Castro Government Detained 60 Pastors in Crackdown

From Catholic World News

The Communist government of Raul Castro detained 60 Protestant pastors in May and June, sentencing one to six years in prison. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a nongovernmental organization that works on behalf of persecuted Christians, reports that the crackdown is aimed at the Apostolic Movement, an evangelical and charismatic Protestant community.

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

• Cuban Government Charge Independent Church Leaders With Criminal Activity (Christian Solidarity Worldwide)
• NGO reports more religious-freedom violations under Raul Castro (CWN, Aug 18)

Crackdown on Chinese Christians Launched at Two Month Olympic Countdown Mark

From Christian Solidarity Worldwide

With two months to go until the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a fresh report detailing the persecution of Christians in China is launched today.

The report, ‘China: Persecution of Protestant Christians in the Approach to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games’, highlights the current government crackdown on China’s unregistered Christians.

Also covered in the report is the disturbing news that Christians have been arrested and fined for seeking to help the victims of the tragic earthquake in Sichuan Province.

As the Olympics draw closer, sources have recently reported that the Ministry of Public Security has received funding from the Chinese Central Government to increase its campaign of eradicating house churches throughout China. Among the tactics used to restrict religious believers is the targeting of multiple well-established churches in Beijing last month, directives to landlords to refrain from renting to those engaging in religious activities and controls to prevent those engaged in ‘illegal’ religious activities from participating in or attending the Games.

Alongside these specific measures, the report highlights the disturbing trend of increasing persecution of China’s unregistered Christians in the run up to the Olympics, including the use of separatism charges against Christians in Xinjiang, a level of expulsion of foreign Christians not seen since the 1950s, the largest mass sentencing of house church leaders in 25 years and targeted repression of the Chinese House Church Alliance.

The report is produced by Christian Solidarity Worldwide in association with China Aid Association (CAA), an organisation at the forefront of documenting religious persecution against China’s Christians. The President of CAA, Bob Fu, will be in London speaking on Wednesday 11 June at the Foreign Press Association, where he will show footage of firsthand testimony from persecuted Chinese Christians. Joining Bob Fu will be Chun Ki Won, an activist who has been imprisoned in China for helping North Korean refugees, who was involved in the escapes covered in the BBC documentary broadcast last week, Korea: Out of the North. Excerpts of the footage will also be shown. CSW’s National Director Stuart Windsor will also speak, providing a brief overview of China’s domestic and international human rights violations.

Mervyn Thomas, Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Chief Executive, said: “As we mark the two month countdown to the Beijing Olympics today it is truly disturbing to report the deteriorating picture for China’s unregistered Christians. As China takes her place in the spotlight for the Olympic Games it is important to highlight that she must play by international rules, including her binding international obligations on human rights.”

The report is available at: http://www.csw.org.uk/indepth/chinareportjune2008.htm.

An Urgent Request from Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Dear Friends,

This week marks the fifth anniversary of Cuba’s “Black Spring” when 75 civil society activists, including independent journalists, human rights defenders, pro-democracy activists, and independent librarians were arrested. Today, human rights groups inside Cuba put the total number of prisoners of conscience at around 230. Many of these men and women are Christians.

CSW is particularly concerned by reports that prison authorities consistently violate the religious rights of political prisoners across the country. Political prisoners and their families have reported the repeated confiscation of bibles and other religious literature, the denial of the right to receive visits from a pastor or priest, and a refusal to allow Christian prisoners to meet together for prayer, worship or study, even in the presence of a member of the clergy. This is in violation of the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by the United Nations in 1955, which guarantees all of the above rights. The fact that these violations are repeatedly reported as occurring in prisons across the country also indicates that this is not a matter of local prison authorities abusing the rights of their prisoners, but a general policy instigated at government levels.

Interestingly, according to information received by CSW, prisoners who do not consider themselves to be religious report that they are able to exercise most of the rights listed above. This suggests that prison authorities recognise the importance of their faith to the Christian prisoners and that they are specifically targeting their faith in an effort to break them down psychologically.

For Christian prisoners, their faith is often the one thing they can cling to in an otherwise hopeless situation. Many former prisoners have told CSW how their faith encouraged and strengthened them in the darkest of moments. It is also vital for their families, as we were reminded by Elsa Gonzalez, the wife of political prisoner, Victor Roland Arroyo, who said,. “Faith is what has made all of this possible. If it were not for my faith in God and the strength He gives me, I would not have been able to endure any of this. Faith is also of the utmost importance for Victor,”

The following represent just a few of these cases:

• Dr Oscar Elias Biscet is a human rights defender who is serving a 25-year sentence. He had already served a three-year sentence and was free for less than a month between his release and his second detention. He is a devout Christian and has frequently had his Bible confiscated and has been arbitrarily denied the right to meet with a priest. He is in very bad health.

• Alfredo Rodolfo Dominguez Batista is a member of the Christian Liberation Movement, a pro-democracy organisation, and is serving a 14-year sentence. His Bible and other religious books were confiscated last summer and they have not been returned to him. He has been visited by a priest in the past but he and his wife have had to ask for this repeatedly, the last time they were refused. Generally, Alfredo has been allowed to meet a priest only once every four or five months. The priest also visits other prisoners but cannot hold services. According to his wife, Melba, although the prisoners cannot meet together for worship, Alfredo meets with them individually to share his faith.

• Normando Hernandez Gonzalez is 38-years old, an independent journalist, serving a 25-year sentence. He is in extremely poor health and Costa Rica has offered to grant him a visa if the Cuban government will release him for humanitarian reasons but thus far this offer has been refused. According to his wife, Yarai Amparo, he is a very strong believer and he has been allowed to keep his Bible but he cannot receive the visit of a priest and is kept in isolation, away from the other prisoners.

• Victor Rolando Arroyo is an independent journalist and a devout Christian. His prison sentence, 26 years, is one of the longest stemming from the 2003 crackdown. He is allowed to keep his Bible but the prison officials confiscated the other religious books brought by his wife for him. He is allowed a visit every three months from a priest chosen by the government. He is not allowed any type of spiritual fellowship with other prisoners and they do not allow the priest to hold a group mass for the prisoners to attend.

• Alexander Aguilar Sosa is serving a six-year sentence for “disrespect.” On January 22, 2008, a Cuban human rights organisation reported that the prison authorities at the Agüica Prison in Matanzas would not allow him to meet with other prisoners to pray or read the Bible. Alexander told the group that the prison “Chief of Interior Order,” a man named “Aramis”, had broken up the small worship service that he was celebrating on a regular basis with other prisoners.

• Dr Jose Luis Garcia Paneque is a medical doctor and independent journalist serving a 24-year sentence. His wife, Yamile told CSW that the doctor takes great comfort from his Bible which he has been allowed to keep with him in prison and which he reads every day. For some time, the prison authorities refused to allow him to meet with a priest, but have now changed the policy and are allowing a meeting once every two months. He is not allowed to meet with other prisoners for worship and prayer. He is in extremely poor health.

Pray

Please remember these men and their families in your prayers. Pray that their religious rights will be respected and that God will give them strength and comfort.

Protest

Please also consider writing to the Cuban embassy in London (address below) to ask that the religious rights of all prisoners, regardless of the reason for their imprisonment, be respected in accordance with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. In your letter you may mention these prisoners by name but please refrain from criticising the Cuban political system or Fidel or Raul Castro.

His Excellency Rene Mujica Cantelar
Embassy of the Republic of Cuba167 High Holborn
London
WC1V 6BA, Fax: (020) 7836 2602

Mass Sentencing of Chinese House Church Leaders

Twenty-one prominent Christian leaders have been sentenced to re-education through labour in what China Aid Association (CAA) describes as the largest mass sentencing of house church leaders in China in 25 years.

The Linyi City Re-education through Labour Commission in Shandong Province simultaneously sentenced 17 male and 4 female church leaders to re-education through labour for fifteen months to three years, according to news released yesterday by CAA.

The 21 were detained during a mass arrest of 270 Christian leaders on 7 December 2007 in Hedeng District, Linyi City as they gathered for leadership training. The others detained with them were fined and released in the intervening period. The leaders were accused of holding an “illegal religious gathering” and the 21 labelled as members of an “evil cult”, a term which Chinese authorities arbitrarily apply to unregistered religious groups.

The news of the mass sentencing comes just a day after CAA published an open letter to the international community from the President of the Chinese House Church Alliance, Pastor Zhang Mingxuan. In the letter, Pastor Zhang describes the persecution he has faced as a Christian leader, including being incarcerated on twelve occasions. He also describes how the Public Security Bureau have harassed an orphanage he ran with his two sons and forced it to close.

Pastor Zhang expresses support for the Beijing Olympics, but hopes that the attention on China around the Games will encourage the Chinese Government to allow real freedom of religion and to release Christians imprisoned as a result of their faith.

The mass sentencing and Pastor Zhang’s letter follow a significant increase in persecution against the house churches in China last year and a level of expulsion of foreign Christians not seen since the 1950s, according to CAA’s annual report. CAA also report that four Christians were detained for five days at the end of January for handing out Christian tracts in Zhejiang province. Additionally, two female House Church Alliance leaders were taken into custody on Monday, 18 February 2008, on their way to Beijing. Their whereabouts is currently unknown. CAA believes this activity is designed to dismantle the House Church Alliance before the Olympic Games start.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s Chief Executive, Mervyn Thomas, says: “It is shocking that China would commit such a grave and large scale violation of religious freedom as the eyes of the world are focused on the nation. At a time when Beijing is hosting a sporting event which is based on ‘universal fundamental ethical principles’, the crackdown on China’s peaceful Christian house churches must not go unnoticed. We join Pastor Zhang in his desire for China to release the many Christians detained as a result of their faith and we urge the international community to respond to the serious breaches of international standards committed against religious believers in China.”

Belarusian Prisoner Freed: Religious Freedom Violations in Belarus Continue

From Christian Solidarity Worldwide

Zmitser Dashkevich, the 26 year-old pro-democracy activist imprisoned in 2006 in Belarus, has been unexpectedly released after his 18 month prison term was shortened to a year.

On 1 November 2006 Zmitser was jailed for involvement in a youth pro-reform movement and charged with “organising or participating in the activity of an unregistered non-governmental organisation.” He was also fined the equivalent of £412 in November 2007 for refusing to reveal the names of his friends in the Young Front movement, prompting a European Commission statement urging the Belarusian authorities to release all political prisoners.

Zmitser’s release coincides with the publication of a report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) on freedom of religion in Belarus. The report, released this month, gives a detailed analysis of the gross violations taking place on a daily basis and calls on the international community to recognise the targeting of religious minorities and to urge Belarus to respect human rights, and the freedoms of expression and assembly.

Citing the frequent violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Belarus is a party, the report explains how religious freedom is restricted both directly and indirectly by the authorities. NGOs, religious institutions and religious leaders are subject to frequent harassment, prosecution, fines, repression and even imprisonment under the terms of the 2002 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations. Over the past eighteen months, two pastors and one human rights defender were arrested for so-called unregistered activities, a practice not heard of since the fall of the Soviet Union.

CSW’s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, “While pleased that Zmitser Dashkevich has been released, he and many in Belarus like him should not have been detained in the first place. We remain gravely concerned at the severe and continuing violations of fundamental rights of Christians in the country, as is evident from our latest report. We urge the international community, and particularly the European Union, to recognise the scale of violations of the rights of religious minorities that is currently underway in the very heart of Europe. It is vital that the Belarus authorities begin to engage in meaningful dialogue with civil society activists like Zmitser, and to respect the international agreements to which they are subject."

Click here to view CSW’s Belarus report

Click here to find out more about CSW’s work in Belarus