FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 16, 1999

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240

The U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today decried the Sudanese government's use of food aid as a weapon of war and called on the U.S. government to take a series of actions to ensure food aid reaches all hungry people in Sudan's war-torn southern region.

Civil war has raged in Sudan for more than 16 years between an Islamist regime in Khartoum and mostly Christian and animist rebels in the south, at a cost of about 2 million lives. A major cause of the war has been repeated attempts by the central government to impose Islamic law on the south. Food aid has been organized under the United Nations World Food Programme's "Operation Lifeline Sudan," but that aid has been subject to repeated Sudanese government bans on flights to distressed regions when they are under rebel control, effectively cutting off aid. Such flight bans are currently in effect.

"This is clearly a war with a religious-persecution dimension," said Rabbi David Saperstein, the Commission's chairman. "The Sudanese government is deliberately starving people for religious, as well as political, military, and ethnic reasons."

In order to ensure that hungry people of all religious and ethnic backgrounds get food, the Commission recommended that:

• The U.S. government should work with the international community to pressure the Sudanese government to immediately stop banning food flights, which is an undeniable use of food as a military and political weapon and has caused hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians to starve.

• In addition to its participation in Operation Lifeline Sudan, the U.S. government should continue its policy of shipping food into southern Sudan outside the program and increase the percentage of food thus delivered.

• The U.S. government should undertake an active diplomatic campaign to encourage other nations and humanitarian organizations to move food aid directly into Sudan outside Operation Lifeline Sudan, regardless of Sudanese government strictures but consistent with international law.

"We strongly condemn the Sudanese government's ongoing policy of politicizing food aid in the south, affecting thousands of innocent civilians," Chairman Saperstein said. "What's important is that religious persecution stop and that hungry people get the food they need."

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress."

Rabbi David Saperstein,Chair

• Dean Michael K. Young,Vice Chair Hon. Elliott Abrams, Laila Al-Marayati, M.D.Hon. John R. Bolton, Firuz Kazemzadeh, Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, Nina Shea, Justice Charles Z. Smith, Ambassador Robert Seiple, Ex-Officio, Steven T. McFarland, Executive Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 15, 1999

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240

The U. S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today deplored apologies to the Chinese government by American mayors and governors for earlier proclamations honoring the Falun Gong spiritual movement and its founder, Li Hongzhi.

According to press reports, officials in Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco, and the state of Maryland, under pressure from the Chinese ambassador to the United States, have either rescinded their own proclamations or, in one case, offered a "humblest and most sincere apology" for giving offense.

Falun Gong is a spiritual movement combining traditional Chinese exercise with elements of Buddhism and Taoism. The Chinese authorities have banned the movement, claiming it is a dangerous cult, and detained thousands of Falun Gong practitioners. At least several hundred are still detained in jail or labor camps, while several leaders have been sentenced to long prison terms. At least one Falun Gong practitioner was reported beaten to death by provincial police.

The State Department identified China as a "country of particular concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for Beijing's suppression of Falun Gong as well as Tibetan Buddhists, Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians, and Muslim Uighurs. Under the act, President Clinton extended for two years a ban on U.S. exports of crime-fighting and crime-detection equipment to China. The President has also publicly criticized the crackdown on Falun Gong.

"It's an outrage for U.S. mayors and governors to kowtow to the Chinese government and its slanderous campaign against what all evidence indicates is a peaceful spiritual movement," said Rabbi David Saperstein, the Commission's chairman. "There are thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in the United States and its founder now lives here. Since when do the objections of the Chinese ambassador trump our nation's commitment to religious freedom as a fundamental right and its concomitant opposition to religious persecution?"

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress." 

Rabbi David Saperstein,Chair

• Dean Michael K. Young,Vice Chair Hon. Elliott Abrams, Laila Al-Marayati, M.D.Hon. John R. Bolton, Firuz Kazemzadeh, Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, Nina Shea, Justice Charles Z. Smith, Ambassador Robert Seiple, Ex-Officio Steven T. McFarland, Executive Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dec. 09, 1999

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240

The Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Rabbi David Saperstein, today reiterated President Clinton's call to China to halt its suppression of the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

"China has nothing to fear from these peaceful practitioners of Falun Gong," Chairman Saperstein said. "Instead of strengthening China, the crackdown weakens it -- complicating its foreign relations, undermining its standing among ordinary Chinese citizens, and erecting new barriers to reunification with Taiwan."

Under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the State Department has designated China as a "country of particular concern" for its violations of religious freedom, and consequently President Clinton extended for two years a ban on export of crime-control and -detection equipment.

Falun Gong is a mixture of traditional Chinese exercise with elements of Buddhism and Taoism, one of China's traditional religions. Its founder, Li Hongzhi, currently lives in the United States. Falun Gong disciples have protested the government ban on their movement by peacefully meditating in Tiananmen Square. Some have held up placards calling for recognition of the movement. Tens of thousands of Falun Gong members have been arrested and detained; hundreds, and maybe thousands, have been thrown in jail or labor camps; and four leaders of the movement were recently given prison terms.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry Tuesday demanded the two-year U.S. sanction extension be lifted and criticized President Clinton's remarks Monday that the crackdown on Falun Gong is a "troubling example" of Beijing acting against those "who test the limits of freedom."

Saperstein thanked the President for his support of religious freedom, noting that the suppression of Falun Gong parallels that of Tibetan Buddhists, Muslim Uighurs, and Chinese Christians, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. "If China wants the world's respect, it must respect its own religious believers," he said.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress." 

Rabbi David Saperstein,Chair

• Dean Michael K. Young,Vice Chair Hon. Elliott Abrams, Laila Al-Marayati, M.D.Hon. John R. Bolton, Firuz Kazemzadeh, Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, Nina Shea, Justice Charles Z. Smith, Ambassador Robert Seiple, Ex-Officio Steven T. McFarland,Executive Director