COMPASS DIRECT
Global News from the Frontlines
April 8, 2004
Compass Direct is distributed monthly to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted or edited by active subscribers for use in other media, provided Compass Direct is acknowledged as the source of the material.
Copyright 2004 Compass Direct
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IN THIS ISSUE
CUBA
Doing More with Less***
Despite shortages and restrictions, Christianity continues to thrive.
ERITREA
Authorities Arrest Entire Families of Evangelicals
Criminal charges, fines ordered against prisoners.
Police ‘Investigate’ Orthodox Renewal Movement
Twenty-one more Protestants are arrested, 12 are jailed.
INDIA
Hindu Fundamentalists Accuse Catholic Priests of Rape and Murder
Teenage girl’s death raises tensions in run-up to general elections.
IRAQ
Baptist Relief Workers Attacked
Four Americans were killed, a fifth is critically injured.
LAOS
Christians Plead for Help
Persecution increases despite humanitarian intervention.
MEXICO
Debate Intensifies overFate of Acteal Prisoners***
Catholics dispute innocence of evangelical Tzotzils accused of murder.
NIGERIA
Authorities Arrest Sponsor of Muslim Militants
Director of a Saudi Arabia-funded charity linked to attacks on Christians.
Eight Pastors Killed
Religious violence destroys 173 churches, claims the lives of 1,500 Christians.
Christian Leaders Lament Religious Violence
Church spokesmen warn that the country is becoming a ‘theater for religious war.’
PERU
Wheels of Justice Turn Slowly for Imprisoned Christian
Walter Cubas is among hundreds of civilians appealing convictions on terrorist charges.
SUDAN
Security Forces Disrupt Anglican School Construction***
Khartoum government stalls compensation payment.
TURKEY
Injured Christian’s Trial Postponed for 15 Months***
Yakup Cindilli’s next hearing is set for June 2005.
VIETNAM
Security Police Interfere in Worship Celebration
Officers harass worshippers at evangelical rally in Ho Chi Minh City theater.
ZANZIBAR
Churches on Guard Following Attacks
Muslim extremists suspected of setting fires, planting bombs.
***Indicates an article-related photo is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.
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Doing More with Less in Cuba
Despite shortages and restrictions, Christianity continues to thrive.
Special to Compass Direct
LOS ANGELES, March 30 (Compass) -- For over a decade, Cuba has endured shocking shortages of everything from food and clothing to jobs and transportation. Cubans do not lack a sense of humor, however, and can still joke about their poverty.
A current sample of comic relief a la cubana has one man saying to another: “Hey, watch me make that old lady over there whistle like a train.”
“How are you going to do that?” his friend asks.
The man walks up to the woman and says, “Excuse me, señora, but how long has it been since you last tasted meat?”
“WHOO-HOOO!” she exclaims.
Cubans do not lack resourcefulness to deal with adversity, either. They are world leaders at what they call “improvising.” Homemakers shop the black market or barter with neighbors in order to scrape together enough ingredients to prepare daily meals. Mechanics repair ancient American Fords and Chevrolets with spare parts scavenged from newer Japanese cars. Doctors concoct ointments and elixirs as substitutes for medicines that are too costly or too scarce to prescribe.
Somehow, they survive.
The evangelical Christian church in Cuba has learned to survive -- even thrive -- in the face of adversity. Despite restrictions on worship, evangelism and Christian education, the evangelical Cuban church sustains one of the highest growth rates in Latin America, a continent that is experiencing rapid evangelical growth nearly everywhere.
Church leaders say that since Pope John Paul II visited the island in 1998, the Castro regime has demonstrated more tolerance toward Christians. For example, no pastors are currently imprisoned for alleged political crimes. House churches are able to operate openly, without fear of sudden closure. Congregations with legally registered properties have secured building permits to remodel aging sanctuaries or erect new ones, sometimes using government contractors to do so.
However, they caution, the changes are not necessarily permanent or universal.
“The law has not changed. What has changed is the spirit,” a Baptist pastor told Compass when discussing government policy toward religion. “What’s more, it depends on the spirit of local authorities.
“In some places, the will to cooperate exists to approve church activities or (building) permits. In others, especially in rural communities, churches are still restricted.”
The rules governing house church activities are an example of the adage that, the more things change, the more they remain the same. House churches must still secure permits from government authorities to hold meetings in private homes. The owner of the home must apply for the permit and must continue to reside on the premises as long as the church meets there.
House churches cannot have fixed pews or permanent seating; chairs must be collected and stored between services. To prevent overcrowding, a house church cannot exceed 40 members. However, that regulation is not always enforced. Compass learned of one house church in an apartment complex that gathers 350 believers for weekly worship.
Regulations concerning foreign visitors have the net effect of limiting contact between Cuban believers and overseas Christians. Travelers to the island who wish to engage in activities such as preaching or leading worship must secure a special religious worker visa to do so, at a fee seven times that of the standard tourist visa.
What is more, the government requires visitors with tourist visas to stay in state-owned hotels or special rental properties licensed for foreign guests. Should a visitor wish to lodge in the home of a pastor or church member, he or she must secure the religious worker visa.
Although leaders see a “notable improvement” in the availability of Bibles, Cuban Christians still face a critical shortage of Scriptures. Due to the relaxation of import laws, churches and missionary agencies overseas can now send Bibles into the country under the auspices of the Bible Commission of the Ecumenical Council of Churches of Cuba.
On the other hand, authorities routinely confiscate quantities of Scriptures that private individuals seek to carry into Cuba. When customs officers recently found 20 Bibles in a piece in luggage belonging to a group of European visitors, they impounded the books at the airport. Officials later returned the books to the visitors as they left the island.
In all fairness, the shortage of Bibles is as much a result of the rapid growth of the evangelical church in Cuba as to import restrictions. Supply simply cannot keep pace with demand, according to church leaders.
“The truth of the matter is, we need Bibles,” one pastor said. “But we lived for a long time without any Bibles, so the situation has improved in recent years.”
His comment reflects the resilient attitude that the visitor to Cuba encounters among Christians there. Despite acute shortages and official restrictions, believers feel things are not that bad.
A house church leader, unemployed for years after losing his job as a warehouse manager, revealed how deeply ingrained is this spirit of resilience. The man recently heard a report about Christians who face difficulties and persecution in Asia and the Middle East.
“We have seen that there are brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who are confronting problems much worse than those we face, and we are moved by their testimony,” he told the foreign visitor who brought the report. “We will dedicate ourselves to pray for those brothers and sisters even more faithfully.”
***Photographs of Cuba are available electronically. Contact Compass for pricing and transmittal.
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Eritrea Arrests Entire Families of Evangelicals
Criminal charges, fines ordered against prisoners.
Special to Compass Direct
LOS ANGELES, March 23 (Compass) -- Eritrean authorities began raiding the private homes of evangelical Christians in mid March, arresting and jailing entire families caught praying and reading the Bible together.
For the first time, criminal charges and punishing fines were being ordered against these “outlawed” Christians, although no formal court hearings were reported.
In two separate arrests in the capital of Asmara, families (including children) from the RemaCharismaticChurch were arrested and sent to prison.
In the first incident on March 17, a lay leader from the Rema church identified only by his given name Kelete was arrested in his home at midnight with his wife, six children and his father-in-law.
Reportedly the nine believers were having family devotions together after the father-in-law arrived late in the evening. Without warning, the police raided the home and put them all under arrest. After spending the night at a nearby police station, they were transferred to the Adi Abeto prison outside Asmara.
The following evening, another Rema church leader by the first name of Habeteab was arrested with his wife and five children and taken to Police Station No. 5 for the night. The entire family was sent to the same prison the following day.
In the March 18 arrest, the head of the home was charged with trying to “start a new religion” in Eritrea. Reportedly an official at the police station remarked that President Isaias Afwerki had ordered the police and military to arrest any individuals and groups not belonging to Eritrea’s four “official” religions (Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Muslim).
In another arrest confirmed on the evening of February 23, ten believers from the FullGospelChurch meeting in a home in the Aba Shwale district of Asmara were taken to jail. All remain in prison except for an elderly lady hosting the group, who was ordered to pay a fine of 500 Nakfa ($37, locally more than half a month’s salary) for holding an illegal meeting for worship in her home.
According to latest reports, of the 51 evangelicals from Asmara’s HallelujahChurch who were arrested in mid February, 46 remain under incommunicado arrest at either the Adi Abeto or Mai Serwa military prisons.
In a March 9 release, Amnesty International declared these detained church members to be “prisoners of conscience, who are being imprisoned for practicing their religion.”
“There are also concerns for their safety,” the release stated, “as those held in military custody are at risk of torture, which often includes the ‘helicopter’ method of being tied in a contorted position in the open air for a week or more, almost 24 hours a day.”
Earlier this month, President Afwerki warned in a public speech that some religious groups in Eritrea were being deluded by foreigners to “distract from the unity of the Eritrean people and distort the true meaning of religion.” In his remarks, delivered on March 5 during the ceremonial installation of Abune Antonios, the new patriarch of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, Afwerki declared that such “futile efforts” would not be tolerated by his government.
The president’s comments were reported in detail in the Tigrinya edition of “Eritrea Profile,” a government weekly, although the English version of his speech was less complete.
All of Eritrea’s independent Protestant denominations were closed by government order in May 2002 and their congregations forbidden to worship, even in their homes. At present, at least 373 Protestant Christians are confirmed jailed and subjected to severe torture across the country for refusing to recant their faith, some for nearly two years.
On February 10, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged Secretary of State Colin Powell to include Eritrea for the first time on this year’s list of 11 countries designated by the U.S. State Department as “severe violators” of religious liberty. In its summation, the commission declared:
“The government of Eritrea in the past two years has cracked down on members of various religious groups, including the closure of all churches not belonging to officially recognized religious denominations, the arrest of participants at prayer meetings and other gatherings, and the imprisonment of armed forces members found in possession of certain religious literature. The State Department reports that over 300 persons are in jail because of their membership in unregistered religious groups.”
(Return to Index)
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Eritrean Police ‘Investigate’ Orthodox Renewal Movement
Twenty-one more Protestants are arrested, 12 are jailed.
Special to Compass Direct
LOS ANGELES, April 1 (Compass) -- Police in the Eritrean capital of Asmara launched an investigation on March 20 into the activities of a group of young adults in the Orthodox Church.
According to sources in Asmara, the small downtown office being used for Sunday afternoon meetings by the Medhane Alem group was sealed by the police on Saturday, March 20. Although the lay leader of the group was arrested that same day, he was released the next day.
A renewal movement within the Orthodox Church, the Medhane Alem functions mainly as a Sunday school for young adults. The ordained Orthodox priest directing the Sunday school movement is reportedly under police investigation, although he has not been arrested.
When the group gathered at a new place for their regular meeting on Sunday afternoon, March 21, two security police officers joined them, video taping their entire meeting. When questioned, the two declared they were “ordered by the president’s office” to do this, and accused the group of conducting “illegal activities.”
Meanwhile, police arrested 20 members of the KaleHiwotChurch during a home cell meeting in Assab on the morning of March 18. The nine civilians of the group were forced to sign a document promising not to meet together again, and then released.
But the other 11 evangelicals, all men, were military personnel who were taken to a nearby place called Gheharo. “Their lives are in danger,” fellow Protestants declared. “We are very concerned about their safety.”
In a separate incident, an Eritrean Christian singer was arrested by security police in Asmara on March 19 just as he stepped into a taxi. The singer, Yona Haile, had released a video tape during February around the theme, “Jesus: the solution to man’s problems.” Reportedly taken to Adi Abetu, the singer was then transferred to the SawaMilitaryCenter on the morning of March 24. Security officials reportedly accused Haile of activities contrary to government policy.
These latest arrests reported in March bring the known number of independent Protestants jailed for their faith to 385. The prisoners include pastors, women, teenagers, children, the elderly and dozens of soldiers. Many have been subjected to severe torture and demeaning conditions for months. Since May 2002, the churches of 12 denominations have been closed by government order and their congregations totaling about 20,000 believers are forbidden to worship even in their homes.
Four “official” religions are recognized by the Eritrean government, which declares that only the Orthodox, Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran and Muslim faiths have an “historic existence” in the country.
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Hindu Fundamentalists in India Accuse Catholic Priests of Rape and Murder
Teenage girl’s death raises tensions in run-up to general elections.
by Vishal Arora
NEW DELHI, March 15 (Compass) -- Hindu fundamentalists have accused Catholic priests of the rape and murder of a teenage girl in Madhya Pradesh on March 3. However, the Catholic community rejects the claims, saying the girl’s death is a clear case of suicide.
Geeta Devi Saket was a Dalit (low caste) student at Deosar Girls’ Boarding School, run by the Catholic diocese of Satna.
Father Raju Matthew, a priest at the boarding school, said a maid found the girl’s body hanging from the iron doorframe of the hostel bathroom at around 7 p.m. on March 3.
Hostel staff believe Geeta committed suicide for reasons still unknown.
Activists from the Bajrang Dal, the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council), attacked Catholic priests and other church workers on March 4 because they hold the clergymen responsible for the death of the 15-year-old girl.
At the time of the attack, Father Thomas Thelakkatt and several other church workers were attempting to take Geeta’s body to a nearby government hospital for an autopsy, according to a report by Asia News.
Fr. Thelakkatt was seriously injured in the attack and fell unconscious. The others escaped unhurt then carried Thelakkatt back to the mission compound in a church vehicle.
At the onset of the attack, assailants reportedly told Thelakkatt that they would “show the might of Bajrang Dal soon.” A few minutes later, their local leader walked up to the priest and slapped him on both cheeks.
“I don’t remember how many times I was beaten,” Thelakkatt later said. “All I know is that afterwards my shirt and handkerchief were drenched in blood from my nose and mouth.”