*EPF111 05/06/2002
U.S. Panel Finds Religious Freedom Under Attack in Many Lands
(Briefing on annual report focuses on six countries) (490)

By Ralph Dannheisser
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom voiced strong, specific criticism of six countries -- Sudan, China, Indonesia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan -- as the commission outlined its third annual report at a news briefing May 6.

The report itself, being transmitted to President Bush, Secretary of State Powell and the congressional leadership, alleges serious violations of religious freedom in more than 20 nations around the world.

Speaking at the briefing at the National Press Club, commission chairman Michael Young, dean of the George Washington University Law School, cited the promotion of religious freedom as "an integral part of U.S. foreign policy."

Six commission members in attendance at the briefing took turns in reviewing the group's findings, and discussed the six individual country reports issued in the past few months.

Commissioner Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom, described Sudan as "the world's most violent abuser" of the right to religious observance and belief and a place where genocide continues unabated.

She cited a commission recommendation -- incorporated into legislation before the Congress -- that calls for foreign companies engaged in oil and gas development in Sudan to be de-listed from U.S. stock exchanges.

Declaring that China "continues to commit severe violations of freedom of religion and belief," Commissioner Richard Land urged a U.S. policy aimed at encouraging an end to what he characterized as an ongoing crackdown on religious groups, reforming "the repressive legal framework," affirming the universality of religious freedoms, and "fostering a respect for human rights" in China.

Land is president and chief executive officer of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Young, in his presentation, termed the people of North Korea "possibly the least free on earth," saying that they possess neither religious freedom nor human rights of any kind. Indeed, he said, the situation in the country is "so bad they're fleeing into China."

Turning to Indonesia, he detailed fighting between Christians and Muslims in that nation, and called for U.S. officials to press for moves by the Indonesian government to "totally disarm outside militia forces" and maintain neutral and professional troops in the Moluccas and Sulawesi.

Commissioner Charles Stith, director of the African Presidential Archives and Research Center at Boston University, reported the group's findings on Uzbekistan where, he said, "the government imposes complete control on all manifestations of Islam," cracking down on all individuals and groups who deviate from the government's concepts.

And Turkmenistan was described by Commissioner Shirin Tahir-Kheli as "one of the most totalitarian states in the world today" -- a place where only Sunni Islam and Russian Orthodoxy are countenanced "and even those two are highly restricted by the state."

The commission's full report can be found at its website, www.uscirf.gov.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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