|
WASHINGTON
- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has
recommended to Secretary of State Colin Powell that he designate the
following 11 countries as "countries of particular concern" (CPCs)
for the systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom
that the governments are responsible for or have tolerated: Burma, Democratic
People¡¦s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Eritrea, India*,
Iran, Pakistan, People¡¦s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia,
Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. The State Department has not yet named Eritrea,
India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan or Vietnam.
"The
designation of countries of particular concern is one of the most important
human rights acts taken by the U.S. government. We strongly
urge the State Department to name those countries that have not yet been
designated," said USCIRF Chair Michael K. Young.
The
simple designation of a severe violator of religious freedom as a CPC is not
sufficient action. CPC designation carries an obligation that one or more of
certain actions specified in Section 405 of the International Religious
Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) be taken, unless the President determines that
pre-existing sanctions are adequate or otherwise waives the requirement. For
every country named a CPC to date, the only official actions taken have been
to invoke already existing sanctions rather than to take additional action to
advance religious freedom pursuant to IRFA.
"We
strongly urge Secretary Powell to engage these governments in as many ways as
possible in order to better promote religious freedom in these countries, and
particularly encourage use of the policy tools outlined in IRFA. Moreover,
the Commission has made specific policy recommendations on China,
India, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam,
and we encourage him to give special attention to those
recommendations," said Young.
Background
papers on the countries USCIRF has recommended for CPC designation are
available on our Web site at www.uscirf.gov.
The
text of the letter follows:
Dear
Secretary Powell:
In
compliance with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), the
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent
federal agency, has assessed the evidence, including that contained in the
State Department's 2003 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom,
regarding especially severe violations of religious freedom around the world.
The Commission has focused particularly on countries whose governments are
responsible for or have tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious
violations of religious freedom. As a result of this examination, the
Commission recommends that you designate the following 11 countries as
countries of particular concern (CPCs): Burma, Democratic
People¡¦s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Eritrea, India*,
Iran, Pakistan, People¡¦s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia,
Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.
The
Commission respectfully requests a meeting with you prior to your CPC
determinations to discuss the Commission's full findings and recommendations
on these proposed CPCs. We would also like to discuss the actions planned
toward those countries that are officially designated as CPCs.
In
March 2003, you designated Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, North
Korea, and Sudan as CPCs. It is the opinion of the Commission that, with
the exception of Iraq, nothing has changed to warrant the removal of these
countries from the list of CPC designations.
In
light of the fall of Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist regime in Iraq
in April 2003 and the policies established under the new Governing Council,
the Commission no longer recommends Iraq for CPC status. However, the
Commission urges the U.S. government to remain highly engaged in the process
of restoring freedom and building democracy in Iraq, including in the
development of a new constitution for that country that will guarantee every
individual¡¦s right to freedom of thought, conscience, and
religion, and other human rights. Although the people of Iraq are now
experiencing many religious freedoms for the first time in more than two
decades, some prominent individuals and groups in Iraq have been demanding
the implementation of Islamic law (Sharia) in a manner that would constitute
a potential threat to the freedom of thought, conscience, or belief of all
the citizens of Iraq.
The
Commission remains especially concerned about the situation in China,
where repression of religious freedom continues to be a deliberate policy of
the Chinese government. In the past year, Chinese authorities have
intensified their violent campaign against religious believers, including
Evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, Uighur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists,
and other groups, such as the Falun Gong. This campaign has included
imprisonment, torture, and other forms of ill treatment. As you know, the
Commission attempted to travel to China twice in the past year but was
thwarted in both attempts by unacceptable limits imposed by the Chinese
government that prevented such a visit. The Commission recently visited Hong
Kong, but continues to seek a visit to other regions of China.
In
addition to the five countries previously designated by you as CPCs, the
Commission finds that the governments of Eritrea, India*, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam have engaged in or tolerated particularly
severe violations of religious freedom, and recommends that they be
designated as CPCs this year.
·
According to the State Department, religious freedom does not exist in Saudi
Arabia. The Saudi government forcefully bans all forms of public religious
_expression_ other than that of the government’s interpretation of one school
of Sunni Islam. There are serious reports, which warrant official U.S.
government investigation, that Saudis are funding efforts to propagate
globally a religious ideology that promotes hate, intolerance, and other
human rights violations toward non-Muslims and disfavored Muslims.
·
For the second year in a row, the State Department has reported that
religious freedom has deteriorated in Turkmenistan. The Turkmen
government effectively bans religious activity other than that of the
government-controlled Sunni Muslim Board and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Religious freedom conditions in Turkmenistan are likely to decline even
further after the passage of a new religion law that criminalizes
“illegal” religious activity.
·
Repressive policies to control religious activity continue in Vietnam,
where key religious dissidents continue to be imprisoned and members of
religious minorities in the northwestern provinces and Central Highlands face
intensified official efforts to renounce their faith or face beatings,
arrests, relocations, or the loss of government services.
·
In Pakistan, there continues to be an inadequate government
response to vigilante violence frequently perpetrated by Sunni militants
against Shi’as, Ahmadis, and Christians. Official government policies
result in other religious freedom violations, including imprisonment under
the anti-Ahmadi and blasphemy laws.
·
In India*, violence, including fatal attacks, against Muslims
and Christians continues, and the government has yet to address adequately
the killing of an estimated 2,000 Muslims in the state of Gujarat in 2002.
Several central government ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party,
or BJP, have publicly allied themselves with extremist Hindu organizations,
known collectively as the Sangh Parivar, whose members regularly employ hate
speech against religious minorities, have been implicated in violence against
them, and seek legislation to prohibit the religious conversion of Dalits and
others from Hinduism.
·
The government of Eritrea in the past two years has cracked
down on members of various religious groups, including through the closure of
all churches not belonging to officially recognized religious denominations,
the arrest of participants at prayer meetings and other gatherings, and the
imprisonment of armed forces members found in possession of certain religious
literature. The State Department reports that over 300 persons are in jail
because of their membership in unregistered religious groups.
Summaries
of conditions in all of the countries that the Commission has recommended be
designated as CPCs are attached.
We
respectfully draw your attention to the fact that under IRFA, the simple
designation of a severe violator of religious freedom as a CPC is not
sufficient action by the U.S. government. CPC designation
carries an obligation that one or more of certain actions specified in
Section 405 of IRFA be taken, unless the President determines that
pre-existing sanctions are adequate or otherwise waives the requirement. Yet,
for every country named a CPC to date, the only official actions taken have
been to invoke already existing sanctions rather than taken additional action
to advance religious freedom pursuant to IRFA. We strongly urge you to engage
these governments in as many ways as possible in order better to promote
religious freedom in these countries, and particularly encourage use of the
means outlined in Section 405 of IRFA. Moreover, the Commission has made
specific policy recommendations on China, India, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi
Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam, and we encourage you to give
special attention to those recommendations, which can be found in the
attached country summaries.
In
addition to its CPC recommendations, the Commission has established a Watch
List of countries where religious freedom conditions do not rise to the
statutory level requiring CPC designation but which require close monitoring
because of the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged
in or tolerated by the governments. Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria,
and Uzbekistan remain on the Commission¡¦s Watch List due to
concerns about the serious abuses in these countries, and because the
governments have either not halted repression and/or violence against persons
amounting to severe violations of freedom of religion, or failed to punish
those responsible for perpetrating those acts. Because religious freedom
continues to be sharply curtailed in Cuba, and because of the deteriorating
religious freedom conditions in Belarus and Georgia, the Commission has
decided to place those countries on its Watch List. A summary of religious
freedom conditions in each of the Commission¡¦s Watch List
countries is also attached to this letter for your consideration.
As
there continue to be serious religious freedom problems in Laos,
that country has also been placed on the Commission¡¦s Watch
List. Several problematic government policies remain in place in Laos,
including Decree 92, the law on religion, which reportedly is being used to
impede the activities of certain religious groups. Since the Commission last
issued its CPC recommendations, however, many known religious prisoners in Laos
have been released; reportedly, forced renunciations have largely ceased; and
the government has pledged to allow the reopening of a number of churches
that it had closed in recent years. Although periodic arrests by local
officials continue in certain Lao provinces, including almost two dozen
Christians in two incidents in December 2003, those detained have been
released in a matter of days. In these cases, the Lao government appears to
have been responsive to concerns raised by the U.S. Embassy.
The
Commission strongly urges serious U.S. engagement with the
governments of these Watch List countries. The Commission has made policy
recommendations on Belarus, Indonesia, Laos, and Uzbekistan, and respectfully
draws your attention to them.
IRFA
sets forth that the policy of the United States is to oppose
particularly severe violations of religious freedom. The designation of CPCs
and actions taken in response to such designations are among the most
significant responsibilities conferred under IRFA. The Commission looks
forward to discussing its recommendations with you.
Thank
you.
Respectfully
yours,
Michael
K. Young
Chair
*Commissioners
Bansal, Gaer, and Young dissent from the Commission\\\'s recommendation that India
be designated a country of particular concern (CPC). Their views with respect
to India are reflected in a separate opinion, attached to this letter as
Appendix A. Commissioner Chaput also joins this separate opinion, and would
place India on the Watch List rather than recommend that it be designated a
CPC.
The
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to give independent policy
recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress.
Visit
our Web site at www.uscirf.gov
APPENDIX
A
SEPARATE
OPINION OF COMMISSIONERS BANSAL, CHAPUT, GAER, AND YOUNG WITH RESPECT TO INDIA
"We
remain deeply concerned over incidents of religiously-based violence in Gujarat
and other parts of India that have resulted in loss of life, physical abuse,
displacement, and other abuses. Moreover, we are very concerned that justice
has not been done for the victims of the violence against Muslims that took
place in Gujarat in early 2002, and that incidents of mob violence against
Christians, Muslims, and other religious minorities have continued in parts
of the country, but we respectfully dissent from the decision to recommend
that India be named a CPC."
"As
noted in the dissent last year, India, unlike the other countries on the
Commission¡¦s recommended CPC or Watch List, is a respected
constitutional democracy with manifold religious traditions that coexist and
flourish under extreme economic and other conditions; has a judiciary which
is independent, albeit slow-moving and frequently unresponsive, that can work
to hold the perpetrators responsible; contains a vibrant civil society with
many vigorous, independent non-governmental human rights organizations that
have investigated and published extensive reports about the Gujarat
government's handling of the situation and the rise of religiously-motivated
violence; and is home to a free press that has widely reported on and
strongly criticized the situation on the ground in Gujarat and the growing
threats to a religiously plural society within India. In fact, some of the
most vociferous critics of the Gujarat government¡¦s handling of
the 2002 situation and the prosecutions thereafter have been Indian
governmental bodies ¡V including the National Human Rights Commission,
the National Commission on Minorities, and the National Commission for Women,
and much of the source material for critical analysis of the state of
religious freedom in India derives from publications of the Indian media and
of nongovernmental and other civil society groups within India."
"Moreover,
since last year, national governmental bodies have taken a number of
significant steps to reign in excesses or to correct insufficient action at
the state level. The Indian Supreme Court has forcefully denounced Gujarat
state authorities¡¦ handling of certain prosecutions, halted key
trials, and paved the way for changes of venue to ensure justice. With such
visible and proactive intervention, the Supreme Court has made clear that it
will take action to ensure justice. In addition, initial convictions and life
sentences for a dozen perpetrators of the Gujarat violence have been handed
down recently. Justice has been done this year in the state of Orissa in the
widely reported case involving the 1999 murder of an Australian missionary
and his sons, with a death sentence having been rendered against the main
perpetrator of that violence."
"Perhaps
most notably, a series of actions by Indian officials during the past year
have prevented similar outbreaks of large-scale religiously motivated
violence in several volatile locales. In August 2003, twin deadly bombings in
Mumbai by groups seeking to avenge the previous year¡¦s violence
in Gujarat were followed by official statements seeking to
defuse potential violence, and silent, rather than violent, marches in
response. Most recently, arrests and diversion of thousands of demonstrators
and deployment of troops in Ayodhya in October 2003 prevented a
widely-expected potentially violence-inciting rally by religious
nationalists."
"We
remain very concerned about growing threats to the religiously plural
foundations of Indian society. The pace of prosecutions against individual
perpetrators of the Gujarat and other religious violence is
slow. This is a moment when Indian government officials need to act in
defense of religious freedom by forcefully denouncing and taking concrete
steps to redress religious-based violence in order to preserve their own
legitimacy with respect to human rights. Nonetheless, despite our concerns,
we feel that adding India to the CPC list of nations is inappropriate at this
time. India has the legal and democratic traditions to deal with religious
intolerance and should be strongly encouraged to do so."
U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom
February
2004
|
|
