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COMPASS DIRECT News Summaries
Global News from the Frontlines
June 13, 2003

Copyright 2003 Compass Direct

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Bangladesh

CHRISTIAN EVANGELIST ESCAPES KIDNAPPERS

(Compass) -- The kidnapping of the Bengali evangelist known as “Moses” confirms a worrying trend of violence against Christians in Bangladesh. An evangelist with Gospel for Asia (GFA), Moses was taken hostage by a Muslim terrorist group which then demanded a large ransom. GFA reported on June 10 that Moses escaped the previous night after his guards fell asleep. With his hands tied behind his back, he ran for hours until he reached a town the next afternoon, suffering from exposure and lack of food. His br_other had tried to negotiate with the terrorist group, but GFA said, “The terrorists found and severely beat the brother and others with him. They threatened to kill Moses if the money was not brought soon.” Bangladesh has experienced religious tension since 1971, when the nation was partitioned from Pakistan. Tensions increased dramatically with the election of a fundamentalist Islamic government in October 2001.

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China

RAIDS CONTINUE ON WORSHIP SERVICES

(Compass) -- On Sunday, May 11, Public Security officers raided a house church meeting in Anshan city in the northeast province of Liaoning. About 40 Christians were tied up and their names recorded. They were released the same night but told that their “illegal gathering” was henceforth prohibited. Assistant director Jin Xiangdong of the Anshan Religious Affairs Bureau confirmed that the “illegal religious venue” was closed because it represented “disturbance of social order,” a common excuse for persecut_ion of unregistered Christians. Last month, Compass published evidence of corrupt police officers in northern China colluding with the dangerous “Lightning from the East” cult. Christians suspect that officers of the Public Security Bureau accept bribes from cultists and use accusations against Christians to arrest them. “Lightning from the East” is apparently taking revenge against house church Christians and police officers see this as an opportunity to make a profit. Church leaders have asked that this _news be widely publicized, hoping the Chinese government will hold local police accountable.

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Colombia

TERRORIST BOMB KILLS EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN

(Compass) -- An evangelical Christian on his way to work died instantly when a bomb exploded May 21 on a highway in Colombia’s violent eastern border region with Venezuela. Eliseo Camelo Ramirez, 35, of Arauquita, leaves behind a widow and four children. The village of Arauquita lies in Arauca, which Colombian church leaders call the country’s most violent department. The zone is dominated by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which is believed responsible for the bombing. Camelo became a C_hristian on September 12, 2001, according to Alberto Morales, pastor of the Pentecostal Christian Church of Colombia, the church the slain evangelical Christian attended in Arauquita. A report by the Restoration, Life and Peace Commission of the Evangelical Council of Colombia reveals that since December 2002, at least 18 evangelicals have died in Colombia’s armed conflict.

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India

CATHOLIC NUN KILLED BY GRENADE IN KASHMIR

(Compass) --Suspected Islamic extremists in the Indian state of Kashmir killed a nun in a grenade attack on a Catholic school. Sister Kamlesh, a missionary teacher from West Bengal, died when a grenade exploded on May 22 near the main entrance of Saint Lukas Convent School in Nai Basti, 50 kilometers from Srinagar. Another teacher, Sister Mary, was seriously injured in the explosion. Police said the militants tossed the grenade at the school gates as the two nuns were returning from a market. The assault f_ollowed threats against Christians lodged by militant groups after they heard reports of Christian conversions. Organizations known as Laskar-e-Toiba and Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen threatened the Catholic Church after local media reported that 20,000 Kashmiris have converted to Christianity over the past eight years. Church leaders say the conversion statistics are greatly exaggerated and insist on continuing missionary work. “Every Christian is an evangelist. Our Lord has asked us to go and teach the good news _to all the nations,” said Joseph Dhar, a Catholic Church spokesman.

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India

SECRETIVE SURVEY ALARMS GUJURAT CHRISTIANS

(Compass) -- The government of India’s Gujarat state has again started gathering community-based information in villages of the Patan district, heightening suspicions among local Christians that census information will be misused by fundamentalist Hindu organizations to stir up trouble in an area that suffered 443 major clashes between religious groups between 1970 and 2002. According to media reports, a team of officers arrived at a Catholic retreat center in Dungripur -- after midnight and without a warr_ant -- to ask questions of the 69-year-old manager. He refused. The next morning, the team returned in civilian dress and asked about the background of students living at the center, the kind of food and facilities provided and whether any of the residents were converts from Hinduism. The officers also visited the homes of some 10 Christian families, asking them about their sources of income when they had embraced Christianity. Officials maintain that they were gathering information in order to ensure the _security of the Christian community. In response to a petition from the All India Christian Council, the Gujarat High Court issued an order to halt the census.

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Indonesia

CHRISTIANS PROTEST NEW EDUCATION POLICY

(Compass) -- Around 15,000 Protestants and Catholics marched through the streets of Jakarta on June 5 in protest of a new education bill endorsed by the government on June 11. Under article 13 of the proposed law, a Christian school with 10 or more Muslim students must provide Islamic worship facilities and two hours of Islamic instruction per week for these students. The same rule will apply to Muslim and Hindu schools with 10 or more students from other religions. “The Christian and Catholic (sic) school_s have had a long discussion on what to do if the bill becomes law,” said a key member of the Christian community, who asked not to be named. “One thing for sure, they will not follow things they cannot tolerate.” Nearly 3,000 Muslims joined the June 5 demonstration against the bill. However, thousands of members of the Islamic Solidarity Forum held a rally in Yogyakarta on May 27 to show their support for it. All political parties, except the Democratic Party of Struggle headed by President Megawati Sukar_noputri, stand behind the new bill.

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Indonesia

FIVE-YEAR SENTENCE POSSIBLE FOR PASTOR

(Compass) -- An Indonesian court is preparing to pass sentence on Rev. Rinaldy Damanik on charges of illegal weapons possession. According to sources closely monitoring the case, prosecutors are expected to ask for a five-year prison term for the prominent Christian pastor. Damanik was arrested in September 2002 and brought to trial in February 2003. His defense team claims local police plotted to incriminate Damanik in retaliation for his peace-keeping efforts in Poso, Central Sulawesi. While traveling in_ a relief convoy on August 17, 2002, Damanik was stopped by officers and taken some distance away from his vehicle for questioning. Later, police claimed they found illegal weapons and ammunition in the vehicle. It is not yet clear when the court will pass final sentence, although the judges have declared their intention to conclude the trial by the end of June.

***A photo of Rinaldy Damanik is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Indonesia

CIVIL WAR ADDS TO RELIGIOUS TENSION

(Compass) -- Christians in the province of Aceh in northern Indonesia have faced huge challenges since the adoption of sharia law on March 4. When the law was first introduced last March, Muslim clerics declared that sharia would only affect the Muslim population. In practice, however, the law has brought many new restrictions to Aceh’s Christian community. In many areas, worship is forbidden. Pastors and Catholic priests are banned from entering the province, leading some priests to disguise themselves as tradesmen in order to visit their parishes. For 27 years, the Free Aceh Movement has fought for independence in a war that h_as claimed more than 12,000 lives. Government troops marched into Aceh on May 19 following the breakdown of negotiations. With the fresh outbreak of war, tension has risen to new levels. Thousands of Christians have fled the troubled province. The total number of Christians in Aceh is estimated at around 200,000 in a population of 4.2 million. However, numbers have steadily declined over the past few years.

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Jordan

HOPE IN SIGHT FOR CHRISTIAN WIDOW

(Compass) -- One of Jordan’s top law firms filed a request in May for a change in the legal guardianship of Christian widow Siham Qandah’s two minor children. Qandah’s attorneys are expected to produce evidence before an Amman court of Islamic law that her children’s court-authorized Muslim guardian has embezzled at least 13,000 dinars ($20,000) from a trust fund established for her daughter Rawan, 15, and son Fadi, 14. The children’s father, a soldier in the Jordanian army, died in Kosovo in 1994 while serving with U.N. peacekeeping forces, leaving military benefits that the children were to inherit at age 18. “As a Muslim, I am very ashamed that this was done in the name of Islam,” said Prince Mired bin Raed, commenting on the case. “This has nothing to do with religion; it is not even a human rights case. It is a simple case of fraud_.” Qandah’s new lawyers estimate that within a month’s time, they will win a court decision to cancel the uncle’s legal guardianship, thereby nullifying court orders for Qandah to surrender her children to him.

***New photographs of Siham Qandah with her children in Husn and during her audience with Prince Mired are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Malaysia

BIBLES SEIZED

(Compass) -- The Malaysian government has impounded a shipment of 1,000 Bibles destined for Indonesian language speakers living in Malaysia. The action follows a ban applied in early April to 34 religious books, 12 of them Christian. Lee Min Choon, president of the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM), said the shipment of 1,000 Bibles was impounded the last week of April. The Bible Society has now given an ultimatum to the customs officers, promising to take legal action if the Bibles are not released. The Mal_ay language version of the Bible, known as the Al-Kitab, was first banned in 1983. In response to protests from the Christian community, the ban was modified to allow Christians to use the Al-Kitab in churches and in private homes. The Iban Bible, banned in April 2003, was returned to circulation after negotiation with the government. Lee believes the same pressure is needed now. “To fight for something here, someone must come forward and take ownership and do something,” he said. “Every person has the rig_ht to profess and practice his religion.”

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Nigeria

PLOTS AGAINST CHRISTIANS UNCOVERED

(Compass) -- Security agents in Lagos have uncovered a document outlining plans by an extremist Muslim sect to attack Christians while they worship. A one-page letter circulated by members of the Youth Forum Society of Nigeria (NASFAT) disclosed plans to attack Christians. NASFAT appealed to its patrons and notable Muslim leaders to help carry out the attacks. Afolabi Sam Adeboye, a Lagos-based religious rights advocate, said that the Muslim group has acquired property near churches along the Lagos-Ibadan _expressway, evidently for this purpose. “This is an Islamic group that is not shy to publish its address and established backers,” he said. Meanwhile, reports surfaced that former Muslim military officers have masterminded frequent religious clashes and bloody riots that have engulfed the state of Kaduna in the past two years, leaving some 10,000 people dead and millions of dollars worth of property destroyed. Government findings show that Muslim military officers attempted to manipulate religious tensions_ in order to destabilize the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian.

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Nigeria

MUSLIM TERRORISTS INVADE VILLAGE

(Compass) -- In the early hours of May 9, some 200 Muslim terrorists invaded the villages of Shirlur and Dadinkowa in Plateau state, raping women, setting houses ablaze and leaving four people dead. Community leader Nantur Zhingven was the first victim of the rampage. Attackers shot Zhingven dead sometime around 3:30 a.m. and burned his house. Another villager also died. Attempting to ward off the invaders, villagers themselves killed two of the attackers, according to reports. “The Muslim militiamen came _from Taraba state, in the company of Muslim mercenaries from Niger and Chad Republics,” Israel Voncir, an official of the Langtang local government, told Compass. A detachment of anti-riot police was sent to the area to contain attacks on Christian communities. Meanwhile, 60 Christian women kidnapped by Muslim bandits in attacks on villages in Langtang have regained their freedom. Abducted in November 2002, they suffered torture and sexual abuse while in captivity. At least one hostage, a secondary school _student, died during the ordeal.

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Nigeria

JUSTICE MINISTER CRITICAL OF SHARIA

(Compass) -- In his final public speech before leaving office last month, Nigeria’s outgoing Minister of Justice expressed disapproval of sharia, the Islamic justice system implemented in some northern states, describing the law as “procedurally deficient.” Musa Elayo made the declarations before the National Consultative Committee on Justice Sector Reform. “The sharia justice system is procedurally deficient, as has been shown by the three controversial cases in the country laid to rest by the higher court,” Elayo stated. “What we need is a judicial pronouncement on sharia,” he added, noting that the Supreme Court alone has the power to resolve t_he controversy arising from the implementation of Islamic law. Elayo urged northern states that practice sharia to initiate an intensive enlightenment campaign among Muslims in order to curb some of the abuses associated with Islamic justice.

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Nigeria

RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE CLAIMS 10 LIVES

(Compass) -- Religious violence broke out on June 9 in Numan, a town in the northern state of Adamawa. Clashes between Muslims and Christians left 10 people dead and places of worship destroyed, following the murder of a Christian evangelist at the hands of a Muslim man. State police spokesmen said the Muslim attacker, Muhammad Salisu, stabbed Mrs. Esther Ethan to death while she was doing street evangelism. Afterward, Salisu apparently took refuge at the town’s police station. Angered by the brazen crime,_ local youths and neighbors of the evangelist pursued the man to the police station to seek revenge, sparking clashes between Muslims and Christians. According to reports, the Living Faith Church and Numan’s central mosque were burned to the ground. State officials ordered police reinforcements into the town to restore law and order and imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Thousands of residents fled the town because of the violence.

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Pakistan

ILLITERATE CHRISTIAN ACQUITTED OF BLASPHEMY

(Compass) -- After four and one-half years in prison for alleged blasphemy against Islam, Pakistani Christian Aslam Masih was acquitted on June 4 in a 15-minute appeals hearing before the Lahore High Court. In his mid 50s and illiterate, Masih was arrested in November 1998 on charges that he had desecrated the Quran by hanging verses from the Muslim holy book in a charm around a dog’s neck. Although the prosecution only produced hearsay evidence against Masih, he was found guilty in May 2002 and sentenced _to double life-sentences. In overturning Masih’s lower court conviction, Justice Najam ur-Zaman reportedly took what one observer called “a very aggressive attitude against the prosecution,” noting that the prosecution’s chief witness had retracted the statement attributed to him by the police. Seven other Christians remain jailed in Pakistan on drawn-out charges of blasphemy

*** A photograph of Aslam Masih is available electronically. Please contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Peru

QUECHUA EVANGELIST ATTACKED

(Compass) -- Police in Peru believe that an early morning bomb attack on the home of a Quechua evangelist, Joshua Sauñe, could signal a resurgence of the Maoist guerrilla army known as Shining Path. Sauñe and his wife, Missy, were awakened at 4 a.m. on May 17 by a blast from the street below their bedroom window in Ayacucho. Upon examination, they found the remains of a partially exploded bomb and a red flag nearby. “The red communist flag means that we are now ‘marked,’” Missy Sauñe wrote in an email. Rem_arkably, the home-made bomb only partially exploded; otherwise the family might have suffered serious injury or worse. The same morning, a local business suffered an identical bombing attack, complete with red flag. The assaults could have been a kind of malicious anniversary celebration of the Shining Path, founded some 30 years ago in Ayacucho. Or it could mean something else. “The intelligence people are telling us, ‘Because our ministry is being successful with the Quechua people, they want to take you_ out,’” Sauñe said.

***A photo of Joshua Sauñe’s family is available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Philippines

LIVING THROUGH JIHAD

(Compass) -- Gracia Burnham recounts the saga of her kidnapping, and the tragic death of her husband, Martin, in a newly released book entitled In the Presence of My Enemies. On May 27, 2001, guerrillas of Islamic Abu Sayyaf raided the Philippines resort of Dos Palmas where the Burnhams were celebrating their wedding anniversary and took the couple and 15 other hostages. Over the next year, the terrorists released some hostages and beheaded others. The Burnhams, members of the Florida-based New Tribes Mission, endured 17 firefights between Abu Sayyaf and the armed forces of the Philippines, including the final one on June 7, 2002, in which Martin was killed and Gracia wounded._ The tragic ordeal provided Gracia with insights into militant Islam and the hearts of some of its adherents. “There’s always been fighting between the Christians and Muslims down there,” Burnham said. “This isn’t a new problem.” Since her release, Gracia has created the Martin and Gracia Burnham Foundation to support missionary aviation, tribal outreach, Muslim missions and persecuted Christians.

***A photo of Gracia Burnham is available electronically. Please contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal. For more information, log on to www.graciaburnham.org.

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Saudi Arabia

ERITREAN CHRISTIAN REMAINS IN JAIL

(Compass) -- On May 16, an Ethiopian Christian was deported from Saudi Arabia for alleged “Christian activities,” but a fellow Christian prisoner of Eritrean citizenship remained jailed in Jeddah. Girmaye Ambaye, who was arrested on March 25 in the Saudi kingdom’s largest port city, reportedly cannot be processed for deportation to Eritrea until local authorities complete the official transfer of a car purchased in his name. The jailed Eritrean Christian experienced some health problems while incarcerated _in a crowded waiting cell at the Bremen deportation center at Terhil. Both Ambaye and Endeshawe Yizengaw had been active in the ministry of the Ethiopian-Eritrean Christian congregation in Jeddah, where they lived for the past 12 and 10 years, respectively. After the men had their residence permits secretly revoked in March and April, they were tracked down and arrested by Saudi police.

*** A photograph of Endeshawe Yizengaw is available electronically. Please contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Sudan

PRIEST RELEASED IN KHARTOUM

(Compass) -- Six weeks after a Sudanese court jailed an Episcopal priest for refusing to tear down his church, Rev. Samuel Dobai Amum was set free. Amum was sent to Soba Prison on April 7 for an “indefinite sentence” until he either demolished the mudbrick St. Matthew’s Parish on the outskirts of Khartoum North or paid 7 million Sudanese dinars (about $2,700) to purchase the land on which he had built it 11 years ago. He was released on the afternoon of May 21, just after the Bahri East Harasic Court in Khartoum accepted full payment for the property on which his congregation has worshipped since 1987. The day before Amum’s release, a small Christian delegation visiting Sudan from the United States asked to meet the jailed priest in prison. “We were able to talk freely with him,” said Gary Kusunoki, a pastor from Southern California. The delegat_ion arranged to add 4.4 million dinars to funds already raised by local Sudanese Christians and negotiated Amum’s release just hours before leaving the country. Two days after his release, Amum’s congregation packed into St. Matthew’s for Friday worship, a service that lasted five hours.

***Photos of the Rev. Samuel Amum and St. Matthew’s Parish are available electronically. Contact Compass Direct for pricing and transmittal.

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Vietnam

‘GOD’S FLOCK’ ATTACKED

(Compass) -- In mid March, a 55-year-old leader of the Mnong tribal church in Vietnam’s southern Dak Lak province issued a plaintive appeal to Christians worldwide. In a letter smuggled out of Vietnam and translated into English by missionaries, the long-time pastor alerts the international Christian community to “the sorts of hardships that we believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are facing.” The Mnong church in Vietnam, which numbers more than 45,000 Christians, has long been a victim of oppression. Persec_ution at the hands of local authorities has been particularly brutal and systematic during the past year. An extensive Human Rights Watch report released in April detailed much of the oppression of Mnong Christians. The letter confirms that report and documents, for the first time, the death by suicide of a leader who had been forced to recant his faith. The writer fears that “gradually, day by day, God’s flock is being lost to evil.”

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