FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 30, 2002

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

WHAT: Felice D. Gaer, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal agency advising the Administration and Congress, will testify at a briefing of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus on "Anti-Semitism in Europe."

WHEN: Thursday, August 1, 2002, at 10:30 a.m.

WHERE: Room 2255, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC.

BACKGROUND: In the past year a wave of anti-Semitic incidents has occurred across Europe. Individuals have been attacked, places of worship and cemeteries vandalized or firebombed, and anti-Semitic signs posted with booby-traps to injure those who dismantle them. The Commission has publicly deplored acts of anti-Semitism in Belgium and France and continues to closely monitor violations of religious freedom on the continent as a whole.

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.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2002

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

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a federal agency advising the Administration and Congress, last week wrote Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, asking that he raise religious freedom issues with Vietnamese officials during the ASEAN Regional Forum at the end of this month. The text of the letter follows:

July 17, 2002

Dear Secretary Powell:

I am writing on behalf of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which urges you to raise prominently the protection of religious freedom in Vietnam during your upcoming participation at the ASEAN Regional Forum in July 2002. We also urge you to impress upon Vietnamese officials that improvements in the protection of religious freedom in Vietnam are critical to continuing progress in U.S.-Vietnam relations.
Since the Congress ratified the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in September 2001, the protection of religious freedom in Vietnam continues to be minimal at best. In February 2002, the Commission sent a delegation to visit that country. Despite the increase in religious practice among the Vietnamese people in the last 10 years, the Vietnamese government continues its repressive policy toward all religions and their followers in Vietnam.

Key Vietnamese religious dissidents remain under house arrest or imprisoned, including two senior leaders of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) - Most Venerable Thich Huyen Quang and Venerable Thich Quang Do - and a Hoa Hao Buddhist leader, Mr. Le Quang Liem. Mr. Quang has been denied access to much needed medical treatment. In addition, Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, who last year submitted written testimony to the Commission, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after having been convicted on charges of "undermining state unity" and "slandering the government." During the Commission's visit, Vietnamese officials refused the delegation's requests to meet with these and other religious leaders who were either in prison or under house arrest.

Government officials continue to harass leaders of unregistered religious organizations and their followers, particularly unregistered Protestant fellowships, as well as clergy members of officially recognized religious groups who oppose government interference in their activities. At the same time, Vietnamese authorities have refused to register some religious groups. For example, the Vietnamese government has refused to register or permit any activity of Baha'i adherents, whose membership in Vietnam before 1976 counted close to 200,000. Meanwhile, provincial and local officials continue to force Hmong Christians in northwestern Vietnam to renounce their faith. Hmong Christian leaders have been arrested and beaten, and their followers are not allowed to meet in homes and conduct worship. Catholic bishops continue to have limits imposed on them by the government regarding the number of candidates who can be admitted to study for the priesthood as well as the number of qualified men who are allowed to be ordained to the priesthood.

Although the government recognized the Evangelical Church of Vietnam in the South in April 2001, that recognition apparently has not been extended to the Montagnards who reside in the Central Highlands. Government repression of religious freedom for Montagnard Christians, coupled with an ongoing land dispute between the Montagnards and the government, led to unrest and government crackdown in February 2001 that ultimately resulted in the flight to Cambodia of over 1,000 Montagnards. Nonetheless, it appears that the Vietnamese government continues to violate the right to religious freedom of Montagnard Christians in the Central Highlands through arrests and the closing of churches.

In light of these conditions, the Commission urges you to raise these issues in substantive discussions with Vietnamese officials during your attendance at the ASEAN Regional Forum. In particular, we hope you will inquire about the confinement of Mr. Quang, Mr. Do, and Mr. Liem, and the imprisonment of Fr. Ly.

Furthermore, we wish to draw your attention to the following recommendations, first set out in our 2001 Annual Report. We urge you to press the Vietnamese government to take the following steps:

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

2. Permit full access to religious leaders by U.S. diplomatic personnel and government officials, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and international human rights organizations. The government should also invite a return visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion.

3. Establish the freedom to engage in religious activities (including the freedom for members of religious groups to select their own 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, in accordance with the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination.

4. Permit religious groups to gather for observances of religious holidays.

5. Return confiscated religious properties.

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

7. Permit domestic Vietnamese religious and other non-governmental organizations to distribute their own and donated aid.

8. Support exchanges between Vietnamese religious communities and U.S. religious and other non-governmental organizations concerned with religious freedom in Vietnam.

In its May 2001 report, the Commission also recommended that the U.S. government continue to support the ASEAN Human Rights Working Group, and that it should encourage the Vietnamese government to join the working group by establishing a national working group. The Commission urges you to take this opportunity to engage officials of the ASEAN working group in serious discussions about the promotion of human rights, including religious freedom, among ASEAN member states. Moreover, we urge you to impress upon Vietnamese officials that the establishment of a national working group by their government would be an important sign of Vietnam's commitment to protecting religious freedom and other human rights.

Thank you for your consideration of the Commission's recommendations.

We would be grateful if you would share with us the findings and achievements of your visit upon your return.

Respectfully,

Felice Gaer

Chair

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." src="images/layout/subbottomtext1.gif" />

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2002

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

WASHINGTON - In letters to Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle and Minority Leader Trent Lott, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the Senate to appoint conferees on the Sudan Peace Act. This was communicated in a meeting with Senator Lott yesterday. The Commission has an outstanding request for a similar meeting with Senator Daschle. The Commission is a federal agency that advises the Administration and Congress.

Among the Commission's recommendations on Sudan in both its 2001 and 2002 reports was that foreign companies doing business there be required to disclose the nature of that business in their filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and that foreign companies doing business in Sudan's petroleum fields be barred from listing in U.S. equity markets. (The reports are available on the Commission's Web site at www.uscirf.gov.)

The Commission has found Sudan to be the world's most violent abuser of the right to religious freedom. The terrible civil war there has killed more than 2 million people and displaced up to 5 million. A just peace in Sudan is not possible, the Commission wrote the Senate leaders, unless the Khartoum regime is prevented from using the country's oil revenues to step up its brutal war against the south. The House version of the Sudan Peace Act contains the Commission recommendations referred to above, which would address the oil issue, while the Senate version does not.

The House has appointed conferees to iron out the differences in the competing bills, but the Senate has failed to do so. The Commission sent the Senate leaders a summary of its recent testimony on Sudan before the House International Relations Committee. The summary includes then-Chairman Michael K. Young's answers to questions from Committee members, in which he said the capital-market provisions are warranted in the face of a war of genocidal proportions that is facilitated by access to U.S. capital markets.

SUMMARY OF USCIRF TESTIMONY ON SUDAN HO#USE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS JUNE 5, 2002

Sudan was one of the first countries to become a focus of the Commission. For the past three years, the Commission has found the government of Sudan to be one of the world's most violent abusers of the right to freedom of religion and belief.

On May 14, the White House released Special Envoy John Danforth's report on his efforts to end the civil war in Sudan. The Commission was one of the first to call for the creation of a special envoy. The Commission welcomes Senator Danforth's efforts and his willingness to continue to pursue a just and lasting peace in Sudan.

Senator Danforth, like the Commission, has found that the development of Sudan's oil wealth has become an increasingly important factor in the intensification of the conflict and one that must be addressed to achieve a just and lasting peace. But Senator Danforth's proposals do not yet point to a serious policy by the Administration to bring peace to Sudan. Khartoum thinks it can win the war, especially with hundreds of millions in oil revenue pouring in. Khartoum currently has no incentive to end the fighting, and neither Senator Danforth nor the Administration has yet pointed to one.

The only way to get Khartoum's attention is to curtail its oil revenues - the only asset that is keeping it from bankruptcy. The United States has the means to do so through capital market reforms recommended by the Commission and included in the House-passed version of the Sudan Peace Act. Key provisions would 1) bar any foreign company doing business in Sudan's petroleum fields from raising funds in U.S. capital markets, and 2) require any company doing business in Sudan to disclose the nature of that business in fillings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The Commission has further recommended that any peace agreement, or in the interim a comprehensive cease-fire, be conditioned on placing the country's oil revenues into an internationally-administered trust fund. These revenues would be expended solely for developmental and humanitarian purposes on an equitable basis in both the north and the south. With such an arrangement, the regime will be far less likely to engage in good faith bargaining over power-sharing.

Regimes in Khartoum have time and again manipulated well-meaning peace initiatives, in the process repeatedly making and later breaking solemn promises. It has been five years since both parties agree to the Declaration of Principles under the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD). The people of southern Sudan cannot afford another five-year delay.

The Commission believes that any peace talks must be based on the IGAD Declaration of Principles. Core among these Principles are self-determination for the South and a secular state that would ensure religious freedom for all individuals, North and South.

What is most needed right now is a policy on Sudan. A first step should be for the Bush Administration and the Senate to drop their opposition to a conference committee on the Sudan Peace Act and to accept the House version of the bill.

In following Question and Answer session, Chairman Young responded as follows:

To a question by Representative Gilman on the role of religion in the conflict, Chairman Young replied that while there is no doubt that the situation is complex, it is equally clear that religion is a substantial cause of the conflict, specifically the attempt on the part of successive governments in Khartoum to Islamicize the South.

To a question by Representative Gilman regarding persecution of non-Muslims, Chairman Young noted that part of the problem has been attempts to use food distribution as a way to force conversion to Islam. Chairman Young also noted that Muslims in the North have been subject to severe persecution if they do not follow the version of Islam that the government promulgates.

To a question by Representative Leach, Chairman Young responded that the Commission strongly supports capital market sanctions. Chairman Young described the recommended sanctions as very narrowly targeted. Not only does part of the recommended proposals relate merely to disclosure but the range of countries to be looked at is incredibly small. As such, the Commission believes them warranted in the face of a war of genocidal proportions that is facilitated by access to U.S. capital markets.

Elaborating further in response to a follow-up on capital market sanctions by Representative Flake, Chairman Young reiterated that at least part of these sanctions really are not sanctions in the classic sense but simply disclosure requirements. Chairman Young recalled that, in a written response to a Commission inquiry, Acting SEC Chairman Laura Unger had favored the notion of disclosure, at least in original SEC filings, for countries on the OFAC sanction list already in light of the very significant political risks in these countries. Chairman Young further explained that the House version of the Sudan Peace Act would extend disclosure to include Sudan, a country that has been designated as one of the Countries of Particular Concern, a designation in the control of the State Department.

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."