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Persecution Report Tuesday, 19-Nov-2002

Mission Network News presents these examples of believers suffering for their faith.

Central African Republic:

Conflict forces missionaries to flee.

Civil unrest is forcing evangelical missionaries out of the Central African Republic. The International Ministries Director of the Evangelical Free Church Mission, Tom Cairns says, after weeks of fighting, there is now a lull in the violence. "It appears that this is just that, a lull before further fighting might occur. As a result, missionaries from almost all the evangelical groups and agencies in Bangui have made the decision that they need to leave now, at this point in time. All of them are leaving within the next two days." Cairns says the E-V Free Church works with the nomadic Fulani peoples. Will they return? "We definitely will plan to return. We definitely will go back to the Fulani ministry. That’s very critical, but we just don’t have any distinct plans right now on when that might be because we have to wait and see what’s going to evolve in the next few weeks." Pray for safety as the missionaries evacuate.

Haiti:

Travel tax hinders evangelism.

The economic situation in Haiti continues to worsen, increasing the people’s desperate struggle to survive. The Haitian government, as they look for more ways to generate income, is now implementing a large fee for all visitors entering Haiti. STEM International’s Jim Levin thinks the tax will have an impact on their outreach. "Say, for instance, if that team decides not to go there, that means that a church doesn’t get built. That also affects the medical team - for instance, we had one working with our missionaries there last week that ministered to 900 people. Those kind of things are going to be cut back, or, it can be a discouragement, or, an outright barrier that keeps our teams out of Haiti." Levin asks for believers to support their work. "We would look for prayer that the Haitian government would find ways of helping their economy, helping the average Haitian, without "shooting themselves in the foot" by discouraging some of the very people who want to come in there and help the people." (paragraph edited for clarity)

Nepal:

Local missionary falsely convicted.

Christians around the world are being asked to pray for a missionary in Nepal. Native missionary Manja Tamang was convicted earlier this year on murder charges, a crime he didn’t commit. He’s currently serving a 20 year prison sentence. However, Tamang has appealed his case to the Supreme Court and his first hearing is today. Gospel For Asia reports his time in prison has been a mixed blessing. At least four inmates have come to Christ because of his testimony.

Uganda:

Ramadan causes trouble for Christians.

The Muslim holy month is causing problems for Christians in Islamic areas of the world. Short-term missionary workers in Uganda were threatened, according to Bible Pathway Ministry’s Karen Hawkins. "There was a team that was threatened. Their lives were threatened. Men with spears approached the stage and they had to be held off at gun point. The Muslims are very upset because this is their high holy month and that Christians would dare speak out in such a holy time." Hawkins says there are many Arab Christians who simply need hope during Ramadan. She says they’re providing it through God’s word."For those who can’t have a Bible, if they have access to the internet, we are on-line. And, if there’s anyone who is a Christian who would like to have an Arabic Bible Pathway, we do send them out overseas. We send them out in plain brown wrappers." Pray for safety as evangelical work continues in these challenging areas of the world.

Please go to http://www.mnnonline.org to learn more about these stories, missions news, and to hear a weekday news broadcast.

The Voice Of The Martyrs reports these persecution incidents.

Colombia:

Bishop and priest kidnapped.

The following report is from Zenit, an international Catholic news service, received by The Voice of the Martyrs on November 12:

"Colombian authorities confirmed that Bishop Jorge Jiménez Carvajal, president of the Latin American bishops’ council, was kidnapped by the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The bishop of Zipaquira was abducted Monday in San Antonio de Aguilera, near Pancho, in the centre of the country, together with Father Desiderio Orjuela, the town’s parish priest. Both were intercepted by two men armed with rifles, when they were going to a confirmation.

According to the bishop’s driver, the kidnappers, dressed in civilian clothes, stopped them in El Roblon, just before the town of San Antonio de Aguilera, and forced the bishop and priest to go into the forest, the Colombian press reported.

The abduction occurred around 10 a.m., but the news was not published until 3 p.m. The gunmen had warned the driver to keep quiet, saying the bishop and the priest would be released at midday, something that did not happen.

The army announced a reward of 100 million pesos for information leading to the rescue of the captives. It attributed the deed to FARC’s Policarpa Salavarrieta Front. FARC’s Front 22 also operates in the same area."

Pakistan:

Witness describes assailants; clears co-worker.

One of the two survivors of an attack on the Institute of Justice and Peace in Karachi, Pakistan last month has recovered to the point where he is able to describe the assailants. According to a report in the Pakistan Christian Post, Robin Sharif, the communications director for IJP, was approached by a man on September 25 asking to speak with the director. When he went to speak with the director, three more men rushed in and held him at gunpoint. They then grabbed tape from his desk and knocked him out with chloroform. The attackers then tied up the rest of the staff and killed seven of his co-workers. Sharif has been unconscious and unable to speak with authorities until recently. However, he has since recovered enough to help police with sketches of three of the assailants. It also appears that his testimony has been sufficient to clear the other survivor, Robin Peranditta, of any responsibility for the attack. Because of health concerns, Sharif has still not been informed of the deaths of his co-workers.

Azerbaijan:

Baptist Church threatened with demolition.

A Baptist church in the capital of Baku has been told by an Interior Ministry colonel that they will be closed and the building knocked down if they do not register. According to a report received by Keston on November 6, Colonel Aliev also threatened to have the church members removed from their jobs. The church in Baku is a member of the International Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists who reject government registration for fear of interference by the government. Azerbaijani law does not require church registration and officials from the government have not commented on this threat. On two other occasions in October, police have come to the church during a service to warn them to register. Churches in Azerbaijan regularly face pressure from the authorities.

Kazakhstan:

Bible study leader threatened with jail.

The small Baptist community in Atyrau, near the Caspian Sea in north-western Kazakhstan, has been threatened by police forces and authorities to end their activities or their leader may face prison, according to a November 11 report from Keston News Service. According to Baptist church leader Kormangazy Abdumuratov, the National Security Service raided his apartment on September 8 where eight Baptists were studying the Bible. The police searched every room, video taping each of the people and asking who owned the Bibles and religious books they found. Abdumuratov was told that he could face prison, since it was the third time he was found taking part in unregistered religious meetings. Abdumuratov was recently expelled from the Atyrau Oil and Gas Institute where he was studying because of his religious beliefs. The faculty head told him, "Your influence will ruin our other students. You won’t be studying at our institute any longer. Leave Atyrau and go back to where you came from." The people of Atyrau have also been warned about the Baptists by a television commentator, who called them a "dangerous cult" who take children away from their parents and demand large sums of money from their members.

Iran/Turkey:

Iranian family coming to Canada

An Iranian family stranded in Turkey for three years while seeking asylum received news on November 12 that they have been accepted for permanent residency in Canada. Mahmoud Erfani told Compass Direct by telephone that he and his family are scheduled to leave for Canada on November 25. "We are overflowing with joy, and everyone is crying," one of Erfani’s daughters said. "It is a big miracle for us. Please thank everyone who has been praying for us." The Erfani fled Iran in 1999 for Turkey where they have been seeking refugee status. Three times they were denied by the UNHCR and in April were denied immigration to Canada. However, after more information was provided on persecution they faced in Iran, as well as pressure on the Canadian government, they were granted an appeal by Canadian immigration.

Please check http://www.persecution.net for details on these stories plus resources to help these suffering saints.

Keston News Service provides these persecution reports.

Belarus:

Repressive religion law enters force on Saturday.

Belarus’ repressive new religion law enters into legal force on Saturday 16 November. From then, all unregistered religious activity will be illegal; all communities with fewer than 20 members will become illegal; any religious activity in private homes , apart from occasional, small scale meetings , will be illegal; religious communities that do not have a registered umbrella body will not be able to invite foreign citizens for religious work; and all religious literature will be subject to compulsory prior censorship. In addition, all religious organisations will have to be compulsorily re-registered within two years. Evidence is already mounting that the new law is beginning to restrict religious activity. The authorities have already used "public opinion" , often stirred up by local Orthodox priests , to prevent non-Orthodox religious communities gaining registration or receiving building permission. In a last-ditch protest against the law, two people , among them a Catholic, Igor Zakrevsky from the town of Borisov, staged a demonstration on Independence Square in Minsk on 8 November. They were detained by police.

Georgia:

True Orthodox lodge constitutional challenge to concordat.

Georgia’s Constitutional Court is to rule on 19 November whether it will consider a complaint lodged by a leading priest of the True Orthodox Church against the constitutionality of the recently-adopted concordat between the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate and the state. "The concordat is against our Church and was designed to deprive us of our constitutional rights," Father Gela Aroshvili told Keston News Service from Tbilisi on 12 November. "We can’t serve the liturgy, preach, build churches or publish without getting permission each time from the Patriarchate. We can do nothing."

Azerbaijan:

Third refusal for baptist book imports.

The Baptist church in the Azerbaijani capital Baku has for the third time been refused permission to import 3,000 copies of the Book of Proverbs in Azeri which are currently being held in customs. Pastor Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union in Azerbaijan, told Keston News Service on 11 November that Rafik Aliev, chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations, was responsible for the latest refusal. Pastor Zenchenko fears that the State Committee may use the incident as a pretext to close down the Baptist Church on grounds of "infringement of the law about the reception of religious literature".

Ukraine:

Christian university "under threat".

Despite the withdrawal of a legal suit to suspend the Odessa-based Christian Open University of Economy and Humanitarian Sciences, staff still fear that the local justice department will try to close the university. The justice department wanted to have the university fined and its activity halted for three months because internal university documentation was in Russian not Ukrainian, and that the legal address of the university was not where lessons take place. The university claims that it is registered as a social and not a state organization, so it does not need to maintain documents in Ukrainian and that it can still be reached at the legal address. The justice department has refused to answer queries by phone or fax and claimed that it does not have e-mail. The dean of the theological faculty, Pyotr Pavlyuk, stated "The most important thing is that it is Christian, not Orthodox. If it was Orthodox, there wouldn’t be such problems." He added that the university’s refusal to pay bribes has complicated the situation. "If we paid bribes we would be OK. Ukraine is a very corrupt country."

Please see http://www.keston.org for details on these stories plus other religious rights violations in communist and post-communist lands.

Freedom House releases this information on persecution in Vietnam.

Vietnam:

Proof of brutal oppression of Christians.

Freedom House’s Centre for Religious Freedom released today a photo and other new evidence that Vietnam continues a policy of brutally suppressing Christianity among the country’s tribal populations.The Centre reported that 36-year-old Hmong Christian, Mua Bua Senh died on August 7, 2002, as a result of repeated beatings by provincial and district public security police in Vietnam’s northwestern Lai Chau province. During 2001, he was beaten on multiple occasions beginning on April 12, for refusing to sign a government pledge renouncing his Christian faith.A photo of Senh’s body, a copy of his government identity card, and three petitions signed by the victim’s family and neighbours were given to the Centre by sources in Vietnam. (this paragraph edited for clarity)

In three petitions obtained by the Centre that were signed by dozens of Christian and animist residents of Senh’s hamlet of Tin Toc B, Dien Bien Dong District, Lai Chau Province, witnesses attest that Senh was beaten so severely in November 2001 he had to be hospitalized, and he died without recovering last August. One petition names seven members of the public security police and the secretary of the Dien Bien Dong People’s Committee as having administered the beatings on November 12 and 15, 2001.

Reports received by the Centre from reliable sources in Vietnam state Mr.Senh had been hospitalized at Military Hospital #103 in Hanoi.The officials also reportedly tried to force four other Hmong Christian families from among Tin Toc B village of 40 families to give up their faith and build altars to traditional animist deities.Under pressure from officials, the head of one household signed the pledge to recant Christianity. The other families, including Senh’s widow and six children, refused to sign and were driven out of their home district of Dien Bien Dong in Lai Chau Province and then out of neighbouring Son La Province where they had taken refuge; they are now in hiding. At least nine petitions were sent by relatives and neighbours of the deceased to central authorities in Hanoi appealing for an investigation into the case. The most recent, signed on September 29, 2002, by residents of Tin Toc B hamlet, expresses frustration that their numerous appeals for justice had gone unanswered: "If the leaders of our Vietnam government don’t answer our petitions very soon, we will notify the international community, and let the United Nations know so that they may help solve the problem." (this paragraph edited for clarity)

In 2000 and 2001, the Centre had released a trove of secret,official Vietnam directives and other documents that detail and create the bureaucratic infrastructure for a program ("Official Plan 184") to eradicate Christianity among tribal minorities. Among the government documents released by the Centre during that time was a government pledge form that Christians are pressured to sign to indicate they are giving up their faith. The copy of the pledge form released by the Centre was issued by Mr. Senh’s home district of Dien Bien and may be similar or identical to the one Senh and his Christian neighbours were pressured to sign this past year. Centre director Nina Shea commented: The suppression of Christianity in tribal villages in northwestern Lai Chau and Lao CAI provinces is widespread.

It has been frequently reported that over the past year delegations of police and government officials from the commune, the district and the province level show up on Sundays to harass and break up home-based Christian worship services. Reports state that the officials raid the services, confiscate and destroy Bibles and hymnals, and threaten the members of the congregation with death.

In October 2002, in SinhHo District, Lai Chau Province, authorities began closing government schools in predominantly Christian villages, telling parents that schools will reopen only if they renounce Christianity.Centre sources also learned of the case of Ho A Tong of Huoi Chon Village, Ang To Commune, Tuan Giao District, Lai Chau Province, who had been sentenced to 36 months in prison in January 1999 on trumped up charges of destroying property and stealing cattle. He told Centre sources, "I only asked for freedom to practice my religious faith." Since becoming a Christian believer in 1987, he has been imprisoned multiple times including for a period of 38-months beginning in April 1990, during which time provincial authorities forced his wife and daughters to drink a blood oath forswearing Christianity.

Over his most recent prison term, officials ransacked his house taking his Party membership card, various service awards,and a copy of Vietnam’s decree on religion. Vietnam was recommended last month by the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom for U.S. designation as a "Country of Particular Concern" for engaging in "systematic, ongoing and egregious persecution of religious believers."The three petitions, photo, and reports regarding Mua Bua Senh’s case were provided by a Freedom House source in Vietnam who requested anonymity.

The photos and the 8^th family petition can be seen on the Centre’s web site at www.freedomhouse.org/religion.

ASSIST Ministries has these incidents to report.

Belarus

Persecution of Pentecostals stepped up.

Pentecostal Christians in Belarus have been told by authorities not to pray in tongues as part of an apparent crack-down against non Orthodox churches, ASSIST News Service learned Thursday, November 14. The latest developments came just two weeks after President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed what human rights workers described as "Europe’s most restrictive" religion law in the former Soviet republic. Referring to the new legislation, officials of the Frunze district in the capital Minsk told Pentecostal pastor Aleksandr Ruskevich that believers of his church "were not allowed to pray in tongues, only in Russian," said Keston News Service (KNS). Many Christians regard speaking and praying in ‘tongues’ as a language and manifestation of the Holy Spirit from God, and it often plays an important part in Pentecostal meetings.

Mexico:

The persecution in Chiapas goes on.

Since the armed attack on indigenous Mexican evangelicals in the southern province of Chiapas in 1995, the situation has not changed in favour of the persecuted Christians. According to a story released by IC Press in Spain, Carlos Martínez García, a researcher at the Centre of Mexican Protestant Studies, warned at a recent international symposium in Lima that things could get much nastier in Chiapas (southern Mexico) unless effective measures are taken to help the Christians there. In presenting a paper on the situation in Chiapas, Martínez said the best way to help was by promoting action, which encouraged peaceful co-existence within a pluralist society. "Evangelical leaders have been working hard to try and prevent Protestants from using the same methods as their enemies, but point out that it is in no small measure due to the lack of political help they have received, especially the failure of the authorities to protect the religious freedom, which is enshrined in the Mexican constitution.

Please check http://www.assist-ministries.org for full Details on these, and other stories.

   

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