Fights broke out between Chinese students, security guards and Ukraine students at the Technical University in Kiev for two days. Chinese ambassador visited and call for restraints, to safeguard Chinese students' safety. There are tens of thousands of Chinese students and merchants in the former Soviet Republic. There are a handful of pastors there. We pray for the Chinese churches and missionaries working in Moscow and Kiev.

3:56:00 PM    pray []

Raids on House Churches Continuing (China) -VOM Canada

On May 11, a house church in Anshan in Liaoning province of China was
raided by officials of the Public Service Bureau.  Approximately forty
Christians were tied up and their names recorded.  While all were
released later that night, the church has received a formal
announcement
of closure of their "illegal gathering."  The former leader of the
church, Li Baozhi had been recently released after serving two years in
prison.  She was not present that evening, however, or she would likely
have been re-arrested.

A Voice of the Martyrs source contacted the local authorities in China
about this raid.  A government spokesman, Jin Xiangdong, confirmed the
raid of an "illegal religious gathering site" because of their
"disturbance of social order."  He stated that any religious gathering
not part of the official churches is illegal and should be closed.  He
estimates 20-30 such closures every year in Anshan.

This is one of many similar situations in China in recent months.
Another Chinese ministry, China for Jesus, reported that 120 Christians
were arrested during a meeting on April 23.  All were eventually
released after many were forced to pay a fine.

Despite international pressure, Chinese authorities continue to defend
their claim to freedom of religion.  In a May 22 article by the
government-controlled Xinhua News Agency, official Chinese religious
leaders attacked the latest report of the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released on May 13.  In the
report, the USCIRF lists China among "countries of particular concern"
and criticizes it as a "particularly severe violator of religious
freedom."  In response, Father Jos Ma Yinglin, secretary-general of the
Chinese Catholic Bishops College, said, "Such a judgment based on mere
hearsay doesn't match the facts I see.  Since the country's opening-up
and reform, all kinds of religions have grown fast. The religious cause
of China has entered its heyday."

While this growth may be accurate, it is clearly not a result of
Chinese
government policy as hundreds of Chinese believers are in prison for
their faith.  There are sixty-three members of the South China Church
presently in prison, including Pastor Gong Shengliang who had been
sentenced to death.  His sentence was reduced in early October to life
imprisonment.  Pastor Gao Ying, an executive member of the official
China Christian Council, says that Gong's death sentence was warranted.
"You can never call him a pastor given his mind and acts were a great
deviation from the doctrines of Christianity and his so-called church
only preached superstition," she said.  Gong has been accused of rape,
arson, fraud and intimidation; all of which have been denied by the
alleged victims.  Appeals for Pastor Gong and other South China Church
members have been filed, but have been delayed indefinitely, blaming
restrictions due to SARS.

Pray for the thousands of Christians throughout China facing threats,
intimidation, arrest, and possibly death because of their faith in
Christ.  Pray that those in prison for their faith will receive added
strength from God's Spirit, so that they might have a renewed sense of
their freedom in Christ, despite their chains.

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3:48:09 PM    pray []

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

UZBEKISTAN: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES FACE TRIAL AND EXPULSION

By Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service

Two Jehovah's Witnesses are facing prosecution under the code of
administrative offences after police raided the home of one of them and
confiscated religious literature. Shukhrat Ashurov and Alisher Argeliyev
from the village of Yubileiny in Gazalkent district, 90 kilometres (55
miles) north-east of the capital Tashkent, appeared at an initial hearing
on 28 May at Gazalkent town court. But judge Rovshan Khaidarov decided that
additional witnesses should be summoned to court and adjourned the case
until 3 June. "According to my sources, at the next legal hearing Ashurov
and Argeliyev will be charged with preaching to children," the two men's
lawyer Rustam Satdanov told Forum 18 News Service in Tashkent on 28 May.

Three officers of the Gazalkent police, together with two witnesses, came
with a search warrant to Ashurov's home in Yubileiny on 18 May, Ashurov
told Forum 18 in the village on 25 May. The officers told him that
villagers had collectively complained that he and fellow resident Argeliyev
were "spreading propaganda about Christianity and Wahhabism" (a term widely
but largely inaccurately used in Central Asia to denote Islamic
fundamentalism).

The police searched Ashurov's home and confiscated around 40 Jehovah's
Witness leaflets, as well as two Korans, two New Testaments and one Bible.
The officers warned that a case against the two would soon be brought to
court.

Ashurov insists he and his colleague have done nothing wrong. "The leaflets
were brought to Uzbekistan legally and I took delivery of them at the
Jehovah's Witness centre in Chirchik, which is registered with the
authorities," Ashurov told Forum 18. "As far as I know, there is no ban on
the Bible, New Testament and Koran in Uzbekistan."

On 20 May the villagers held a meeting at Yubileiny's school at which those
present demanded that Ashurov and Argeliyev stop preaching the Jehovah's
Witness faith and "return to the faith of their forefathers", a reference
to Islam. Several villagers also threatened the two, saying that if they
failed to do as they had been asked they would be thrown out of the village
(under Uzbek law, villagers may turn individuals out of the village if
their behaviour appears unacceptable to local residents).

"I only found out recently that Ashurov and Argeliyev had become followers
of Yoga," the head of the village administration, Riskali Nadyrov, told
Forum 18 on 25 May in Yubileiny, apparently confusing the Jehovah's
Witnesses with adherents of Yoga. "No one intends to turn them out of the
village but of course they, like all of us, ought to be Muslims."

An official of the department for combating terrorism at the Internal
Affairs administration for Gazalkent district, Khusan Imanaliyev, reported
that his office had received information that Wahhabis were operating in
Yubileiny. "The area around the Charvak reservoir, which includes the
village of Yubileiny, is a distinctive area: fighters for the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan operated here in 1999," he told Forum 18 in
Gazalkent on 26 May. "Naturally, we had to provide an efficient response to
that information."

In Imanaliyev's view, "of course Ashurov and Argeliyev are not terrorists,
but they have broken Uzbek law by engaging in proselytism". He therefore
believed the administrative case against them was justified. He said the
books were confiscated from Ashirov as "material evidence", but insisted
that those not banned in Uzbekistan will be returned to their owner.

"The authorities simply weren't expecting this case to receive publicity,"
Satdanov maintained, adding that Forum 18's visit to the area as well as
his own visit had put extra pressure on them. "This means they must prepare
more carefully for the legal case."

© Forum 18 News Service.
F18News http://www.forum18.org/

10:22:45 AM    pray []

Pray For China

10:16:47 AM    pray []

China's Leadership Urged to Investigate Handling of Tiananmen Protests
Jim Randle
VOA NEWS

Listen to Jim Randle's report (RealAudio)  
Randle report - Download 226k (RealAudio)  

Relatives of some of the people killed in 1989's Tiananmen protests are calling for China's new leadership to re-think the government's harsh judgment on the pro-democracy movement. But China's government says it is not changing.

Hundreds of people died in Beijing in June, 1989 when Chinese troops forcefully cleared away protesters who had been occupying Tiananmen Square for weeks. Top-ranking Communist Party officials later labeled the protest "a counter-revolutionary rebellion" to justify the stern measures used to end it.

But now, 20 relatives of people who died or disappeared in the turmoil are urging China's new President Hu Jintao and other leaders to name an independent committee to investigate the incident. In a letter to the government, they say this would be a step toward building a "fair and just society," and urged that the results be made public.

Many Tiananmen victims were students who were never seen again and their parents have no idea what happened to them.

Zhang Qiyue

But China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue says there is no need to reassess the Tiananmen Square incident. China's political leaders in the Communist Party "have made a conclusion," and she says this conclusion "will remain unchanged."

In Ms. Zhang's view, China's leadership stopped the protest to preserve stability. And China's achievements during the past 14 years, including roaring economic growth, would not have been possible without stability.

She spoke as China's courts took another action designed to preserve stability, handing down lengthy prison sentences to four activists who used the Internet to spread their views. The four were convicted of posting essays critical of the government and hosting discussions that explored democracy and social reform.

Their sentences range from eight to 10 years.

10:11:51 AM    pray []

HUMAN RIGHTS

China jails web dissidents. Four Chinese web writers are given prison terms of up to 10 years for publishing articles critical of the government. [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

China Sentences 4 in Internet Dissent. Miami Herald May 28 2003 9:31PM ET [Moreover - China news

9:59:51 AM    pray []