FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 5, 2000

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

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom today issued the following statement by Chairman Elliott Abrams in reaction to the release of the State Department's second annual Report on International Religious Freedom:

"The State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom and outgoing Ambassador-at-Large Robert Seiple are to be commended for another masterful job in compiling in unvarnished form the tragic story of religious persecution around the globe. I am pleased to note that the report incorporates several of the suggestions for improvement made by the Commission in its May 1 Annual Report and by non-governmental organizations."

"Once again the facts are in. The real question is what will the Administration and Congress do with them. The record during the almost two years since passage of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998 leaves much to be desired. While many fine words have been spoken, little action has followed."

"The evidence contained in the report would justify the State Department's listing for a second year of Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, and Sudan as ‘countries of particular concern,' as well as the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the government of Serbia - which, while not countries, also remain ‘particularly severe violators of religious freedom.' The report also gives additional weight to the Commission's July 28 recommendation that the Department add Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Turkmenistan to the list, and we again urge the Department to do so."

"The Commission is also disappointed in the Administration's policy towards several countries of particular concern following their designation in 1999. In the cases of Sudan and China, the sanctions it identified are grossly inadequate and ineffective. In Sudan, access to U.S. capital markets for companies involved in the Sudanese oil industry has not been closed, and the government of Sudan remains able to control most food aid supplied by the international community, thereby using food as a weapon in its civil war. The Administration has continued to push for Permanent Normal Trade Relations status for China without requiring any improvements in that government's egregious and deteriorating record on religious freedom."

"The Commission also notes that with the upcoming departure of Ambassador Seiple his crucial position threatens to be vacant for many months. We will strongly urge the next president to move quickly to fill the vacancy with a person as knowledgeable and distinguished as Ambassador Seiple."

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." src="https://www.uscirf.org/images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2000

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 679-7655 (cell)
Steven T. McFarland, Executive Director, (202) 679-7653 (cell)

In a Los Angeles speech two weeks ago, Bishop Michael Fu Tieshan of the government-controlled Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association claimed that China is entering a "golden age" for religion. At a Washington press conference later the same week, Bishop Fu asserted that "there is no religious persecution in China."

The facts say otherwise. Just since the May vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on granting Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status, China's record on religious freedom, already deplorable, has further deteriorated. There are reliable press reports of the following:

• The brutal campaign against the Falun Gong and Zhong Gong spiritual movements continues. Estimates of the number of Falun Gong practitioners who have died as a result - usually from police beatings - ranges from 27 to more than 30. At least 35,000 have been detained, with 5,000 sent to labor camps without trial. Several leaders have received prison terms of more than a decade. Zhong Gong's founder, Zhong Hongbao, has fled to Guam, where he has filed an asylum request, while the Chinese authorities have charged him with sexual crimes. An estimated 600 Zhong Gong organizers have been detained and 3,000 businesses linked to the group shut down, leaving some 100,000 people jobless. In July, Chinese authorities arrested Shen Chang, leader of the Shen Chang Body Science meditation group, and charged him with "disrupting social order" and tax evasion.

• At least eight Uighur Muslims from the Xinjiang Autonomous Region were executed in June and July on charges of "splitting the country." Muslim Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer remains in jail serving an eight-year sentence for "harming national security." Her crime: sending her husband in the U.S. clippings from Chinese newspapers, on which he commented over Radio Free Asia.

• Harassment of Protestant and Roman Catholic Christians who refuse to join state-controlled organizations proceeds apace. Dozens of Protestants have been arrested for participating in unauthorized house-church services, including 31 in Hubei Province on Aug. 2, 12 in Henan Province on Aug. 10, and 24 in Shanxi Province on Aug. 24. On Aug. 23, police in Henan arrested 130 evangelical Christians of the China Fangcheng Church at a religious meeting, along with three visiting Chinese-American evangelists. The Chinese government has banned the Fangcheng Church as an "evil cult," but American evangelicals say it follows traditional Christian beliefs. The three Americans were beaten, released, and deported, and 70 of the Chinese Christians were jailed. On June 24 and Aug. 6, Bishop Fu ordained a number of bishops and priests without Vatican approval. An underground Vatican-recognized priest was arrested in Fujian Province Aug. 19 for celebrating Mass in a private home. He was released Aug. 29, but the next day police in Fujian arrested another priest, a seminarian, 20 nuns, and two laypersons. Two nuns were released after parishioners paid police a large sum of money, but the other 22 persons were still detained as of Sept. 1.

• Police have ransacked homes in Tibet, seizing and destroying Buddhist religious objects and pictures of the Dalai Lama. Thirty monks were expelled in July from the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibetan Buddhism's holiest shrines. The Tibet Daily newspaper on July 4 published an article threatening government officials who participate in religious activities, along with a phone number for informants to call and report them if they do. In August, authorities expelled the German and Portuguese directors of the Tibet Heritage Fund, an international agency working in Lhasa, the capital, to restore Tibetan cultural sites, including monasteries. China successfully lobbied the organizers of the Millennium World Peace Summit of religious leaders to exclude the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, from events scheduled in the United Nations building in New York. Perhaps most incredibly, Chinese customs officials seized 16,000 copies of a book of photographs of President Clinton by Robert McNeely, his official photographer, because one of the photos showed the President meeting with the Dalai Lama. The books, which were printed in Hong Kong and sent to China for binding, were published by a New York firm for sale in the U.S.

As the sharp deterioration in freedom of religion in China continues unabated, if not at a stepped-up pace, the U.S. government has a moral obligation to speak out and let the Chinese government know that these abuses are unacceptable. On the eve of the Senate debate on granting China PNTR status, the Commission reiterates the recommendations from its May 1 Annual Report that Congress should grant PNTR status only after China makes substantial improvement in respect for religious freedom, measured by the following standards. China should:

a) open a high-level and continuing dialogue with the U.S. on religious freedom-issues;

b) ratify the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which it has signed;

c) permit the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and international human rights organizations unhindered access to religious leaders, including those imprisoned, detained, or under house arrest;

d) respond to inquiries regarding persons who are imprisoned, detained, or under house arrest for reasons of religion or belief, or whose whereabouts are not known, although they were last seen in the hands of Chinese authorities; and

e) release from prison all religious prisoners.

Also, before granting PNTR, the U.S. Congress should:

a) announce that it will hold annual hearings on human rights and religious freedom in China; and

b) extend an invitation to the Dalai Lama to address a Joint Session of the Congress.

Further, the United States should use its diplomatic influence to ensure that China is not selected as a site for the Olympic Games until it makes significant improvement in human rights, including religious freedom.

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." 

Hon. Elliott Abrams, Chair

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 10, 2000

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

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote to President Clinton August 8 urging that he raise with President Obasanjo of Nigeria "the need for his government to preserve religious liberty for all Nigerians." President Clinton will undertake a state visit to Nigeria on August 25-27. The Commission is concerned by a wave of violence between Christians and Muslims during recent months fostered by the attempts of several northern Nigerian states to adopt Islamic criminal law and impose it on non-Muslims. The violence has "claimed hundreds of lives, displaced thousands, and destroyed many places of worship, homes and businesses," the Commission noted. The text of the letter follows:

August 8, 2000

The Honorable William J. Clinton
President of the United States of America
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Re: Presidential Visit to Nigeria, August 25-27, 2000

Dear Mr. President,

We were pleased to learn that you will be making a state visit to Nigeria on August 25-27, 2000 to meet with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo. According to the White House statement, the purpose of the visit is to "underscore [U.S.] support for Nigeria's impressive democratic transformation under President Obasanjo's government and for Nigeria's leadership role in the region."

On behalf of the U.S. Commission On International Religious Freedom, I urge you to raise with President Obasanjo the need for his government to preserve religious liberty for all Nigerians. A number of northern states have adopted, or proposed the adoption of, Islamic criminal law and sought to impose it on non-Muslims. These proposals are opposed -- sometimes violently -- by non-Muslims throughout Nigeria. The result has been a wave of violence between Muslims and Christians since February of this year that has claimed hundreds of lives, displaced thousands, and destroyed many places of worship, homes and businesses. It appears that there has been deliberate targeting of Christians and their institutions based solely on their religious affiliation; these attacks have triggered reprisals against Muslims in southern states. This strife threatens to halt the progress of democratic transformation, and to destabilize the country and the surrounding West African region.

President Obasanjo's government has as you know taken some steps to prevent further violence and diffuse the crisis, but with limited success. He has spoken out publicly against both the violence and the recent announcement that Islamic law would be implemented in Kano state (despite an earlier agreement by the National Council of States to suspend implementation of Islamic law in northern states). An increased presence of security forces has been established in areas where violence can occur. Muslim and Christian religious leaders have also spoken out against the violence. However, President Obasanjo's government has been unable to check the violence and bring the perpetrators to justice. More fundamentally, the federal government has not challenged the imposition of Islamic law on non-Muslims, which lies at the heart of the problem.

The Commission respectfully recommends that you impress on President Obasanjo the high priority that our government will continue to place on religious freedom in its relations with Nigeria. We ask that you urge President Obasanjo to do all he can to restore order and to ensure that the application of religious law anywhere in the country be done in consonance with the federal constitution's separation of church and state and with international covenants of human rights. It may indeed be difficult to balance respect for the law-making authority of Nigerian states, the right of non-Muslims to speak out on important issues such as the implementation of Islamic law, and the need to prevent outbreaks of violence. However, the willingness to do so will be indicative of the commitment of President Obasanjo's government, and the Nigerian people, to democracy, human rights and religious freedom. We hope that your visit to Nigeria provides an occasion for a serious discussion of religious freedom and communal violence in Nigeria.

Respectfully,

Elliott Abrams
Chairman

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." 

Hon. Elliott Abrams,Chair

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