January 11, 2006

1 – Dramatic Spike in Eritrea

Eritrea dramatically accelerated its imprisonment and torture of Christians even as the U.S. State Department designated it as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for the second consecutive year. By October the number of Eritrean Christians confirmed to be jailed for their religious beliefs had shot up to a total of 1,778, nearly double the documented count in April. At least 26 full-time Protestant pastors and Orthodox clergy were jailed and their personal bank accounts frozen by government order, causing severe suffering for their families. The regime of President Isaias Afwerki stripped Eritrean Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios of his ecclesiastical authority on August 7, and the country’s only Anglican priest, the Rev. Nelson Fernandez, was abruptly ordered out of the country in early October. Since May 2002, the Eritrean government has outlawed all Christian meetings for worship except those of the officially registered Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran churches – but the regime began jailing and harassing key leaders of even the legally recognized churches this year. On September 23, Eritrea became the first nation ever sanctioned by the U.S. State Department under the 1998 Religious Freedom Act for failure to address severe violations of religious freedom.

2 – Hollow Promises in Vietnam

Vietnam Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s historic visit to the United States in June, an equally historic (secret) human rights agreement between the two countries in May, and supposedly less restrictive religion legislation introduced in November 2004 all made headlines but had no effect on continued high levels of persecution of Christians. The Mennonite church continued to face the kind of harassment documented by missionary Truong Tri Hien, who submitted testimony to the U.S. Congress on June 20 showing how local officials have abused administrative powers to harass the denomination. The Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, a Mennonite pastor convicted of an offense he denied having committed, was freed from prison on August 30 as part of Vietnam’s National Day amnesty after enduring more than a year of harsh conditions and pressure to renounce his faith. While he was in prison, authorities destroyed a 16-foot section of his Mennonite center and home in a dispute over a building add-on permit. All attempts by the Vietnam Mennonite church to seek guidance on how to register, including appeals to the country’s prime minister, have gone unanswered. Typical of persecution elsewhere, authorities in Quang Ngai Province incited a mob to burn down the home of evangelist Dinh Van Hoang on August 21 because he would not sign a paper denying his Christian faith. Likewise, on July 26 and 31, authorities in the same province destroyed the homes of 10 ethnic Hre families because they would not renounce Christ. Understandably, house church leaders in Vietnam remained skeptical of Vietnam’s supposedly liberalized religion laws inviting unofficial churches to register. In spite of the flurry of official activity, Vietnam remained on the U.S. State Department’s list of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom in 2005.