the hospital.

"And for every incident we hear about, there are probably 100 that we don't know about," said Christian Aid's senior news editor, John Lindner.

Yet missionaries in India continue to proclaim the gospel despite the danger. When Indian preachers recently conducted a three-day convention in Bastar, the third largest tribal district in India located in Madhya Pradesh, Hindus forced some Christians to revert back to Hinduism. While that was going on, five families came forward to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

It is of note that despite the enactment of anti-conversion laws in four states and the rabid harangue of Hindus against alleged forced conversions by Christians, not one case of forced conversions has ever been documented. The only documented forced conversions are those of Hindus forcing Christians to revert back to Hinduism.

Please go to www.christianaid.org to learn more about missionaries and the dangers they face.

The Voice Of The Martyrs has these incidents to report.

India:

Militant Hindu group cleared of involvement in missionary's death.

Four years after the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) has claimed that none of the suspects are members of the militant Hindu group, Bajrang Dal. Graham Staines and his two minor sons -- Philip and Timothy -- were burnt alive as they slept in a jeep at Manoharpur in Keonjhar district in Orissa on January 23, 1999. Eyewitnesses to the murder reported that those responsible were shouting, "Bajrang Dal Zindabad" ("Long live Bajrang Dal"). Several of those arrested for the murder were also reported to be members of the group that is actively opposing Christianity and Islam in India, including training volunteers to fight against them.

The website for Bajrang Dal (www.hinduunity.org) acknowledges that they are a militant organization, saying, "Hindus who love India and wish to protect Hinduism and are willing to die for it are behind this organization." However, Bajrang Dal denies any responsibility for the attack on Staines. "We were framed," said Subash Chouhan, the chief of the Bajrang Dal's Orissa unit. "Now the truth has come to light."

Christian spokesmen in India believe the group benefits from its close association with national leaders of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Indonesia:

Trial of Pastor Begins:

During this week's trial of Rev. Rinaldi Damanik, General Secretary of the Synod of the Protestant Church of Central Sulawesi, he denied ever possessing a weapon, let alone the fourteen handmade guns and ammunition reportedly found in his vehicle. Rev. Damanik's trial began on February 3 but was then postponed until February 10. He is accused of carrying weapons while traveling between Christian villages under attack in August 2002. He maintains that the police set him up when he was stopped.

Damanik was a leader in the peace negotiations to stop the violence in Central Sulawesi. While a leader of the militant Islamic Laskar Jihad has been released (see last week's Persecution & Prayer Alert at www.persecution.net/pnparchive/arch3.htm), Damanik faces up to twenty years in prison if convicted. It is feared that Damanik will be a scapegoat to deflect attention from the continuing sympathy for militant Islam within the Indonesian government.

According to Radio National from Australia, his lawyers allege that Damanik is a victim of political power plays by the elite and of State-sponsored terrorism. When asked what they thought of the legal system, Damanik's legal team stated, "Of all the systems in Indonesia, the legal system is the most rotten."

Please see http://www.persecution.net for more information on these stories and how to help the persecuted believers.

Freedom Quest International reports the following story of mass- killing of Christians.

Sudan:

International team uncovers killing fields in south Sudan

In late January, 2003, an international team of US and Canadian experts traveled to Liang, Upper Nile Province, where they discovered fields littered with human remains, many of them from young children. Interviews with local survivors confirmed that the remains were those of victims of an unprovoked attack upon the unarmed civilian villages of Liang, Dengaji, Kawaji and Yawaji in late April 2002. It is estimated that between 1/3 to 1/2 of the original 6,000 civilians living in the region were killed in the attack.

The attackers were reported by the survivors to be Sudan regular army from the Boing Garrison,commanded by Brigadier General Ibrahim Saleh.

Striking in the early morning while the villagers slept, the heavily armed Government of Sudan (GOS) soldiers began killing the unarmed residents and burning their houses. The attackers were reportedly armed with 60 mm mortars, rocket-propelled grenades, 12.7mm heavy machine guns and AK-47 assault rifles.

In a videotaped interview, Mr. Tunya Jok described the horrors as he witnessed his 4-year -old daughter shot and killed as she fled from the GOS soldiers. Then his 6-year-old son was captured and beheaded by the soldiers. His body was thrown into a burning hut and his head planted upright facing away from the hut.

Please go to http://www.freedom-quest.ca to learn more about the on-going genocidal war between the Islamic north and the Christian / Animist south.

ASSIST News Service reports this persecution incident.

China:

Underground priest arrested.

In a further sign of an apparent increased crack down on dissidents and active Christians, China detained a Roman Catholic priest after saying a secret Christmas Mass, a leading religious rights group said Wednesday, February 12.

The U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said 37-year-old Reverend Dong Yingmu was captured on his way to celebrate Christmas Mass in December, but that his imprisonment has just come to light.

Foundation President Joseph Kung, said the priest was picked up in Baoding, a city in the central province of Hubei with a reportedly large underground church, apparently in the week of December 23, although he did not know the date, news reports said.

"He had finished one secret Mass and was on his way to conduct another when the police detained him," The Associated Press (AP) news agency quoted Kung as saying by telephone from Stamford, Conn.

China allows only state-monitored worship, and underground Catholics are frequently arrested and harassed, church watchers say.

Vatican officials say over 50 underground Chinese Catholic bishops or priests have been detained or live under house arrest or police surveillance.

Kung said "numerous detentions" of underground priests have been reported in Baoding, where the underground Catholic church has reportedly as many as 100,000 members.

Please check http://www.assistnews.net for more information on these stories and to read many other interesting articles.

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