| Steel On Steel Persecution Update April 4, 2010 Edited by: Donald McElvaney, www.missionbarnabas.org Top Stories: 1. Attacks in Punjab, India Similar to Orissa Mayhem, Report Says 2. Pro-Democracy Advocate in Vietnam Released from Prison 3. Threat of Return to Hindu State in Nepal Looms 4. Vietnam’s Temporary Release of Priest Goes against Trend 5. Pakistani Muslim Prohibits Burial in Christian Graveyard 6. Vietnamese Christian, Family, Forced into Hiding 7. Signs of Witness Intimidation Mount in Orissa, India 1. Attacks in Punjab, India Similar to Orissa Mayhem, Report Says Hindu nationalists try to burn Christians alive for protesting offensive Jesus banners. By Vishal Arora NEW DELHI, March 3 (Compass Direct News) – Attacks on Christians last month in Punjab state following protests against banners depicting Jesus drinking and smoking were eerily similar to the anti-Christian violence in Orissa state in 2007 and 2008, according to a fact-finding mission released yesterday by the All India Christian Council (AICC). Dr. John Dayal, a member of the fact-finding mission, pointed out that factors such as the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) being part of the ruling coalition, police inaction, coordination of attacks and support of the local merchant community for Hindu nationalist groups in the anti-Christian attacks in Punjab reminded him of mayhem in Orissa’s Kandhamal district. “The strategy of the assailants in Punjab was eerily reminiscent of what was practiced and perfected against churches in Orissa,” Dayal said. Supporters of the Hindu extremist Sangh Parivar burned the 1865-built Church of the Epiphany belonging to the Church of North India (CNI) denomination on Feb. 20. They also tried to destroy a nearby Salvation Army church and attacked its pastor, Gurnam Singh, leaving him seriously injured. “Even as the larger group of attackers focused on burning the CNI church, a group of men armed with sticks and rods came to the house of the CNI deacon,” the report notes. “The deacon, Victor Gill, and his wife Parveen, hid themselves under the bed. The assailants damaged the doors, tried to enter the room forcibly, and told the couple they would be burnt alive if they did not come out.” 2. Pro-Democracy Advocate in Vietnam Released from Prison Her new Christian faith deepens; authorities allow evangelist Luis Palau to address pastors. Special to Compass Direct News HO CHI MINH CITY, March 30 (Compass Direct News) – A Protestant prisoner of conscience who had called for democratic freedoms in Vietnam was released earlier this month after serving a three-year sentence for “propagandizing to destroy the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” Attorney Le Thi Cong Nhan’s sentence had been reduced by one year after an international outcry over her sentencing. She was released on March 6. Now serving an additional three-year house arrest sentence, Cong Nhan said in a surprisingly frank interview with Voice of America’s Vietnamese language broadcast on March 9 that she has no intention of giving up her struggle for a just and free Vietnam and accepts that there may be a further price to pay. While in prison, twice she went on a hunger strike when authorities took her Bible away from her. In other developments, on March 17 renowned U.S. evangelist Luis Palau was allowed to address more than 400 pastors in a day-long event at the New World Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. Palau had addressed nearly 200 Hanoi area pastors at an evening event at the Hanoi Hilton on March 14. The events were deemed significant, if not historic, by Vietnam’s Christian leaders. Such visits are extremely rare, and the events were significant also in that they brought together leaders from virtually all segments of Vietnam’s fractured and sometimes conflicted Protestant groups, Christian leaders said. “There is still a long way to go, but we are seeing miracles piling up,” said one senior Vietnamese leader. 3. Threat of Return to Hindu State in Nepal Looms With deadline for new constitution approaching, Christians fear end of secular government. By Sudeshna Sarkar KATHMANDU, Nepal, March 30 (Compass Direct News) – Four years after Nepal became officially secular, fear is growing that the country could revert to the Hindu state it was till 2006, when proclaiming Christ was a punishable offense and many churches functioned clandestinely to avoid being shut down. Concerns were heightened after Nepal’s deposed King Gyanendra Shah, once regarded as a Hindu god, broke the silence he has observed since Nepal abolished monarchy in 2008. During his visit to a Hindu festival this month, the former king said that monarchy was not dead and could make a comeback if people so desired. Soon after that, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, a former prime minister and respected leader of the largest ruling party, said that instead of getting a new constitution, Nepal should revive an earlier one. The 1990 constitution declared Nepal a Hindu kingdom with a constitutional monarch. There is now growing doubt that the ruling parties will not be able to fashion the new constitution they promised by May. “We feel betrayed,” said Dr. K.B. Rokaya, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Nepal. “The Constituent Assembly we elected to give us a new constitution that would strengthen democracy and secularism has frittered away the time and opportunity given to it.” The clamor for a Hindu state has been growing as the May 28 deadline for the new constitution draws near. When a Hindu preacher, Kalidas Dahal, held a nine-day prayer ritual in Kathmandu this month seeking reinstatement of Hinduism as the state religion, thousands of people flocked to him. The throng included three former prime ministers and top leaders of the ruling parties. 4. Vietnam’s Temporary Release of Priest Goes against Trend Government granting leave to Father Ly is said to be tightening control overall. By Sarah Page DUBLIN, March 30 (Compass Direct News) – Vietnamese officials have in recent months tightened control over those they regard as dissidents, and the temporary release of Catholic priest Thadeus Nguyen van Ly on March 15 was a rare exception, according to Amnesty International (AI). Officials on March 15 released Ly, now 63, from prison for one year so that he could receive medical treatment. An outspoken advocate for religious freedom, Ly was sentenced to eight years in prison in March 2007 for “spreading propaganda” against the state. He had previously received 10- and 15-year sentences on similar charges. Fellow priests told the Union of Catholic Asian News that Ly had suffered three strokes in May, September and November of last year, partially paralyzing his right arm and leg and making it difficult for him to walk, write or feed himself. Following urgent requests from diocesan priests and family members, officials on March 14 granted Ly one year’s reprieve from his jail sentence. On March 15 they transported him by ambulance from Ba Sao prison camp in northern Ha Nam province to a home for retired priests in Hue, central Vietnam. Under pressure from international advocacy groups including AI, the government may have granted Ly’s release to ward off potential embarrassment should he die in prison, said Brittis Edman, Asia researcher for AI. “He’s a very public figure, and the Vietnamese government is not comfortable with being criticized.” 5. Pakistani Muslim Prohibits Burial in Christian Graveyard Land-grabber seizes cemetery, keeps mourners from burying body of young man. By Brian Sharma GUJRANWALA, Pakistan, April 1 (Compass Direct News) – A Muslim land owner who effectively seized a Christian graveyard here refused to allow the burial of a young Christian at the site on Sunday (March 28). Christians in Noshera Virkan, Gujranwala, have only one graveyard measuring little more than one acre. This longstanding disadvantage turned into a nightmare when Muhammad Boota, who owns much of the land in the area, prohibited Christians from burying the body of 25-year-old Riaz Masih there on Sunday (March 28). Social worker Sajjad Masih told Compass that in the midst of the dispute, police from Saddar police station arrived and sided with Boota. “You may burn your dead, but you cannot bury them in this graveyard,” Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Asif Cheema told mourners while beating them and pushing them out of the graveyard, according to Masih. After a two-hour protest on Monday (March 29), police accompanied the mourners to the graveyard to allow the burial. Khalid Gill, chief organizer in Punjab Province of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, said the graveyard has a long history as a Christian burial site, but in 1997 Boota obtained one-fourth of it and then immediately filed a court case for full possession, bringing an interim stay order until the case is decided. Pakistan civil cases often go on for decades, Gill said, and the case is still pending. He said that Boota turned part of the graveyard land that he obtained into a bus stop and used another part for his residence. 6. Vietnamese Christian, Family, Forced into Hiding Officials expel them from village; elsewhere, pastor dragged behind motorbike. Special to Compass Direct News HO CHI MINH CITY, April 1 (Compass Direct News) – Suffering severe abuse from villagers and local Vietnamese officials, Hmong Christian Sung Cua Po fled into the forest with his family on March 19. An expulsion order had been issued to his family, an area Christian leader said. Po, who embraced Christianity in November, was badly beaten after local officials in northwest Vietnam’s Dien Bien Province arrested him on Dec. 1, 2009; since then he suffered physical attacks by police of Nam Son Commune on Feb. 10. The Christian leader said police have threatened that if he did not recant they would beat him till only his tongue was intact. Around the Lunar New Year in mid-February, Po had an altercation with his father over offerings to family ancestors; Po held fast to his allegiance to Christ, refusing to sacrifice to his ancestors. On Feb. 20, Nam Son district police were authorized by Dien Bien Dong district authorities to demolish Po’s house if deemed necessary. On Feb. 21, community members backed by police confiscated 40 sacks of paddy rice, the family’s one-year supply. In Phu Yen Province in the south of Vietnam, religious intolerance was also on display as local police dragged a pastor behind a motorbike, Christian leaders reported. Village police summoned Y Du, a 55-year-old pastor also from the Ede ethnic group, to a police station for questioning on Jan. 27. While driving his motorbike to the station, Pastor Du was stopped by village police who chained his hands together and then attached the chain by rope to his motorbike. Christian sources said they forced Pastor Du to run behind the motorbike that they had commandeered, and he fell over many times, dragged along the ground. He was beaten and forced to keep running. He was later jailed without charges. 7. Signs of Witness Intimidation Mount in Orissa, India Fear factor results in transfer of rape case; meantime, 6-year-old girl says politician is killer. By Shireen Bhatia NEW DELHI, April 2 (Compass Direct News) – Due in part to intimidation of witnesses in Kandhamal district, a judge this week granted a change of venue for the trial of men accused of gang-raping a nun during anti-Christian attacks in Orissa in 2008. The trial will be transferred from Baliguda, Kandhamal to Cuttack, near the Orissa state capital of Bhubaneshwar. Justice Indrajit Mohanty of the Orissa High Court on Tuesday (March 30) ordered the inter-district transfer of the trial. The nun, Meena Lilita Barwa, had argued that witnesses would be intimidated into refraining from testifying if the trial were held in Kandhamal district. After a series of trials in which murder suspects in the 2008 Kandhamal district violence have gone free as Hindu extremist threats have kept witnesses from testifying, a 6-year-old girl has identified a powerful local politician as the man who killed her father. In testimony at Fast Track Court No. 1 on March 14, Lipsa Nayak of Kandhamal identified Manoj Pradhan, a member of the Legislative Assembly of Orissa, as the man who cut and burned her father to death when Hindu extremists attacked Christians following the Aug. 23, 2008 death of a local Hindu leader. Lipsa’s mother, 32-year-old Kanak Rekha Nayak, has said that Pradhan and his associates have threatened to harm her family if they identified him as the killer. When a judge asked Lipsa if she could identify the killer of her father, the 6-year-old pointed to Pradhan. “There has been no conviction in any case of murder,” said Dr. John Dayal, a member of the National Integration Council. “More than 70 people were killed, and trial is being held only for 38 or so of those deaths. Eleven murder cases have been tried with no one being indicted or sentenced for murder so far – because of terrible investigation by the police, a poor show by the prosecuting lawyers and shoddy judicial process.” |
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