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US
raps China, North Korea, Cuba on religion,
warns of anti-Semitism in Europe
Yahoo!
News.
WASHINGTON, 18 (AFP) - The United States
accused governments in five Asian states,
including China and North Korea, as well
as Cuba of pursuing a totalitarian drive
to brand religious groups "enemies
of the state."
In its annual
report on International Religious Freedom
for 2003, the State Department also raised
concern over a "disturbing increase"
in anti-Semitism in Europe.
The report assailed the Islamic states
of Iran and Saudi Arabia as the worst violators
of religious freedom in the Middle East.
The six most grevious offenders highlighted
by the report were Myanmar, China, North
Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Cuba, categorised
as totalitarian or authoritarian regimes
which see religion as a challenge to the
dominant ideology.
China earned a reprimand for trying to
restrict religious observance to government-sanctioned
organisations, and the report said some
believers were subject to harrassment, interference
and detention.
"Police closed underground mosques,
temples, and seminaries as well as some
Catholic churches and Protestant 'house
churches'," the executive summary of
the report said, adding that many religious
leaders had been arrested.
The report concluded that China had continued
to repress the banned Falungong spiritual
movement, which it has designated as a "cult."
In North Korea " genuine religious
freedom does not exist," according
to the report, which cited reports of execution,
torture and imprisonment of religious figures
in the country.
Vietnam, with which the US government has
maintained a bruising public dialogue on
human rights and religious issues, was accused
of placing "significant restrictions"
on freedom of worship.
Neighboring Laos won some praise for improving
religious freedom in some areas, but a rebuke
for permitting a falloff in other regions.
Myanmar, the subject of regular US criticisms
over its repression of political freedom,
earned a new black mark on religion.
"Through its pervasive internal security
apparatus, the government infiltrated or
monitored the meetings and activities of
virtually all organizations, including religious
organisations," the report said.
Christian, Muslim and Buddhist groups all
experienced harrassment from the authorities,
and religious publications fell foul of
censorship laws.
Another long standing US bete-noire, Cuba,
also earned a place reserved for totalitarian
states. Government agents used surveillance,
infiltration and harrassment against groups,
clergy and believers, according to the report.
A second batch of states while not deemed
guilty of an authoritarian bid to silence
religious freedom, were accused of hostility
to certain groups seen as security threats.
That category included Uzbekistan, Iran,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkmenistan,
as well as Iraq, prior to the toppling of
Saddam Hussein's regime by US forces.
The designations in the report do not carry
sanctions, but Iran is already subject to
myriad US restrictions and continues to
be listed under a separate designation as
a "country of particular concern"
in the area of religious freedom.
Despite calls from religious freedom and
human rights watchdogs, Saudi Arabia, a
key US ally in the Middle East, is not designated
a "country of particular concern"
although Thursday's report equates conditions
there with those in Iran.
"These governments implement policies
designed to intimidate certain groups, cause
their adherents to convert to another faith
or cause their members to flee," the
report said.
In Iran, "members of the country's
religious minorities ... suffered varying
degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination,
including intimidation, harassment and imprisonment,"
the report said, referring to Baha'is, Jews,
Christians, Sunni and Sufi Muslims.
International
Religious Freedom 2003
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