Letter To The US Secretary Of State

The Honorable Colin L. Powell
Secretary of State
United States Department of State
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Powell:

As envisioned in the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), the U.S. Commission onInternational Religious Freedom has reviewed evidence regarding particularly severe violations of religiousfreedom by countries whose governments have engaged in or tolerated such systematic, ongoing, and egregiousviolations of religious freedom. As a result, the Commission recommends that you identify the following 12countries as countries of particular concern (CPCs): Burma (Myanmar), Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK), India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, andVietnam.

In reaching these findings and recommendations, the Commission has reviewed violations of religious freedomengaged in or tolerated by diverse governments, gathering information from victims, religious groups, humanrights and other private organizations, the U.S. government, and others. The Commission has also examined theState Department's Annual Report on International Religious Freedom - 2001 and its Country Reports on HumanRights Practices - 2001.

In 1999 and again in 2000, the Secretary of State designated as CPCs Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, and Sudan,and you added North Korea to this group in 2001. The Commission recommends that each of these designations asCPCs be maintained. The governments of these countries continue to commit particularly severe violations ofreligious freedom as defined in IRFA and have not taken substantial and verifiable steps to halt suchviolations. Indeed, in China, particularly severe violations have actually increased in the past year. The Chinese government hasintensified its violent campaign of repression against Evangelical Christians, Roman Catholics, UighurMuslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and groups, such as the Falun Gong, that have been labeled as "evilcults." This campaign has included imprisonment, torture, and other forms of ill treatment.

In addition to the six countries previously designated by you as CPCs, the Commission finds that thegovernments of India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, and Laos have engaged in or toleratedparticularly severe violations of religious freedom, and recommends that they be designated as CPCs this year.

For the past two years, the Commission has expressed concern about the severe violence against religiousminorities, including Christians, Muslims, and others, tolerated by the government of India, and a pattern of failure to bring persons responsible for violent incidents to account. In recent years,Christians have suffered attacks that have included the killing of religious leaders, the rape of nuns, andthe desecration of church property. In February-April 2002 in the state of Gujarat, after 58 Hindus werekilled on a train in Godhra, at least 1,000 Muslims were killed and more than 100,000 forced to flee theirhomes as a result of violence by Hindu mobs. India's National Human Rights Commission found substantialevidence of premeditation by members of Hindu extremist groups; complicity by Gujarat state governmentofficials; and police inaction in the face of these violent attacks on Muslims, in which many persons wereshot, stabbed, raped, mutilated, and/or burned to death. Christians, too, were victims in Gujarat; manychurches were destroyed. Although the Gujarat state government did take some steps to prevent furtherviolence, it has failed thus far to hold key perpetrators accountable for their actions in the killings andrelated violence. Despite constitutional provisions and precedent enabling the Indian federal government tointercede and impose direct administrative control in Gujarat, it did not take such preventive action. Manythousands remain as internally displaced persons, either in camps or elsewhere, without homes, employment, orbusinesses to return to. India's Election Commission, in calling for a postponement of proposed balloting inGujarat and for the federal government to impose presidential rule, concluded that "fear … is still apalpable reality" with the riot-victims "fearing risk to their life and property."

The Commission has also previously expressed great concern about the failure of the government of Pakistan adequately to protect religious minorities from sectarian violence. It has cited discriminatory religiouslegislation, including the blasphemy and anti-Ahmadi laws, as helping to create an atmosphere of religiousintolerance that contributes to acts of sectarian and religiously-motivated violence. Anti-Ahmadi legislationand regulations effectively criminalize many Ahmadi religious practices and deny Ahmadis their full rights ascitizens. Attacks against members of the Shi'ite minority by organized groups of Sunni militants continue.Blasphemy charges, often false, result in lengthy detention and sometimes violence, including fatal attacks,against religious minority members (including Christians, Ahmadis, and Hindus) as well as Muslims on accountof their religious beliefs. The negative impact of the blasphemy laws is further compounded by the blatantlack of due process and evidentiary standards that are involved in the procedures. This year, there has beenan upsurge in attacks targeting Pakistan's Christian minority and their churches, schools, and a missionaryhospital. Although the Pakistani government did take some steps, it has not brought to justice thoseresponsible for these recent attacks, which have killed at least 25 persons. The Commission has also concludedthat despite the proposed Madrassa reform law, too many of Pakistan's Islamic religious schools continue toprovide ideological training and motivation to those who go on to fight in Afghanistan and Kashmir, and whotake part in violence targeting religious minorities in Pakistan. American journalist Daniel Pearl was forcedto "confess" his religion as Jewish before being beheaded on a training video by Islamic extremists.

As noted in past years by the State Department, religious freedom "does not exist" in SaudiArabia. The government vigorously enforces prohibitions against all forms of public religious expression other thanthat of the government's interpretation and presentation of the Hanbali school of Sunni Islam. Largecommunities of Christians and other non-Muslims as well as Muslims from a variety of different doctrinalschools of Islam reside in Saudi Arabia. Last year, numerous foreign Christian workers were detained,arrested, tortured, and subsequently deported. Shi'a (including Ismaili) clerics and religious scholarscontinue to be detained and imprisoned for their religious views, which differ from those of the government.The particularly severe, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom by the government of SaudiArabia include torture and cruel and degrading treatment or punishment imposed by both judicial andadministrative authorities; prolonged detention without charges (and often incommunicado); and flagrantdenials of the right to liberty and security of the person, including coercive measures directed against womenand the extended jurisdiction of the religious police, whose powers are vaguely defined and exercised in waysthat violate the religious freedom of others.

The Commission continues the recommendation made last year that the U.S. government extend CPC status to Turkmenistan, where the government severely restricts religious activity other than that engaged in by thegovernment-sanctioned Sunni Muslim Board and the Russian Orthodox Church. Members of unrecognized religiouscommunities-including Baha'is, Baptists, Hare Krishnas, Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims operating independentlyof 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, and fined, and have hadtheir services disrupted, congregations dispersed, religious literature confiscated, and places of worshipdestroyed. There has been no indication of any significant improvement in the religious freedom situationthere during the past year.

Since Congress ratified the U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) in September 2001, respect forreligious freedom in Vietnam remains poor, as the Vietnamese government continues its repressive policies toward all religions and theirfollowers. A Commission delegation that visited Vietnam in March 2002 found that religious dissidents remainunder house arrest or are imprisoned, including Father Thaddeus Nguyen Van Ly, who was detained after hesubmitted testimony to the Commission last year. In addition, government officials continue to suppressorganized religious activities and to harass leaders and followers of unregistered religious organizations,particularly unregistered Protestant fellowships and other religious minorities, as well as clergy members ofofficially recognized religious groups, including Catholics and Buddhists who endure government interferencein their activities.

Finally, the Commission continues its recommendation that Laos be designated a CPC. Government officials in Laos continue to arrest, detain (at times for months), andimprison members of minority religions on account of their faith. In some instances, officials attempted toforce Christians to renounce their faith. However, a Commission delegation visited Laos in March 2002 andnoted a number of new developments. Specifically, the Lao government has begun to take steps that, ifcontinued, could lead to improved protection of religious freedom, including a new decree that would establisha legal basis for religious activities and the equality of all religions. It remains to be seen if theimplementation of the new decree, promulgated in July 2002, will reduce severe violations of religiousfreedom. If that becomes the case, the Commission might during the year ahead revisit its recommendation onCPC designation.

The Commission also is very concerned about the nature and extent of violations of religious freedomengaged in or tolerated by the governments of Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Uzbekistan. The Commission has expressed concern about the grave violations (which include killings, torture, detention,and imprisonment) in these countries in its reports over the last two years. Because the governments of thesecountries have not taken effective steps to halt repression and/or violence against religious believers, nor,in most cases, to punish those responsible for severe violations of religious freedom, the Commission hasdetermined to place them on a new "Watch List." The Commission will continue throughout the comingmonths and year ahead to consider whether countries on this Watch List meet the statutory criteria fordesignation as CPCs, and the continued failure on the part of governments to address effectively theseviolations will be a critical component of those decisions. The Commission urges the State Department tomonitor closely religious freedom in these countries during the upcoming year and to respond vigorously tofurther violations there that may merit CPC designation later in the year. In the course of its interactionwith these countries, the U.S. government should also urge the governments of these countries to take steps toprevent further violations and to ensure accountability for those responsible for past violations.

IRFA sets forth that the policy of the United States is to oppose particularly severe violations ofreligious freedom. The designation of CPCs and actions taken in response to such designations are among themost significant responsibilities conferred under IRFA.

Thank you.

Respectfully yours,
Felice D. Gaer
Chair

Attachments: One-page summaries of religious freedom developments in Burma (Myanmar), Democratic People'sRepublic of Korea (DPRK), India, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan, People's Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan,Turkmenistan, and Vietnam.

Footnote: Commissioners Gaer and Young state: "Although we are appalled by the violence againstMuslims that took place in Gujarat this year, we respectfully dissent from the decision to recommend thatIndia be named a CPC. India is a respected democracy with a judiciary, which is independent, albeitslow-moving and frequently unresponsive, and can work to hold the perpetrators responsible; many vigorous,independent non-governmental human rights organizations that have investigated and published extensive reportsabout the government's handling of the situation; and a free press that has widely reported on and stronglycriticized the situation on the ground in Gujarat. Moreover, the worst levels of violence were contained in ashort time period relative to other similar outbreaks in the past and were confined to the state of Gujarat,not spreading to other states, largely because of the actions of Indian officials. Thus we do not agree thatin the case of India as a whole, it can be said that 'systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religiousfreedom' have been 'engaged in or tolerated' by the Indian government to an extent to warrant CPCstatus."

Commissioners Sadat and Tahir-Kheli state: "We respectfully dissent from the Commission's decision notto recommend that Uzbekistan be designated a country of particular concern, as, in our view, the violations ofreligious freedom in that country are particularly serious, and have been systematic, egregious andongoing. "