JUBILEE CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release

January 31st 2003

A DANGEROUS CHRISTMAS FOR MANY CHRISTIANS

This past Christmas has been a difficult one for a lot of Christians, with many suffering persecution or even murder for their faith. Several Montagnard Christians were arrested last year by the Vietnamese authorities simply for trying to celebrate Christmas. The Montagnards of the Central Highlands, also known as the Degar people, have suffered gross human rights violations at the hands of the Vietnamese authorities, much of it anti-Christian persecution. The majority of the Degar people are Christians. The Montagnard Foundation has reported that on December 23rd 2002 Vietnamese security forces entered the village of Buan Mblot, in the district of Krong Ana in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. At approximately 3 a.m. they arrested seven Montagnard Christians and hauled them away in handcuffs for the “crime” of praying and celebrating Christmas. The 7 detained Christians are Y-Nol Adrong, Y-Dhiam Buon Krong, Hliem Nie, Y-Tin Hdok, Y-Klar Mlo, Y-Krong Hdok and Y-Blao Brong.

This crackdown was similar to that imposed on Montagnard Christians attempting to celebrate Christmas in 2001. On December 24-25, 2001, around 200 Vietnamese police and soldiers went into the hamlets of Buon Sup “A”, Buon Sup “B”, Buon Sup “C”, Buon Ea Rok and Buon Koya and destroyed all of the Christmas decorations that Degar villagers had set up. They threatened to arrest, beat up and imprison those Degars who came out of their house to worship. They then killed a pig and forced the Degar villagers to make a sacrifice and drink the blood, part of a pre-Christian religious ritual practised by these people. The Vietnamese soldiers also forced the Degar villagers to renounce their Christian faith. All over the Central Highlands the government has sent police and soldiers to various Degar hamlets to use the same methods of intimidation against Degar Christians.

On Christmas Day 2002 three young Christian girls died and another 13 children and their parents were wounded in a grenade attack by Muslims. 2 men hurled grenades into a children’s Christmas programme at a small Presbyterian chapel in remote Chianwali village, 40 miles northwest of Lahore in Pakistan. Local villagers have identified the attackers as 2 young Muslims living in the area who had both been involved in the “jihad” campaigns in Kashmir.

An Islamic cleric was arrested and is accused of instigating the attack. Local authorities also claim that they have arrested other suspects related to Maulvi Mohammed Afzal, including his sons and close associates. Afzal faces charges of inciting his congregation to kill Christians in the weeks preceding the attack. Local church leaders have accused the Islamic cleric of abusing the Christians and inciting the Muslims against them for the three weeks prior to the Christmas attack. The local church leaders had reported these threats to the police and named the people involved but the police took no action. A number of Muslims are putting pressure on the Pakistani authorities to release the Islamic cleric and are falsely accusing the Christians of perpetrating the attack.

Shortly after Christmas, an attempt was made to kill Rev. Rinaldy Damanik, the leader of the Protestant Christians in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Food containing rat poison was given to him while he was in police custody in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on December 26. Although he became seriously ill, the attempt to kill him was unsuccessful. Rev. Damanik was arrested in September 2002. The Indonesian police claimed that Rev. Damanik was suspected of taking part in Muslim-Christian violence and would therefore be detained. However, after much investigation, the Indonesian police have been unable to produce any hard evidence to suggest that Rev. Damanik was involved in any violence. An Indonesian military officer has even confirmed that the weapons allegedly found in Rev. Damanik’s car had not been discovered in his vehicle at all.

Rev. Damanik has made many enemies among the militant Muslims in Sulawesi and the local authorities because of his outspoken criticism of the extremist Islamic group, the Laskar Jihad, and his criticism of the lack of protection given by the Indonesian authorities to Central Sulawesi’s Christians. This has fuelled the attempts by the authorities to persecute the Christian leader. Rev. Damanik has long been an advocate of a peaceful settlement to Muslim-Christian conflict in Central Sulawesi and is a signatory to the Malino 1 peace agreement.

The British human rights group, Jubilee Campaign, is working with Parliamentarians to campaign for persecuted Christians worldwide, including those in Vietnam, Pakistan and Indonesia. Jubilee’s Parliamentary Officer, Wilfred Wong, says, ” These incidents are just a few examples of the dangers Christians may face at Christmas. For a lot of us, the greatest risk we have at Christmas time is putting on weight from eating too much, but for many persecuted Christians, celebrating Christmas can mean imprisonment or even death.”

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Jubilee Campaign is an interdenominational Christian human rights organisation which has worked with over 150 British Parliamentarians in campaigning on human rights issues all over the world.