Text: Rights Panel Chair Stresses Universality of Religious Freedom
(Ros-Lehtinen's Feb. 13 remarks at human rights panel)Freedom of conscience and freedom of religion are universal values, the chairwoman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights said in opening a February 13 hearing on religious persecution in China and Vietnam.
Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican of Florida), a lawmaker who fled communist persecution in her native Cuba, stressed that freedom of religion and conscience are not concepts "exclusive to the U.S. psyche," but rather are "universal rights endowed to all human beings."
"The importance of safeguarding against religious oppression and defending those who are persecuted for their beliefs and spiritual conviction -- that is, the need for today's hearing and related action -- is manifested in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," the Florida Republican said.
According to the preamble of the declaration, "disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind," she said.
President Bush "rightly underscored that, it was not simply the United States, a powerful nation, which had been attacked" on September 11, Ros-Lehtinen said. "It was the ideas and beliefs that it represents -- the freedoms that it defends throughout the world -- which were the targets of the attacks."
After September 11, "it became abundantly clear that a regime which had no regard for the lives nor for the basic human rights of its own people, could not possibly place any significance on the lives of Americans, thousands of miles away," she continued.
Religious freedom "has always been at the core of American life since the inception of our society," Ros-Lehtinen said. "Its place as the first of ten freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights is a reflection of our Founding Father's assessment of it as the cornerstone of liberty."
Ros-Lehtinen then sharply criticized "the pernicious conditions found in China and Vietnam."
Communist officials in China "have destroyed, closed or confiscated approximately 3,000 churches, temples and shrines (Christian, Buddhist and Daoist) in recent years," she said.
The Florida Republican also referenced actions against Falun Gong practitioners, Uighur Muslims, and Tibetan monks and nuns.
Regarding Vietnam, Ros-Lehtinen cited the case of Roman Catholic priest Father Thaddeus Van Ly.
The priest was sentenced in October 2001 "to 15 years in prison for 'undermining national unity' and 'public slandering' of the Vietnamese Communist Party. His crime: giving written testimony to the U.S. Congress about religious persecution in Vietnam," she said.
Vietnam has also persecuted Hmong Christians, the Montagnard people of the Central Highlands, and Hoa Hao Buddhists, she said.
Following is the text of Ros-Lehtinen's statement:
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Opening Statement by Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Chair Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights
for Hearing on:"Communist Entrenchment: Religious Persecution in China and Vietnam"
Wednesday, February 13, 2002
1:00 p.m., 2172 Rayburn Building
After the deplorable attacks of September 11th, President Bush established a nexus between terror and democratic principles. He rightly underscored that, it was not simply the United States, a powerful nation, which had been attacked. It was the ideas and beliefs that it represents -- the freedoms that it defends throughout the world -- which were the targets of the attacks.
Conversely, the President illustrated the correlation that exists between the behavior of these states -- their treatment of their own population -- and their actions worldwide.
Therefore, after unveiling the atrocities committed by the Taliban against women, religious and ethnic minorities, and its people in general, it became abundantly clear that a regime which had no regard for the lives nor for the basic human rights of its own people, could not possibly place any significance on the lives of Americans, thousands of miles away.
And from the ashes of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon emerged a stronger, more determined United States -- a country with a reinvigorated vision of its global commitment and role as the vanguard of democratic principles and freedoms.
Religious freedom has always been at the core of American life since the inception of our society. Its place as the first of ten freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights is a reflection of our Founding Father's assessment of it as the cornerstone of liberty.
It is therefore not surprising that the U.S. Congress placed such emphasis on the passage and enactment of the International Religious Freedom Act, which delineates U.S. policy, actions, and advocacy on behalf of individuals persecuted on account of their religious and spiritual beliefs.
The application of the Act to the pernicious conditions found in China and Vietnam will be a crucial part of our discussions today -- discussions which will be guided by the testimony of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a body created by the 1998 law.
However, freedom of religion and conscience, are not concepts exclusive to the U.S. psyche. These are universal rights endowed to all human beings.
The importance of safeguarding against religious oppression and defending those who are persecuted for their beliefs and spiritual conviction -- that is, the need for today's hearing and related action -- is manifested in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The preamble states that: "disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind."
This Subcommittee and the U.S. Congress cannot be idle as Uighur Muslims are killed by members of China's military police. We must give a voice to the increasing numbers of Falun Gong practitioners who are arrested, sent to labor camps, beaten, and tortured because they refuse to renounce their beliefs.
It is this Subcommittee's responsibility to serve as a conduit for the presentation of evidence about the persecution, horrific torture, and deaths of Tibetan worshipers, particularly monks and nuns, for the courage to practice their faith.
It is our duty to highlight how Chinese officials have destroyed, closed or confiscated approximately 3,000 churches, temples and shrines (Christian, Buddhist and Daoist) in recent years.
We cannot turn a blind eye to recent reports obtained by Freedom House detailing the arrests and severe beatings of at least 25 South China Christian Church followers and the torture of other members with electric prods.
These deplorable and inhumane acts are part of a systematic and coordinated policy by China's Communist regime to "smash" and "destroy" these "unauthorized religions" by whatever means necessary.
We will hear testimony today from Freedom House detailing the contents of top secret Chinese government documents which provide chilling evidence of secret orders to persecute a wide range of religious and spiritual groups inside China.
Two years ago, Freedom House obtained similar documents about the horrific practices designed and implemented by the Vietnamese authorities to severely suppress religious freedom.
The similarities in the official documents of these two Communist regimes and the methods they employ, combined with the frightening parallels in their internal conditions regarding religious worship, required a joint examination of the religious persecution in the two countries.
As has been noted in numerous reports on China and Vietnam, religious freedom is severely repressed in the manner common to Communist countries -- that is, through registration requirements; restricting religious practice to government-approved organizations and leaders; through monitoring and infiltration; through propaganda discrediting the nature or the various religions; and through coercive and violent forms of control.
Both countries, according to the State Department's International Religious Freedom Report, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and others, have taken major steps backward, particularly in the realm of religious freedom and tolerance.
In Vietnam, the terrifying abuses against the Montagnard people of the Central Highlands, have been the subject of numerous human rights reports and recent articles.
These chronicle how Vietnamese authorities destroy Montagnard church buildings, burn their house-churches, and force them to drink a mixture of liquor, goat's blood, raw chicken liver, and raw pig's intestine -- all in an attempt to force them to renounce God and promise not to tell others about Christianity.
Members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and the Hoa Hao Buddhists have been disappeared, threatened, persecuted, and targeted for arrest.
The Unified Buddhist Church's top patriarch remains under house arrest. Another senior spiritual leader of the Unified Buddhist Church died while under house arrest in January of this year. He had spent nine years in one of Vietnam's squalid jail cells under trumped up charges of trying to overthrow the Communist regime in Hanoi.
In March of last year, two to four million Hoa Hao Buddhists were forcibly prevented to assemble on their sacred ground. Key leaders were arrested or their houses surrounded by police. Other devotees were reportedly detained on their way to the site. The preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights talks about a world where people enjoy "freedom from fear" and persecution.
Unfortunately for the Hmong Christians in Vietnam, this is only a dream. They must also endure the most horrific forms of suppression of their religious liberties.
To summarize the disdain demonstrated by Vietnamese authorities toward the fundamental freedoms guaranteed to its people as human beings, I must mention the arrests of dissidents on the eve of the debate on the House floor of the Vietnam Human Rights Act and would like to end my statement with the case of Roman Catholic priest Father Thaddeus Van Ly.
He was sentenced in October 2001 to 15 years in prison for "undermining national unity" and "public slandering" of the Vietnamese Communist Party. His crime: giving written testimony to the U.S. Congress about religious persecution in Vietnam.
Thus, as President Bush prepares to embark on his tour of Asian countries, including meetings and a press conference with Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, we ask him and his advisers to listen to the testimony which will be presented here today and use it as a catalyst.
Let the U.S. send a message throughout China and throughout the East Asian region and the world, that this country proudly stands with the oppressed and will continue to fight for their right to practice their religion and beliefs.
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(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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