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COMPASS DIRECTGlobal News from the Frontlines

September 10, 2004

Compass Direct is distributed monthly to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted or edited by active subscribers for use in other media, provided Compass Direct is acknowledged as the source of the material.

Copyright 2004 Compass Direct

****************************************************************************IN THIS ISSUE

CHINA

China Tightens Control Over ChristianityArrests of house church Christians mark government crackdown on religion.

COLOMBIA

Masked Gunmen Slay Evangelical WorshippersThree dead, 13 wounded in brutal assault on Christian and Missionary Alliance church.

ERITREA

Three Jailed Pastors ‘Disappear’ ***Security police take evangelical leaders to unknown location.

INDIA

Faith and ForgivenessA profile of Gladys Staines, the wife of martyred missionary Graham Staines.

Tonsured Christians Return Home to Hostile Village Police fail to protect a Catholic church in Orissa.

JORDAN

Supreme Court Accepts Widow’s Appeal ***Lower court ordered to investigate guardian’s expenditures.

NIGERIAKillings Continue Unabated in Plateau State

Compass Direct September 10, 2004 - 1 -

Police in Kebbi state raid Islamic sect involved in church burnings.

Muslims Protest Christian Evangelistic CrusadeOfficials vow to allow Reinhard Bonnke campaign to go forward.

Officials Reinstate Christian NursesIslamic dress code prompted firing two years earlier.

Nigeria Stops Christian CrusadeReligious tension grips country.

RUSSIA

Russians Appeal to Kremlin on Behalf of Jehovah’s WitnessesHundreds of thousands sign petition protesting ban on religious activities.

TURKEY

Injured Christian Contacts Fellow Believers ***Yakup Cindilli is recovering slowly.

VIETNAM

Distress, Harassment Continue for MontagnardsU.N. relief workers airlift 198 refugees to Cambodian capital.

‘Mennonite Six’ Allowed Family VisitsAuthorities prepare criminal charges against pastor, co-workers.

Evangelical Fellowship Responds to New Religion LawCall to prayer sent to hundreds of house churches.

Pastor Arrested, QuestionedTran Mai released with orders to appear for further interrogation.

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***********************************China Tightens Control Over ChristianityArrests of house church Christians mark government crackdown on religion.by Xu Mei

NANJING, China, August 25 (Compass) -- A serious situation regarding religious liberty has been quietly developing in China. Many had hoped that the Communist Party’s religious policy -- and especially its attitude towards the Christian church -- would liberalize in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.


But there is now clear evidence of a crackdown on “illegal religious activities,” especially unregistered Christian group activities, as well as a tightening of controls on academic and media activities related to religion. Even registered church leaders sympathetic to the house churches have been reined in, and projects of the state-controlled Three Self Patriotic Movement involving foreigners have been put on hold.

After a series of government meetings at the highest levels, leaders called for tightened control of religion. Late last year, party leaders reportedly expanded the office which was set up to suppress the Falun Gong cult, so that it could deal with other unauthorized religious groups as well, which they label, sometimes very arbitrarily, as “cults.”

The book Jesus in Beijing has been translated and circulated widely to Chinese officials as evidence of “religious infiltration.” Published in the United States by former Time magazine correspondent David Aikman, the book openly speculates that China could become a Christian country because of the rapid expansion of the church, especially the illegal house churches.

Political Threat?Reliable sources in China report that this book, along with the DVD The Cross by

political-dissident-turned-Christian-evangelist Yuan Zhiming, also now living in the United States, rattled the Communist Party leadership.

Both the book and DVD supply information about the house churches which would be regarded as quite innocuous overseas, but a few political references and images have made both works highly sensitive within China.

In the first week of June, an important meeting of all provincial leaders was reportedly held in Beijing. The main theme was the importance of maintaining control of religious affairs in order to ensure the continuance of the monopoly on power of the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

At the meeting, provincial governors were ordered to report directly to Beijing on the state of religion in their provinces, a rare development showing the concern at the very highest levels in Beijing that religion -- and particularly Christianity -- is perceived as a threat to political stability.

As a result, leaders have planned yet another campaign to promote atheism. They will tighten censorship over Internet sites and the publication of religious books. Funding and student recruitment for various university centers for the study of religion will be frozen.

At the end of July, detailed national regulations were approved to guide the administration of all religious affairs in China. This followed more than two years’ debate on various drafts by the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA), as the former Religious Affairs Bureau is now known.


Reports in the South China Morning Post suggest that these measures may be foreshadowed in Shanghai’s revised regulations, which focus on monitoring the religious activities of foreign residents and the use of the Internet by religious groups.

The head of SARA, Ye Xiaowen, who has been uncritically welcomed in North America and other countries, seems to have taken a leading role in alarming the government, possibly to extend funding for his department which was slated to be scaled down in 2003.

Leaders of the state-controlled TSPM have played a dutiful role as well in the campaign. For example, a book attacking the Christian missionary movement for being a “tool of imperialism” to “invade China” in the 19th century was published recently to loud praise within official church circles.

As usual, church officials also have downplayed the growth of believers in China, to shore up their claim to represent the whole Chinese church. TSPM leaders visiting Hong Kong for a Bible exhibition in early August said the estimate of 80 million Protestants in China, a number propagated by international advocacy groups, was “outrageous.” Rev. Deng Fucun, vice chairman of the TSPM, told reporters from Japan Today, “Of course I would like to say there are 80 million believers in China, but in fact there are just 16 million.”

Officials at the exhibition also insisted that Bibles were freely available in China. However, in August, Compass obtained a letter from a Chinese resident which spoke of meeting a rural Christian recently imprisoned for owning a Bible. The prison guards broke all 10 of his fingers to ensure that he could “never hold a Bible again.”

ArrestsThe new policies have resulted in a wave of arrests in recent months. Over 100

leaders of the China Gospel Fellowship were arrested on June 11 in Wuhan city, Hubei province, although most were released a few days later. (See Compass Direct, “Arrest in China of 100 House Church Leaders Confirms Trend,” June 28.)

Another 100 house church Christians were arrested in remote Xinjiang province beginning July 12. The arrests came during a meeting organized by the Ying Shang church, a large house church network based in Anhui province. Most have since been released, but Luo Bing Yin, a key leader of the Ying Shang movement, has been imprisoned.

Police also detained Jin Da, general secretary of the TSPM church in Ningbo city, Zhejiang province, who was present at the meeting.

Another 40 house church leaders were arrested on July 17 at a training seminar in Cheng Du, Sichuan province.


On August 6, approximately 100 house church Christians meeting for a summer retreat near Kaifeng, Henan province, were surrounded by 200 military police and Public Security Bureau officers. All were arrested. Those from outside Henan were sent back to their home provinces, where some have been sentenced or placed under strict surveillance.

After 10 months in detention, a verdict was also issued on August 6 for three Chinese Christians accused of revealing “state secrets.” A report quoted by the Associated Press and the BBC said Liu Fenggang was given a three-year sentence, Xu Yonghai two years, and Zhang Shengqi one year, for “illegally soliciting and providing national intelligence to overseas organizations.”

The three men were accused of leaking information about the case of another Chinese Christian, Ms. Li Baozhi, to the foreign magazine Christian Life Quarterly in 2000 and of sending other information about persecution to Christians overseas.

In perhaps the most surprising incident, Pastor Lin Xiangao, more commonly known as Pastor Samuel Lamb, was taken to police headquarters on June 13, for the first time in 14 years. (See Compass Direct, “China Steps Up Attack on ‘Illegal’ Religious Activity,” July 19.)

Due to his high international profile, Pastor Lamb is normally left to run his church without interference. His brief interrogation may be yet another warning signal from Chinese officials.

Reports have also emerged of arrests in China’s Catholic underground. Police detained eight priests in a raid on an unofficial Catholic retreat in Hebei province on August 17. Three other Catholic bishops were arrested in May, prompting a protest from the Vatican.

Taken together, these events reveal a serious chill in the atmosphere in China so far as the control of religious affairs is concerned. It is alarming that policies are again being implemented which hark back to the Maoist approach of the 1950s and 60s. Educated Chinese intellectuals -- even those who are not religious believers themselves -- have been quietly laughing at the “leftist” attitudes of some leaders in SARA and the TSPM for years.

However, the wave of recent arrests shows that this is no longer a laughing matter. Some observers believe China is headed back down a dead-end road unsuited to its diverse cultural and religious landscape, and entirely at odds with its responsibility as a member of the United Nations Security Council to propagate freedom of religion and belief within her borders.

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***********************************Masked Gunmen Slay Evangelical Worshippers in ColombiaThree dead, 13 wounded in brutal assault on Christian and Missionary Alliance church.by David Miller

MEDELLÍN, Colombia, September 6 (Compass) -- Masked gunmen burst into an evening worship service at the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Puerto Asis, Colombia, on Saturday and opened fire with automatic weapons, killing three worshippers and injuring 13 more.

According to sources in Puerto Asis, one of the murder victims was a woman; two children are among the wounded. The pastor of the congregation, Francisco Sevillano, was unhurt in the attack.

“Three men wearing black hoods came in shooting,” Sevillano told the Bogotá newspaper El Tiempo. “People started running around everywhere, not knowing what to do.”

Witnesses said that the assailants attacked the church just after 7:00 p.m., while 45 adults and children were participating in a weekly vesper service. The Christian and Missionary Alliance congregation is located in the city’s low-income neighborhood of Obrero. Because the area has no street lights, the gunmen easily escaped into the darkness.

At press time, the assailants had not been apprehended and their identities remain unknown.

The San Francisco de Asis hospital identified the three worshippers killed in the shooting as Adalberto Benavidez, Heraldo Bernal and Maria Lidia Martinez de Zambrano.

Three of the seriously injured victims were airlifted to a hospital in the interior of the country for treatment.

Colombian army spokesmen blamed the 48th Front the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) for the brutal slaying, claiming that the guerrilla group was angry with the church for discouraging local youth from joining the Marxist insurgency.

However, sources in Puerto Asis told Compass by telephone that the assault did not appear to be aimed at the church body itself, but rather at an individual who was present at the Saturday service.

Municipal authorities later said the man targeted in the attack is a former police officer and local public official who recently began attending the church. Gravely wounded in the shooting, his identity is being withheld for security reasons.


Whatever the motive, Puerto Asis residents registered strong condemnation for the brutal attack, particularly because it occurred in a building dedicated to worship while a public service was in progress.

“The whole town has mobilized to help the victims and their families, and try to find out who did this,” said an evangelical pastor who was visiting Puerto Asis when the attack occurred.

The governor of the department (state) of Putumayo, where Puerto Asis is located, pledged to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice. He also announced plans for a special “Day for Peace” celebration to exhibit civic solidarity against violent groups.

An important commercial hub, Puerto Asis lies at the center of a region that produces most of Colombia’s crop of coca leaf, the raw material from which cocaine is produced. Two illegal armed groups, the FARC and the Auto Defense Forces, have battled over control of the local narcotics industry for most of the past decade. Hundreds of civilians have died in the crossfire.

Today, the Christian churches in Puerto Asis and the Evangelical Council of Churches of Colombia issued a joint statement that read in part: “This tragic action has resulted in incredible pain and consternation for the victims, their families and friends ... It also represents a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

“In response to this tragedy, the churches of Puerto Asis continue united in their commitment to live and share the faith, to support the victims, to reaffirm the mandate of our Lord Jesus Christ to respond with nonviolence and forgiveness, and with a clear desire to contribute to building true peace in Puerto Asis and the region.”

Puerto Asis churches held a united service on Sunday evening, September 5, in the same sanctuary where the killings occurred. Participants committed themselves to aid the victims and their families, and to build peace.

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***********************************Three Jailed Eritrean Pastors ‘Disappear’Security police take evangelical leaders to unknown location.Special to Compass Direct

LOS ANGELES, August 25 (Compass) -- Relatives and friends of three Eritrean pastors jailed since May discovered yesterday that the prominent evangelicals have been transferred from their police station cells in the capital of Asmara to an unknown location.


Full Gospel Church pastors Rev. Haile Naizgi and Dr. Kiflu Gebremeske, and Pastor Tesfatsion Hagos of the Rema Evangelical Church, have been incarcerated at Asmara’s No. 1, 6 and 4 police stations, respectively, for the past three months.

Although the pastors’ wives and Christian friends have been allowed to deliver food and clothing items to be passed on to the imprisoned men, when they took food to the respective police stations yesterday morning, local authorities informed them that the men were no longer imprisoned there.

Since the last week of May, the pastors have been imprisoned without charges and refused any personal contact with their families, who have been given no reason for their arrests.

Local evangelicals who visited the wives of Naizgi and Gebremeske yesterday said they found them “in distress and deep sadness over the sudden disappearance of their husbands.”

“Such disappearances could be for the good, or for the worse,” one source told Compass. “There are times that the security people take you to unknown places for a couple of hours or days, and then release you with serious warnings,” he said. “Or, they can just leave you there for an unlimited time.”

Over the past three years, 11 former government ministers, 14 journalists and thousands of other political dissidents have been detained and incarcerated in secret locations by the regime of President Issayas Afewerki, who now rules Eritrea by fiat. These prisoners’ families have no information whether they are dead or alive.

Eritrean authorities closed down all the congregations of what the government considers “religious sects” in May 2002, ordering the military police to forcibly prevent their meetings, whether in church buildings or private homes. The state only recognizes four major religions -- the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran churches and Islam.

Currently at least 400 members of these banned evangelical churches are known to be imprisoned for their faith, including more than 70 soldiers held under severe conditions for over two years at the Assab Military Prison.

In the most recently reported arrests on July 25, police arrested 30 guests and members of a Protestant wedding party in Senafe, jailing them for four days and then releasing all but two. A Kale Hiwot Church evangelist named Michel and Teame Kibrom, an elderly man in his 80s, are believed to still remain under arrest.

However, Compass has recently confirmed that a Kale Hiwot leader named Woldegabriel Gebremichel, 80, was not among the wedding prisoners, as initially reported. According to his relatives, Gebremichel had attended a separate wedding that week of his own son in Senafe, but that marriage ceremony was not disrupted by the police.


***Photographs of the jailed pastors as well as Eritrea’s official and closed Christian churches are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Faith and Forgiveness in IndiaA profile of Gladys Staines, the wife of martyred missionary Graham Staines.by Joshua Newton

KOCHI, India, August 17 (Compass) -- She is an angel to most and a mystery to many. How often do you meet a woman who can forgive the murderers of her husband and sons?

Gladys Staines, 53, is the wife of Graham Staines, an Australian Baptist missionary who worked among lepers in the northeastern state of Orissa, India, for 30 years.

In January 1999, Graham Staines and his two sons Philip and Timothy were burned to death by a group of Hindu activists. Graham and the two boys were asleep in their station wagon at Manoharpur village in Orissa’s Keonjhar district when the vehicle was set afire.

Dara Singh, the main instigator of the attack, was eventually sentenced to death by a special court in Bhubaneswar in September 2003.

Gladys Staines remained in India, declaring forgiveness for the killers and continuing her ministry at the leper colony. However, she left India last month with her 13-year-old daughter Esther, citing a need for rest and refreshment.

Back home in Australia, Mrs. Staines denied reports that she had left India for good.

“I will go nowhere. I want to carry on what Graham was doing,” she said. “Esther will learn medicine in Australia. And I will return soon to India.”

Before leaving India, Mrs. Staines told Compass in a personal interview, “I am going for personal reasons. I need to spend some time with my daughter Esther to make a home for her.

“My father is 91 years old and not doing too well. Moreover, I am feeling very tired. I need time to rest and reflect.

“I have nothing against India,” Mrs. Staines added, smoothing the folds of her pink and white cotton salwar kameez. “I love India and the people here.”


The Staines came to India in 1981 as part of the missionary team of Operation Mobilization. Gladys was more or less a housewife until Graham’s death. But once she took over his mission, she continued the work with great courage.

After Graham’s death, Christians came under increasing attack in India, with the government pushing a Hindu nationalist agenda. Conversion became a hot topic, and the church was forced to confront the issue of proselytism.

Mrs. Staines had her own answers to the dilemma.

“To me, Christianity is not a religion. It’s a personal faith. It is built upon your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In short, [forced] conversion in that sense is impossible, since you need God’s grace to change,” she said.

Visiting Mrs. Staines at the Leper ColonyA petite leper patient named Tompu welcomed us with a bouquet of fresh flowers as

we arrived at the Mayurbanj Leper Colony in Orissa. Tompu, a cobbler by trade, has made footwear for leper patients for the past 36 years. He and 50 others lepers have a home here, thanks to the Staines’ efforts.

Later, we walked over to the cemetery where Graham Staines and the couple’s two sons are buried. Separated from the rest of the grounds by a large white wall, the cemetery was lush with flowers and tiny plants. Mrs. Staines pointed out the large concrete tomb and her loved one’s names inscribed there.

“Some people have churned money out of Graham’s death,” she said pensively. “But I must say that most of them have good intentions.”

Mrs. Staines has suffered greatly, but she believes God is healing her even as she reaches out to others.

“Graham often talked about how Jesus healed the lepers,” she said.

“We have to work and show that Jesus is worth dying for. We have to show in action what Christ’s teachings are. Now my only mission is to continue Graham’s work.”

We moved to another building, a 40-bed hospital built as an extension of the leprosy home.

“This is the first phase of the Leprosy Referral Hospital,” Mrs. Staines explained. “The outpatient department will be open to all patients.”

Mrs. Staines, a trained nurse, enjoys the work and has plans to establish another clinic at the Mayurbanj Leper Colony. “The plan is ready, but the land has no papers. I have to push for these things.


“Graham could go after this because he knew the government rules and the way things work here. For me it’s very tough. Often when some decisions have to be taken, I say, ‘I must ask Graham,’ and suddenly I realize he is not there or the kids are not there.”

She draws support from her faith and her 13-year-old daughter, Esther, who told a stunned nation in numerous television, radio and newspaper interviews that, “God thought it worthy to take my father home.”

Forgiveness has also helped Gladys Staines to break free from the past.

“I think forgiveness liberates both the forgiver and the forgiven. I have forgiven those who killed my family, but I still have to heal fully. I can feel their absence deeply. I can’t just pack my bags and leave. I can’t see myself doing anything else but this work.”

Mrs. Staines will spend her time in Australia reflecting on life in India. “Maybe I’ll write a book. So many things have happened in the last five years. I need to put it down to keep the record straight.”

While Mrs. Staines is away, a team of doctors from Tamil Nadu will run the leprosy home.

One morning before her departure, Mrs. Staines and her younger sister, Shirley Wheatherhead, were sitting in her home by the living room by the window. Both were immersed in the Scriptures, heads bowed in the dim light falling through the glass.

Eyes closed, Gladys Staines sat drawing solace from her reservoir of faith and meditating on her favorite verse: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

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***********************************Tonsured Christians Return Home to Hostile Village in IndiaPolice fail to protect a Catholic church in Orissa. by Vishal Arora

DELHI, August 31 (Compass) -- A group of 28 Christians who fled Kilipal village in Orissa earlier this year have returned home after living in sheltered housing for six months.

The group fled after an incident on February 10, when Pastor Subas Samal and eight women were dragged out of their homes and forcibly “tonsured,” a practice where the head is shaved bare as a mark of affiliation to Hinduism.

As the villagers returned home on August 8, a police spokesman told the Indo-Asian News Service, “We have deployed police forces in the village so that no religious clashes occur in the coming days.”


The Christians had lodged a complaint against 35 Hindu villagers soon after the attack, leading to the arrest of six Hindus on May 3.

However on February 16, Mr. Babajee Das, representing the Hindu villagers of Kilipal, lodged a complaint against Samal and six other Christians on the grounds that they had “forcibly converted” 25 Dalit villagers over a period of 10 years.

An arrest warrant was then issued against Samal, Mr. Dhaneshwar Kandi, Ms. Sumitra Kandi, Mr. Vishnu Kandi and his wife Mata Kandi, and their two daughters Kukila and Umitra.

Samal and Kandi were arrested on May 29 and charged under the “Orissa Freedom of Religion Act” (the state anti-conversion law), the “Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act,” and sections of the Indian Penal Code. (See Compass Direct, “Pastor Arrested, Charged under ‘Freedom of Religion’ Act,” June 3.)

The two men were released on bail on July 14, after which the Christians decided to return home.

The “Church on Mount Zion” in the state capital, Bhubaneswar, provided safe accommodation for the tonsure victims and their families.

Rev. Sonathan Mohanty, who took care of the group, told Compass, “The victims made the decision to go back to their village only after the police assured them of protection.

“Initially the other villagers boycotted the Christian families by refusing to let them draw water from the public well,” he added. “Later they allowed the Christians access to the well, seemingly because of the police presence. But the villagers are still not willing to give employment to any member of the Christian families.”

Employment may be an ongoing problem. “We have given one month’s allowance to the victims’ families for their day-to-day needs, because all of them are daily wage workers and are unemployed for the time being,” said Mohanty. “But it seems they will have to be supported for at least another month.”

Compass also spoke with Advocate Bibhu Prasad Tripathi, legal representative for Samal and his co-accused. “Trials will begin after the police submit the charge sheet,” said Tripathi, “but I strongly feel the ruling of the court will go in favor of Pastor Samal and the other Christians because they have been falsely implicated.”

However, Samal and the other Christians want to extend a hand of friendship to their fellow villagers and settle the issue out of court. “Once the charge sheet is submitted to the magistrate, the Christian families intend to hold a meeting with the villagers to try to settle the conflict out of court,” said Mohanty.


“After all, most of the villagers who tonsured the Christians also belong to poor families. But those who are actually responsible for [provoking] the crime worked behind the scene and remain at large.”

At present the atmosphere in the village seems peaceful, but observers say the fundamentalists are still active.

“Some villagers have warned me that the fundamentalists have targeted me because I’m helping the Christians,” Mohanty confirmed. “They’re also targeting Rasul Kumar Das, who was the first person to convert to Christianity in the village; and Gaurangan Das, in whose house the church meets every week.

“But there is still police security in the village and the church is surviving despite these hardships.”

Elsewhere in Orissa, church leaders have sharply criticized police for their recent failure to protect a Catholic church.

Archbishop Raphael Cheenath told local reporters that an armed Hindu mob had stormed a parish church in Raikia, Orissa, on August 27. Police dispersed the crowd of parishioners who had gathered around the church but stood watching as Hindu fundamentalists broke into the building.

According to the archbishop, the mob broke down the main door of the church, destroyed church property and threatened parishioners with further violence while the police “remained spectators for hours to the whole attack.”

Orissa’s state government is still controlled by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), despite their defeat in national elections in April 2004. Under the BJP’s rule, Orissa has seen frequent outbreaks of violence against Christians, most notably, the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons Philip and Timothy in January 1999.

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***********************************Jordan’s Supreme Court Accepts Widow’s AppealLower court ordered to investigate guardian’s expenditures.by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, August 26 (Compass) -- In a surprise judicial decision, the Supreme Islamic Court of Jordan has accepted Christian widow Siham Qandah’s last possible appeal to disqualify the court-approved Muslim guardian fighting to take custody of her two minor children.


Qandah’s lawyer was informed on August 20 that the Supreme Islamic Court had accepted his final appeal of a sharia court decision awarding custody of the widow’s daughter Rawan, 16, and son Fadi, 14, to Abdullah al-Muhtadi. Although al-Muhtadi is the children’s maternal uncle, he has been estranged from the family since his conversion to Islam as a teenager.

The ruling came two months after Amman’s Al-Abdali Sharia Court rejected Qandah’s lawsuit to cancel Al-Muhtadi’s legal guardianship. Despite evidence that the guardian had withdrawn nearly 12,000 Jordanian dinars ($17,650) from the children’s U.N.-allocated trust funds, the presiding judge refused to investigate alleged misuse of the children’s funds.

Reportedly, the new Supreme Court decision has ordered the lower Islamic court handling the case to investigate the guardian’s use of these large sums of money, designated for purchasing a refrigerator and paying lawyers’ fees for the guardian’s four-year court custody battle.

Qandah told Compass that her lawyer had been informed that a hearing would take place before the Al-Abdali Sharia Court on August 25. But when Qandah’s lawyer went to the courthouse in Amman yesterday morning, a clerk told him that no hearing was yet scheduled on the case. The lawyer was told to expect the next court date to be set by August 30.

Al-Muhtadi was named legal guardian of Qandah’s children at her own request in 1995, after an Islamic court produced a so-called “conversion” certificate for her late husband. According to the document, her Christian husband had secretly converted to Islam three years before he died, while serving in the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces in Kosovo.

Under Islamic law enforced in Jordan, the father’s alleged conversion automatically changed the legal identity of his children to Muslim, so their financial affairs could no longer be handled by their Christian mother.

But Al-Muhtadi began to appropriate some of the children’s monthly orphan benefits, and then in 1998 he filed a case to take custody of them away from his Christian sister, so that he could raise them as Muslims.

After Qandah lost the four-year legal wrangle in February 2002, she went into hiding with her children several times while appealing for legal or diplomatic intervention to reverse the decision.

Her children are blacklisted from leaving Jordan by court order, with sympathetic nations unable to offer them visas because of the unresolved court custody case.

Qandah’s dilemma was raised again in June with Jordan’s King Abdullah II during his visit to Washington, D.C., by members of the House International Relations


Committee. Although several members of the royal family have pledged that Qandah will not lose her children or be sent to jail, a formal judicial solution has remained elusive.

***Photographs of Siham Qandah and her children are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Killings Continue Unabated in Plateau State, NigeriaPolice in Kebbi state raid Islamic sect involved in church burnings.by Obed Minchakpu

JOS, Nigeria, August 18 (Compass) -- Ignatius Kaigama, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Jos, said the solution for the ongoing religious crisis that has pitched Muslims and Christians against each other in the central Nigerian state of Plateau is a genuine return to God.

“The panacea to the crisis is a genuine return to God whom we serve, confession of our sins and the atrocities committed through sometimes misguided religious zeal. Let us use our physical energy for productive ventures such as farming or other forms of manual labor to improve our social situation, rather than expending it on physical combat that can be pain and the destruction of lives and property,” he charged.

The bishop made the declaration on August 10 at the opening of the 4th annual archdiocesan general assembly of the Roman Catholic Church held in Jos. According to Kaigama, the religious crisis has overwhelmed the government and only God can save Christians in the state from the sword of the Muslim militants.

However, Moses Yachan Derwam, the district head of Panyam village, told Compass that bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians might continue unless kidnappings of Christians by Muslim militants stop.

Derwam cited the kidnapping of a Christian girl in Panyam village by Muslim youths as an example of new tactics introduced into the conflict by Muslim militants. He stated that if he had not intervened quickly, the incident would have ignited a bloody clash between Muslims and Christians.

The investigating police officer, Constable Danjuma Garba, told Compass that the girl recovered and was taken to the Church of Christ in Nigeria Rural Health Clinic, Panyam, for treatment.

In another incident, Stephen Sarki Musa, secretary general of the Christian community in Shendam council, told Compass on August 10 that five Christian men were killed in mid July. Three Christian women who were abducted with the victims later escaped.


“The five men were killed with their eyes and private parts removed. As the killing went on, the women were beaten and taken to a room, where they were drugged and subjected to an orgy of sex for eight days,” he said.

The religious crisis has claimed an estimated 10,000 lives in three years and destroyed property worth millions of dollars. Over 300 churches have been destroyed and more than 10 pastors and their families have been killed. On May 18, the Nigerian national government declared a state of emergency and disbanded the democratically elected state government of Plateau state.

A government survey estimates that 250,000 people have been displaced, reports Thomas Kalman, chairman of the Committee on Census of Internally Displaced Persons. Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency has spent about 165 million naira ($1.25 million) on relief for thousands of persons displaced by the religious crises in Plateau state, according to agency spokesman Biodun Oladoyinbo.

Islamic Sect Raided in KebbiEarlier this month, police raided Yan-Gwagwamaya, an Islamic sect involved in the

May 28 attack on Christians in Jega town in Jega local government area in the northern state of Kebbi.

Several people were killed and five policemen were seriously injured in the attack on the headquarters of the Yan-Gwagwamaya, a sect reported to have thousands of followers. According to an August 4 police report, Yan-Gwagwamaya militants battled police with guns and machetes before being overwhelmed. Sect leader Sanusi Makera-Gandu was arrested during the raid.

The police commander in Birnin Kebbi reported that this clash was one of the latest in the series involving Muslims militants who set up their own communities and refuse to accept conventional authority.

In the May 28 attack in Jega, two Christians were killed. Alhaji Abukakar Mohammed, Kebbi state police commissioner, spoke to journalists after the violence and disclosed that eight churches, twenty-one shops and two residential houses were burned down during the religious crisis. He revealed that about 150 suspects had been arrested and placed under police custody.

Kebbi state governor Mohammad Adamu Aliero apologized to the Christian community for the loss of lives and property in Jega town. The governor tendered the apology when he received officials of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) at the Government House on his invitation.

Aliero urged Christians in the state to forgive their attackers and said that a committee would be formed to assess the victims’ losses so that they could be compensated. He also


assured CAN representatives that measures are in place to protect the lives and property of every citizen, adding that the Jega experience would never happen again.

“I call the meeting to formally apologize to the Christian community for what happened at Jega,” the governor said. “The government will leave no stone unturned to see that all perpetrators are arrested.”

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***********************************Muslims in Nigeria Protest Christian Evangelistic CrusadeOfficials vow to allow Reinhard Bonnke campaign to go forward.by Obed Minchakpu

ILORIN, Nigeria, August 19 (Compass) -- Muslim fundamentalists in the city of Ilorin, Nigeria, are threatening to break up a Christian evangelistic crusade planned by well-know German preacher the Rev. Reinhard Bonnke. On August 14, protesters took to the streets of the city vowing to never allow the crusade to be held.

Had it not been for the intervention of police, who succeeded in dispersing the Muslim protesters, the demonstration could have degenerated into religious violence, setting Muslims against Christians. The city of Ilorin in the central state of Kwara is known as one of the hot spots of Islamic fundamentalism in Nigeria.

Police met the Muslim marchers as they approached the Government House to express to the governor of Kwara their opposition to the crusade, slated for August 18 to 22 at Budo-Efo, Ganmo, which lies in the Irepodun local government area.

Riot police fired tear gas canisters to disperse the Muslims at Wahab Folawiyo Road and halted the protest. Muslim militants later re-assembled and headed to the palace of the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, obliging police to dispersed the demonstrators a second time.

The Emir is the Muslim monarch of the city and the spiritual head of all Muslims in Kwara state.

Bonnke is visiting Kwara state for the second time in 14 years to hold a crusade. Christian leaders in the city of Ilorin received Bonnke on August 17 amidst tight security. Upon his arrival, he paid a courtesy call to Dr. Bukola Saraki, the Muslim governor of Kwara state.

Shortly after the visit, Bonnke told journalists, “I want to say to everyone that we are people of peace, we preach about the love of God, we are against religious strife, and animosity. We believe also in tolerance.”


He also said that after his 40 years of evangelistic ministry in Africa, Nigeria “has a very special place in my heart, because I have never seen any magic blessings in any country as I see here in your beautiful Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

In a bid to contain religious tensions, Kwara officials invited Muslim leaders to a dialogue, asking them to restrain activities inimical to religious harmony in the state.

Alhaji Salman Adelodun Ibrahim, secretary to the government of Kwara state, and Dr. Mohammed Ali Olukade, chairman of the Islamic assembly, issued a statement at the close of the meeting pledging to make every effort to sustain religious harmony.

Chief Imam of Ilorin Alhaji Muhammed Bashir, current chairman of the state’s Muslim Council, condemned the Muslim protest against the Christian crusade, saying that there was no reason for it.

A statement of the Muslim Council stated, “Their (the Muslim protest group’s) motive and aim are very un-Islamic and they are untenable.”

Despite assurances from Ilorin Muslim leaders, law enforcement authorities do take the threat of Muslim fundamentalism for granted. Officials have deployed security teams comprised of police detectives and officers of the state security service to the crusade grounds.

“Anybody who is interested in attending the crusade is free to go. We have provided enough security,” Marcus Gideon of the Kwara state police command told Compass.

For over a decade, Christians in Kwara have faced difficult times at the hands of successive Muslim political leaders. Past government policies have impinged upon the religious liberty of Christians.

Militant Muslims have destroyed churches in the state. Educational officials have forcefully introduced Islam as a program of study in Christian mission schools, mandating that such schools employ Muslim clerics to teach Islamic classes.

Sources in Nigeria say the anti-Christian policies have encouraged the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Kwara.

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***********************************Nigerian Officials Reinstate Christian NursesIslamic dress code prompted firing two years earlier.by Obed Minchakpu

BAUCHI, Nigeria, August 30 (Compass) -- Nigerian officials have reinstated 11 Christian nurses in their jobs at the Federal Medical Center in Azare, a town in the


northern state of Bauchi, Nigeria, more than two years after they were fired for refusing to abide by an Islamic dress code. Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo, acting on behalf of the Nigerian government, recalled the 11 nurses on Monday, August 2.

The nurses’ ordeal started over two-and-a-half years ago when Dr. S.Y. Sabo, medical director of the government hospital in Azare, attempted to impose Islamic dress on female hospital personnel. In January 2002, Sabo issued a directive to all nurses and midwives at the facility to begin wearing a white blouse over white trousers, in accordance with Islamic custom.

Acting under the auspices of Fellowship of Christian Nurses, the 11 nurses protested the new dress code, stating that the uniforms were tailored for Islamic religious usage and infringed upon their Christian faith.

When hospital management refused to enter into dialogue on the issue, the aggrieved nurses sought the intervention of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN), a regulatory body that oversees the country’s nursing profession.

On January 23, 2002, the NMCN wrote a letter to the hospital’s management stating, “No nurse should be compelled to wear a particular style of uniform, especially in regards to religion.” When the hospital’s management failed to heed the NMCN letter, the 11 nurses decided to defy the directive.

“We told [Dr. Sabo] that we could not wear the Islamic dress because it is against the Bible and our professional ethics,” Magdalene Yusuf told Compass.

Hospital administrators responded by firing the nurses on April 24, 2002.

The nurses then petitioned officials of Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health and filed a lawsuit with the Federal High Court in Jos, Plateau state. The suit challenged the termination of their employment on the grounds that it amounted to religious victimization. (See Compass Direct, “British and Nigerian Christians Launch Religious Rights Initiative,” December 12, 2003.)

The nurses requested the court to restore them to their positions at the Federal Medical Center. The Bauchi state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Fellowship of Christian Nurses supported their claim.

The nurses’ plight drew the attention of religious liberty organizations around the world. Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Persecuted Christians Ministries, Macedonian Initiative International, the Fellowship of Christian Lawyers and other organizations intervened in the case.

Mrs. Uju Hassan-Baba, director general of the Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, told Compass that the reinstatement of the nurses was a direct result of the intervention of civil liberties organizations.


“The nurses wrote a petition in 2002 calling for our intervention on a breach of their constitutional right and religious belief, and we took up the matter with the center and the Federal Ministry of Health,” Hassan-Baba said.

“We wrote to the center’s medical director on the infringement of the rights of the nurses and also took the case to the court. However, with the intervention of Minister of Health Profesor Eyitayo Lambo, we abandoned the court action.

“Thank God, the nurses have now been recalled,” she concluded.

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***********************************Nigeria Stops Christian CrusadeReligious tension grips country.by Obed Minchakpu

ILORIN, Nigeria, August 31 (Compass) -- Religious passions flared in Nigeria following the decision of the Kwara state government to stop a series of evangelistic meetings organized by German evangelist Reinhard Bonnke with the support of all churches in the city of Ilorin.

The central Nigerian state of Kwara dispatched policemen to stop the five-day program after its second day on Thursday, August 19, claiming that if the meetings were allowed to continue, Muslim militants would attack Christians at the meeting grounds the following day.

Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi, Kwara state governor’s assistant in communications and strategy, said at a press conference in Ilorin on Friday, August 27, that the government’s action stemmed from the need to prevent religious violence in Ilorin, the state capital.

“The government moved against the religious program in an apparent balancing act to forestall a security breach, after allowing the crusade to run for two out of the five days it was scheduled, despite protests from Muslims,” Alhaji Abdullahi said at the press conference.

According to him, “It was in the government’s effort to strike a compromise that allowed Bonnke’s crusade to go ahead. Besides, the government limited the crusade to two days, namely Wednesday and Thursday, as against five days the organizers originally scheduled to hold it. This was against the backdrop of threats of sectarian violence slated for the aftermath of Jumaat (Friday) services by the Muslims,” he added.

Muslim militants protested the evangelistic meetings the weekend before Bonnke arrived in Ilorin on Tuesday, August 17, his first trip to Kwara state in 14 years. The


program, organized by Christians in the state under the auspices of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), began on Wednesday, August 18.

Dr. Olusola Ajolore, Kwara state secretary of CAN, told worshippers on Thursday at the meeting grounds, “The government said we should stop the crusade after tonight. They said they would seal off the ground that we bought with our money if we would not comply.”

Bonnke reportedly sensed the tension that could spark clashes between Christians and Muslims and prevailed on the Christian leaders to refrain from any act that could lead to bloodshed.

Besides stopping the program, over 30 armed policemen prevented pastors gathered at Word Assembly Ground, Ajase-Ipo, from praying for the success of the meetings. The policemen, who were directed by the government to seal off the church, also cordoned off the church’s premises.

After the announcement that ended the meetings, thousands of Christians mounted a protest against the government’s action. They were heading towards the Government House before anti-riot policemen shot sporadically into the air to disperse them.

Ajolore accused the government of pandering to the whims of Muslims in the state. He described the program’s cancellation as ill-motivated and preconceived.

“It is amazing that the Kwara state government has by its conduct in cutting short the crusade days shown that it is incapable of holding the group [of Muslims] in check by keeping them out of mischief and crisis, thus provoking the situation,” said Ajolore at a press conference on August 27.

In a statement titled, “Muslims Now Call the Shots in Kwara State,” Christian leaders said, “We see this as an absolutely dangerous precedent.” According to them, “We believe that the whole development was a conspiracy by the Muslim group to put the Christian community out of activity and make them the underdog in the state. This is our state, and we will not continue to tolerate any breach in the exercise of our freedom of association, in worshipping in places of our choice and our own properties.”

Alhaji Salman Adelodun Ibrahim, Kwara state secretary, denied the accusation of the CAN leadership, saying that CAN had agreed that “the crusade must terminate by Thursday night, and that during the crusade, Rev. Bonnke will neither hold procession inside the city of Ilorin nor hold any meeting outside the advertised crusade ground at Budo-Efo.”

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***********************************Russians Appeal to Kremlin on Behalf of Jehovah’s Witnesses


Hundreds of thousands sign petition protesting ban on religious activities.by Beverly Nickles

MOSCOW, August 25 (Compass) -- A petition protesting the Moscow ban on the Jehovah’s Witnesses was submitted this morning at the Presidential Administration Office of the Kremlin.

Addressed to President Vladimir Putin, the petition was signed by more than 315,000 citizens across Russia. The petition expressed “deep concern over the ban imposed on the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Russian capital.”

According to a statement from the religious group, “the majority of those who signed are not Jehovah’s Witnesses, but they are disturbed by the chilling precedent of a court outlawing a peaceful religious group.” Jehovah’s Witnesses count 136,000 active members in Russia.

On June 16, the Moscow City Appeals Court upheld a March lower court decision to strip the Moscow community of the Jehovah’s Witnesses of their legal status. The group’s activities were immediately banned in the Russian capital. The ban carried no legal force outside of Moscow city limits; however, it did trigger hostile reactions against the group in other parts of Russia.

General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov and Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedyev also received personally addressed copies of the petition. The signatures were presented in 76 volumes by Viktor Lobachev and Oleg Marchinko, elders of the Moscow Jehovah’s Witnesses community of 100 congregations.

Marchinko said that as a citizen of Moscow, he wants to be able to express his beliefs freely. He called the court’s decision “wrong” and signed the petition to express his disagreement with it. Marchinko does not want to see a repeat of the 1950s Soviet repression of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which resulted in their exile from Ukraine to Siberia.

The text of the petition states, “Jehovah’s Witnesses have been practicing their faith in Russia for over 100 years, for many generations. They were persecuted for their religion in the Soviet Union, only to be rehabilitated later as victims of political repressions.”

Eight Moscow congregations that met for three years in the Tourist Hotel were locked out of their meeting halls on July 2. The hotel administrator refused to discuss the matter, but an assistant said the decision followed the Moscow ban. At least one of those congregations may be forced to meet outdoors in a park or forest.

Less than half of the 11,000 members of Jehovah’s Witnesses congregate in one complex in Moscow, where they continue to meet without disruption. Nevertheless, spokesperson Christian Presber compares the constant threat of eviction to the stress of “a gun pointed at your head.”


The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights sent an open letter to President Putin in June expressing their concern. The letter stated that the activities of the Jehovah’s Witnesses are legal all over Europe and that the group is appropriately registered in the Russian Federation at the federal level.

“Several rulings by the European Court of Human Rights reiterated that Jehovah’s Witnesses are a ‘known religion’ with the right to manifest their faith,” the letter states. A complaint was filed with the European Court following the Moscow ban.

International human rights monitors view developments affecting Jehovah’s Witnesses as a test of how religious freedom is progressing in a country. The Jehovah’s Witnesses ban in Moscow could set a dangerous precedent, encouraging local authorities to hinder the activities of other religious groups.

In a matter dating back to April 2000, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will hear on September 9 the case of Kuznetsov and Others versus the Russian Federation. The case involves Human Rights Commissioner Yekaterina Victorova Gorina, who with the help of police officers illegally terminated a meeting of 150 deaf or partially deaf Jehovah’s Witnesses. Obstructions to that community’s right to worship freely continue today.

As anticipated, Jehovah’s Witnesses in various parts of Russia are experiencing problems due to news of the Moscow ban. Witnesses have been detained by police on the street, fired from jobs and have lost meeting facilities. Local media have published and broadcast reports portraying Jehovah’s Witnesses in a negative light.

Sidebar:Following the court ruling against Jehovah’s Witnesses in Moscow, residents of some areas outside the capital have also begun demanding similar bans on the group. For example:

On June 16, a one-page leaflet was circulated in Tula containing defamatory remarks against Jehovah’s Witnesses and references to the Moscow city ban. The tract falsely stated that the religious group is banned in “numerous countries in Europe.” This line appeared at the end of the leaflet: “Missionary Department of the Tula Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.”

On June 24, an article appeared in Stavropol Pravda newspaper entitled, “Cossacks alarmed by ‘Witnesses.’” The article refers to the March 26 Moscow Court decision and contains defamatory excerpts from a letter the local Cossack community sent to area officials calling for “a thorough analysis of the activity of the Jehovah’s Witnesses” and “where possible to not allow the holding of their conventions.” The article was submitted to the newspaper by the Press Service of the Stavropol Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.


On July 23 in Yekaterinburg, an annual Jehovah’s Witnesses congress held in the city’s stadium since 1996 was called off after a series of attempts by stadium management to sabotage the meeting. Forum 18 news service reported that stadium management abruptly demanded four times the agreed upon rental fee. Men claiming to be security guards tried to block the entrance, the electricity supply was cut off and 1,000 delegates were evicted from their accommodations. The Jehovah’s Witnesses community filed a complaint with the local prosecutor’s office and requested an investigation. So far, no action has been taken.

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***********************************Injured Turkish Christian Contacts Fellow BelieversYakup Cindilli is recovering slowly.by Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, August 18 (Compass) -- Nine months after he was beaten into a coma by ultra-nationalists opposed to his conversion to Christianity, Turkish Christian Yakup Cindilli has for the first time managed to make personal contact with his Protestant Christian acquaintances.

Without telling his family, Cindilli left home in late July and made a three-hour bus trip to Istanbul, where he attempted to make contact with some of his Christian friends. But for the most part, he later admitted in a telephone conversation with one, he was unable to remember the exact locations of homes and offices he had frequented just over a year ago, when he lived in Istanbul for a few months.

Nevertheless, he managed to meet and call several acquaintances before he got back on the bus to Bursa. One Istanbul Christian who spoke with him told Compass that his speech was sometimes halting and not always clear over the telephone. “He hasn’t come back to himself entirely,” the Christian said, “and I think he needs some psychological therapy.”

Cindilli suffered a severe beating and head injuries last October in an attack led by the local chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in Orhangazi, a town 30 miles from Bursa in northwestern Turkey. Three of his attackers, jailed on battery and assault charges, accused the Turkish Christian of passing out New Testaments and doing “missionary propaganda” in his hometown.

After two months in a coma under intensive hospital care, Cindilli regained consciousness and was sent home to recuperate last December. His assailants have all been released. Criminal court hearings on the case have been postponed until next June.


Meanwhile, his family in Orhangazi became alarmed when their son disappeared last month, telephoning the pastor of the Bursa Protestant Church where Cindilli had previously worshipped to ask, “Is Yakup with you?”

Pastor Ismail Kulakcioglu assured the family that he had not seen their son since the last court hearing in March. But he promised to inform them immediately if Yakup contacted him.

The next afternoon, Cindilli walked into Bursa’s Christian bookshop, where he talked and prayed with Kulakcioglu and three other Christian believers for a half hour. Then, true to his promise to Cindilli’s family, the pastor drove him back to his home in Orhangazi.

Although his friends noted Cindilli spoke rationally, he was not always able to pronounce his words clearly, reflecting the lingering effects of his two-month coma. He had also gained considerable weight over the past four months, a condition which he said was being caused by the medications he is now taking.

On the emotional level, another said, “Yakup’s manner was not exactly that of a child, but more like that of a young teenager.” After months of recuperating at home as a near invalid, he was clearly delighted to be traveling around on his own, one observed.

“He showed us that he did not have full use of his right arm,” commented one of his friends, who said he could only raise the limb slightly above his head. “But he was able to walk normally and seemed to be in good spirits.”

“When Yakup prayed with us,” recalled one of the men at the bookshop, “he thanked the Lord that he was alive, and prayed that God would bring him back to full health. His faith appears to remain intact, even after all that has happened.”

Cindilli requested a Bible and other Christian materials, and over the past two weeks has managed an occasional telephone call or visit to Bursa.

Now 33, Cindilli became a Christian two years ago, after contact with a prayer “hotline” run by local Protestant Christians. His religiously conservative Muslim family has strongly opposed his conversion, destroying all his Christian books and materials at one point and preventing his contact with local Christians after he was injured.

Although the family filed a criminal case against their son’s attackers, they could not afford to hire a lawyer or provide further medical care for him. Nevertheless, they have refused all offers from the Bursa Protestant Church to cover legal costs and pay for Cindilli’s needed physical and psychological therapy.

In June, Christians in Bursa learned that Cindilli’s mother had been injured in a car accident and hospitalized. Reportedly the family told Cindilli, who was with his mother


when the accident occurred, “It is because our son has become a Christian that still another misfortune has happened to our family.”

***Photographs of Yakup Cindilli and the town of Orhangazi are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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***********************************Distress, Harassment Continue for Vietnam’s MontagnardsU.N. relief workers airlift 198 refugees to Cambodian capital.Special to Compass Direct

HO CHI MINH CITY, August 16 (Compass) -- Government authorities continue to apply unrelenting pressure on tribal Christians in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, while trying to convince the international community that all is back to normal in the troubled region.

The most recent outbreak in the long-standing tension commenced in April 2004, when thousands of Montagnards joined protests against the confiscation of tribal lands and the severe repression of the Christian faith that many of them profess.

Police and soldiers -- many disguised as local farmers -- were sent in to break up the demonstrations, resulting in deaths and injuries among the Montagnards. Due to a press blackout and intense measures taken by the government to cover up events of the April 10-11 clash, the full extent of what happened that Easter weekend and in the days immediately following may never be known.

Christian leaders in Vietnam close to the situation believe the number of deaths almost certainly exceeds the estimates given by some human rights organizations. Human Rights Watch, for example, initially reported only 10 deaths.

However, reports have recently surfaced of mysterious excavations at a military base near Buonmathuot following the April demonstrations. Some fear the bodies of people killed during the protests may have been buried here.

Montagnard sources told Compass that the people of the highlands desperately want their side of the story to be heard; they have supplied the names and addresses of three men in Dak Lak province who have offered to testify before any foreign investigators, regardless of the consequences to themselves.

Also provided to Compass were several lists totaling 123 names of people affected by the crackdown. The lists include dozens of highlanders sentenced to long prison terms. Others are in hiding, and still others have disappeared without a trace.


Time magazine’s Asia edition of August 2 carried an article entitled “Vietnam’s Tribal Injustice.” Time reporter Phil Zabriski is believed to be one of the first Westerners who managed to evade government minders and talk directly with some Montagnard sources.

Vietnam has clearly broken its promise to diplomats that it would only punish a handful of the leaders involved in the Easter protests. In early May, the Vietnamese government also promised to send a special “peace corps” to help raise the living standards of poverty-stricken tribal minorities. However, Montagnards report that the main function of this unit is to serve as “spies and guards” and to intercept all traffic and communication.

In Buon Poc, Dak Lak province, where people were active in the demonstrations, eight men were arrested and severely beaten before being allowed to return home. Between two and 12 members of the “peace corps” were subsequently assigned to watch over each of the men’s families, camping near their homes to watch and control all movement. Visitors are treated with suspicion.

Church sources report that in late June and early July eight men were killed in Plei B’Lang, Gia Lai province. Four died of gunshots and four were beaten to death. The body of one of the men beaten to death was returned to his home and hung from a rope. Officials then proclaimed he had hung himself. Exceptionally tight security has hindered attempts to verify this report.

On July 19, Christians in Plei Trap, Gia Lai province, were subjected to public humiliation and intense pressure to renounce their faith.

Vietnamese Christians familiar with the situation in the highlands say authorities have conveniently singled out Christianity as the scapegoat for serious social problems there. The greatest problem is the illegal seizure of tribal lands for use by ethnic Vietnamese. The government appropriates land for the newcomers ostensibly to alleviate land shortages elsewhere in Vietnam. But sources in the Central Highlands say the land grab is largely driven by the allure of lucrative cash crops.

Montagnard Christians who object to the loss of their lands are accused of supporting the Dega Protestant movement, which has sometimes promoted self-determination. In reality, the vast majority of Montagnards, both Christians and others, simply want equal access to development opportunities and the return of their tribal homes and lands.

Veteran Vietnam watchers say the authorities exaggerate the security threat of rapidly growing Christianity to keep attention away from their own misdeeds. The official propaganda campaigns against Christians helps divert attention from human rights crimes, which are the underlying cause of the dissatisfaction of Vietnam’s minority peoples.


The government has also refused to grant official status to many of the highland churches it has tried to disband in recent years. In Gia Lai province, for example, only 15,000 of the estimated 80,000 local Christians belong to the 11 government-sanctioned churches. Other churches remain unregistered and their members are still subjected to constant harassment to renounce their faith.

The crisis caught international attention again in July, when 198 Montagnard refugees were airlifted from the Cambodian border province of Ratanakiri to the capital, Phnom Penh. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen had initially allowed forced repatriation of the refugees to Vietnam. However, he relented before international pressure to allow the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to rescue refugees from the malaria-infested jungles near the border and airlift them to Phnom Penh.

According to an August 9 report by Agence France Presse, Cambodia has authorized a second such rescue mission. In addition, 91 Montagnard refugees have found their own way to UNHCR safe houses in Phnom Penh. The majority of the exiles are Christian.

One Vietnamese source told Compass that he believed the successful rescue of Montagnards from the border region could encourage others to flee Vietnam.

“It’s hard to describe the desperation people are feeling,” he said. “Some of it comes from the lack of concern and action from the international community. Vietnamese authorities tell everyone that the highlands are a place of peace, happiness and ethnic equality.

“But in reality they make it a hell for the Montagnards.”

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***********************************Vietnam’s ‘Mennonite Six’ Allowed Family VisitsAuthorities prepare criminal charges against pastor, co-workers.Special to Compass Direct

HO CHI MINH CITY, August 26 (Compass) -- The mother of two Mennonite evangelists arrested on March 2 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, was allowed to visit her imprisoned sons for the first time on August 23. Allowed to see them separately for about an hour each, the woman’s visit was cut short when one son began to describe how the other had been badly beaten while in custody.

A long-time Christian believer herself, the mother reported that the younger of her sons, Nguyen Thanh Nhan, appeared thin and pale but in reasonably good spirits. Her older son, Nguyen Huu Nghia, however, was in a very fragile emotional state.


It took nearly six months for the family to get permission for the visit, despite a Vietnamese law stipulating that such visits be allowed within the first 30 days of incarceration.

On August 18, the wife of the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang was allowed to visit the imprisoned pastor for the second time since his June 8 arrest, this time accompanied by the couple’s three small children. (See Compass Direct, “Vietnam Pastor Remains in Police Custody,” July 30.)

Sources in Vietnam confirm that in mid July, the father of evangelist Pham Ngoc Thach was also allowed a brief visit. There had been concern whether Thach was even alive, as he had been badly beaten by police at the time of his arrest, also on March 2.

The wife of evangelist Nguyen Van Phuong, who bore the couple’s first child just before his March 2 arrest, has also been allowed one visit with her husband.

The only female evangelist, Le Thi Hong Lien, arrested in early July, has not been allowed a family visit. In justifying their refusal to allow visitors, police have told Lien’s family that she is “hard-headed and uncooperative.”

The family visits were monitored, yet some news emerged. It appears all six Mennonite church workers are incarcerated in a prison located at 4 Phan Dang Luu Street, Ho Chi Minh City, and not in the District 2 jail where they were first held after their arrests.

The prisoners believe that city-level public security police are close to completing an investigation to determine whether to prosecute them on a prisoner-by-prisoner basis. If officials decide to prosecute, prisoners facing charges will likely be transferred to Chi Hoa Prison, in the greater Ho Chi Minh City area. Further investigations will follow, and then charges against the defendants will be published, followed by a trial.

According to a report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, sources in Vietnam say that authorities are working hard to put Quang on trial as soon as possible, perhaps by early September. Observers expect Quang to be tried because of his open advocacy of human rights and religious liberty.

Authorities confiscated files and computers from Quang’s home at the time of his arrest and are apparently using those to collect “evidence” to charge the pastor with crimes. Quang expects to face harsh charges himself, but is said to be concerned that his five co-workers have already suffered too much.

It seems doubtful that charges against the five defendants will include anything more serious than “resisting an officer doing official duty” for which they were supposedly arrested.


Vietnamese authorities are reportedly surprised and upset at the widespread negative publicity their oppression of the Vietnamese Mennonite house church organization has generated on an international level. Apparently they were not aware of the extent of Mennonite church bodies around the world, many of which have spoken up on behalf of the six prisoners.

Various secular and church-related media organizations have published news about the Mennonite Six. At least a half-dozen countries are pressing Vietnamese authorities on their mistreatment of Mennonite leaders and churches.

Meanwhile, ethnic minority Mennonite churches in Gai Lai province continue to experience oppression. Last May, authorities summoned six Mennonite pastors from ethnic minority groups in Ia Go Rai district and urged them to renounce their ties with the Mennonite church. Denouncing Nguyen Hong Quang, they invited the six to join the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South).

ECVN (S) leaders knew nothing about the incident. To date, in fact, they have been able to register only 11 of their own 400 churches in the province.

In mid May, two Mennonite evangelists, Ksor Ti No and Ksor Pui Nai, were arrested and placed in the T20 prison in Gia Lai. The charges against them are unknown. So far, families have been unable to visit them, although officials will accept packages on behalf of the men.

A report sent on August 17 from the area to Compass said, “Christians are still being arrested and taken away at this time.”

In another incident, a visiting British journalist asked Bureau of Religious Affairs officials in late July about Nguyen Hong Quang. At the time, these same officials were conducting a defamation campaign against Quang through the state media. Nonetheless, they told the journalist that they had never heard of him.

Finally, on August 5, authorities of the Bureau of Religious Affairs approached the elderly president of the Vietnam Mennonite Church and suggested that he make application to legally register the organization with the government. They made no mention of the imprisonment of Quang -- who serves as the church’s general secretary -- or his five co-workers, nor did they refer to other repressive actions against the Mennonite Church in Vietnam.

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***********************************Vietnam’s Evangelical Fellowship Responds to New Religion LawCall to prayer sent to hundreds of house churches.Special to Compass Direct


HO CHI MINH CITY, September 1 (Compass) -- The Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF) has just released a statement on Vietnam’s new Ordinance on Religion, due to take effect on November 15.

The VEF is an organization of about 30 unregistered house church organizations representing many hundreds of house churches. The August 30 letter states, “This Ordinance will create many problems and disadvantages for the church, especially for our gatherings for worship. At the same time, it is likely to permanently outlaw our house church organizations, none of which have been recognized since 1975. Many articles in this Ordinance will also provide a legal basis for local authorities to hinder and persecute the church.”

This new law purportedly guarantees religious freedom in one article but uses most of the remaining 40 articles for detailing a long series of complicated regulations to insure close state management of religious activity.

The VEF reportedly worked and prayed long and hard to forge the consensus for this letter. It is a courageous statement, especially in that it asks prayer for the government of Vietnam to withdraw the ordinance issued on June 18, and to stop all forms of persecution and hindrances to the church’s activities.

Though this letter is a request to Christians in Vietnam, it was sent abroad with a request for wide international distribution to gain greater prayer support.

VIETNAM EVANGELICAL FELLOWSHIPR5 Duong D3 Cu Xa Van Thanh Bac, Ward 25, Binh Thanh District, HCM City (08) 512.0966----------------------------------------------------August 30, 2004

A CALL TO PRAYER

To all the Pastors, Preachers and Membersof the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship.

On behalf of the Board of V.E.F., we respectfully send this letter to you Pastors, Preachers, and Members, greeting you in the Name of our Lord Jesus.

Praise the Lord for His salvation and grace and for including us in His Kingdom in the Name of Jesus Christ! Because of this we have the privilege to worship Him and to serve Him -- our Sovereign and Faithful God (Ephesians 1:3-10).


As Christians will know, immediately after April 30, 1975, many churches were closed, and Bible schools and church institutions were used for other purposes. Because of the requirement of our spiritual needs, we formed churches in private homes to maintain our worship and spiritual activities. From 1975 until today, we have, for the sake of the Lord Jesus, suffered much persecution and discrimination from different levels of the government.

On June 18, 2004, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly issued an official Ordinance on Religion, No. 21/2004/PL-UBTVQH11 scheduled to come into effect on November 15, 2004. This Ordinance will create many problems and disadvantages for the church, especially for our gatherings for worship. At the same time, it is likely to permanently outlaw our house church organizations, none of which have been recognized since 1975. Many articles in this Ordinance will also provide a legal basis for local authorities to hinder and persecute the church.

In this situation, we feel the call of God to follow the example of the saints in the time of King Xerxes of the Medes-Persian Empire (Esther 4:13-16), that is to humble ourselves, calling upon our God for the church and for freedom to worship God in Vietnam.

On behalf of all pastors of the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship, we are authorized to respectfully proclaim to all the Lord’s people, a call to all Pastors, Preachers and Christians to devote three days each month, from September to November 2004, as follows: September 5-7; October 3-5; November 7-9, in order to fast and pray for the following requests:

1. that the Almighty Lord would continue to protect and vindicate the Church (Acts. 5:38,39).

2. that all believers in local areas would faithfully gather to worship the Lord and stand firm in all circumstances (Acts. 5:41-42).

3. that all leaders of the churches, all leaders of small groups, all of the host families of churches would have the wisdom and courage needed to lead the flock (Acts. 4:29-30).

4. that the government of all levels from the central to the local, throughout all of Vietnam, will soon recognize God’s sovereignty so that they will withdraw the Ordinance issued on June 18, 2004, and so that they will give up their prejudices towards the Church, and stop all forms of persecution and hindrances to the Church’s activities (1Timothy 2:1-2; Proverbs 21: 1).

May God’s peace be with you.


Respectfully, on behalf of the VEF Leadership Committee

Rev. Pham Dinh NhanChairman

Note: A translation of The Ordinance on Beliefs and Religions, made public Monday, July 12, is found on the World Evangelical Alliance website, http://worldevangelical.org/persec_vietnam_18june04.html. Several leading Catholic priests also called for the recall of the Ordinance. Their commentary can be found on a Freedom House posting at: http://freedomhouse.org/religion/country/vietnam/Commentary%20on%20Ordinance.pdf

Sidebar: Among Vietnam’s 81.6 million people are 8 million Christians, including 1.2 million evangelicals -- with an estimated 250,000 Hmong believers. Evangelicals are growing at an annual rate above 6 percent, according to Operation World. On the World Evangelical Alliance website, the Geneva Report 2004 states, “The government of Vietnam recognizes as legal only some 20 percent of Vietnam’s 1.2 million Protestants. Those belonging to the Evangelical Church of Vietnam - North (recognized in mid 1960s) and the Evangelical Church of Vietnam - South (recognized in 2001) find their activities severely curtailed. The oppression of the majority of Protestant Christians in Vietnam, mainly minority Montagnards in the Central Highlands, and Hmong and Dao in the Northwest provinces, remains systematic and severe.”

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***********************************Vietnamese Pastor Arrested, QuestionedTran Mai released with orders to appear for further interrogation.Special to Compass Direct

HO CHI MINH CITY, September 7 (Compass) -- Eight days after his arrest, prominent Vietnamese house church leader Rev. Tran Mai walked back into his house in Ho Chi Minh City at 11 p.m. on September 6. However, he arrived home with orders to appear for further interrogation just nine hours later at the city headquarters of the Ministry of Public Security.

Pastor Mai, leader of a house church organization known as the Inter-Evangelistic Movement, was arrested on Sunday morning, August 29, as he crossed a land border into Vietnam after several months abroad.

He was allowed a brief call to his wife, but police refused to tell his wife where he was or on what charges they were holding him.


http://freedomhouse.org/religion/country/vietnam/Commentary%20on%20Ordinance.pdf

http://worldevangelical.org/persec_vietnam_18june04.html

Immediately following his arrest, Mai’s wife and colleagues issued an appeal for prayer for his safety. However, they decided to wait a few days before raising an international alarm.

Yesterday, within an hour after friends abroad were asked to raise the alarm, Pastor Mai walked in the door.

The timing of Mai’s release is intriguing, given the fact that the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF), an association of house church groups of which Mai’s group is an active member, published a circular on August 30 calling for fasting and prayer from September 5 to 7. In the circular, Christians were urged to pray for the protection of house churches, especially in light of Vietnam’s new Ordinance on Religion scheduled to come into effect on November 15.

Approximately 1,000 VEF Christians gathered at a prayer meeting in Ho Chi Minh City on September 5. They extended their prayers to Mai also, who walked back into his home on the following day.

During his brief imprisonment, Mai was held in three separate cells in and around the city of Chau Doc in the Mekong delta. Already in frail health, he was concerned when he was thrown into a cell crowded with drug addicts and AIDS victims.

It is still not clear on what charges or pretext Mai was arrested. However, the fact that police from Ho Chi Minh City took part in his interrogation is an indication that the central government was involved.

Police questioned Mai about his activities abroad and his role in the distribution of Christian literature during the South East Asian Games held in Ho Chi Minh City in December 2003.

They also questioned him on his connection to the Rev. Bui Van Ba, arrested in August 2003 during a police raid on a prayer meeting held in his own home. After a well-coordinated international protest, the trial of Ba for “resisting an officer doing his official duty” was postponed in January 2004, just 24 hours before it was scheduled to begin.

Finally, Mai was asked about his relationship with the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, an imprisoned Mennonite pastor, lawyer and social activist. Vietnamese authorities are expected to announce criminal proceedings against Quang within the next few weeks.

It remains to be seen what charges may or may not be brought against Mai.

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