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Subject: PERSECUTION REPORT FOR MARCH 23, 2004.

Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 17:01:59 -0800 From:

"Bruce Atchison" <ve6xtc@telusplanet.net>

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

 http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

PERSECUTION REPORT FOR MARCH 23, 2004.

The Voice Of The Martyrs provides the following bulletins of Christians suffering for their faith.

China:

Christians Released While Others Face Trial

After ten days in custody, Bishop Wei Jingyi was released on the afternoon of March 14, according to AsiaNews sources. Bishop Wei is a leader in the underground Catholic Church in China which insists on allegiance to the Pope, contrary to the policies of the Chinese government. He was arrested at a tollbooth as he was returning from meeting foreign friends at the Harbin airport (see http://www.persecution.net/news/china38.html for more details). His foreign visitors, both from France, were also detained but then released. According to one source, the authorities detained him because they were not pleased that he was meeting with foreigners. It is believed that he was released, at least in part, because of the strong international pressure, including an appeal from the Vatican.

The Voice of the Martyrs has also learned that the trial for three house church leaders began on March 16. Liu Fenggang, Xu Yonghai and Zhang Shengqi are accused of providing intelligence to foreign organizations. According to a March 17 report from China Aid Association, the secret trial lasted three hours and the accused are now awaiting the verdict. When family members tried to attend the trial, they were prevented by police. Ms. Li Mingzhi and Ms. Ye Jifei arrived at the courthouse only to be detained for three hours and then escorted to the train station to be returned to their home provinces thousands of miles away. Ms. Li Shanna, the wife of Dr Xu Yonghai, was escorted by police from Beijing to Hangzhou to have a "tour" of the city, thus preventing her from attending the trial. According to one source, the three were accused of leaking information about a court case in 2000 to an overseas magazine, "Christian Life Quarterly," which prosecutors called an "evil cult" magazine.

In a positive development, Deborah Xu Yongling was released on bail on March 15, following intensive international pressure, including from the US State Department. She has been warned to not leave her village for the next six months until formal charges have been filed.

These incidents took place as China's National People's Congress debated enshrining human rights in China's constitution. An amendment passed on March 14 simply states, "the state respects and preserves human rights," without giving any details on what that means. VOM spokesman, Glenn Penner, said, "Without clear definitions of what rights are being protected, this amendment is meaningless. We urge the international community to push for the establishment of true civil and religious liberties in China."

We encourage you to submit polite letters to your national government leaders and to Chinese authorities, expressing your concern for these and other Christians imprisoned in China. The release of Bishop Wei and Deborah Xu are examples that international pressure can effect change. For addresses of government leaders in Canada and USA, as well as Chinese embassies, go to http://www.persecution.net/links.htm.

For more information on persecution facing Christians in China, go to http://www.persecution.net/country/china.htm.

India:

Catholic Priests Accused of Rape and Murder

Hindu fundamentalists have accused Catholic priests of the rape and murder of a teenage girl in Madhya Pradesh on March 3, despite claims from the Catholics that the death was clearly a suicide. Geeta Devi Saket was a Dalit (low caste) student at Deosar Girls' Boarding School, run by the Catholic diocese of Satna. According to a report from Compass Direct, a maid found the girl's body hanging from an iron doorframe on the evening of March 3.

Members of Bajrang Dal, the militant youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) blamed the Catholic priests, saying that the girl had been raped and then murdered. As workers from the school were taking the girl's body to a nearby hospital for an autopsy, they were attacked. Father Thomas Thelakkatt was beaten to unconsciousness while the others managed to escape, taking Father Thelakkatt back to the mission compound.

According to AsiaNews, the autopsy later confirmed suicide as the reason for the death, but the mob surrounding the mission compound refused to acknowledge the finding. Police tried explaining it to the mass of as many as two thousand people protesting the death, but the mob leaders accused the police of complicity. At last report, police were warning the Catholic workers to remain in the compound.

Christians in India fear further incidents of violence as the April 10 general elections approach. The ruling BJP party has increasingly supported Hindu groups opposed to the spread of Christianity in India.

For more information on challenges facing Christians in India, go to http://www.persecution.net/country/india.htm.

Vietnam:

Police Attempt to Stop Worship Celebration

On the afternoon of March 4, evangelical Christians from several house churches in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, met together at the Quoc Thanh Theater for a joint worship celebration. According to a March 12 report from Compass Direct, by 5:00 p.m. one thousand worshippers had assembled. However, by that time, security police had gathered outside, preventing five hundred others from entering. Police then ordered the power to be cut and prevented the owner of the theater from starting the backup generator. Despite the darkness and oppressive heat as air-conditioners stopped, the worship continued, using light from cell phones and camera flashes. House church leaders identified many of the security police officers as those who regularly harass believers as they gather in house churches.

For more information on persecution in Vietnam, go to http://www.persecution.net/country/vietnam.htm.

Canada:

Senate Begins Public Hearings on Bill C-250

Just as we were about to send out the Persecution and Prayer Alert, we received the following release from the Catholic Civil Rights League, which is of concern to Canadian Christians. We encourage you to make your voice heard on this potentially restrictive legislation.

Catholic Civil Rights League

301 - 46 St. Clair Ave. E, Toronto, ON M4T 1M9

Phone: 416-466-8244, Fax: 416-466-0091, ccrl@idirect.com,

http://ccrl.ca

On Friday last, Brian Rushfeldt of the Canadian Family Action Coalition (C-FAC) accidentally discovered that a Senate committee has commenced 'public' hearings on Bill C-250, the bill that is likely to make it a 'hate crime' to challenge the morality of homosexual conduct or lifestyles.

He asked why he had not been notified of the hearings, since he had asked to make a presentation. No reason was given. Instead, he was told to appear before the committee in Ottawa on Wednesday,, 17 March, only three business days later. At the cost of the maximum possible air fare, booking less than seven days in advance, Rushfeldt will be allowed only five minutes to make his case against the bill.

Rushfeldt also learned that Svend Robinson, Amnesty International, a Vancouver 'Hate Crimes' policeman and members of EGALE (Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere) had already appeared and had had more than five minutes each to speak in favour of the bill.

REAL Women of Canada has placed a full-page advertisement in today's National Post to bring this bill to the public's attention. They have also provided individuals with the tools to be heard on this issue. If the senators won't hear opposition to the bill in committee we need to reach them another way. Please go to http://www.killbillc250.com and let the government and senators know that they will not be able to push this bill through unnoticed.

For information about Bill C250, see Get Ready for the Knock on the Door(http://ccrl.ca/article_SM_021004.html), Summary of Objections to Bill C-250 (http://ccrl.ca/resources_CCRL_C250.html) and Bill C-250 pamphlet (pdf) (http://ccrl.ca/C250 pamphlet.pdf).

Please go to http://www.persecution.net to learn more about persecution and how to help Christians who are suffering.

Forum 18 reports the following religious rights violations.

Georgia:

Will violent priest be punished?

Violent Old Calendarist priest Fr Basil Mkalavishvili could soon be in the dock after he and his key associates were seized when police stormed his church in the capital Tbilisi on 12 March. Mkalavishvili and seven associates are now in three-month pre-trial detention. Baptist Alexei Ordjonikidze, who witnessed Mkalavishvili ordering his supporters to beat his fellow Baptists and burn all the Bible Society literature in their lorry in 2002, told Forum 18 News Service that under the law Mkalavishvili should get at least seven years in prison. Human rights activist Levan Ramishvili believes the end of the reign of terror against religious minorities is one step closer. "When he and his colleagues are convicted by a court, a line will be drawn." He believes Mkalavishvili might do a deal with the court to reduce his sentence by naming those in the old government who might have sponsored his violent campaign. No priests of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate alleged by religious minorities to have organised similar attacks have been arrested.

Kosovo and Serbia:

Churches and mosques destroyed amid inter-ethnic violence

Large scale violence in Kosovo and Serbia before the 5th anniversary of Nato's bombing raids has seen many Serbian Orthodox churches and mosques attacked, amid disputed suggestions, including by an un-named UNMIK official, that the violence in Kosovo was planned as a "pogrom against Serbs: churches are on fire and people are being attacked for no other reason than their ethnic background", Forum 18 News Service has learnt. In the Serbian capital Belgrade and in the southern city of Nis, mobs set two mosques on fire despite the pleas of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In Belgrade, Metropolitan Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Littoral personally pleaded with the mob and urged police and firefighters to react and preserve "what could be preserved". After initial hesitation for fear of the mob, firefighters and police did intervene, so the Belgrade mosque, which is "under state protection", was saved from complete destruction. In Kosovo since 1999, many attacks have been made on Orthodox shrines, without UNMIK, KFOR, or the mainly ethnically Albanian Kosovo Protection Service making any arrests of attackers.

Kosovo And Servia:

Priest "lucky" to be alive.

The parish priest of the St Nicholas' Church in Kosovo's capital Pristina has told Forum 18 News Service that he is lucky to be alive after an Albanian mob burnt his church down yesterday evening, and set his parish house on fire just before dawn this morning. "I was lucky they did not look in the cellar otherwise God knows if this morning I would still be alive," he told Forum 18. St Nicholas' church, has long been under threat, especially since KFOR's guard force was removed last May. Since 1999, no attackers on this or any other Orthodox Church have been arrested by UNMIK, KFOR, or the mainly ethnically Albanian Kosovo Protection Service. At least 31 people have been killed so far, and about 17 churches and other Serbian Orthodox sites destroyed in the anti-Serb violence that began on 17 March and is still continuing (see F18News 18 March 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=280 ).

Some Albanian politicians have, along with the Visoki Decani Orthodox Monastery, tried to stop the violence, which the international ombudsperson, Marek Anton Antoni Nowicki described as "the intent to cleanse this land from the presence of all Serbs, in total rejection of the idea of a multi-ethnic cohabitation in Kosovo". An Orthodox Church in neighbouring Bosnia was also set on fire late yesterday (18 March).

CIS:

Pentecostal and Orthodox churches to lose buildings

Two congregations on Russia's Pacific coast - the Grace Pentecostal Church and the Orthodox parish of the Annunciation - may lose their places of worship after the Sovetskaya Gavan city council abruptly cancelled a contract it had given for the use of a state-owned building, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The cancellation of the Pentecostal's contract came after the town gained a new mayor, Valeri Shevchuk, and a council official told Forum 18 that the Orthodox parish is in the same position as the Pentecostals. "We had a 20-year contract - so why should we move?" the Grace Church's former deacon Andrei Nadtochi told Forum 18 News Service. He said officials have hinted to church members that rental payments for their building under a new "commercial" agreement would be so high that they would give it up of their own accord. The church says it does not have the money to challenge the decision in court or pay higher rent.

Uzbekistan:

Justice department limiting church and mosque numbers

The Protestant Greater Grace Church in Samarkand has repeatedly had attempts to get state registration, without which under Uzbek law it would be forbidden, turned down, its Pastor Artur Karimov has told Forum 18 News Service. Other Protestant churches in Samarkand have also had difficulties with the authorities. Officials of the regional justice department have told Forum 18 that they are trying to ensure that the number of mosques "does not exceed reasonable levels," and to also limit the number of Christian churches under this policy. The officials also said that Muslims became very upset about the spread of Christianity in the region, and stressed their displeasure at the continued activity of Matti Sirvio, a Finnish missionary who founded the Greater Grace Church.

Please see http://www.forum18.org to learn about religious rights violations in communist and post-communist lands.

ASSIST News Service provides this bulletin of Christians being persecuted.

Tunisia:

Leaders discuss human rights amid Egyptian persecution of Christians

Kings and heads of states of 22 Arab League nations will be asked to improve human rights, includaing those of Christians, by amending the 1994 Arab Charter on Human Rights at a summit in Tunisia, ASSIST News Service (ANS) learned Wednesday, March 17.

The developments come shortly after Iraq adopted an interim constitution under U.S. pressure, and is part of what some Arab commentators have dubbed a "democracy frenzy" in the Middle East, a region with at least hundreds of political and religious prisoners.

The March 29-30 summit was expected to be also closely monitored by Christian human rights watchdogs, including the influential U.S. Copts Association, which has expressed especially concern about the persecution of Egyptian Christians, also known as Copts.

Egypt is one of the most influential country's within the Arab League, and any changes there are believed to impact the whole region. The U.S, Copts Association said it is currently especially concerned that "vulnerable Coptic young women have repeatedly been the targets of Muslim extremists, intent on converting them to Islam."

It said one of them, 18 year-old Ingy Helmy Georgy Labibe, was abducted while shopping in her hometown, Mahala el Kobra, in January, the organization said. "Shortly thereafter, the family was notified that Ingy was in the custody of Fahmy Taa Mahmoud and would officially convert to Islam," the US Copts Association added.

Egyptian police have refused the family's requests to have their daughter retired and physically examined to assess whether she had been sexually violated amid reports that her abductor is a civilian advisor to a local Police Chief and his unit.

"This conduct is a complete violation of the law, which prohibits the conversion of minors, and reveals the complicity of the local police in masking the offense as a conversion to Islam," said Michael Meunier, president of the U.S. Copts Association.

His organization also said that four young men have been arrested by Naweeba district police as they were carrying Christian materials while vacationed at a local hotel. Copts Peter Nady Kamel, Ishak Dawood Yessa, John Adel Fokh a, and Andrew Saeed have been imprisoned at the Tor Sinai police station since January, the well informed organization said.

"They have been charged with the creation of a group that poses a threat to national unity and threatening the social peace. After an initial extension to their detention on February 9, their imprisonment was once again extended to March 20th, with no court date in sight. The young men's indefinite detention has caused their families grave concern," the U.S. Copts Association said in a statement send to ASSIST News Service (ANS).

Meunier added that "the arbitrary arrest of Coptic men and women" reveals " the discriminatory attitudes permeating throughout the nations local police forces."

Egypt's security forces have repeatedly come under international scrutiny for reported misdeeds in the arrest and detention of Egyptian citizens, including Copts.

The country, the most populous among the Arab states, has been under emergency law since Mubarak came to power in the wake of predecessor Anwar Sadat's assassination by Islamic extremists. Authorities still have wide powers to arrest civilians, hold them indefinitely and try them in military courts with limited right of appeal, analyst say.

The amendments of 1994 Arab Charter on Human Rights to be discussed this month in Tunisia are specifically affirming every individual's right to life; the right to fair trial; the legal status of crime and punishment; the right to political asylum without extradition; and prohibitions on torture, deportation and revoking citizenship.

They also strengthen workers' rights and refer more explicitly to the equal rights of men and women.

But "one of the problems facing these modest amendments is that no Arab state has yet ratified the 1994 charter. Another is that if the amendments are approved, the legislatures of seven member states will have to ratify the revised charter for it to come into force," said The Jordan Times news paper this week.

"Despite the virtually incessant talk of "reform" in the region, there is little optimism that this will happen any time soon," it commented. There has been concern about rise of Muslim militants opposing Christians and other minorities, who they view as allies of the Western World and the United States at a time of Washington's declared war on terror.

Please go to http://www.assistnews.net for Christian-oriented news stories.

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email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca