ERITREA ARRESTS, CONSCRIPTS MORE PROTESTANT …
COMPASS DIRECT
Global News from the Frontlines
May 16, 2003
Compass Direct is distributed monthly to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted or edited by active subscribers for use in other media, provided Compass Direct is acknowledged as the source of the material.
Copyright 2003 Compass Direct
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IN THIS ISSUE
BRAZIL
Evangelicals Tried for ‘Hate Crime’ Violation
Spiritist groups press lawsuit against beach evangelists.
CHINA
SARS Virus Causes Panic and Discontent
Christian ministries are restricted due to spreading epidemic.
Police Conspire With Cult
Evidence mounts that Lightning from the East arranged false arrests.
Officials Continue Campaign against Underground Christians
‘Jesus fever’ blamed for growth of unregistered churches.
COLOMBIA
Four Christians Murdered
Evangelicals call for armed groups to respect life.
Army Reports Increased Violence Against Christians
Church leaders say more military protection is not the solution.
ERITREA
More Protestant Christians Arrested, Conscripted***
Asmara government denies any religious persecution.
Protestants Arrested at Prayer Meeting***
Asmara police jail, punish 56 prisoners.
ETHIOPIA
Evangelicals Fully Exonerated***
Suspect policeman now awaiting trial in Maychew.
INDIA
Hindu Activists Humiliate Nuns, Vandalize Health Center
Government officials reportedly involved in harassment incidents.
Christian Leaders Challenge Anti-Conversion Legislation
Government commission concludes new law is unconstitutional.
Christians Face Insecurity in India’s Capital
Minority commission reveals erosion of religious rights.
INDONESIA
Government Delays Controversial Education Bill
Teachers and religious officials protest mandating religious instruction.
Christian Pastor Released After Almost Fours Years in Prison
Marthinus was jailed in a serious ‘miscarriage of justice.’
Muslim Radicals Harass Indonesian Churches
Legislation fuels tension between Muslim and Christian groups in West Java.
IVORY COAST
Ivory Coast Forges Unsteady Peace
Churches seasoned by war see opportunities for reconciliation.
LAOS
Official Persecution Threatens Church
Religious freedom abuses could affect plan to establish normal trade relations with U.S.
LEBANON
Jordanian Christian Killed in Attack
European missionary family targeted in Tripoli bombing.
MALAYSIA
Bible Ban Lifted
Other publications still under restriction.
NIGERIA
Pastor and Six Family Members Burned to Death
Christian leaders suspect Muslim fanatics of fatal arson attack.
Governor-Elect Promises Revolutionized Islamic Law
Muslim candidate pledges to protect Christian lives and property.
PAKISTAN
Christian Sentenced to Life in Prison
Faisalabad court finds Ranjha Masih ‘guilty’ of blasphemy.
SAUDI ARABIA
Two African Christians Jailed in Jeddah
Eritrean and Ethiopian are slated for deportation.
SUDAN
Sudan Jails Episcopal Priest Near Khartoum
Cleric refuses to demolish church building.
UAE
Court Gives Filipino Pastor Suspended Sentence
Dubai judge dismisses one-year jail term for Rev. Alconga.
***Indicates an article-related photo is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Brazilian Evangelicals Tried for ‘Hate Crime’ Violation
Spiritist Groups Press Lawsuit Against Beach Evangelists
by David Miller
MIAMI (Compass) -- A heated debate over freedom of religion in Brazil has gone to court. Legal representatives of Umbanda and Candomble spiritist groups are pressing a lawsuit against Baptist pastor Joaquim de Andrade, 41, and Aldo dos Santos Menezes, 33, a deacon of the Anglican Church, in connection with an annual evangelistic outreach on the beaches of Sao Paulo state.
Spiritists accuse the two men of violating Brazil’s “hate crime” law by distributing evangelistic tracts that, they say, disparage Iemanja, an African deity they worship as “Goddess of the Sea.” The plaintiffs also charge Andrade and Menezes with “inciting evangelicals to commit acts contrary to the liberty of religious belief,” in connection with their part in mobilizing Christians to share the gospel at a spiritist festival celebrated each December at a popular Iemanja shrine at Praia Grande.
At a hearing on April 16, Sao Paulo judge Osvaldo Palotti Jr. found Andrade and Menezes guilty of the charges and fined them each 1,000 reais (about $300). He warned the men that if they did not stop proselytizing spiritists at the festival, they would face stiffer consequences next time.
The hate crime statute, technically known as Federal Law number 9.459, declares it a crime to “practice, induce, or incite discrimination or prejudice against race, color, ethnicity, religion or national origin” and mandates one to three years in jail and a fine for offenders.
Following the hearing, Andrade and Menezes refused to pay the fine and filed a petition on April 28 to annul the decision.
“To sign this ‘agreement’ (to pay the fine) would be a victory for the Umbandistas who are trying to deny us our religious freedom,” Andrade said. “It would mean admitting guilt and giving the impression that Christians are somehow engaging in criminal activities by preaching and practicing their faith.”
Andrade has helped organize the outreach to spiritists, known as the “Coast for Christ Crusade,” since its inception in 1984. Participants attend training sessions to learn about spiritism and how to relate to the thousands of devotees who attend the annual Iemanja festival. The trainings are sponsored by AGIR, an evangelical research and outreach agency in Sao Paulo which Andrade co-directs.
Paul Carden, executive director of the U.S.-based Centers for Apologetics Research, took part in the coastal crusades while living in Brazil in the 1980s. “A lot of psychics and mediums sort of set up shop on the beaches, and people line up to get a psychic reading or receive some sort of mediumistic blessing,” he said.
“So some of our people would set up places to talk to spiritists about what was bothering them and counsel and pray for them. This, of course, is in a public place, on a municipal beach where the basic laws of free expression prevail.”
Friction between spiritists and evangelicals arose from an email message Andrade sent to a Christian electronic bulletin board in October 2001, announcing plans for that year’s outreach. Spiritists reacted to the notice with outrage, bombarding Andrade with email messages and phone calls warning him to call off the crusade. The Praia Grande sheriff’s department informed Andrade of a criminal complaint against him that could result in one to five years imprisonment.
The hostility surprised Andrade and his associates, but they went ahead with plans as in previous years. Immediately after the December 2001 festival, the Supreme Umbanda Entity of the State of Sao Paulo pressed charges against Andrade and Menezes, who authored a tract distributed at the Iemanja festival.
The leaflet carried an image of the goddess on the cover along with the title, “The Cult [or Worship*] of Iemanja.” Spiritists claim the tract’s assertion that Iemanja worship is based on legend represents a “prejudicial message” against their faith and is thus punishable by law.
“Our organization desires to stop prejudicial practices, since it does not believe that one’s beliefs should be imposed upon another based on the fallacious argument that his are better,” they argue.
Andrade counters that, unlike historical faiths such as Islam and Christianity, Afro-Brazilian Spiritism is based on folk legends. “They can believe them if they want to, but they must realize they are fairy tales,” he said. “To forbid saying that is what should be considered religious intolerance.”
Dr. Davi Teixeira, a law professor at the University of Sao Paulo, has filed a motion asserting judicial irregularities in the case. The appeal cites the absence of the district attorney during the hearing and the judge’s refusal to allow defendants to confer with their legal counsel, Dr. Cicero Duarte. Teixeira also contends that the plaintiffs’ case was not sufficient to prove a violation of the law.
However, the evangelical community recognizes that much larger legal issues are at stake in this landmark case.
“This is a precedent-setting case,” Carden said. “If Christians cannot freely share their faith with interested bystanders in a public place, without the potential of some punishment under the pretext of having committed a hate crime, then this profoundly alters the spiritual equation in that country, which until now has enjoyed wide-ranging religious freedoms.”
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*The term “culto” carries both meanings in Portuguese, Brazil’s national language.
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SARS Virus Causes Panic and Discontent in China
Christian Ministries Restricted Due to Spreading Epidemic
by Xu Mei
NANJING, China (Compass) -- China is a country under siege. Bars, cinemas and theaters are closed. Classrooms are empty, restaurants and business centers are deserted. Residents in major cities remain indoors, fearful of contracting the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus. Thousands of migrant workers, defying government orders, have left the city for the provinces, spreading the SARS virus even further.
From November 2002, when the first SARS cases were reported, to March 2003, the Chinese government denied the seriousness of the disease. Now China must cope with the grim results. On May 12, the total number of cases on the Mainland had soared to 5013 cases with 252 deaths* -- double the number of cases reported only two weeks before.
Most internal flights in China have now been grounded. Kazakstan recently closed its border with China. Russia has closed many border crossings and may seal the border completely. In one northern province still largely unaffected by the disease, local officials asked American Christians to leave the area. They felt foreign deaths would only add to unwanted media attention.
Hysteria and panic are sweeping through China as a result of the epidemic. A population long used to the propaganda of its rulers is uncertain what to believe, even though Chinese authorities have worked hard to counter the virus.
On April 27,more than 10,000 people rioted in the rural town of Chagugang, two hours east of Beijing. They ransacked a local school after word spread that it would be used as a hospital for SARS patients. Outbreaks of violence have also occurred in the central province of Henan, where some peasants have already been infected by AIDS, and in the eastern province of Zhejiang. Thousands of peasants reportedly destroyed buildings set aside as quarantine centers, built roadblocks to prevent ambulances getting through and beat up police.
Emergency measures have ranged from issuing thermometers to sterilizing banknotes.
Beijing’s sudden determination to take SARS seriously may be a reaction to cases reported among top government officials. Premier Wen Jiabao told the world on April 29 that China now realizes SARS will be a “long-term and complex epidemic.” Some commentators are comparing the effects of SARS in China to those of the Chernobyl disaster in the Soviet Union.
Meanwhile, Christian organizations working in China are reeling from the impact of the virus. Some have withdrawn their workers, while many others are canceling summer programs. One large mission has advised against visits to China until the end of June, when the situation will be reviewed.
Foreigners working in remote areas were initially advised to “sit tight,” as traveling on buses and trains would expose them to the virus. However, the risk is now much greater as the virus has spread to rural areas.
In this climate of fear, Christians in China have found new opportunities to share their faith. They report a growing responsiveness to the gospel as neighbors and friends seek counsel and prayer.
U.N. health official Gro Harlem Brundtland says the epidemic in China is far from over and much wisdom will be needed in the coming months.
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Source: The World Health Organization.
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Chinese Police Conspire With Cult
Evidence Mounts that Lightning from the East Arranged False Arrests
by Xu Mei
NANJING, China (Compass) -- Lightning from the East is China’s most dangerous secret cult. It targets house churches, infiltrates them and tries to destroy them. Christian leaders have suffered blackmail, kidnapping, beatings and physical injury as a result of this activity.
In April of last year, Lightning from the East pulled off its most spectacular coup by simultaneously kidnapping 34 leaders of the South China Church, one of the country’s most evangelical house church movements.
At the time, sympathetic observers both in China and overseas speculated whether such a massive operation could succeed without at least some collusion on the part of local authorities and police.
The central government in Beijing has ordered a crackdown on the cult and expressed sympathy to members of the South China Church, who went to Beijing in desperation for help. Eventually, the captors released all the abducted leaders.
At the local level, however, police are notoriously corrupt. They often succumb to the temptation to make deals with the criminal underworld, of which this cult is a part.
Evidence has now emerged from northern China of this type of collusion. Sister Wang has long been an effective house church leader in Inner Mongolia. However, in recent years there has been a strong incursion of Lightning from the East cultists; they have taken over many of the house churches in her neighborhood.
In April, Wang reported that members of the cult approached the local Public Security Bureau and gave the police a bribe to arrest her. They concocted a false charge as an excuse -- alleging she had written “anti-Party propaganda” -- and threatened Wang with an eight-to-ten-year prison sentence.
Fearing for her safety and even for her life, Sister Wang fled to another part of China, far removed from her hometown. In her latest communication with the international Christian community, she asked for prayer.
To be labeled a cultist in China is a serious matter that leads to arrest and imprisonment. Ironically, cultists themselves are able to take advantage of endemic corruption to target Christians, who are most opposed to cults.
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Chinese Officials Continue Campaign Against Underground Christians
Officials Blame ‘Jesus Fever’ for Growth of Unregistered Churches
by Sarah Page
BANGKOK (Compass) -- The spread of the SARS virus has not distracted Chinese officials from their campaign against unregistered churches. At least 52 key house church leaders have been arrested in recent months. Police also arrested and fined hundreds of “ordinary” Christians in the first four months of 2003.
The growth of the underground church, attributed in some official documents to “Jesus fever,” has enraged Chinese authorities. During the National People’s Congress in March 2003, officials agreed to continue the “Strike Hard” campaign against all unauthorized groups. These include “separatists, terrorists and cult organizations.” Unregistered churches are included in the list of “illegal cults.”
China’s constitution requires all churches to register with the government. However, strict limitations are placed on official churches and many Christians prefer to go underground and practice their faith without compromise.
On March 25, police raided a house church meeting in Nanyang county in southern Henan province. At least 20 people were arrested, including a Dutch citizen. Local Christians were released after questioning; however, they were also fingerprinted and fined.
On April 2, senior house church leader Elder Chan was arrested in Anhui province. Officers of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) followed Chan’s son, 17, as he went to meet his father and arrested both of them. The son was released three days later, but Elder Chan remains in detention.
As one of the “most wanted” house church leaders in China, Chan has evaded capture for the past four years. For months he has moved from house to house, meeting with his family only on rare occasions. His situation is precarious. Gong Shengliang, a house church leader arrested in December 2001, received the death sentence, although it hasn’t been carried out. Chan could easily share the same fate.
On April 4, police arrested 120 Christians at a meeting in Pingdingshan. This was just one of four mass arrests in Henan province in recent months. However, the April 4 arrest was significant because it involved several key house church leaders.
Ordinary Christians are usually questioned, beaten, fined and released. Local PSB officers can sentence them to three years of “re-education” without trial, but in practice this rarely happens. The main targets of the raids are leaders of the house church movement.
Twenty of those arrested on April 4 were released within a few days. The remainder regained their freedom by the end of April, largely through the mediation of a Chinese-American arrested with the group who used his influence to gain the prisoners’ release.
One of the leaders arrested and later released was Wang Xincai. Xincai was first arrested in 1983 and sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement with a house church movement. He was released in 1994, but arrested again in 1997, leading to a further three-year incarceration in a labor camp.
Xincai, arrested on April 4 and released on April 23, has spent 16 of the last 20 years in prison for his faith.
Another series of arrests took place in Sichuan province during the third week ofduring the third week of April. A Christian from the group arrested in Henan on March 25 had traveled to Sichuan to meet with Christians there. He may have been identified while traveling and followed by the PSB, leading to the further series of arrests in Sichuan. Road blocks and identity checks are now common in China because of the SARS epidemic. These checks make it very difficult for known house church Christians to travel without attracting attention.
Article 36 of China’s Constitution declares, “No state organ, public organ, or individual may ... discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion.” A white paper issued by the Chinese government in October 1997 reiterates, “In China, no one is to be punished due to religious belief.”
As recent events have shown, the reality is quite different for millions of house church Christians in China.
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Four Christians Murdered in Colombia
Evangelicals Call for Armed Groups to Respect Life
by Deann Alford
AUSTIN, Texas (Compass) -- Twenty-five armed men entered a rural church in northern Colombia Tuesday night, May 6, and murdered its 80-year-old evangelical pastor and three other believers, confirmed the head of the nation’s evangelical alliance.
Among the dead is Miguel Mariano Posada, pastor of Sardis, a church in the Association of Caribbean Evangelical Churches denomination. The murders took place in his church, located in the town of Tierralta in Cordoba department, near Panama. The other victims were teacher and church treasurer Ana Berenice Girardo Velásquez; 80-year-old Natividad Blandón, the wife of another pastor; and 17-year-old Julio Torres, who was visiting the church.
Hector Pardo, head of the Colombian evangelical alliance CEDECOL, told Compass that he had not been able to confirm details of the murders or a motive for them.
The Cali newspaper El Pais reported that armed men called the victims by name and attacked them in the doorway of the church in front of other parishioners. El Pais, citing police sources, said that the men slashed Posada’s and Girardo Velásquez’s throats with a knife and shot Blandón and Torres with rifles, then fled into a wooded area.
No group has claimed responsibility, reported El Pais, but Pardo said that neither the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), nor the National Liberation Army (ELN), have had a presence in the area. Paramilitaries are believed to be responsible.
CEDECOL issued a statement calling for armed groups to respect life, expressing its concern for the recent turn of events, and reaffirming the evangelicals’ rejection of armed force against any human being as an expression of the search for justice and equality.
“[CEDECOL] asks Colombians to respond by seeking God, His wisdom and direction, while holding a firm hope in a peaceful solution to the wave of violence that is shaking the country,” the statement read.
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Colombian Army Reports Increased Violence Against Christians
Church Leaders Say More Military Protection is not the Solution
by Deann Alford
AUSTIN, Texas (Compass) -- According to a report by the national army, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) poses the most serious threat to Christians in the South American nation of 38 million. Military leaders say FARC has stepped up its attacks against the clergy in the past two years.
Despite the findings, both Roman Catholic and Protestant evangelical church leaders in Colombia say that more security from the police or army would likely place them in even greater danger. Instead, Christians are asking their government for a peace accord with the rebels to end the conflict.
Hector Pardo, president of the Evangelical Council of Colombia (CEDECOL), said that increasing troop presence in churches would likely make them even bigger targets. “We don't believe that this would solve the problem for us. All citizens should be protected,” Pardo said.
Monsignor Fabian Marulanda agrees. “More than protecting us, it would put us somewhat under scrutiny,” said Marulanda, who is general secretary of the Roman Catholic Episcopal Conference in Bogotá. He said that the church should not have special privileges, but rather run the same risks as others.
When a bishop is threatened, Marulanda said, the church does allow the state to provide discreet security measures.
The April 16 army report said that violence from armed groups has killed 56 Catholic clergy and religious leaders in the past 19 years. Of those murders, 14 occurred in the last four years, including 11 by the FARC, two by the National Liberation Army (ELN) and one by right-wing paramilitary groups.
Additionally, the report says, these groups have killed 39 Protestant pastors since 1984. That figure is almost certainly low due to the difficulty of tracking crime statistics in Colombia, which suffers the highest homicide rate in the Americas. Pardo told Compass that around 30 evangelical ministers were killed in 2002 alone.
Is violence against Christians on the rise?
“We believe it is,” said Major José Espejo, director of the Colombian army’s press office. He thinks it is because the church rejects violence and has spoken out against murders, extortion, kidnappings and attacks on communities carried out by the armed groups and their involvement in drug trafficking.
“They have a policy of remaining neutral in the conflict,” Espejo said about evangelical Christians.
He said that persecution of evangelicals is high in the Switzerland-sized area designated a demilitarized zone for five years. Former President Andres Pastrana ceded the zone to the FARC in order to coax its leaders to peace talks.
In February 2002, peace talks broke down, and Pastrana ordered the army to re-occupy the demilitarized zone, sparking renewed violence against the civilian population. Guerrillas feared the peasant farmers they sought to control would join the church and refuse to support them, Espejo said.
A FARC attack on a Good Friday procession in Dolores, a town 125 miles south of Bogota, underscored the findings of the report, which the army released during Holy Week. A soldier and two civilians, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed when some 15 assailants fired into the crowd. The attack came as President Alvaro Uribe announced he would deploy 160,000 troops across the country to assure safety for travelers during the holiday.
The rise in anti-church violence comes amid a general increase in guerrilla activity, which has affected not only the church but other institutions of society.
“The church is practically the only institution with a presence all over the country, especially in the zones of greatest conflict,” Marulanda said. He added that other sectors of society such as journalists and government leaders, “have paid their quota of deaths in this war.”
Pardo said that evangelicals are often targeted “for philosophical reasons.” He said that guerrilla groups tend to view religion as a problem and disagree with the evangelical stance on peace. Paramilitary groups, on the other hand, have killed people they believed were allied with guerrillas.
Marulanda does not think that the failure of the peace process has caused the rise in rebel violence. He believes the violence has occurred because Uribe’s government has aggressively gone after armed groups, which have responded with more terrorist tactics.
“It could be a political tactic they’re using to make it known they’re alive,” Marulanda said.
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Eritrea Arrests, Conscripts More Protestant Christians
Asmara Government Denies Any Religious Persecution
Special to Compass Direct
LOS ANGELES (Compass) -- More arrests along with forced conscriptions targeting Eritrea’s independent Protestant Christians have been reported during the last two weeks of April, despite a blanket denial by Asmara officials on May 1 that any religious persecution exists in the East African nation.
In an incident in the capital city over Orthodox Easter weekend, two members of the government-recognized Evangelical Lutheran Church were arrested and held in detention for three days.
Following a tradition long observed on the eve of Easter by Eritrea’s Lutheran Christians, a group of young church members took a guitar onto the streets of central Asmara on Saturday night, April 26, to sing hymns about Christ’s resurrection.
But as they passed a local bar about 11:30 p.m., they were confronted by an irate security officer who came out of the bar. The policeman reportedly told the singers that such activities were not allowed for members of “closed” churches. When he learned they were in fact members of the legal Lutheran Church, the officer accused the group of “misusing” the freedoms granted to their church.
Most of the group fled, but two young men who stood their ground were arrested by the policeman and taken to the city’s No. 2 Police Station. The two Lutherans were not charged with any crime, and no reason was given for their detention. Both 26 years old, the men were held until the afternoon of April 29, when they were released with a “serious warning” to not repeat this Easter tradition again.
Taking a more severe tactic, military police invaded work places and private homes to arrest 56 members of independent Pentecostal churches in the northern-most province of Sahel. The military swoop, which occurred during normal working hours on April 29, was justified as “conscription for military service.”
But according to fellow church members of the forced conscripts, most of the 16 women and 40 men picked up had already completed their mandatory military service. Many of those conscripted were teachers, nurses and professionals. They have not been seen since.
The conscriptions targeted 20 members of the Full Gospel Church and 36 from the Kale Hiwot Church living in Nakfa and Afabet, small towns made famous by historic battles during the Eritrean war of resistance.
Although security police told relatives that the conscripts had been taken to the Sawa Military Training Center, family members have so far been unable to confirm their whereabouts.
“The fact that all of them are known as Protestant believers is very alarming,” a local source said. “We are very concerned about their safety.”
Another 77 Eritrean soldiers have been incarcerated in the Assab military prison for more than a year, subjected to severe beatings, threats and abuse for refusing to deny their Pentecostal beliefs and return to the Orthodox Church. Fifteen of them are women, and 16 are married men with families. All have been refused any contact with relatives or friends. In April there were unconfirmed reports that another three Protestant soldiers had been arrested and sent to the Assab prison.
Eritrea’s 12 independent Pentecostal and charismatic churches representing about 20,000 believers have been targeted in a harsh government crackdown over the past three months. A total of 254 of their members have been jailed, beaten and threatened since the security police attacks began in early February.
The Asmara government has refused since last May to grant official status to any group apart from the four “recognized” religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran. All other congregations were ordered to stop meeting for worship and close their buildings.
But in a statement issued May 1 to outline what it called the “basic facts” of religious freedom in Eritrea, the Asmara government declared, “No groups or persons are persecuted in Eritrea for their beliefs or religion.”
Insisting that “all religions are equal, and no religion is more equal than others,” the statement added, “People are free to worship according to their wish, or to refrain from worshipping or practicing religion.”
According to separate sources, 160 members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a religious sect which declines to be labeled Christian, were arrested in Asmara on April 16. Some 120 of the detainees, including pregnant women and children, were kept under arrest for two days and then released. Most of the remaining 40 have since been released, except for “a handful of elders” still believed to be under arrest.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have been subjected to especially harsh treatment in Eritrea because of their conscientious objector stance toward military service.
According to the U.S. State Department’s latest report on human rights in Eritrea, “Arbitrary arrests and detentions continued to be problems,” with unknown numbers of people jailed without charges and some being held incommunicado.
***A photo of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Asmara is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Eritrean Protestants Arrested at Prayer Meeting
Asmara Police Jail, Punish 56 Prisoners
Special to Compass Direct
LOS ANGELES (Compass) -- Eritrean security police arrested two full-time evangelists and another 54 members of the Rema Church on the night of May 7 in Asmara, hauling them off to a local police station for holding “illegal prayer meetings” in two homes of their members.
The prayer meetings were in progress in the capital’s Kahawta district when security forces raided the homes about 6 p.m., forcing the Protestant believers to stop their worship.
The jailed Christians, 21 women and 35 men, remained under detention on May 8 at the No. 7 Police Station in Kahawta, where local sources said they were undergoing “severe punishment” at the hands of police authorities.
Since mid February, Eritrea’s local police have subjected more than 300 independent Protestants to heavy beatings, humiliation and death threats to punish them for holding religious meetings without government permission. Most of the banned churches are newly formed Pentecostal and charismatic groups emerging out of local renewal movements begun within the Orthodox Church, although the list includes the long-established Seventh-day Adventist and Presbyterian Evangelical churches.
Since last May, the Eritrean government has revoked official status for all religious groups in the country except the four “recognized” religions: Orthodox Christian, Muslim, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran.
The charismatic Rema Church has formed member congregations in cities and towns across the country. They have been harassed repeatedly in recent months. Rema Church and 11 other independent Protestant denominations have been refused official status for more than a year by the Eritrean government.
Fifty of the Asmara church members arrested during a New Year’s celebration on January 1 were jailed for 10 days. Further incidents were reported in February of the detention and mistreatment of Rema Church members in Adi-Quala and again in Asmara’s Setanta Otoo district in March.
CHUCH LEADERS BRACED FOR ARREST
Nine days after 56 other Protestant church members in towns of northern Eritrea were allegedly conscripted for military service, their church leaders in Asmara were reportedly braced for possible arrest as well
A total of 36 Kale Hiwot Church members and 20 from the Full Gospel Church were taken from their homes or workplaces on April 29 by military police, who claimed they were taking the Christians to the Sawa Military Training Center. As the men and women were led away, their captors taunted them in front of their families and colleagues, declaring that their church’s elders were “next” to be apprehended.
“Their whereabouts is still unknown,” a church representative said, “and their imprisonment has created fear among their respective church leaders.”
Meanwhile, at least 77 Eritrean soldiers, 15 of them women, remain jailed in a military prison in Assab for refusing to deny their Pentecostal beliefs and return to the dominant Orthodox Church. Most have been incarcerated for more than a year, and all are being denied contact with relatives or friends.
At the Assab military prison, the Protestant men and women have been put in 44-gallon drums and then rolled in front of their fellow prisoners to torture them. Some are partially paralyzed from these and other assaults, and others suffer severe eye defects and mental imbalance. Among the women, several have been sexually abused by the prison staff.
The government of President Isayas Afewerki formally denied during the first week of May that any religious persecution exists in Eritrea.
According to a Freedom House report in April listing Eritrea as one of the world’s “most repressive regimes,” the Afewerki regime has “taken significant steps backward” and maintained “a hostile attitude towards civil society” this past year. The report said the Eritrean government’s policy in the human rights arena appeared to have been forged by years of struggle against outside occupiers, together with an “austere attachment to Marxist principles.”
***A photo of an Eritrean Orthodox Church is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Ethiopian Evangelicals Fully Exonerated
Suspect Policeman Now Awaiting Trial in Maychew
by Barbara G. Baker
MAYCHEW, Ethiopia (Compass) -- Two evangelical church elders jailed for 10 months as murder suspects in northern Ethiopia have been fully exonerated by the judge’s written court ruling.
In a decision issued in Maychew on behalf of the Bureau of Justice for Tigray province, Judge Abraha Mengistu stated that the police investigations mounted against Kiros Meles and Abebayeh Desalegn did not constitute a “real case.”
“This is a false accusation,” the judge noted in the March 5 ruling, which ordered the immediate release of the two school teachers, both active in Pentecostal churches in Maychew.
Although no evidence was produced against the two evangelicals and they were never formally charged, the judge admitted in court six months after their arrest that “the High Court is forcing me” to extend the police investigation.
But now that a formal court decision has exonerated Meles and Desalegn, the authorities must bring to trial the local policeman who is the sole suspect in the tragedy.
Police officer Johannes Kiros is believed to have fired the fatal shot that killed a young Orthodox boy on April 14 last year, during two days of violent rioting led by Orthodox church extremists in Maychew against the town’s five evangelical churches.
The bullet that killed young Haile, 14, was apparently fired into the air from a gun owned by the local chief of police. Although Kiros was off-duty, the police chief later admitted he had loaned his gun to Kiros at the outset of the rampage.
The day after Haile’s death, Meles was arrested from his home by local police, who assured the history teacher’s wife that they were taking him away temporarily for “his own safety.”
“I believed them at first,” Abeba said, “because in our culture it is common for the parents to want to take ‘blood revenge’ for such a killing.” But several weeks later, her husband was still under custody, and then another Pentecostal elder was arrested.
Desalegn told Compass that he was collecting books from his high school biology students on May 2 when a policeman entered the classroom and ordered him to come along to the police station with him. Unsuspecting, Desalegn was taken off, only to be accused as another suspect in the murder. The police officer who arrested him was Kiros himself.
It was not until May 23, a month after the boy’s death, that Kiros was finally taken into custody as a suspect in the murder. And only four months later did the local police transfer Kiros from nominal police-station detention to the local prison. Although he was jailed in a separate cell block, Kiros reportedly complained to prison administrators several times that the two evangelicals were “preaching their religion” inside the prison.
Meles and Desalegn confirmed that they did talk about their faith with a number of their cellmates, including Muslims as well as Orthodox men. “They asked us, and wanted to read the Bible too, so we witnessed to them,” Desalegn said.
Pending a ruling on the two Pentecostal leaders, judicial hearings on Kiros’ role in the murder were left on hold. But now, the policeman will face trial as the only suspect. If convicted of the boy’s death, Kiros is expected to receive a minimum seven-year prison sentence for manslaughter
In his mid 30s and married, Kiros is still drawing his policeman’s salary for the support of his family, a year after his arrest. By contrast, local education ministry officials cut off the salaries of Meles and Desalegn during their entire 10 months in prison, leaving their families destitute.
Happily, the two teachers told Compass in April, the schools where they had been employed reinstated them in their same staff positions after their release. They said they were welcomed by fellow teachers and their pupils greeted them “joyfully,” even bringing them presents.
“Many of our Orthodox neighbors came and visited us, giving us gifts of sugar and coffee,” Desalegn said. “They told us they knew that we were innocent, and they were glad we had been released.”
However, local education ministry officials have yet to pay the men their 10 months of back salary, and some reportedly want to fire them from their positions.
“Our one fear in prison was that we would be sentenced because of the false witnesses against us,” the two men admitted. “But God saved us, and everyone knows that. We are not worn out from the insults and the months in prison -- we are renewed. Now we want to see a harvest of new believers in Maychew.”
Although half of Ethiopia’s population belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Protestant community of mostly Pentecostal congregations has mushroomed to an estimated 12 million over the past decade. Extremist Orthodox elements have denounced these churches as “cults,” launching verbal and physical attacks against them.
***Photos of Meles and Desalegn reunited with their families in Maychew are available upon request. Please contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Hindu Activists Humiliate Nuns, Vandalize Health Center in India
Government Officials Reportedly Involved in Harassment Incidents
by Abhijeet Prabhu
BANGALORE (Compass) -- On April 10, political leaders backed by Hindu nationalists staged a humiliating attack against Catholic nuns operating a secondary school in a Bombay suburb, provoking outrage among Christians in the metropolitan area.
The same day, the leader of the assailants, Mrs. Sujata Ghag, declared on a local television broadcast that the attack was pre-planned and intended to send a clear signal to other Christian schools in the area.
The incident began the day before, when a Member of the Legislative Council, Mr. Jitendra Ahwad, forced his way into the Holy Cross Convent High School in Thane, operated by the Sisters of the Cross of Chavenod.
Ahwad began aggressively interrogating Sister Philomena D’Souza, Junior Headmistress of Holy Cross, about the school’s admission policies. When told that the school adhered to guidelines laid down by the government and that a panel determined what candidates were admitted, Ahwad demanded to know the names of the panel members.
D’Souza says she flatly refused to divulge the names. Ahwad then threatened her, saying, “When there is an attack, you will come to us for help. I’ll show you my strength.” Then the local politician abruptly walked out.
The next day, a group of 15 women from the same political party as Ahwad forced their way into the school’s head office. Saying that they had come to seek admission, they demanded to meet with the Senior Headmistress. Sister Veronica Fernandes told the group, headed by Mrs. Ghag, that the principal was not available.
In the discussion that followed, the intruders used increasingly abusive language and insisted that Fernandes give them the names of the all nuns at the school. When the nun turned to answer a phone call, the women attacked her, smearing her face and body with black paint. They fled when a police constable approached the office.
Before leaving, one of them remarked that this incident would teach Christian schools a lesson. According to the school watchman, the women quickly left the area in hired transport.
Thane police reportedly arrested Mrs. Ghag later in connection with the incident, but then freed her.
In Indian culture, smearing a person with black paint represents the highest degree of humiliation. The Bombay Catholic Sabha (BCS) said later in a public statement that such humiliation is multiplied when heaped upon a person who has been consecrated to God.
“The culprit was arrested immediately. On the other hand, what is evident was the considerable political pressure on the police not to pursue this case to its logical end,” said BCS spokesperson Dolphy D’Souza.
Sources from the Archdiocesan Board of Education say that Hindu fundamentalists regularly target Christian schools in Bombay. On the other hand, the fundamentalists themselves want their children admitted to the schools, due to the high quality of education there.
The Cardinal Archbishop of Bombay, Ivan Dias, informed Maharashtra governor Mohammed Fazal about the incident and urged state officials to respond to the breach of law and order.
In a separate incident, Hindu extremists in the state of Gujarat, apparently emboldened by a new “anti-conversion” bill, vandalized a building at a Christian health care center near Limdi on April 10. The building, which had collapsed in an earthquake two years ago, had been rebuilt with money donated by the All India Christian Council, and was scheduled to be dedicated the next day by former state minister Kirtisinh Rana.
Vandals pulled down boards displaying the names of the donors, destroyed the stage erected for the inaugural ceremony and painted graffiti on the door of the building in red paint. “Jai Shree Ram (Praise be to god Ram). Only those who speak of Hindu interests can rule this country,” it read.
The following day, notice boards sprung up at various intersections in Limdi announcing that Hindu youth had taught Christians a lesson. The notices reprimanded the municipal government for cooperating with Christian donors to repair the building. “Most of these organizations work to divide the country,” said the notices.
Organizers, fearing for the safety of attendees, cancelled the inaugural function.
Sources said that Hindu groups see the health center as a Christian evangelistic tool. They are also angry, sources said, because no leader of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayansevak Sangh (RSS) or Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) received an invitation to the function.
Christian institutions in India are confronting a growing wave of harassment from Hindu activists. The Carmel Convent School in the Saurashtra district of Gujarat endured a week of vandalism and hostile protests last month, reportedly carried out by Bharatiya Janata Party activists. In Panvel, Maharashtra, police arrested and threatened 10 members of a Youth with a Mission evangelistic team supposedly because they had not registered with state officials. Panvel police have also accused workers from the Social and Evangelical Association of paying people money to induce them to change their religion.
Finally, 30 unidentified people wielding sticks stormed the Kachhuwa Christian Hospital near Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, on May 8, disrupting a training session for hospital workers. The mob accused the hospital of converting people and threatened to close down the facility. Hospital administrators denied any involvement in conversion activity.
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Christian Leaders in India Challenge Anti-Conversion Legislation
Government Commission Concludes New Law is Unconstitutional
by Abhijeet Prabhu
BANGALORE (Compass) -- Christians in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat are gearing up to challenge the constitutionality of “anti-conversion” bills recently implemented in their respective states, after the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) demanded that a controversial clause be struck from the Gujarat law.
The move follows a high-level inquiry commissioned by the government of Maharashtra state after members of the State Legislative Council alleged that poor and uneducated Hindus were being converted to Christianity by force and fraud. Investigators found no occurrences of missionaries converting people through coercion or financial inducements.
“The inquiry did not find a single case of conversion by force or by offering money in the last few years,” state minister Rajendra Darda declared before the legislature on April 5.
One legislator demanded that the inquiry continue, alleging instances of “several missionary schools where non-Christian school children are forced to attend church on Sundays.”
“I have been informed about a school in Nandurbar where a teacher was removed from service because she organized a Holi (Hindu festival) dance in her class,” said assembly woman Sanjeevani Raikar. “There are instances of forced conversions, but nobody is coming forward to report them.”
Ms. Raikar was unable to provide evidence of the incidents in question to the Legislative Assembly in Maharashtra, a state containing nearly all the major Hindu extremist groups.
Meanwhile, the NCM has asked the Gujarat state government to delete a clause from the recently enacted Freedom of Religion Bill 2003 that requires a district magistrate’s permission for conducting a conversion ceremony. The NCM said the provision was “against the fundamental rights of individuals.”
Clause 5(1) of the law states that “whoever converts any person from one religion to another, either by performing any ceremony by himself for such conversion as a religious priest or takes part directly or indirectly in such ceremony, shall take prior permission for such proposed conversion from the district magistrate concerned by applying in such form as may be prescribed by rules.”
The Commission decided to make the recommendation after meeting on April 4 to discuss complaints about the bill from various minority groups. The Commission concluded that Clause 5(1) violates Article 25 of the Constitution of India, which guarantees “freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion.”
Sources say that the clause also puts pastors, evangelists and priests in danger because they are required to personally declare conversions to district administrators. Once that is done, the NCM said, the clergyman’s name appears in police files, subjecting the minister to possible harassment and intimidation.
Following the meeting, NCM chairman Tarlochan Singh sent a letter to Gujarat governor S.S. Bhandari and chief minister Narendra Modi recommending the deletion of Clause 5(1) from the Gujarat bill.
Catholic and Protestant bishops in Gujarat have also challenged the conversion bill. In a memorandum to the governor, a delegation of bishops stated, “The legislation was totally unwarranted as there had not been any case of conversion by force, allurement or any fraudulent means that had been reported. Much less was there any priest or minister convicted on these counts, which has always been possible under the existing criminal and penal codes of law.”
The bishops also pointed out that the law discriminates against women, members of scheduled castes and tribal communities, because the unlawful conversion of these persons exacts longer prison terms (up to four years) and stiffer fines (up to 100,000 rupees, equivalent to $2,120), than for other individuals.
“The bill presupposes that members of these groups cannot make an enlightened decision about their personal faith,” the NCM said.
“The struggle of the minorities against the anti-conversion law will not end until it is withdrawn,” said Archbishop M. Arokiasamy of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. Arokiasamy said that he hoped minorities would use the ballot to bring down the present government in Tamil Nadu and repeal the bill.
Christians are not the only voices opposing anti-conversion legislation. When the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced it would introduce similar laws if elected to power in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, Sitaram Yechuri, chief of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, said that his party would oppose any such move.
“The BJP is trying to divert the attention of the electorate of Himachal Pradesh by talking about an anti-conversion bill,” Yechuri said.
Meanwhile, a prominent BJP national leader has thrown his support behind the drive for anti-conversion laws. On April 21, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani declared that “religious conversion ... is not in the spirit of true religion and long-term interests of the nation.”
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Christians Face Insecurity in India’s Capital
Minority Commission Reveals Erosion of Religious Rights
by Bosco Celestine
DELHI (Compass) -- Delhi, the capital of India, is home to people who come from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Religious minorities account for 16.5 percent of the 12.5 million population. Ten percent of Delhi’s residents are Muslim, five percent are Sikh and one percent are Christian.
Among the minorities, Christians were regarded as peace-loving and service oriented for decades. Not anymore.
Since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government took charge four years ago, a campaiagn of hate and misinformation has targeted Christians, says the Delhi Minorities Commission in its latest report. The three-man commission notes with regret that until three years ago, the Christian community thought of itself as an integral part of the country, not as a minority group.
“Unfortunate developments in recent times have tended to breed a minority complex in the community. This is unfortunate both for the community and for the society. The Commission must take this into account in evolving awareness building programs,” the report says.
The Christian community is facing difficulties completing service-oriented projects because of space limitations, the report noted. Applications for land allotment take a long time to be processed. Even when allotment does come, the land provided is woefully “inadequate for building places of worship.” Christian cemeteries, likewise, are over crowded, with little space available for new graves.
According to the report, Christian educational institutions are facing problems in regard to the full scope of freedoms guaranteed in Article 30(1) of the consititution. Instances of harassment have been reported by several Christian school administrators who wish to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. The harassment has interfered with their “right to administer” guaranteed in the constitution.
A recent Supreme Court judgment maintained that all educational institutions, minorities included, should enjoy unhindered operation. Allowing government interference in the internal affairs of private bodies would permit a party in power to prescribe operating policy, especially because a committed public bureaucracy serves the interests of the government. Institutional freedom would be seriously curtailed, the ruling said.
Well-known Supreme Court advocate B. Bhattachary points out that Christian institutions like St. Stephens College and St. Xaviers Schools have maintained academic excellence primarily because of the considerable degree of autonomy they enjoy. Government intrusion, he says, is not conducive either to efficiency or academic excellence.
Christians operate 17,000 schools and colleges in India, in addition to hospitals, old-age homes and other institutions.
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Indonesia Delays Controversial Education Bill
Teachers and Religious Officials Protest Mandating Religious Instruction
by Sarah Page
JAKARTA (Compass) -- Endorsement of Indonesia’s controversial new education bill was postponed on May 1. Politicians had hoped to endorse the bill on May 2 to mark celebrations of National Education Day. However protests from teachers and religious officials around the country have delayed the bill from passing into law.
Legislators drafted the new National Education System Bill to replace an older version written in 1989. Changes in the bill were thought necessary to reflect changes in the political and social climate of Indonesia.
However, the bill has raised a storm of controversy, particularly Article 13 which deals with religious education.
Under the article, all schools must provide religious education for every student. For example, a Christian school with 10 or more Muslim students must provide Islamic worship facilities and two hours of Islamic education per week for Muslim students. The same applies to Muslim or Hindu schools with 10 or more Christian students. However, only teachers qualified in the respective faith are permitted to teach these classes.
Many Christians believe the bill is a reaction against the large number of Muslim children attending Christian schools. Catholic and Protestant schools generally provide a higher standard of education than state schools, and as many as 65 percent of their students are Muslims.
Under the present system, Catholic schools require all students, including non-Catholics, to attend catechism classes. However, private Islamic schools also make it compulsory for non-Muslim students to attend Islamic lessons.
A key member of the Christian community, who asked not to be named, says the bill does not make sense. “If you want noodles, you go to a noodle shop. If you want steak, you go to a steak house. So why should Muslim parents, who voluntarily send their children to Christian schools, expect Muslim education at these schools?”
Issues such as these prompted religious leaders and teachers to call for a delay of the planned endorsement on May 2.
Christian teachers and parents have rallied under the banner of “Concerned People for National Education.” They held a press conference in early March with little response from the national media. On March 18, almost 3,000 Catholics and Protestants held a joint protest march through the streets of Jakarta.
Dozens of senior high school students staged a rally in Semarang, Central Java, on April 24. These students, from Muslim organizations such as the Indonesian Muslim Students Association and the Association of Nahdlatul Ulama Sons, clearly gave support to the bill.
The Central Java Friendship Forum of Muslims (FSUI) also voiced their support for the bill. “We support the bill, both the House and the National Education Ministry versions, especially Chapter V, Article 13 (1) on students,” said FSUI Chairman Sri Haryanto. Sri urged the House of Representatives to endorse the bill no later than May 2.
However, former President Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid called on the government to review, or drop, the controversial legislation. He feels the new bill will spark opposition between Muslim and non-Muslim groups.
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Indonesian Pastor Released After Almost Fours Years in Prison
Marthinus was Jailed in a Serious ‘Miscarriage of Justice’
Special to Compass Direct
JAKARTA (Compass) -- An Indonesian pastor jailed in July 1999 for allegedly proselytizing a Muslim girl was released from prison on April 22, Open Doors reported the next day.
Local sources in Padang, West Sumatra, said Rev. Robert Marthinus was released at 9:50 a.m. local time after serving more than three years and nine months for what Indonesian Christians consider a serious “miscarriage of justice.” Marthinus was jailed along with five other Christians for complicity in the alleged abduction of a teenage Muslim girl who they said came to them for help.
“This has come as a nice surprise to most of us, as originally he was supposed to only be released sometime in the end of next month,” Martinus Medi, a local Baptist pastor, told Open Doors. “He had been released earlier than the sentence due to government remissions and good behavior.”
Marthinus, the pastor of Kalam Kudus (Holy Word of God) Church and the headmaster of Kalam Kudus Christian School; Mr. Salmon Ongirwalu, a leader in the GPIB Protestant Church; and Rev. Yanawardi Koto, chairman of the West Sumatran Christian Fellowship, were arrested and jailed for their role in helping a young Muslim girl who came to them in March 1998 claiming she was rejected by her Muslim family after becoming a Christian.
In the summer of 1999, with a crowd of Muslims protesting outside the courtroom, Marthinus was given a six-year sentence. Ongirwalu was sentenced to 10 years in prison and Koto was given seven years. In addition, the wives of Ongirwalu and Marthinus, and a church secretary, Ms. Jenny Mendrofa, were each given six-year sentences for complicity, though none of the women were asked to serve their sentences.
The three men appealed to the Indonesian Supreme Court. But in early 2001, the court refused to hear the case, despite the lack of evidence supporting the earlier convictions. Many suspect local Muslim extremists of mounting an elaborate “sting operation” against the Christians leaders. Christians are a small minority among the staunchly Muslim population.
The wife of Marthinus, Ibu Meliana, said the day after his release that her husband planned to spend two weeks in Sumatra traveling to Padang and Jambi for meetings before passing through Jakarta to join family in Malang, East Java.
“He is now in Sibolga, taking meetings in several of his denominational churches there as well as a time of retreat with some of his Bible school classmates that live and serve in the area,” Pastor Medi said on April 23.
Indonesian Christians asked for continued prayer for Ongirwalu and Koto, who remain jailed but could be released later this year, Open Doors reported.
***Photos of Rev. Marthinus, Mr. Ongirwalu and Rev. Koto are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Muslim Radicals Harass Indonesian Churches
Legislation Fuels Tension Between Muslim and Christian Groups in West Java
by Samuel Rionaldo
JAKARTA (Compass) -- Churches in Bekasi, West Java, are facing threats as the result of local legislation. Radical Muslim groups such as the Front Hizbullah, which enjoy the support of local government, are destroying unlicensed church buildings and ordering Christians to cease their religious activities.
Hendra Undas, 30, pastors the Indonesian Charismatic Church in New Cikarang, Bekasi. A Muslim mob recently entered his church during a worship service. “They shocked us by coming in a huge crowd, along with local civil servants and policemen. The mob asked us to stop the service,” said Undas.
Rev. R. Pangemanan of the Pentekosta Haleluya church in Cibitung said that radicals destroyed his church building last year. They also forced the clergy to sign a document agreeing to cease all religious activity.
The tension is fueled by three local ordinances dealing with religious affairs. The first, SKB 2 Menteri or “Mutual Decision Letter,” was written in 1969. Both the Internal Affairs Minister and the Religious Affairs Minister signed this document, which requires Christians to apply for a license before building a church.
More recent legislation has made it increasingly difficult to apply for a church license or building permit. The SK Bupati (Regional Government Decision Letter) and the SK Gubernur (Government Decision) require a Christian group to have at least 40 “heads of families” before applying for a church building permit.
These conditions are unreasonable, says Jasa Sitompul, a Muslim moderate. Moreover, the Constitution of Indonesia guarantees freedom of worship for every community in accordance with their faith.
Yet Sitompul fears more violence if unlicensed churches ignore the warnings of radical groups. “They will destroy and burn the churches,” he said. “The radicals have no reluctance to invade the churches.”
Radical Muslim groups such as the Front Hizbullah support the restrictive legislation. In recent months, their campaign against unlicensed churches has intensified. Two other groups, the Ababil Brigade and the Forum Betawi Rempug (FBR) have visited and threatened Christian churches. Hundreds of Christians now stay at home instead of attending services.
“It’s too hard to process a permit to build a church,” said Rev. Anotona Zebua of Pasundan Christian Church. Zebua feels the local government has given free reign to radical Muslim groups, allowing them to harass Christian communities.
Outreach activities are also restricted. A Bible study run by Zebua’s church was closed recently after pressure from Muslim groups. “They pressured us repeatedly,” Rev. Anotona Zebua said. “If we didn’t have good faith in God, I think we would be dead.”
Private houses and commercial buildings used for Christian worship have also been confiscated or closed. District Government Regulation No. 4/1998 calls for “serenity and orderliness” in Bekasi. This regulation was used to close houses and a shopping center at Lippo Cikarang that were used as church meeting places.
Rev. J.M. Nainggolan from the West Java Christian Society confirms that many churches are struggling under present conditions. According to Nainggolan, Christians urgently need support from central and local governments to protect their freedom to worship.
Officials in the West Java Religious Affairs Department say they have no quarrel with the churches in Bekasi. However, “the radicals want no worship for Christians in this area,” Nainggolan said.
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Ivory Coast Forges Unsteady Peace
Churches Seasoned by War See Opportunities for Reconciliation
by David Miller
MIAMI (Compass) -- Seven months after a military mutiny touched off civil war in Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), a tentative peace has been established through a new “reconciliation government” that includes representatives from the three rebel groups that originally sought to overthrow President Laurent Gbagbo. Christian leaders in the West African country say most churches have survived the conflict intact and some even emerged stronger. Nevertheless, they face an uncertain future.
“Most people here are tired of the war,” said Martin Webber in Abidjan. “Many have lost family members and everyone has suffered economically. I would say the initial crisis is behind us, but deep uncertainty about the future remains.”
A New Testament professor on the faculty of an evangelical seminary, Webber remained in Ivory Coast during the war. His wife and sons left the country, as did the majority of missionaries from Europe and America when the uprising disrupted normal activity and schools closed for security concerns. Most African and Asian workers stayed on through the conflict.
Disgruntled soldiers launched the rebellion last September from Bouake, the second most populous city located in the center of the country. Fighting quickly spread, with battle lines roughly drawn between north and south. Mercenaries from neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone eventually joined the fray; hundreds of civilians died in the fighting.
Organizations such as New Tribes Mission, which works among tribal peoples in the north, evacuated missionaries from combat areas almost immediately. At one point, rebels occupied a school for missionary kids in Bouake, obliging French forces to intervene and evacuate 160 students and faculty from the city. By the end of October, the majority of the foreign missionaries remaining in the country had confined themselves to the coastal city of Abidjan.
On January 24, government officials and rebel leaders signed a power-sharing agreement in Marcoussis, France, that established guidelines for the reconciliation government. Composed of cabinet ministers drawn from the ruling Ivorian Popular Front party, three smaller opposition parties and the rebel armies themselves, the new administration took office in mid April.
The compromise has raised hopes that Ivory Coast will recover the political stability it has enjoyed during most of its 42-year history. When the main north-south roadway reopened last month for the first time since September 2002, the country appeared poised to resume its lucrative international trade in cocoa, coffee and palm oil.
Nevertheless, sporadic violence continues to plague the country. Armed bands roam the western border areas, looting villages and occasionally committing murder. An incident occurred in late April that threatened the fragile peace. Felix Doh, a senior leader of one of the rebel factions, died in an ambush reportedly carried out by Sierra Leone mercenaries.
Despite the uncertainty, missionary evacuees are beginning to return. Others are monitoring developments to determine when they can safely resume their ministries. New Tribes Mission says its workers will return as soon as the new government is fully functioning, rebel groups have disarmed and disbanded, and banks throughout the country have reopened for business.
Meanwhile, reports from Abidjan indicate that the Ivorian church has come through the crisis intact. In some cases, the ordeal served to strengthen Christian outreach. For example, evangelical-owned-and-operated Life Radio sent out broadcasts of short, Bible-based messages on reconciliation, peace and pardon during the political turmoil. According to recent ratings, the station now attracts the third largest listener audience in Abidjan.
Larry Sellers, whose mission pulled his family out of Yamoussoukro last autumn, reports that a church he works with in that city saw average attendance increase from 140 to 180 in the first three months of this year. Many of the newcomers are refugees who fled turmoil in other parts of the country.
“We are eager to return to Cote d’Ivoire,” said Sellers, who plans to leave for Yamassoukro in June, soon after his children finish the school year in the U.S. “We’ve been encouraged by some of the things that have happened in the church during our absence -- areas where it seems to have made some real steps to maturity. In other areas, I think this is helping to see where there are shortcomings.”
“Never has the time been more opportune to take the light into the dark corners of Cote d’Ivoire,” he added.
Webber, whose family rejoined him in Abidjan last weekend, believes it’s crucial for Ivorian Christians to take the opportunity to help restore peace to their war-torn country at this juncture in its history.
“It seems that most everyone has finally accepted the end of what we used to call the ‘Ivorian exception,’” he said. “Before September 2002, there was this thought that what was happening elsewhere in Africa couldn’t happen here, because Côte d’Ivoire was somehow different. I don’t hear that anymore.”
“Life has become more difficult here, and will not get any easier for folks soon.”
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Official Persecution Threatens Church in Laos
Religious Freedom Abuses Could Affect Trade Relations
by Sarah Page
BANGKOK (Compass) -- Persecution of Christians continues in Laos with several church closures and arrests in recent months. However, religious persecution is now in the spotlight as the U.S. plans to confer normal trade relations (NTR) status on the Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
Human rights groups in the U.S. say Laos is not ready for NTR status. In fact, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has urged the government to include Laos on a list of “countries of particular concern.”
Recent events in Laos highlight the abuse of religious freedom. On March 30, officials raided a church meeting in Nong Ing, a small village in southern Savannakhet province. Church leaders persuaded them to let the meeting continue. However on April 3, police returned to arrest two ministers of the church and a third pastor in a neighboring village.
On April 5, local officials tore down “with their (bare) (own)[Dave, I think the emphasis here was using hands rather than tools; shows anger & passion … but up to you!] hands” the building used for church meetings, according to a local observer. The construction materials were then moved to another location for use in a government building project.
At midnight that day, villagers threw stones at the houses of Christians in Nong Ing village and cut off their water supply. They also threatened to cut off electricity and to kill water buffaloes and destroy crops belonging to Christian families. Believers in the neighboring village were also attacked.
Both villages are about three miles from the town of Kengkok, in Champhorn districtprovince. The church in Kengkok is very significant to local Christians. Two British missionaries were captured there during the communist takeover 30 years ago. The two young women were burned to death, becoming martyrs for the Christian cause.
In early 2000, the Kengkok church was confiscated by local authorities. In 2002, Christians in Champhorn district were forced to work as virtual slaves for the district vice-governor. A local pastor, who cannot be named, said they were called away from their own fields during critical planting and harvest times, causing great hardship.
When a U.S. human rights delegation visited Laos in January this year, they asked to see the church in in Kengkok. Government officials refused, saying the church was closed and there were no more Christians living in the area.
However, the delegation insisted. When they arrived, a group of 50 Christians wearing sackcloth, a sign of mourning, had gathered outside the church. Local and national officials were publicly humiliated and demanded tighter controls on Christians in the province.
Churches throughout Laos face an ongoing campaign to eradicate Christianity. Ministers and lay persons alike have been asked to sign affidavits renouncing their faith. Many Christians, including those arrested on April 3, have refused.
Arrests are used to further intimidate the Christians. “Lao Communist authorities have used many forms of persecution in order to get rid of the church little by little,” a Lao pastor told Compass. “They learned every time they made an arrest, some Christians would sign the affidavit. If they don’t give up this time, they may give up next time. So the government keeps applying the pressure.”
In a separate incident, a Christian pastor and his family were expelled from their home near the Vietnamese border. Mr. Koy, from the minority Bru tribe, was forcibly relocated to this area in 1999. He shared his faith with the villagers, and 70 families became Christians.
Koy and his wife were arrested for Christian activities in early 2000 and released in 2001. However, they continued to pastor the church and in March 2003 were expelled from Muang Nong district. They now live with friends in another province.
These incidents are in direct violation of the Lao Constitution and the “Decree on Management and Protection of Religious Activities” issued by the government in June 2002. The decree guarantees the right of Lao citizens to hold religious ceremonies in their own places of worship. But in practice, freedom to worship depends on the tolerance of local officials.
Multiple submissions for and against NTR status were made to a sub-committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Some observers say the U.S. should not confer NTR status at this time. Others believe this move is the quickest way to promote change in Laos. The committee will review the submissions before making a final decision.
Meanwhile, Lao Christians ask for the prayers of the international community. “The Lao government has a plan to get rid of the churches,” says a Lao pastor. “But they know people around the world are watching and praying.”
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Jordanian Christian Killed in Lebanon Attack
European Missionary Family Targeted in Tripoli Bombing
by Barbara G. Baker
ISTANBUL (Compass) -- An Arab convert to Christianity was killed in a bomb blast on May 6 outside his Tripoli apartment, adjacent to the home of a European missionary family thought to have been targeted in the attack.
Jamil Ahmed al-Rifai, 28, died instantly when a 4.5-pound bomb exploded just before midnight in the Qubba suburb of Tripoli, Lebanon’s northern port city.
Despite reports on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network that al-Rifai had himself planted the bomb, eyewitnesses confirmed that the Jordanian Christian was an innocent victim of the attack.
According to Dutch missionary Gerrit “Joep” Griffioen, who survived the attack, his wife had spotted an intruder in the garden next to their ground-floor apartment about 11:30 p.m. on May 6. When Griffioen shouted at the man from his kitchen balcony, he was squatting down with “something glimmering between his hands,” the Dutchman told a close friend in Tripoli on May 7.
Griffioen quickly called his next-door neighbor, al-Rifai, to help him investigate.
By the time the two men got into the garden, the intruder had fled, leaving an object that flickered in the dark. With his bare hands, Griffioen smothered the lit fuse, and then they moved the packet further away from the house. Thinking that they had extinguished the bomb, they looked briefly for the intruder and then returned to the building.
But shortly after Griffioen went back into his home, the bomb exploded, shattering windows of the nearby houses and damaging parked cars. Only after summoning the police to the scene did Griffioen realize that al-Rifai had remained out in the garden, where he was killed by the blast.
A Jordanian citizen, al-Rifai had lived and studied in Lebanon for the past six years. According to the Christian advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC), al-Rifai left Jordan in 1997 “because of pressure from the authorities over his conversion to Christianity.”
Griffioen told the Dutch Associated Press (ANP) on May 7 that he had been “repeatedly threatened” during his 20 years of ministry in Lebanon, but he had never taken the threats seriously.
He was “almost 100 percent certain,” the Dutchman said, that the motive for the attack was religious. While there was widespread interest in the teachings of Jesus Christ among the Lebanese people, he said, there were also “people who took offense.”
Griffioen and his wife Barbel have three children.
The deadly Tripoli bombing was the second attack against Christian missionaries in Lebanon in the past six months.
Last November 21, an unidentified gunman shot and killed American missionary Bonnie Penner Witherall at a Christian medical clinic in Sidon.
Both Sidon and Tripoli are known centers of Sunni Muslim militancy in Lebanon, still recovering from a 16-year civil war which left the populace heavily armed. Although the Beirut central government has regained control of two-thirds of the country, security forces have been unable to curtail ongoing acts of violence.
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Bible Ban Lifted in Malaysia
Other Publications Still Under Restriction
by Sarah Page
JAKARTA (Compass) -- A ban placed on the Iban-language Bible in early April has now been lifted, but 11 other Christian books are still banned from sale and distribution in Malaysia.
In the first week of April, the Malaysian Home Ministry (KDN) banned a total of 35 religious books, saying they posed a threat to public safety and security. Teresa Kok, a Member of Parliament for the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), later criticized the move, saying no clear guidelines were given as the basis for this decision.
The books include 12 Christian titles; 11 in Bahasa Malaysia, and the full Bible or Bup Kudus, printed in the Iban language.
The announcement came as a shock to the 400,000 strong Iban tribe, one of the largest ethnic groups in East Malaysia. Many Ibans are Christians, and they have used portions of the Bible in their own language for over 15 years. A full translation of the Iban Bible was completed in 1988.
The new regulation bans the printing, import, reproduction, sale, circulation and possession of these books. Those convicted face a penalty of up to three years in prison, and/or a maximum fine of 20,000 Malaysian Ringgits ($5,200). Under this law, thousands of Iban Christians could have been convicted for the possession of an Iban Bible.
Malaysia’s Constitution guarantees religious freedom; but in practice, limitations are placed on any religion other than Sunni Islam. The list of banned books on April 9 included several Islamic titles promoting variant forms of Islam.
The DAP, led by Ngeh Koo Ham, released a press statement on April 12, calling for the government to lift the ban on the Iban Bible. “Many Ibans are Christians and they are entitled to have the Bible in their own language,” the statement declared.
Several of the banned Malay-language books are readily available in English. Ngeh feels this is an act of discriminatiom, since many rural and ethnic Malays cannot read English. “The government should not deny the Ibans and other Christians who are conversant only in Bahasa Malaysia access to reading materials about their religion,” he said.
Leaders from the Association of Churches in Sarawak and the Christian Federation of Malaysia, who first read of the ban in their local newspapers, also called on the government to lift the ban. On April 22, ten of these leaders met with Home Minister and Acting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to voice their concerns.
In response, Abdullah explained that the real issue was the phrase Allah Tala, the Iban term for “Almighty God” used in the Bup Kudus. The Home Ministry felt this term was uncomfortably close to the Muslim term Allah Taala and might lead to confusion in the Muslim community.
On hearing that the Ibans have used this term for many years, Abdullah replied, “Since the word is found in the Iban Bible [Bible] only, I don’t see the reason why it should be banned.” However he did suggest that future printings of the Iban Bible be marked with a cross and the statement; “This is a translation of the Bible in the Iban language.”
The ban on the Iban Bible was officially lifted on April 26, although publishers were advised to take care when translating religious works. Eleven Christian titles in the Malay language still remain on the list of banned books.
People of different faiths in Malaysia generally co-exist without friction. However the constitution defines all ethnic Malays as people who “profess the faith of Islam.” Those wishing to legally convert from Islam must do so in an Islamic court -- a strong deterrent for Christian conversion.
Christians are limited in some activities; for example, they cannot preach the gospel to Muslims. But according to Rev. Wong Kim Kong, general secretary for the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship of Malaysia (NECF), religious freedom has improved greatly since 1999. Large Christian events take place with government approval, and the government has also sponsored Christmas celebrations over the past five years.
However, in line with official policy, the circulation of Christian tapes, Bibles and other printed materials in the Malay language is discouraged. According to Abdullah, “We must ensure that religious books available in the country are not extreme and do not touch on the sensitivity of other religions, especially Islam.”
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Pastor and Six Family Members Burned to Death in Nigeria
Christian Leaders Suspect Muslim Fanatics of Fatal Arson Attack
by Obed Minchakpu
KANO, Nigeria (Compass) -- A zealous Christian preacher in the northern Nigerian city of Kano and six members of his family died in a house fire on April 22. Christian leaders in the city believe Muslim militants deliberately set the fatal blaze.
Pastor Sunday Madumere and his family were asleep in the early hours of the morning when flames engulfed their home, located on Apple Avenue in an area of Kano known as no-man’s land.
Eyewitnesses told Compass that the pastor’s wife and three children died with him in the inferno, along with two men believed to be relatives of Madumere.
Pastor Madumere’s son Daniel reportedly managed to escape before being trapped in the house with other members of the family. Christopher Ahiante, a neighbor of the family, said that Daniel Madumere sustained serious injuries and is presently in critical condition in a local hospital.
According to Ahiante, “It took well over two hours before the fire was brought under control by the men of the Nigerian Fire Service.”
Pastor Madumere is known for his powerful preaching, which has led many Muslims in Kano to convert to the Christian faith. Observers believe the conversions may have angered Muslim militants in the city and they decided to eliminate him.
Police authorities say the fire may have been caused by an electrical fault. Christian leaders, however, have ruled out that theory, insisting that the pastor and his family were victims of religious intolerance.
“This incident is not the first of its kind here,” said Rev. Gabriel Ojo of the First Baptist Church in Kano city. “A number of Christians here and their leaders have been killed in the past by Muslim fanatics.”
Rev. Ojo said that some years ago, extremists murdered Gideon Akaluka, a Christian, and carried his severed head through the streets. To date, government authorities have failed to punish the killers.
Bishop Nyam of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, added, “Since the adoption of the Islamic legal system here, we have been forced into difficult situations. Christians have suffered because Muslim fanatics have taken the law into their hands.
“We are not surprised at all about this incident,” he added. “We saw it coming.”
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Nigerian Governor-Elect Promises Revolutionized Islamic Law
Muslim Candidate Pledges to Protect Christian Lives and Property
by Obed Minchakpu
KANO, Nigeria (Compass) -- The governor-elect of the state of Kano in northern Nigeria has disclosed that his administration will implement Islamic law with a human face.
Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, a Muslim elected in the April 19 presidential and gubernatorial elections, said his administration’s approach to the Islamic legal system (sharia) will differ from that of the prior state government.
Shekarau replaces Alhaji Musa Kwankwaso as governor of Kano state, which officially installed Islamic law three years ago, along with eleven other states in northern Nigeria.
The implementation of sharia has pitched Muslims against Christians in northern Nigeria, leading to escalation of religious conflict. In the state of Kaduna, 3,000 people died in riots that erupted during the first year of sharia rule. Muslim-Christian violence has claimed thousands more lives across Nigeria and driven nearly half-a-million refugees from their homes.
Shekarau addressed journalists at the Tahir Guest Palace on April 26, just after being declared winner of the gubernatorial race by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission. He said his first priority would be the improvement of the moral conduct of the people of Kano through the continued implementation of the Islamic law.
“Sharia does not only mean cutting off hands or stoning, but also making people more active in their moral conduct,” he said. “They would be honest, while love, peace and tranquility would exist between Muslims and Christians.
“Every Christian, wherever he is, would like to interact with Muslims. There is need for both Muslims and Christians in Kano state to, first of all, understand the meaning and aims of sharia,” Shekarau said.
“Islam dictates that every individual, whether a Muslim or Christian, has certain rights over his fellow brother; therefore, Christians in the state must be given their rights accordingly.”
Shekarau assured Christians in Kano state that his administration would judiciously protect their lives and property. At the same time, he solicited the cooperation of both Muslims and Christians to work with his administration to promote economic development.
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Pakistani Christian Sentenced to Life in Prison
Faisalabad Court Finds Ranjha Masih ‘Guilty’ of Blasphemy
by Barbara G. Baker
ISTANBUL (Compass) -- A Pakistani Christian in his 50s has been sentenced to life in prison for committing blasphemy, allegedly by damaging a Muslim signboard during a bishop’s funeral procession five years ago.
An estimated 100 onlookers jammed the Faisalabad Additional District and Sessions Court on April 26 to hear the lower court verdict against Ranjha Masih, read out by Judge Mohammed Shahid Rafique.
“He just announced the judgment against Ranjha in two short sentences and then abruptly he went away,” Masih’s defense lawyer Khalil Tahir told Compass on April 28. Judge Rafique still had not signed the verdict by April 28, Tahir said. “I don’t know why, but he is receiving threats.”
Although the final defense arguments for Masih had been completed before the court in the last week of March, Judge Rafique had postponed the verdict several times. When the judgment was finally announced on April 26, the courtroom was reportedly filled with local Muslim activists and journalists.
Contrary to a Dawn newspaper report that “a large number of Christian leaders” also came to the court to hear the verdict, Tahir said he was the only Christian present when the judgment was announced. “No one else came there, no priest, no one,” he said.
Masih’s life-prison sentence was accompanied by a fine of 50,000 rupees ($830).
According to reports published in the April 27 Daily Times and Dawn newspapers, the plaintiff who opened the blasphemy case against Masih was Mohammed Jahanzeb, son of former Faisalabad mayor Malik Mohammed Ashraf.
“Jahanzeb had alleged that Christian youths pelted stones on Koranic verses written on a signboard at a Railway Road paan [betel leaves] shop, and also committed blasphemy,” the Dawn report said.
The prosecution accused Masih of participating in a “violent Christian procession” and smashing a neon sign bearing the Muslim statement of faith on May 8, 1998, during funeral processions for Bishop John Joseph. Then Catholic bishop of Faisalabad, Bishop John committed suicide in front of the Faisalabad courthouse in a dramatic protest against the victimization of Christians under Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws.
According to Tahir, Masih conducted himself “very boldly” at his trial, declaring confidently to the court, “I am innocent. I never did that.”
Masih was tried under Section 295-C of the blasphemy law, which carries a mandatory death sentence for anyone convicted. Inexplicably, Judge Rafique instead handed down a life-sentence verdict to Masih.
Tahir said he would file his client’s appeal before the Lahore High Court as soon as he can obtain a certified copy of the lower court judgment, which the judge has yet to sign. The appeal process could be expected to take another 18 months, he admitted, saying he would try to “move the case” more rapidly.
Now 55, Masih has been jailed without bail since his arrest nearly five years ago. “We have been keeping regular contact with Ranjha, to keep up his spirits,” Catholic Bishop Joseph Coutts confirmed on April 28 from Faisalabad, where Masih is incarcerated in the Faisalabad Central Jail.
A simple bus hawker by occupation, Masih was a long-time personal friend of Bishop John. He and his wife, Rashidaan Bibi, have five sons, one daughter and several grandchildren.
In addition to Ranjha Masih, seven other Christians are currently jailed on blasphemy charges in Pakistan: Ashiq “Kingri” Masih, age 26, on death row in Faisalabad; Aslam Masih, 71, appealing double life-sentences in Faisalabad; Amjad and Asif Masih, 30 and 29 respectively, appealing 25-year sentences in Jhang; Pervaiz Masih, 35, on trial in Daska; Anwar Kenneth, on death row in Lahore; and Shahbaz Masih, 25, on trial in Faisalabad.
Three Pakistani Christians have been acquitted of false blasphemy charges in the past year, but all served long years in prison before their release. Ayub Masih spent nearly six years in jail, four of them on death row, before the Supreme Court overturned his conviction last August. Two brothers, Saleem and Rasheed Masih, were imprisoned nearly four years until the Lahore High Court announced their acquittal and release in March.
***Photos of Ranjhi Masih, Rashidaan Bibi (his wife) and his lawyer Khalil Tahir are available upon request. Please contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Saudi Arabia Jails Two African Christians in Jeddah
Eritrean, Ethiopian Slated for Deportation
by Barbara G. Baker
ISTANBUL (Compass) -- Two African men jailed in Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jeddah for “Christian activities” were told on May 12 that they are slated for deportation back to their homelands of Ethiopia and Eritrea within the next few days.
Eritrean Girmaye Ambaye, 44, was arrested at his sponsor’s office on March 25. Ethiopian Endeshawe Adana Yizengaw, 32, was taken into custody on the street near his home on April 27.
The two Christians have been jailed at the Bremen deportation center at Terhil, in the old sector of Jeddah. Both were active in the ministry of Jeddah’s Ethiopian-Eritrean Christian congregation until their residence permits were revoked by the Saudi police, who then hunted them down and put them under arrest.
“I think in two days I will reach Ethiopia,” Yizengaw told Compass on May 13 from Bremen’s Cell 4. Speaking by telephone, the Ethiopian Christian said he has been told he will be sent back to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on May 15 or at the latest on Sunday, May 18.
But his fellow Christian Ambaye may not be processed for deportation to the Eritrean capital of Asmara for several more days, he said, since his passport and paperwork from the Governate of Mecca are still in process.
“The reason they are sending us back is that we are Christians,” Yizengaw said. “We have been serving Jesus Christ here in Saudi Arabia.”
On May 6, an official in the Ethiopian Consulate in Jeddah told the Christian advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC) that Yizengaw had been arrested “because of his Christian activities.”
Ambaye was approached on the morning of March 25 by two Eritrean men, who told him his sponsor wanted to speak with him. He accompanied them back to the sponsor’s office, only to be arrested as he arrived and taken to the Bremen prison.
According to MEC, a month before his arrest, local police forced Ambaye to fingerprint and sign a document in Arabic. Although Ambaye has lived in Saudi Arabia for some 12 years, he does not read Arabic.
When Yizengaw managed to visit Ambaye in prison, Ambaye warned him that the Saudi authorities were asking about him. Shortly afterwards, a car dealer refused to transfer a car into Yizengaw’s name, saying he had a “problem” with his residence permit. The Ethiopian checked with his sponsor’s secretary, who confirmed that the police had cancelled Yizengaw’s residence permit and were looking for him.
Police reportedly told Yizengaw’s sponsor that the Ethiopian Christian was “suspected of involvement” in prostitution, selling alcohol and drugs, helping the U.S. government spread Christianity and trying to convert Muslims. However, none of the alleged charges are known to have been filed officially against Yizengaw.
According to Yizengaw himself, he was returning home from Orthodox Easter celebrations about 3 p.m. on the afternoon of April 27 when about 14 Saudi policemen surrounded him on the street near his home. He said he was punched and hit during the arrest, and they searched his home and collected some of his books and cassettes before taking him away.
“It was a very hard night that I spent,” Yizengaw wrote of his arrest, in a letter received on May 12 by a member of his congregation. After the police finished interrogating him the next day, he was sent to the deportation center where he was jailed in a group cell block with Ambaye. On May 12, he was moved into Cell 4, pending deportation.
Saudi authorities have kept Jeddah’s Ethiopian-Eritrean congregation under open surveillance since 11 of its members were among 14 expatriate Christians jailed in the fall of 2001 and held for five months and more. At least a dozen members have been questioned in recent months about their involvement in the church’s activities and warned to stop attending.
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Sudan Jails Episcopal Priest near Khartoum
Cleric Refuses to Demolish Church Building
by Barbara G. Baker
ISTANBUL (Compass) -- A Sudanese court jailed an Episcopal priest “indefinitely” in April for refusing to demolish a church he had built himself 11 years ago on the outskirts of Khartoum North.
In a verdict announced on April 7, the Rev. Samuel Dobai Amum was ordered to tear down St. Matthew’s Parish in Takamol and surrender the land on which it was built to the “rightful owner.”
“Amum said he couldn’t destroy something he has devoted to his Father in the Highest,” the newspaper Khartoum Monitor reported on April 29. “If the law sees it just to do so, it can go ahead,” Amum reportedly told the court, but he refused to tear down the church himself.
Angered, Judge Kamal Abd-Rahaman Alli declared Amum “rude before the law.” The judge amended his verdict on the spot, demanding that the priest either destroy the church himself or pay 7,000,000 Sudanese dinars (nearly $3,000) to secure the land in the name of the church. Until one of these two demands was honored, the judge stated, Amum was to be “imprisoned indefinitely.”
Amum, who is in his mid 40s, has been incarcerated since April 7 in the Soba Prison, about 15 miles southeast of Khartoum along the Blue Nile.
“His imprisonment is open,” a source in the Episcopal Church of Sudan (ECS) told Compass from Khartoum. “There is no month or day or week or year set. It’s an open prison sentence.”
“The whole case is connected with the issue of the land,” the source said. “Most accommodations here are built in a place which has not been allotted by the government, and then the government claims that this piece of land belongs to somebody else.”
With some four million displaced Sudanese fleeing decades of civil war and famine, unclaimed land on the outskirts of Khartoum has slowly evolved from camps of displaced squatters into registered plots allotted by the government to individual owners.
But under Khartoum’s Islamic regime, land where a mosque has been established is considered community property. “It would never be allotted to an individual,” a Khartoum resident told Compass.
“Is [this] not religious discrimination?” a Khartoum Monitor columnist asked. “I am sure that if the church was a mosque, it shouldn’t have been touched. Instead, more land could have been added to it.”
As a displaced southern Sudanese, Amum had built a home in the un-surveyed Takamol-Hag-Yousif area of Khartoum North in 1987. He then erected a simple straw-shelter chapel on the same plot, designating it as a place of worship for other displaced Christians in the area. In 1992, the structure was rebuilt out of mud and straw and consecrated as a full parish under the ECS, with the Rev. Amum as parish priest.
Three years later, after the area was surveyed by municipal authorities for private allotments, Amum tried to file documents with the city council for formal recognition of the church.
Despite the fact that Amum had occupied and developed the plot of land on which the church was built, he was informed by council authorities that it now belonged to Awad Abdalla Bashir, a Muslim member of the Popular Committee of the local government.
Shortly afterwards, Bashir opened a case against the priest, demanding that Amum pay him 10 million dinars ($4,300) for the plot if he wanted the church to remain there. Amum declined the proposal, stating that he had no money, and requested justice from the court.
The April 7 verdict against Amum was issued at the ninth hearing held on the case since it opened in 1995.
Compass has been unable to confirm reports that a government crackdown in the first week of May against the Khartoum Monitor came in direct reaction to its prominent coverage of Amum’s arrest on April 29. The newspaper was reportedly closed and its managing director, Niah Bol, held under arrest on May 6 and 7.
Since it formed 16 years ago, the congregation of St. Matthew’s Parish has averaged from 150 to 200 members, depending on the movements of displaced Christians in the area. Most of the parishioners are from the Jur and Wirah tribes of southern Sudan.
Amum and his wife Sudan Guma have two sons, Noah and Ayu, and a daughter, Vivian. During his initial weeks in jail, he has been allowed to meet his family and friends during regular prison visiting hours.
“But his wife is upset completely, and his congregation is very worried about him,” a fellow clergyman told Compass. During the first month of Amum’s imprisonment, the church raised 81,000 dinars toward his release.
***A photo of Rev. Amum is available upon request. Please contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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UAE Court Gives Filipino Pastor Suspended Sentence
Dubai Judge Dismisses One-Year Jail Term for Rev. Alconga
by Barbara G. Baker
ISTANBUL (Compass) -- Five months after the Rev. Fernando Alconga was arrested for giving a Bible and Christian literature to an Arab Muslim at a Dubai shopping center, a criminal court in the United Arab Emirates has declared the Filipino pastor guilty of “abusing Islam” and conducting Christian missionary activity.
But in the verdict handed down on April 27, Chief Judge Mahmood Fahmi Sultan of the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance suspended Alconga’s punishment, including a one-year prison sentence followed by mandatory deportation.
According to an article in the April 30 Gulf News, “The leniency was shown because the court was of the opinion that the 54-year-old would not repeat his crime.”
At the close of the hearing on Sunday, April 27, Alconga was advised by the court clerk that his case was closed. However, under Emirati law, the court’s verdict only becomes final after 15 days, during which period the chief prosecutor is allowed to appeal the decision.
The pastor said he expected his clearance formalities to be processed by mid May, when the court would return his passport to him. “We have been waiting patiently and praying for the dismissal of the case,” Alconga told Compass from Dubai on April 30. “In the long run, we are seeing God’s hand in this.”
Alconga had been scheduled to return with his family in January to the Philippines, where he was due to take up pastoral ministry in a Manila church. But after his arrest last November and subsequent release on bail December 17, his passport and that of another expatriate colleague were held on bond by the courts, requiring him to remain in the UAE until a judicial ruling was concluded on his case.
An ordained Conservative Baptist minister, Alconga has pastored congregations in the UAE for the past nine years. He was arrested at the parking lot of Dubai’s Al Bustan shopping center by plainclothes police on November 12, one day after he had given a packet of Christian materials to a passerby in the same parking lot.
After initial police interrogations, Alconga was held in jail custody for five weeks and then released on bail December 17. In formal charges filed against him a week later, the prosecution declared that Alconga had committed a felony by “preaching other than the Islamic religion,” as forbidden in Articles 121, 319 and 325 of the Federal Criminal Code.
A total of eight court hearings were conducted in his trial, which opened on January 19.
The sole prosecution witness was an Egyptian Muslim who had accepted a Bible and packet of Christian materials from Alconga the day before his arrest. Although the witness had filed a complaint against Alconga to the local police, he testified at a February 16 hearing that he had known the materials were Christian in content and had accepted them willingly when Alconga offered them to him.
On March 2, the court submitted the confiscated materials for evaluation to a panel of Islamic scholars to determine whether they “vilified the fundamental principles or teachings of the Islamic religion.”
According to a report from the Christian advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC), the religious experts informed the court on April 6 that the materials were “acceptable for private use, but not for distributing to non-Christians.”
The Philippines Consulate in Dubai has monitored the case since Alconga’s arrest, appealing for his release and dismissal of the charges in order to prevent the UAE from being “viewed as intolerant,” a diplomat confirmed to Compass.
“The United Arab Emirates are signatories to the conventions on human rights and religious freedom,” Alconga remarked on April 30, “so I think the authorities here would like to be consistent with that.” He confirmed that he and his wife Naomi planned to return to the Philippines within a month, as soon as their 13-year-old son Timothy completes his school exams.
The UAE’s penal code strictly prohibits non-Muslim missionary activities, including possession of any materials which oppose the “fundamental principles” of Islam among its citizens. But resident expatriates, who comprise 80 percent of the population, have been granted land and de facto recognition by the government to establish numerous Christian churches throughout the seven wealthy sheikhdoms.
***A photo of Rev. Alconga is available upon request. Please contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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COMPASS DIRECT
Global News from the Frontlines
David Miller, Managing Editor
Gail Wahlquist, Editorial Assistant
Suzi Quinones, Design
Bureau Chiefs:
Barbara Baker, Middle East
Sarah Page, Asia
For subscription information, contact:
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