FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 12, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

The Senate will soon consider the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with Vietnam, approved by the House of Representatives last week. The agreement will extend Normal Trade Relations status to Vietnam, although this will remain subject to annual review. Given the very serious violations of religious freedom in that country, the Commission in May made a series of recommendations to the Bush Administration and Congress. Primary among these was that U.S. lawmakers should ratify the BTA only after Hanoi undertakes to improve protection of religious freedom or after Congress passes a resolution calling for the Vietnamese government to make such improvements.

The Vietnam Human Rights Act (H.R. 2833) passed by the House last week implements this and other Commission recommendations. Besides expressing U.S. concern about Vietnam's religious-freedom and human rights abuses, the Act authorizes assistance to organizations promoting human rights in Vietnam and declares support for Radio Free Asia broadcasting. The Commission urges the Senate to act likewise.

The Commission believes that approval of the BTA without any U.S. action with regard to religious freedom risks worsening the religious-freedom situation in Vietnam because it may be interpreted by the government of Vietnam as a signal of American indifference. The Commission notes that religious freedom in the People's Republic of China declined markedly after last year's approval of Permanent Normal Trade Relations status, unaccompanied by any substantial U.S. action with regard to religious freedom in that country.

Despite a marked increase in religious practice among the Vietnamese people in the last 10 years, the Vietnamese government continues to suppress organized religious activities forcefully and to monitor and control religious communities. This repression is mirrored by the recent crackdown on important political dissidents. The government prohibits religious activity by those not affiliated with one of the six officially recognized religious organizations. Individuals have been detained, fined, imprisoned, and kept under close surveillance by security forces for engaging in "illegal" religious activities. In addition, the government uses the recognition process to monitor and control officially sanctioned religious groups: restricting the procurement and distribution of religious literature, controlling religious training, and interfering with the selection of religious leaders.

The Vietnamese government in March placed Fr. Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly under administrative detention (i.e. house arrest) for "publicly slandering" the Vietnamese Communist Party and "distorting" the government's policy on religion. This occurred after Fr. Ly submitted written testimony on religious persecution in Vietnam for the Commission's February 2001 hearing on that country.

In order to demonstrate significant improvement in religious freedom, the Vietnamese government should:

• Release from imprisonment, detention, house arrest, or intimidating surveillance persons who are so restricted due to their religious identities or activities.

• Permit unhindered access to religious leaders by U.S. diplomatic personnel and government officials, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and respected international human rights organizations, including, if requested, a return visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance.

• Establish the freedom to engage in religious activities (including the freedom for religious groups to govern themselves and select their leaders, worship publicly, express and advocate religious beliefs, and distribute religious literature) outside state-controlled religious organizations and eliminate controls on the activities of officially registered organizations. Allow indigenous religious communities to conduct educational, charitable, and humanitarian activities.

• Permit religious groups to gather for annual observances of primary religious holidays.

• Return confiscated religious properties.

• Permit domestic Vietnamese religious organizations and individuals to interact with foreign organizations and individuals.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress." 

Felice D. Gaer

• Firuz Kazemzadeh, Leila Nadya Sadat, Dean Michael K. Young, Nina Shea, Rev. Charles R. Stith, Steven T. McFarland, Executive Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 6, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

For 18 years, Sudan has been plagued by a civil war that has killed more than 2 million people and displaced more than 4 million. Religion is a major factor in that war, and religious-freedom violations are intertwined with other human rights and humanitarian abuses in Sudan.

In response to the escalation of these abuses, the House has adopted capital-market restrictions and disclosure requirements in its version of the Sudan Peace Act, which will soon go to a conference with the Senate. These provisions, which would give the United States important tools to help end the fighting and restore religious freedom and other rights, were recommended by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent agency established by federal law. The Commission strongly urges President Bush to overrule the opposition of some members of his administration and support the House language. In addition, the Commission calls upon Senate conferees to accede to the capital-market provisions of the House version of the bill.

As the Commission found in its 2000 and 2001 reports, the Sudanese government is the world's most violent abuser of religious freedom. It commits genocidal atrocities against the civilian populations in the southern part of the country and the Nuba Mountains. It has intensified its deliberate bombing attacks on civilian and humanitarian targets, including hospitals, schools, churches, markets, and relief-organization compounds. Recent reports indicate that Khartoum's weaponry has been expanded to include surface-to-surface missiles that are lethal but inaccurate enough to easily fall among civilians. The government frequently has blocked the delivery of humanitarian assistance, denying access to food aid to many facing critical food shortages. Its forces and allied militias continue to abduct women and children into conditions of slavery. It violates the religious freedom of Christians as well as of Muslims who dissent from the government's interpretation of Islam.

The connection between oil development - conducted by foreign oil companies - and the Sudanese government's human rights abuses has become increasingly apparent. The discovery and drilling of oil reserves has led to a "scorched earth" policy to remove civilian populations from areas near oil installations. The government uses the oil facilities' airstrips and roads to stage military operations. The U.S. State Department confirms that oil revenues have allowed the government to increase its investment in military hardware.

In May 2000 and 2001, the Commission forwarded to the Clinton and Bush administrations - and to Congress - a comprehensive set of policy recommendations aimed at ending the fighting and fostering a just peace. Among the Commission's recommendations is a proposal that companies doing business in Sudan be required to disclose the nature and extent of that business in connection with their access to U.S. capital markets. The Commission also recommended that foreign companies engaged in the development of oil and gas fields in Sudan be prohibited from listing their securities in U.S. markets. The House of Representatives included those provisions, drawn from the Commission's reports, when it passed the Sudan Peace Act with only two dissenting votes. The Senate, regrettably, failed to include such provisions in its version of the bill.

The Commission does not lightly recommend restrictions on U.S. capital-markets access, but believes that the horrific conditions in Sudan warrant them. The government of Sudan is committing genocidal humanitarian and human rights abuses. Those abuses are directly connected to oil production. Foreign investment is critical to the development of Sudan's oil fields and maintenance of oil revenues. Expanding U.S. sanctions in the area of capital-markets access specifically targets what is likely the most significant resource the Sudanese government has to prosecute the war.

A moral principle is also involved. Americans and U.S. institutions have a right and a need to know the material risks involved in their investments and whether those investments are facilitating religious persecution. Investors, whether or not they care about human rights violations, should be advised that the company they are investing in has operations in Sudan that are under rebel attack and could be closed or suspended by peace negotiations or multilateral sanctions. Whatever modest burden the disclosure requirement places on companies raising capital on U.S. markets is far outweighed by the value to investors of that information.

The Commission commends the Bush administration for the increased attention it has given to the genocidal tragedy in Sudan. Enactment of the capital-markets provisions of the Sudan Peace Act would give the President and Secretary of State added leverage in getting the Khartoum regime to the bargaining table and negotiating a just end to the war.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress." 

Felice D. Gaer

• Firuz Kazemzadeh, Leila Nadya Sadat, Dean Michael K. Young, Nina Shea, Rev. Charles R. Stith, Steven T. McFarland,Executive Director

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 16, 2001

Contact:
Lawrence J. Goodrich, Communications Director, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has nominated Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, Laos, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Turkmenistan for designation by the State Department as "countries of particular concern" - the world's worst religious-freedom violators, subject to U.S. action under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The Commission also urged redesignation of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan as a "particularly severe violator" of religious freedom. The action came in an August 16 letter to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

Of the countries nominated, the State Department designated Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, and Sudan as countries of particular concern in 1999 and 2000. The Taliban regime was designated a particularly severe violator in both years as well. In July 2000, the Commission unsuccessfully recommended to then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright the addition of Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Turkmenistan.

In urging the redesignation of China and Sudan, the Commission noted that particularly severe violations of religious freedom have increased in both nations during the past year. "In China, numerous Falun Gong practitioners throughout the country have been subjected to psychiatric detention and abuse, as part of the government's crackdown on that group," the Commission wrote. "More than 35 members of the underground Roman Catholic Church (including two bishops and 23 priests) were arrested in April and July of this year. In Sudan, the Commission found that religion was a major factor in the ongoing civil war, and that religion and religious-freedom violations were intertwined with other human rights and humanitarian abuses there. The Sudanese government is reported in the last month to have escalated its bombing of civilian and humanitarian targets in the south, and continued its campaign forcibly to remove populations from the oil development areas that are providing financial support for its egregious human rights abuses."

"In Laos last year," the Commission wrote, "more than 95 Christians and their leaders from several provinces were arrested, detained (at times for months), and in some cases convicted of criminal offenses and imprisoned on account of their faith. Seven Laotian Christian church leaders and one church member were arrested in May 2001 (and subsequently released) for resisting government pressure to renounce their faith."

"The government in North Korea suppresses all independent religious activity; persons engaging in public religious expression or other unauthorized religious activities continue to be arrested and imprisoned; and since July 1999, there have been new reports (from escaped refugees and other credible firsthand sources) of ongoing torture and execution of religious believers."

"The findings from the Commission's visit to Saudi Arabia in March 2001 confirmed the State Department's conclusion, stated in its own human rights reports, that religious freedom "does not exist" in that country. Serious violations of religious freedom there clearly warrant CPC designation."

"The government of Turkmenistan severely restricts religious activity other than that engaged in by the official Sunni Muslim Board and the Russian Orthodox Church. Members of unrecognized religious communities - - including Baha'is, Baptists, Hare Krishnas, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims operating independently of the Sunni Muslim Board, Pentecostals, and Seventh-day Adventists - - have reportedly been arrested, detained (with allegations of torture and other ill-treatment), imprisoned, deported, harassed, fined, and have had their services disrupted, congregations dispersed, religious literature confiscated, and places of worship destroyed. Specific promises made by President Niyazov to senior U.S. officials in 1999 have not been carried out; in fact, the situation continues to deteriorate, eliminating expectations for improvement."

In addition, Commissioners noted that grave violations of religious freedom persist in India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam and, as they did a year ago, urged the State Department to monitor closely events in those countries.

The Commission noted that the State Department had designated the Milosevic regime in Serbia as a particularly severe violator of religious freedom in 1999 and 2000, but withdrew the designation after the Milosevic regime was removed from power in 2001. While the Commission agreed that the new governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and of Serbia have begun to demonstrate their commitment to religious freedom and other human rights, it urged the State Department to keep a close watch on the situation there. "The Commission is troubled, for example, by reports that Serbia is considering a new law on religious associations that may discriminate between so-called Serbian "traditional religions" and other religious communities."

The full text of the Commission's letter to the Secretary, with accompanying attachments, is available on its Web site, or can be obtained by contacting the Commission's communications office at (202) 523-3240, ext. 27.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad, as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and related international instruments, and to give independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and the Congress.

Felice D. Gaer

• Firuz Kazemzadeh, Leila Nadya Sadat, Dean Michael K. Young, Nina Shea, Rev. Charles R. Stith, Steven T. McFarland, Executive Director