FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 20, 2006

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON - The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) wrote to President George W. Bush urging him to raise in his January 24 meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz the need to promote and protect religious freedom and religious tolerance in Pakistan. Since its inception, the Commission has looked closely at the conditions of religious freedom in Pakistan and continues to recommend to the Secretary of State that Pakistan be named a "country of particular concern" (CPC) for its severe violations of religious freedom. The State Department has not yet designated Pakistan a CPC.

Sectarian and religiously-motivated violence has been committed by Sunni Muslim extremist groups against Shia Muslims, Ahmadis, Hindus, and Christians. Discriminatory legislation has fostered an atmosphere of religious intolerance and eroded the social and legal status of members of religious minorities, particularly the Ahmadi community. Blasphemy allegations, which are often false, result in the lengthy detention of, and sometimes violence against, Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, and members of other religious minorities, as well as Muslims on account of their religious beliefs. After Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf took power in a military coup in 1999, he announced early in his tenure that he would address some of these serious problems. His government has failed to do so, however, and has been criticized inside and outside Pakistan for capitulating to, and thus emboldening, militant groups that advocate policies opposed to the protection of religious freedom.

The Commission recognizes the importance of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship and the strong ties between our two countries. Nevertheless, concerns about religious freedom and other human rights are a critical element of U.S. interests in Pakistan and should be prominent on the bilateral agenda. We hope that President Bush will discuss with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz the United States' concern about severe violations of religious freedom in Pakistan, the persistent problem of sectarian violence, and the need to promote democratic institutions and genuine religious tolerance among all religious communities.

The text of the letter to President Bush follows:

Dear President Bush:

On behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, I urge you to raise in your meeting next week with Pakistan's Prime Minister, Mr. Shaukat Aziz, the need to promote and protect religious freedom and religious tolerance in Pakistan.

Since its inception, the Commission has looked closely at the conditions of religious freedom in Pakistan. The country's president, General Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a military coup in October 1999, announced early in his tenure that his government would address some of these serious problems. Unfortunately, his government has failed to live up to many of the expectations that it had raised. Moreover, the current government has been criticized inside and outside Pakistan for capitulating to, and thus emboldening, militant groups that advocate policies that are opposed to the protection of religious freedom for all Pakistanis and the equal citizenship of members of all religious communities. Belated efforts to curb extremism through reform of Pakistan's thousands of Islamic religious schools continue to have little effect. Many of these schools provide ongoing ideological training and motivation to those who take part in violence targeting religious minorities in Pakistan and abroad.

Sectarian and religiously-motivated violence, much of it committed against Shia Muslims by Sunni militants, is chronic in Pakistan. Ahmadis, Hindus, and Christians have also been targeted by Sunni extremist groups. In the past few years, there have also been fatal attacks on churches and other Christian institutions. Last November, a mob of over 1,500 persons, incited by local Muslim clerics on the basis of a false accusation of blasphemy against a local Christian man, set fire to and destroyed several churches, schools, and homes of Christian families in the town of Sangla Hill. Political leaders did condemn the violence and the blasphemy charge was later dropped, but the incident is only one example of the violence that minority religious communities experience in Pakistan and the fear with which they must routinely live.

Discriminatory legislation has fostered an atmosphere of religious intolerance and eroded the social and legal status of members of religious minorities, particularly the Ahmadi community. Ahmadis, who number three-four million in Pakistan, are prevented by law from engaging in the full practice of their faith. Officially barred from "posing" as Muslims, it is illegal for Ahmadis to preach in public, to call their places of worship "mosques," or to produce, publish, and disseminate their religious materials. Ahmadis have been arrested and imprisoned for terms of up to three years for such acts. They are also subject to violence; last October, eight Ahmadis were killed and 20 injured when gunmen fired on Ahmadi worshippers during Friday prayers.

Blasphemy allegations, which are often false, result in the lengthy detention of, and sometimes violence against, Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, and members of other religious minorities, as well as Muslims on account of their religious beliefs. Prescribed penalties for blasphemy include death and life imprisonment, after proceedings which frequently lack due process. Just last week, 50 members of the "Divine Love" Mehdi Foundation International community were arrested on blasphemy charges and are reportedly being subject to physical abuse while in detention. Some of those accused under the blasphemy laws have been attacked and even killed by vigilantes, including while in police custody; those who escape official punishment or vigilante attack are often forced to flee the country. Although amended in October 2004 with the aim of reducing the more maliciously applied charges, the procedural changes have not had a significant affect on the way the blasphemy laws are exploited in Pakistan.

Pakistan's Hudood Ordinances provide for harsh punishments, such as amputation and death by stoning, for violations of Islamic law. Although these extreme corporal punishments have not been carried out in practice due to high evidentiary standards, lesser punishments such as jail terms or fines have been imposed. Rape victims run a high risk of being charged with adultery, for which death by stoning remains a possible sentence. The UN Committee Against Torture, as well as the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, have stated that stoning and amputation can constitute inhuman or degrading treatment under international human rights standards and treaties.

The Commission is also concerned about the country's public school curriculum, which, according to the State Department, includes "derogatory remarks against minority religions, particularly Hindus and Jews," and the more general teaching that religious intolerance is acceptable. Moreover, there continue to be reports of incidents of persons being forcibly converted to Islam, including the case in December of last year in which three Hindu girls were reportedly kidnapped and pressed to change their religion.

In view of the severe religious freedom violations that exist in Pakistan, the Commission continues to recommend that Pakistan be designated a "country of particular concern," or CPC under the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. We encourage you to urge Mr. Aziz to make serious and sustained efforts to promote and protect the religious freedom of all the citizens of Pakistan, including:

- to rescind laws that effectively criminalize the public practice of the Ahmadi faith in violation of the right to freedom of religion guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

-to implement procedural changes to the blasphemy laws that will significantly and genuinely reduce their abuse; and

- to take effective steps to prevent sectarian violence and punish its perpetrators, including disarming militant groups and any religious schools that provide weapons and other training.

Mr. President, we recognize the importance of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship and the strong ties between our two countries. Nevertheless, concerns about religious freedom and other human rights are a critical element of U.S. interests in Pakistan and should be prominent on the bilateral agenda. We hope that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz's visit to Washington provides an occasion for a serious discussion of severe violations of religious freedom in Pakistan, the persistent problem of sectarian violence, and the need to promote democratic institutions and genuine religious tolerance among all religious communities.

Respectfully,

Michael Cromartie
Chair

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 13, 2006

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON - A delegation from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), led by USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie, is visiting Sudan January 10-21. The delegation is meeting with a broad range of individuals, including government officials, religious leaders, civil society representatives, and international observers, in Khartoum, Southern Sudan, and Nairobi, Kenya. The Commission's visit was agreed to by Sudan's Government of National Unity.

Since its inception in 1998, including after the signing of the Peace Agreement, USCIRF has determined that Sudan should be designated as a "country of particular concern," or CPC. The State Department has repeatedly adopted this recommendation. In the past, the Commission has identified Sudan as the world's most violent abuser of the right to freedom of religion and belief and has drawn attention to the Sudanese government's genocidal atrocities against civilian populations, including in Darfur. As a result of the government's policies of Islamization and Arabization, 2 million people, mostly non-Muslims in southern and central Sudan, died in the now-concluded North-South civil war. With the signing of comprehensive North-South peace accords during the past year, conditions for religious freedom in certain parts of the country have changed.

Sudan is in the midst of a historic transition. Among the issues the Commission will gather information on are the implementation of the human rights guarantees in the Peace Agreement and the country's Interim Constitution. The Commission will be submitting recommendations for U.S. policy toward Sudan as part of its statutory mandate.

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20, 2005

Contact:
Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

WASHINGTON - The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) wrote to the U.S. Department of State asking that it urgently communicate with the German government to prevent the imminent involuntary deportation of thousands of particularly vulnerable asylum seekers from Germany to Afghanistan, including Hindu refugees who face the threat of violence upon return to Afghanistan. The imminent deportation of Afghan asylum seekers was announced earlier this month by authorities within the Federal Republic of Germany. The Afghan Hindu population was one of the most severely persecuted groups under the Taliban, and nearly all members of the community fled the country. Because the government in Kabul does not exercise full control over the country, and religious freedom and human rights abuses continue in regions outside of the central government's control, the Commission is concerned that these individuals will be subject to persecution if forced to return to Afghanistan. A Hindu aid worker from India, Maniyappan Raman Kutty, was recently brutally beheaded.

"In the event that the German government moves ahead with involuntary deportation, the Commission is urging the U.S. Refugee Program to prepare for the resettlement of Afghan Hindus and members of other particularly vulnerable groups in the United States, as was done with Bosnian refugees in the late 1990's when Germany launched their involuntary return at a time when other members of the international community considered it too unsafe to conduct involuntary repatriations to Bosnia," said USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie.

The text of the letter to the State Department follows:

Dear Acting Assistant Secretary Greene:

I am writing on behalf of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom to urge that the United States communicate and act urgently to prevent the imminent involuntary deportation from Germany to Afghanistan of particularly vulnerable asylum seekers, including Hindu refugees who face the threat of violence upon return to Afghanistan. The imminent deportation of Afghan asylum seekers was announced earlier this month by authorities within the Federal Republic of Germany. We ask that the United States urgently communicate with the Federal Republic of Germany to halt these deportations of vulnerable populations and, in addition, that the United States take steps similar to those it took in the late 1990s to allow applications for resettlement to the United States of Bosnian refugees who had been faced with the similar threat of forcible return and deportation from Germany.

As the Commission noted in its 2005 Annual Report, the government in Kabul does not yet exercise full control over the country. Religious freedom and human rights abuses persist in regions that are effectively outside of central government control, as was evidenced recently by the brutal beheading of Hindu aid worker Maniyappan Raman Kutty from India. These substantial security threats present a persistent danger to the establishment of democracy and the rule of law throughout Afghanistan.

Religious minorities - such as Hindus and Sikhs - were severely persecuted under the Taliban, and nearly all 50,000 of them fled the country. In official remarks made in Brussels earlier this year at the Strategic Consultations Convening on Refugee and Population Movements to and from Afghanistan, then-Assistant Secretary Dewey said "that there are likely to be a significant number of Afghans for whom voluntary repatriation will not be suitable." Assistant Secretary Dewey expressed that the United States would not like to see Afghan refugees being "put under pressure" to leave the major host countries of Iran and Pakistan.

We are now faced, however, with a situation where one of the most persecuted groups under the Taliban - the Afghan Hindu population - is facing forcible return by a third country: Germany. In Hamburg alone there are 12,000 Afghans, hundreds of them Hindus, who are now being threatened with deportation if they do not accept financial assistance to "voluntarily" return to Afghanistan.

While the German lander (states) move ahead with plans for imminent deportations, even the German Foreign Ministry reports that the situation for Afghans "continues unimproved countrywide" and that, in some provinces, "a return there is not possible without risk to life and limb."

This situation is not unprecedented. In the late 1990's, the German lander launched involuntary returns of Bosnian refugees at a time when other members of the international community considered it too unsafe to conduct involuntary repatriations. At that time, the United States government, after being unsuccessful in its efforts to discourage the Germans from conducting such deportations, established a processing priority for Bosnians in Germany, and saved many of them from deportation by allowing them to apply to the United States for resettlement. We would urge that the United States prevail upon the German government to stop returns of members of religious minorities persecuted under the Taliban.

To prepare for the possibility that this suggestion from the United States could go unheeded, we would also urge that the U.S. Refugee Program make preparations for the establishment of a resettlement processing priority for Afghan Hindus and members of other particularly vulnerable groups. This program could be based on the highly successful one established nearly a decade ago to protect Bosnian asylum seekers from premature deportations out of Germany.

We look forward to your timely attention to this imminent situation and to your response.

Sincerely,

Michael Cromartie
Chair

cc: Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky

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.