Lao Officials: Give Up Your Faith Or Face Eviction

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source:  http://www.eurasiareview.com/23122011-lao-officials-give-up-your-faith-or-face-eviction/

Written by: Compass Direct News

December 23, 2011

By Sarah Page

Nearly 50 Christians await their fate today after officials in Natoo village, southern Laos, on Wednesday (Dec. 21) summoned four of their leaders and warned that they would evict the entire church “within 24 hours” if they refused to give up their faith.

Officials told the Christians they had forfeited their right to live in the village because of their faith, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported.

Established just two years ago, the church in Natoo village, Palansai district of Savannakhet Province meets every week in the home of church leader Sompu. The forty-seven members include men, women and children belonging to four extended families.

Immediately after the discussion with Natoo officials, Sompu reported the incident to sub-district police, but at press time district officials had not intervened, according to HRWLRF.

“We are alarmed because the police and military seem to have taken over authority from the religious affairs department in Savannakhet,” a spokesman from HRWLRF told Compass.

Religious affairs staff should take action, he added, because village officials have violated Lao law, the Constitution and international human rights standards by threatening eviction on the basis of religious belief.

The Natoo eviction notice came less than a week after officials in Boukham village, just five kilometers away from Natoo, arrested eight church leaders for organizing a Christmas event attended by some 200 Christians. The arrests – and putting seven of the leaders in wooden stocks – came even though Christians had secured permission for the event.

Two of the church leaders have since been released after paying steep fines, the first on Sunday (Dec. 18) and the second one this morning, according to a source who preferred to go unnamed.

“We are at a critical juncture,” the HRWLRF spokesman told Compass. “Persecution is likely to spread without strong intervention from central government.”

HRWLRF strongly suspects the involvement of higher-level officials in these incidents.

“It is unheard of that a village headquarters would have access to wooden stocks – they have to obtain them from district or provincial authorities,” the spokesman explained. “So it’s clear that the arrest in Boukham was pre-planned and was approved by at least the district officials and possibly provincial authorities as well.”

Police List

Six of the eight church leaders arrested in Boukham were still detained in wooden stocks at press time.

Representatives of the Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), the only Protestant denomination recognized by the Lao government, on Sunday (Dec. 18) paid a fine of 1 million kip (US$123) to secure the release of the eighth leader, identified by the single name Kingmanosorn, who pastors a church in Savannakhet city.

A second detainee was released yesterday after paying the same fine, a source who preferred to go unnamed told Compass today.

“Seven of the eight leaders initially detained in Boukham were on a police list to be arrested for the Christmas event,” a spokesman from HRWLRF told Compass. “The police had been following them because they were actively building the church and spreading the faith. However, Kingmanosorn was not on the list.”

Last year, when Boukham officials gave permission for a Christmas event, the village chief spoke to the 70-odd Christians who had gathered and gave them his blessing. In December 2009, however, officials tore down the tent where some 40 Christians had gathered to celebrate Christmas. At that time there were no arrests.

In July 2008, district police stormed into the home of Pastor Sompong in Boukham and ordered the approximately 60 Christians present to cease worshipping God or face imprisonment. When they refused, officials arrested Sompong, three other leaders identified as Kai, Sisompu and Phuphet, and Kunkham, the 17-year-old daughter of Phuphet. Police took all five to a district prison and charged them with spreading the Christian faith and conducting a religious meeting without permission.

Police released them two days later after Christians from Savannakhet city intervened, arguing that the Boukham Christians were neither spreading their faith nor holding a public meeting – but simply worshiping God in a private residence. The five were ordered to pay a fine of 350,000 kip (then US$42) for expenses related to the arrest.

Officials re-arrested Sompong along with two other leaders in August 2008. Although Boukham’s chief had threatened to sentence them to life terms in a maximum security prison and ordered family members to renounce their faith, local and international advocacy efforts secured their release in October 2008.

The present chief of Boukham has been in office for just six months and has not shown any antagonism towards Christian residents until now, HRWLRF told Compass.

About the author:Compass Direct NewsCompass Direct News is a news service dedicated to providing exclusive news, penetrating reports, moving interviews and insightful analyses of situations and events facing Christians persecuted for their faith.

Lao Authorities Arrest Christians in Two Northern Provinces

View Original Source:  http://www.compassdirect.org/english/country/laos/article_115433.html

Two pastors, others charged with ‘spreading a foreign religion’ and ordered to cease worship.

DUBLIN, July 26 (CDN) — Authorities in a village in northern Laos have ordered all Christian residents to cease meeting for worship in private homes following the arrest of four Christians on July 10, rights advocates said.

Also on July 10, police arrested a Christian in Luang Prabang Province, ordering him to abandon his faith or face imprisonment, according to a statement from the advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

In Luang Namtha Province, Pastor Seng Aroun of Kon church in Namtha district, and three other Christians from Sounya village church identified only as Souchiad, Naikwang and Kofa had met at Kofa’s house for Sunday worship on July 10, HRWLRF reported. Kofa had also asked them for advice regarding a vehicle accident in May in which he had unwittingly caused the death of another person.

After the service, provincial authorities arrested all four men and detained them at Luang Namtha’s provincial prison. On July 13 they released all but Pastor Aroun, who remained in detention at press time, and ordered all Christians in Sounya village to cease meeting in private homes for worship, according to HRWLRF.

Christians in Sounya village have faced opposition from authorities since the initial conversion of some 400 residents in 2002. Since then police have conducted three waves of arrests of core church leaders. In 2009, two truckloads of police and military personnel tore down the Sounya church building, and authorities banned Christians from gathering for worship.

In 2010, the Christians began meeting occasionally in small groups. By January they were once again able to meet in private homes for Sunday worship, HRWLRF reported, but that limited freedom has now been removed.

‘Spreading a Foreign Religion’
In Luang Prabang Province, police on July 10 approached Vong Veu, a Christian resident of Pookong village, and ordered him to abandon his faith and return to traditional spirit worship or animism. When Veu refused, officers arrested him and detained him without trial at Viengkham district prison, where he remained at press time, HRWLRF reported.

In March a group of new Christians in Pookong had asked Abee Weng, an elder of Fasouk Church in Luang Prabang city, to assist them in practicing the faith. Weng, along with three other church members identified only as Pachua, Boulevang and Kae, came to Pookong on March 28 and instructed the new converts to burn or destroy items associated with spirit worship, according to HRWLRF.

District police arrested Weng and his assistants as they returned home on March 29 and charged them with “spreading a foreign religion and eradicating Lao traditional religion,” though Weng asserted that he had not converted the group but had simply responded to their request for instruction. Police then held the men at Viengkham district prison until, four days later, provincial religious affairs and police officers intervened and secured their release, HRWLRF reported.

As the former ancient capital of Laos, the city of Luang Prabang is a World Heritage site. In the early 1990s officials heavily persecuted Christians in the surrounding province under the pretext of “preserving” that heritage. More recently the provincial religious affairs office has publicly relaxed its policies, but district officials have maintained their oppression of those who follow non-traditional religions, particularly Christianity.

In Udomsai Province, HRWLRF has also drawn attention to the case of 58-year-old Bounchan Kanthavong of Vanghai village, who is nearing the end of a 12-year prison sentence issued in 1999 following his conversion to Christianity and bold preaching of the faith. In April, Kanthavong told his wife, Sengkham, during a prison visit that officials recently said they were willing to release him if he renounced the Christian faith and separated from her; Sengkham is now the leading figure in Vangsai village’s Protestant church.

Kanthavong warned Sengkham just days before his arrest in June 1999 that officials were likely to seize him because of his Christian activities; shortly thereafter they arrested him, but on charges of “treason and sedition.” An investigation by his wife and others revealed that the charges were based on Kanthavong’s participation in a Bible training seminar and on his leading role in the conversion of at least 70 people to Christianity. These actions allegedly made them answerable to a “foreign power” instead of the Lao authorities.

Following Kanthavong’s arrest, his wife took over leadership of the small Christian community, which today has grown to over 3,000 people.

HRWLRF has urged the Lao government to reconsider Kanthavong’s conviction and release him immediately on grounds that his exercise of religious freedom in 1999 was guaranteed by the Lao constitution and should not have been deemed an act of treason or sedition.

Wanna and Yohan
In Khammouan Province, pastors Wanna and Yohan, both identified only by a single name, also remain behind bars despite an eight-point appeal by the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. and a coalition of international NGOs in March, just prior to the ninth Lao Communist Party Congress. Only Wanna is specifically named in the statement.

“We are appealing to the Lao government to immediately release Pastor Wanna and others who seek political reform and religious freedom in Laos,” one of the signatories, Bounthanh Rathigna, president of the United League for Democracy in Laos, said in a press statement.

The fourth point of the appeal called for the government to “cease religious freedom violations, persecution and harassment of independent Laotian and Hmong Christian, Animist and Buddhist believers, including Laotian Christian Pastor Wanna, who has been repeatedly arrested and beaten along with other Lao Christian believers.”

Arrested on Jan. 4, Wanna and Yohan along with eight other Christians, including two children, were officially charged with “gathering for the purpose of creating turbulent unrest.”

Both Wanna and Yohan’s children have faced abuse and rejection from other children in their villages due to their fathers’ detentions, according to a spokesman from HRWLRF.

The spokesman said Wanna is no longer in solitary confinement.

“At the beginning he was in solitary confinement, but now he’s living among the others, and he’s being let out to get some air,” the spokesman told Compass. Due to weakness possibly caused by malnutrition, he said, “a doctor is also treating him with antibiotics, glucose and saline through an intravenous drip in the prison.” (See http://www.compassdirect.org, “Imprisoned Lao Pastor ‘Extremely Weak,’ Family Says,” July 8.)

The chief of Nakoon village has also visited Wanna’s wife, Champa, and advised her and her children to reject Christ – counsel she has firmly ignored, the spokesman said.

END

Laos: Two Church Leaders Languish in Prison

View Original Source:  http://www.worthynews.com/10597-laos-church-leaders-languish-prison

Wednesday, July 13, 2011 (4:42 am)

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

VIETIANE, LAOS (Worthy News)– A Lao pastor arrested six months ago for holding a secret meeting has lost weight and is very weak, according to his family.

Hinboun district police arrested Pastor Wanna, fellow Pastor Yohan and nine other Christians at gunpoint in early January, charging them with holding a “secret meeting” after they celebrated Christmas without offical permission.

Wanna pastored an unregistered church in Nakoon village, Hinboun district, while Yohan led another unregistered church in Tonglar village.

Police later sent the Christians to Khammouan provincial prison in Takkhet City where authorities promised that they would all “walk free” as soon as they signed documents renouncing their faith; most of the detainees were released after only paying fines.

However, prison conditions have taken their toll on Wanna; after a recent visit, family members saw he had lost weight, was ill, and looked extremely weak, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom.

The families of both men have appealed for advocacy as they remain in prison on charges related to their faith.

“Our greatest concern right now is for these two men,” a HRWLRF spokesman confirmed to Compass. “Presently, relatively speaking, there is less opposition and persecution of Christians, but these men need help.”

A report issued in May by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported that although Protestants in urban areas were usually able to worship without restrictions, provincial authorities continue to “severely violate freedom of religion or belief, particularly of ethnic minority Protestants.” Last year, rights abuses, to include detentions, surveillance, harassment, property confiscation, forced relocations and forced renunciations of faith, have kept Laos on the Commission’s Watch List for 2011.

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Laos, Vietnam troops kill four Hmong Christians: NGO

View Original Source:  http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5idxNnRhkVWwnlTrzWBGgekWQhYLQ?docId=CNG.237368a6f7fb528b5d54540410303906.441

(AFP)

Laotian and Vietnamese troops have killed four Hmong Christian women after confiscating their Bible

WASHINGTON — Laotian and Vietnamese troops have killed four Hmong Christian women after confiscating their Bible, a US rights group said Friday, condemning growing persecutions of people for their faith in Laos.

The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) said the unarmed highland Hmong women were “summarily executed” on Thursday in northeastern Xieng Khouang province by soldiers from a special 150-member unit of the Lao People’s Army (LPA) led by Vietnamese secret police and military advisers.

The government troops confiscated the group’s only Bible, “brutally and repeatedly raped” at least two of the younger women before shooting them at point blank range with automatic weapons in the head and torso, it added.

Their husbands and 26 children were forced to witness the killings and have since disappeared after being beaten and tied up.

CPPA executive director Philip Smith denounced what he called a “tragic and major upswing” in religious persecution in Laos at the hands of Vietnamese and Laotian military and Communist Party officials over the past year.

“In a coordinated and expanded fashion, the Vietnam People’s Army and LPA troops and security forces are especially determined to hunt down and kill independent Christian and animist believers in the highlands of Vietnam and Laos,” he added.

Smith pointed to a “very dramatic” increase in persecution, imprisonment, torture and killing of Lao and Hmong Christians for celebrating Christmas or worshipping independently, as well as independent Buddhist and animist believers in the provinces of Vientiane, Khammoune, Saravan, Xieng Khouang, Luang Prabang and other regions in Laos.

Communist regimes have ruled in Vietnam and Laos since 1975. Many officials in Hanoi consider neighboring Laos an important part of their defense strategy, and the militaries of the two countries have long maintained close ties.

“We want the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Vietnam People’s Army to remove all of its security forces and troops from Laos, and we want the Lao military and communist regime to respect the human rights and religious freedom of the Laotian and Lao Hmong people,” said Bounthanh Rathigna of the United League for Democracy in Laos.

Laotian officials are also said to have destroyed crops in February to cut off about 60 impoverished Christians from their food supply in rural Saravan province. CPPA also cited reports of Christians being driven from their village at gunpoint.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

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Church in Laos grows despite extreme persecution

Cached:  http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/01/church-in-laos-grows-despite-extreme-persecution-14966

Posted on 03 January 2011

Posted By The Underground Staff On January 3, 2011 @ 8:01 pm In Causes,Featured | No Comments

Despite harsh persecution and discrimination against Christians in Laos, which Open Doors ranked among the top 10 World Watch List of Countries where Christians are persecuted, the church continues to grow.

Patrick Klein, president and founder of Vision Beyond Borders, told Mission News Network that there are more Christian believers than there are bibles within the community.

Klein said, “They have now over 200 churches throughout the country [and] over 60,000 believers. Young people are very open to the gospel. Even the church service we attended, the majority of them were young people. They’re searching. They want the truth. They’re hungry for Jesus Christ.”

Persecution remains high in the country. Weeks ago, the rice paddies of 11 Christian families were destroyed by officials and residents of Katin village in Sarvan province, Mission News Network said.

World Net Daily said seven Christian families were ordered at gunpoint to renounce their faith. When they refused, they were marched outside the village to join 56 Christians who were forced to live in the forests, World Net Daily reported.

The Underground reported on 48 Christians who were driven out of Katin in January (see http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2010/05/expelled-lao-christians-become-critically-ill-one-dies-from-living-in-jungle-12143 )  and were living in the jungle. They were followed shortly after by six more families, Christian Today said.

Before the eviction the Christians were threatened, harassed, and their livestock and property were confiscated. Some 80 men, women and children were imprisoned in a school compound and one Christian died from asphyxiation, Christian Today said.

Sirikoon Prasertsee, Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom Spokesman, told World Net Daily that such incidents are frequent. “It’s widespread. We’re only able to bring to light the incidents in the areas where the people are very much connected to us. But now we’re finding out there are many other areas and provinces we need to bring to light so things can be resolved.”

Klein said the incidents are not given international news coverage because “It’s not in the cities. It’s more in the remote villages. We have heard stories of isolated incidents in the villages, which makes me concerned because I think persecution could break out especially as they see the church growing,” Mission News Network reported.

Pratsertsee cited two reasons why Christianity is persecuted. First, because it’s considered a “colonial” faith, “so the Lao government is still very suspicious” and want to eliminate it, World Net Daily reported.

Second, Pratsertsee told World Net Daily, is the cultural difference. “Christianity is not seen as local or national in origin. It’s seen as very much foreign to the people. Anything local or indigenous seems to promote harmony and Christianity seems to promote division.”

Right to intervene

Although the Lao constitution guarantees religious freedom, it also reserves the right to intervene if something promotes social division. Christianity is seen to promote division among families and people who no longer share the same religion. This is used to justify persecution, Pratsertsee told World Net Daily.

Pratsertsee said local government officials do most of the persecution with informal official endorsement. Government support is forced to be indirect due to internet and media coverage in the last 10 years, World Net Daily said.

Klein told Mission News Network the Laotian president said, “Americans are no longer our no. 1 enemy; Christians are.” Klein added, “They said Christians rape women, and Christians steal money. It puts up a barrier between Christians and people of other faiths to have this resistance to Christianity right from the start.”

It’s a good thing, Pratsertsee told World Net Daily, that Christians stay in the country. “[In] 1975, you basically had most of the Christian leaders leaving the country. Freedoms are obtained by those on the inside.”

To alleviate the plight of Christians, Pratsertsee recommended first, that Christians in Laos participate positively in the country’s reconstruction “so that Christianity is not viewed as anti-government,” World Net Daily reported.

Second, he stressed to World Net Daily the need for publicity. “The pressure from the global community is working. There is evidence all over that it is [helping] to bring freedom in many parts of the country. If we can keep the international pressure on, that’s the only channel we have now to help the government to move forward—positive external pressure.”

Klein, who is appealing for more bibles, also cites the protection of God. He told Mission News Network that recently six people with 18 bags of gospel material were able to get past customs.

Klein told Mission News Network, “[The customs inspector] was looking at all these bags. And I just said, ‘Father, we really need some help here.’ And all of a sudden, the customs man turned around and went back into his office and was totally engrossed in his conversation. Six people were able to take 18 bags full of materials right out the door. We walked right past him, and he never saw any of it.”

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Related:

• Lao Officials Arrest 11 Christians at Gunpoint charismamag.com

• Laos ranks #9 on Open Doors World Watch List of Countries where Christians are persecuted