Time: Thu May 15 05:25:07 1997
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Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 05:12:32 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: Senate Religious Persecution Task Force (fwd)
<snip>
>
>>From the URL:
http://www.nationalcenter.inter.net/SenateRelPersecution597.html
>
>Senate Religious Persecution Task Force
>
>Membership, Purpose, Legislative Agenda
>with Examples of Religious Persecution
>
>
>Distributed May 1997 by Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
>
>
>TASK FORCE MEMBERS
>
>Inhofe (Chairman), Ashcroft, Brownback, Coats, D'Amato, Helms, Specter
>
>PURPOSE OF TASK FORCE
>
>Religious persecution is increasing against all faiths but in particular
>against Christians especially in China and the Muslim world.
>
>A radical regime in Sudan allied with Iran has used massacre, starvation,
>slavery, and forced resettlement against the Christian minority.
>
>In communist China, there is massive repression against tens of millions of
>Christians, both Protestant and Catholic, in the unregistered "house
>church" movement.
>
>The advisory committee established by the administration to monitor
>religious persecution has done nothing of substance in response to this
>increasing pattern of abuse.
>
>There is no one-time, quick-fix answer. As the Task Force works on
>addressing these atrocities, we welcome your input.
>
>LEGISLATIVE REMEDIES
>
>Legislation prepared by Senator Specter and Representative Wolf will be the
>starting point for the Task Force. There are some aspects that could be
>problematic and I would like to work on alternative language.
>
>SPECTER/WOLF: Provides for targeted economic sanctions.
>PROBLEM: Success of economic sanctions has been mixed because they tend to
>be too weak and waiveable by the president.
>
>SPECTER/WOLF: Increases opportunity for persecuted religious communities to
>be admitted in refugee status is or granted asylum status.
>PROBLEM: The bill uses the plight of Soviet Jews during the Cold War as a
>model. However, the emigration solution for 2 million Soviet Jews then may
>not be the solution for 50 million Chinese Christians today.
>
>SPECTER/WOLF: Five year extension of Lautenberg amendment.
>PROBLEM: This may unnecessarily complicate our efforts. Claims of asylum or
>refugee status based on religious persecution must be taken as seriously as
>forms of persecution.
>
>Other legislative remedies may include:
>
>Withholding funds for a visit of President Jiang Zemin of China for an
>official visit until the president certifies specified improvements have
>taken place with respect to Christians.
>
>Free standing legislation on Sudan (also in Specter/Wolf).
>
>Establishment of "equal access" laws that would require U.S. diplomatic and
>consular premises abroad to permit religious services. The U.S. mission in
>Saudi Arabia no longer allows Christian services on the premises, although
>they have set aside facilities for Islamic worship.
>
>EXAMPLES OF RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
>Sudan: Religious Persecution
>
>In 1992, a nine-year old Christian boy from the Sudanese Dinka tribe was
>sent by his mother to buy tomatoes at the local market. While on the
>errand, the boy was stopped by the Muslim secret police and sent with other
>boys to a children's "cultural cleansing camp" where they were forcibly
>converted to Islam.
>
>Since declaring Sudan an Islamic state in 1983, the government's attempt to
>impose Shari'a (traditional Islamic law) has resulted in the death of more
>than 1.3 million people and the displacement of more than 3 million others,
>mostly Christian and non-Muslims.
>
>In February 1996, Gaspar Biro (United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Sudan)
>reported "an alarming increase" in the number of cases of "slavery,
>servitude, slave trade and forced labor" in Sudan. With growing frequency,
>Christian villages are raided, men are exterminated, children forced into
>military training and women sold into slavery or relocated to concentration
>camps.
>
>The Baltimore Sun reported, beginning on June 16, 1996, that two of its
>reporters went to Sudan and bought slaves for five hundred dollars each.
>
>Under the Islamic Shari'a, conversion to Christianity is illegal. In August
>1995, five Nuban women were sentenced to death for apostasy or abandoning
>Islam. In late 1995, ten persons were arrested for converting to
Christianity.
>
>China: Religious Persecution
>
>Huang Fangxin is a 31 year old convicted criminal serving out a three year
>sentence in the laogai - Chinas infamous reform-through-labor camp. This
>criminal was found guilty of being the "ringleader of an illegal religous
>organization" that successfully witnessed Christianity to many Chinese
>university students. His "reeducation through labor" was for "disturbing
>the social order and normal religious life" and for "influencing the
>stability and unity of village life."
>
>Peter Yongze Xu, minister of a four million member "house church," has been
>in hiding since 1991 after having been arrested while attending a Billy
>Graham crusade in China.
>
>In March 1996, seventeen church members were arrested for attending an
>unlicenced church meetirg in western Xingiang province, a predominantly
>Muslim region. All but five women were released when responsibility was
>accepted for the illegal gathering. After admitting their guilt, police
>severely beat the women, poured scalding water on them and sent them to
>prison.
>
>The Far Eastern Economic Review reported on June 6, 1996, that "police has
>destroyed at least fifteen thousand unregistered temples, churches and
>tombs" between February and June 1996 in the Zhejiang province alone.
>
>
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>
========================================================================
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness
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