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Thursday, January 15, 2004 |
Turkish Court Releases Jailed Attackers (Compass)
ORHANGAZI, Turkey, January 15 (Compass) -- Yesterday a judge of the Orhangazi Criminal Court in northwestern Turkey released two young nationalists jailed on assault-and battery charges against a convert to Christianity. The decision was based on a hospital report on the injured Christian, together with his failure to appear at yesterday’s hearing. According to a hospital release order, Yakup Cindilli, 32, had emerged from his two-month coma and his life was no longer in danger. The judge accepted the state prosecutor’s recommendation to release Ibrahim Sekman and Huseyin Bektas for the duration of the trial against them. Cindilli’s sister told the court that her brother had just begun “like a baby” to walk again and that his speech did not usually make sense. “If you would ask him questions, he would not be able to answer them,” she told the judge. Cindilli was attacked and beaten on October 19 by right-wing nationalists linked with the Nationalist Movement Party for distributing New Testaments and “doing missionary work.” The next day he slipped into a coma, caused by a blood clot on his brain.
Copyright 2004 Compass Direct
8:47:25 PM 
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UZBEKISTAN: Authorities trying to close Baptist church |
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By Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service |
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An Uzbek official, who fined Baptist pastor Oleg Bader for running children's camps and a children's club attached to his church, has described the fine to Forum 18 News Service as "completely within the law". The church is being forced to change and re-register its statute by 27 January, even though children's work was included in the original statute. The pastor's lawyer has been denied access to the cases documents, and the justice department has refused to tell Forum 18 why this is so. It is feared that, like another church further north, re-registration may be denied and the church declared illegal. Sources have told Forum 18 that the authorities want to close the church because they do not want Christianity to spread in Khorezm region. [read more...] | F18News http://www.forum18.org/
12:25:04 PM
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Du Daobin, a civil servant from HuBei, a central province of China, was taken into custody by plainclothes state security agents on Oct. 28, accused of "subverting state power."
Before his arrest, Du was a prolific writer who had published his essays online. He was deeply affected by the arrest of fellow Internet writer Liu Di, a 23-year-old college student, who was arrested in Beijing on November 7, 2002, and has been held incommunicado since then. She was an active contributor to several online forums, and frequently wrote articles that were critical of the Chinese government. She also expressed her support for imprisoned Web master Huang Qi, and called for freedom of expression.
After Liu Di's arrest, Du had actively called for her release and recently co-organized an online campaign to show solidarity by taking a series of actions, including spending one day in a darkened room to symbolically "accompanyiu Di in prison." He also wrote a number of essays supporting Liu Di and calling on authorities to release her.
"We pay homage to Du Daobin's courage and the impact of his symbolic protest in support of Liu Di. The simulated detention campaign was a model of peaceful protest and the arrest of its instigator is quite simply disgraceful," Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert M¨¦nard said.
Du's wife has not been allowed to visit or communicate with Du in detention. The request of Du's lawyer to meet him has also been denied.
Several dozen Chinese academics, reporters and scholars have written a petition letter addressed to Premier Wen Jiabao, which calls on Beijing to release Du and protect freedom of speech.
"We express our deep regret over the matter," the letter said. "We request that the highest executive authorities take lawful measures to instruct the relevant authorities to liberate Du Daobin."
"We hope more people show their concerns for Du and other conscience prisoners, and sign this letter." One of the authors, Mr. Liu Xiaobo, said.
click here to sign or send email
12:02:50 PM
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LAO BELIEVERS PRESSED BEYOND MEASURE
Lao believers are being hunted like animals, and even fleeing their homes doesn't spare them from Lao police, who hunt them down in an effort to suppress all expression of Christianity in the land.
"My heart continues to ache deeply and hurt intensely as I think about the lot of Lao brothers and sisters who are hurting and confused and running for their lives," said a confidential Christian Aid contact last week. He was referring in particular to believers in Sanamsai district of Attapue province in the extreme southeast corner of Laos.
"Four days ago I sat around a table with three believers who had walked over 150 km. (90 mi.) through the thickest woods and mountains for two days and one night just to get to the city of Paske where they might seek refuge because of threats on the lives of them and their families," he said.
Pakse is a large city in southern Laos where there is a larger concentration of Christians. They believe there is relative safety in numbers. Several months ago the police went to a church there to arrest the leaders and close it down. That church had up to 800 believers at one time. The women of the church surrounded the church and told the police they would have to go past them first. The police were reluctant to physically attack the women and so retreated. But the situation remains very tenuous.
Most of the new arrivals recounted horrible tales of their prior arrests and imprisonments, and now their children and relatives are in prison for their faith. One 17-year-old girl arrived in Pakse after being fined 150,000 kips by local authorities and evicted from her home village.
Two other women fled their village after being threatened with arrest and imprisonment for believing in Jesus.
"I talked with a Laotian who several times had been imprisoned in Attepue province for his faith. Now he is being hunted down like an animal so they can put him in the darkest prison cell," the contact said. Many of them have lost their homes and in their flight to save their lives have become separated from their wives, children and loved ones.
Their only crime is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and refusing to recant. The messenger said he knew 11 believers who were being forced to make bricks in Attapue prison because of their steadfast faith. Their family members are now threatened with imprisonment, causing many of them to forsake homes, gardens, rice fields, animals and land, and trek 250 km. (150 mi.) to seek refuge in Pakse and other towns, arriving with only the clothes they are wearing.
Truly their plight is like those early believers described in Hebrews 11:37b-38: "They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth."
Families whose men are in prison or who have left their homes under threat of imprisonment can provide neither for themselves nor for their imprisoned loved ones. Christian Aid is able to send financial help through special channels to meet these needs. Persons wishing to help may write to insider@christianaid.org and put MI-502 730-CFL on the subject line, or contribute on line at www.christianaid.org using the same code.
Missions Insider at www.christianaid.org.
4:28:54 AM
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Activist Hopes to Return to China. HONG KONG — After being permitted to enter Hong Kong, a prominent former Chinese student protest leader who helped organize the pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square nearly 15 years ago said Wednesday that he still hoped to be allowed to return to the mainland someday. [Los Angeles Times World News]
4:24:40 AM
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Life Funds For North Korean Refugees News Release Text On China's Imprisonment Of Refugee Helper Noguchi. LFNKR member, Noguchi, imprisoned by China for Helping North Korean Refugees http://www.northkoreanrefugees.com/statementjan13-04.htm China Jails Another Japanese Aid Worker China appears to be hardening its stance toward humanitarian aid workers. One week after Noguchi was arrested, several South Korean aid workers were given unprecedentedly long prison sentences of up to nine years. OFFICIAL STATEMENT For Press Conference Jan. 13, 2004 Mr. Takayuki Noguchi (32), a member of the Japanese NGO Life Funds for North Korean Refugees (LFNKR), disappeared on December 10, 2003 while in China. The LFNKR home office has not heard from Noguchi since Dec. 10, following a routine check-in phone call on that date from Guilin, Guangxi in China at 11:45 AM (Japan time).... [Free North Korea!]
4:14:52 AM
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VIETNAMESE POLICE HOUND CHRISTIANS TO DEATH
Vietnamese police are doing everything in their power to force Christians to deny Christ. While some outwardly conform, many outright refuse. The consequences are staggering.
A report Christian Aid received last week reviewed the atrocities against Vietnamese believers last year. It told how Vietnamese police beat, tortured with electric shock, and even murdered Christians to get them to recant their faith.
"You can't be Christians," the police told a group of Dao tribe believers, "The Dao people know no religion as evangelical Christianity. You must be animists and rebuild the altars of your forefathers."
"Who taught you this doctrine?" they interrogated another local church leader. "Who told you to discard your [pagan] altars?"
Some believers have had their home furnishings destroyed, while others have fled their village to seek refuge elsewhere. Then, like hounds of hell, the Vietnamese police go after them to make them return to their villages to try to force them to become animists.
Despite such unrelenting harassment and torture, the report said that 348 new churches sprang to life last year, bringing the total number of churches in one network to 780. These contained 67,104 Christians, including 14,812 newer believers and 669 who turned to Christ in November.
Yet the persistent attempt of authorities to trash Christians knots the stomach of those who learn about it.
For example, police arrested Mua Bua Senh last spring and severely beat him so badly that he died. During that time his elder brother, Mua Say So, sent seven letters to the central government requesting intervention, but got no response. After his brother died, police then arrested and jailed Mua Say So for "denying he murdered his own brother and making false accusations against the police."
The leader of the village church was next arrested for disagreeing with the government order to ban Christian meetings. He is in jail and his family is not allowed to visit him or send him provisions. A Christian worker and 10 other local church leaders then fled to Laos. That's like leaping from the wok into the fire (see next story).
In another place, villagers ganged up on the police and blocked them from arresting a local deacon. But the police waited for him secretly and when the deacon eventually left his house they bound him and led him away. He was given a 42-month sentence for "resisting government officials on function."
Another deacon went to Hanoi last March and brought back two Hmong hymnals. Police stopped him on the way, detained him 10 days, and fined him 1 million dong (US$65 or about three months' wages).
In November the government ordered Christians in Lai Chau province to "give up the illegal religion" and to stop meeting together. When nobody signed the document, the authorities demolished all the furniture in four places of worship. Then they told the deacons they were not qualified to preach because they did not have systematic Bible training! Police also demolished two other chapels and furniture in two other Hmong churches in the same province.
That same month authorities ordered other Christian families in the area to sign a document saying they deny Christ. While six families absolutely refused to sign, 16 families submitted. They later said, "Our hands signed the paper but our hearts did not deny Christ."
Three deacons in Giap Trung village were arrested and jailed for "disturbing public order." Their "disturbance" was simply to lead local worship.
Amazingly, the great majority of Christians steadfastly refuse to deny their faith. Sometimes they hold meetings between 2 and 4 o'clock in the morning to avoid detection.
To learn how you can help supply the needs of persecuted believers in Vietnam, write to insider@christianaid.org and put MI-501 740-VHM on the subject line.
Missions Insider at www.christianaid.org.
4:12:15 AM
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© 2004 Radio Free China
Last Update: 4/4/2004; 9:06:28 AM
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