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Wednesday, July 07, 2004 |
OMCT reports on women's rights. The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) launches its publication "Violence Against Women: 10 Reports/Year 2003" covering the situation of women in Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, Eritrea, Estonia, Mali, Russia, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.... [Human Rights News & Actions]
10:26:09 PM 
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Sri Lanka: Torture Victim Beaten. Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC has been informed that Jayasekara Vithanage Saman Priyankara, a former torture victim, has been severely beaten up by police officers attached to the Matale Police Station and he is being held presently at the same... [Human Rights News & Actions]
10:24:18 PM
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SRI LANKA: HOSTILITY INTENSIFIES
- anti-conversion law progresses and Evangelical Alliance office attacked.
By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commision
Special to ASSIST News Service
AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- The Sri Lankan government is sponsoring a bill in the Parliament banning 'forcible' conversion of religion. Entitled 'The Act for the Protection of Religious Freedom', it was drafted by the Minister for Buddha Sasana (Ministry of Buddhist Affairs), Ratnasiri Wickremanayake. If this extremely threatening bill is passed, the law will state: 'No person shall convert or attempt to convert another person to another religion, [or] provide assistance or encouragement towards such conversion to another religion.' Effectively conversion from one religion to another under any circumstance would be a criminal offence.
The word 'force' as used in the bill can mean simply to persuade someone to attend prayers of a religion of which they are not a member – for example, a Christian nurse encouraging a sick Buddhist patient to pray with the hospital's Christian chaplain or visiting pastor. If conversion is 'committed' by a group, 'every director or shareholder ... partner, member, employee or officer of that group or company shall be guilty of an offence'. Foreigners found guilty will be expelled and banned from re-entry. Court action against conversion may be initiated by the police, by anybody 'affected or aggrieved by an offence' or by anyone 'interested in the welfare of the public who has reason to believe that the provisions of this Act have been contravened'.
MP Wickremanayake has also said he will create 'Sanghadhikarana' (informal tribunals run by Buddhist monks) where village disputes can be resolved, without the involvement of the police or courts of law. This is most serious. Last September a gathering of some 1500 Buddhist monks called for a total ban on Christian activity. If 'Sanghadhikarana' were to work in conjunction with MP Wickremanayake's anti-conversion law, then Christians in Sri Lanka would face unrestrained attacks from these extremely militant Buddhist monks. The consequences are unthinkable.
The very existence of the bill fuels the zeal of the militant Buddhists, legitimises anti-Christian sentiment and justifies anti-Christian acts. More than 50 violent attacks against Christians and churches reported in the last six months are just the tip of the iceberg, as well as 146 Christian places of worship being forced to close between December 2003 – March 2004. The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka's (NCEASL) first advertisement in a public awareness campaign on the impending legislation appeared in the Daily News paper on Saturday 3 July 2004. Later that day the NCEASL officewas broken into. This was not a burglary, as nothing apart from some cash was stolen. Filing cabinets and desk drawers were all ransacked, with files being systematically searched and then scattered around the room. NCEASL is Sri Lanka's main voice of advocacy for religious liberty, and a most significant body for Christian unity and mission. [more]
10:12:17 PM
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Behind the razor’s wire:
Montagnards of Vietnam
[Asian Center For Human Rights]
"Please send to... these poor Montagnards food, rice, salted fish, medicine and 50,000 riel (13 dollars) each," King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia in a message posted on his website while after an article was published in The Cambodia Daily of 2 July 2004 titled, “Official: Red Cross Should Aid Montagnards”.
After living in the jungles in Cambodia and Vietnam borders since the crackdown on the ethnic national minorities, commonly known as the Montagnards, in the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Dak Nong in Vietnam during the Easter weekend on 10 April 2004, Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk on 2 July 2004 requested the Royal government of Cambodia to deliver basic humanitarian supplies to the Montagnard refugees who have taken shelter in Mondulkiri and Rattanakiri provinces. King Sihanouk in an earlier statement on 14 April 2004 called on “the Royal government of Cambodia and the United Nations to protect the Montagnards and not to expel, or let be expelled, from Cambodia these unlucky fellows that are seeking shelter in our country.” The Cambodian government, wary of the diplomatic fallout with Hanoi, termed the asylum seekers as “illegal migrants”.
Thirty seven Montagnard asylum seekers with little food, drinking water and medicine have been interviewed by the authorities in Rattanakiri province in June 2004. They corroborated local hill tribes sources that there are about 250 Montagnard refugees who have been hiding in the jungles and are desperate for food. Mr Som Chanseang, Deputy Director of the Cambodia Red Cross’s Rattnakiri Office told The Cambodia Times on 2 July 2004 “It is really difficult to help the Montagnards because the provincial government keeps information about them a secret”. In the meanwhile, Queen Norodom Monineath, Honorary President of the Cambodian Red Cross, urged the agency's President Bun Rany, wife of Prime Minister Hun Sen, to send humanitarian assistance to the asylum seekers. [more]
10:04:58 PM
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TURKMENISTAN: "Only two faiths are allowed, Islam and Orthodoxy" says deputy police chief |
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By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service |
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Abadan's deputy police chief has told Baptist Svetlana Gurkina that "in Turkmenistan only two faiths are allowed, Islam and Orthodoxy, while the rest are banned", local Baptists have told Forum 18 News Service. She was also subjected to crude remarks and threats to imprison her and confiscate her flat, if she continues to meet her fellow-Christians. Although criminal penalties for unregistered religious activity were formally lifted in May, unregistered Baptist communities have been hard-hit by the government's continued refusal to lift the ban on unregistered religious activity. Baptists in the capital Ashgabad have appealed to President Saparmurat Niyazov and government agencies to halt the ongoing persecution of Svetlana Gurkina. [read more...] |
8:45:10 AM
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UZBEKISTAN: "Illegal" Baptists under more pressure as authorities try to stop Christianity |
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By Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service |
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In the latest twist to Uzbek authorities' campaign against Christianity in north-west Uzbekistan, the NSS secret police have interrogated two Baptists, beating one up, and threatening both with imprisonment saying that "we will put you away for years". One secret police officer claimed to Forum 18 News Service that "The Baptists' activity is illegal, and so we simply had a chat with them," and that the Urgench Baptist church is a banned organisation "because its registered status was removed". Another NSS officer, Alisher Khasanov, jeered at Baptist Sharovat Allamova for being a Christian and claimed that "you Protestants rely on Western money, the humanitarian western missions who support you are basically espionage organisations. So you yourselves are agents for foreign intelligence services." Also, the local Khorezm branch of the NSS has questioned Forum 18 about why a Norwegian organisation is interested in a "banned organisation". [read more...] |
8:43:18 AM
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© 2004 Radio Free China
Last Update: 8/10/2004; 4:49:24 PM
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