China, Sudan, and Russia abuse freedom

Oppression in China, Sudan, and Russia top the list of concerns in a new report. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (see link #1 below) released its findings May 1.

...Abuses in the three nations deserve immediate attention, the report says. Sudan and China are practicing flagrant and widespread religious-liberty abuses, while Russia "is at a crossroads," and whatever route it takes will have an enormous impact on surrounding nations, the commission's Lawrence Goodrich told Religion Today.

...The commission makes policy recommendations to the State Department under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act.

...The situation in Sudan is "urgent and really egregious," Goodrich said. More than 2 million Christians and animists in the south have died in a genocidal war by Khartoum's Islamic government, including many in man-made famines because Khartoum bars international relief from some areas, news reports say.

...The commission proposed a plan to raise international awareness of Sudan's crimes, encourage economic pressure against the regime, and help opposition groups adhere to international human rights norms in the next 12 months. Supplying non-lethal, humanitarian aid to opposition groups should be considered, the report says.

...The U.S. government should request a formal investigation into charges that Sudan is using chemical weapons and enacting genocide, the report says. If either charge is found to be true, international agreements mandate that the United States and other countries intervene, Goodrich said. Also, food and other aid should be shipped to those cut off by Khartoum, the commission
said.

...In China, persecution of Christians, Muslims, and others increased sharply in the past year, the report said. Thousands of followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement have been detained and some given lengthy prison sentences; some died in custody. Catholic and Protestant house churches have been closed and ministers and priests arrested; repression of Tibetan Buddhists has increased; and rural Muslims are threatened with displacement, the report says.

...Congress should deny Permanent Normal Trade Relations status to China until China improves religious freedom, the commission said. China should begin discussions with the U.S. government on religious freedom issues, ratify an agreement on civil and political rights, permit the commission and other human rights groups to visit religious leaders, including those in prison, and release all religious prisoners, the report said.

..."We tried to choose standards that are doable for China and that will improve the lives of religious followers," Goodrich said. "We are not interested in restricting trade or isolating China, but we can't ignore the abuses." The commissionrecommended that the U.S. government annually introduce a censure resolution in the United Nations against China until it improves religious freedoms, and that the president lead an international campaign to free jailed religious leaders.

...The situation in Russia is not as dire, but the decline of religious freedom may have regional ramifications, the commission said. A 1997 religion law restricts minority religious groups by requiring them to undergo an "onerous and intrusive registration process," the report says. Tens of thousands of groups missed a December 1999 registration deadline, which has been extended to December 2000. A presidential decree states that groups not registered by then will be liquidated.

...The U.S. government should urge President Vladimir Putin to rescind the decree, the report says. It should urge Russia's federal government to monitor local officials who are unlawfully discriminating against minority religions. Also, U.S. officials should press Russia to extend the length of visas for religious workers, the report said.

...The commission said it will expand its work to include other nations. It will advocate policies that promote the right of religious groups to evangelize and the freedom of believers of
one faith to choose to adopt a new one.

...Congress created the commission to advise the president and State Department. The International Religious Freedom Act also created an office of International Religious Freedom at the State Department and instructed it to issue a report on the state of religious liberty around the world on Sept. 1.

...The State Department's report last September deserves "high praise" for its impact in making religious freedom a higher priority for U.S. embassies and consulates, the commission said.

...The commission is composed of members of several faiths, human rights activists, and policy groups. Members are David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism; Michael Young, dean of the George Washington University Law School; Elliot Abrams, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a former U.S. assistant secretary of State; Laila Al-Marayati, past president of the Muslim Women's League; John Bolton, senior vice president of the American Enterprise Institute; and Firuz Kazemzadeh, chief spokesman on external affairs for the American Bahai community.

...Also, Theodore McCarrick, Roman Catholic archbishop of Newark, N.J.; Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House; and Charles Smith, supreme court justice for the state of Washington and former president of the American Baptist Churches. Former World Vision President Robert Seiple, special ambassador to the State Department on religious freedom, is an ex-officio member. Religious liberty advocate Steven McFarland is
executive director.

-----------
RELATED LINKS:
1: http://www.uscirf.gov/cgi-bin/homeBuilder.pl?scale=800

Religion Today, May 2, 2000

Back to last page