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Speak Out Against Persecution news 2009

23 October 2009

India

Pastor Vanamali Parishudham was badly injured by suspected Hindu extremists on September 20 in Andra Pradesh state. Although he lost a lot of blood, he was taken to hospital in time to save his life.

On September 27, a Christian relief camp in Orissa State was bombed. Several families had fled to this camp following the outbreak of anti-Christian violence in 2008. Four Christians were seriously injured in the blast and the Hindu man who set off the bomb was killed.  (Compass)

- Pray for healing, courage and protection for the Christians in the camp.

Bangladesh

Authorities are investigating the vicious murder of church youth worker, Swapan Mondol, 35, by students at Dhaka University on September 12. A convert from Hinduism, he leaves a wife, Lucky, and a 10-year old daughter. 

China

Pastor Zhang ‘Bike’ Mingxuan and his wife were forcibly escorted from their home in Henan province on September 23 and detained at an undisclosed location to ‘preserve stability in the province’ for China’s National Day celebrations on October 1.  They were released on October 4.  Pastor Hua Huiqi was arrested by the Chinese officials in Fengtai District, Beijing on September 17 and is believed to be still in prison.

Nine church leaders of the Fushan Church in Linfen City were seized by Shanxi Public security officials on September 25. They were going to Beijing to protest against the beating of dozens of Christians by police and civilians. The whereabouts of the nine officials are unknown. [VOM, China Aid]

- Pray for significant and lasting advances in religious freedom in China.
- Pray for spiritual and physical strength for the thousands of Christians in prison for their faith in Christ.
- Pray for the release of Pastor Hua Huiqi and for grace and perseverance for his wife and family members.

Somalia

Islamic militants killed underground church leader, Mariam Muhina Hussein (46) in her village, in Lower Juba, on September 28. Sheikh Arbow ordered her to show him the bibles that she owned. When she did so, he shot her three times, killing her instantly. [Compass]

Iran

Marzieh Amirizadeh and Maryam Rustampoor have been acquitted of the charge of ‘anti-state’ activity by converting from Islam to Christianity, but still face charges of ‘propagation of Christianity’ and ‘apostacy’ [MEC]

Indonesia

Members of the Jakarta Christian Baptist Church have been ordered by officials to cease worshipping in the home of pastor Badali Hulu. The Islamic Defenders Front, the Batwai Forum Group and members of the political party Hizbut Tahrir attacked the congregation on Sept 13 and 27 and forced them to leave pastor Hulu’s home.

Christians in Depok City, West Java, have been allowed to resume worshipping in their building after they won a court battle against local residents who had objected.

You might like to write a letter to Mr Stephen Smith, Minister for Foreign Affairs (Parliament House, Canberra ACT, 2600) using the above information and asking him to request that the Indonesian Government insist that militant groups observe religious tolerance in accordance with the principles of ‘Pancasila’, as found in their Constitution.

14 August 2009

Somalia

Mohammed Sheikh Abdiraman, a convert from Islam, was murdered on July 20 in the city of Mahadday Weyne, 100 km north of Mogdishu, by members of al-Shabaab, a militant group with ties to al-Qaeda. He had been a Christian for 15 years, and was a leader of a group of underground believers. He is survived by two young children. “We are very sad about this incident, and we also are not safe,” one eyewitness said by telephone. “Pray for us.” [Compass Direct]

Eritrea

Another Christian imprisoned for his faith has died in Mitire Military Confinement Centre in NE Eritrea after authorities denied him medical treatment. Yemane Kahasay Andom, aged 43, died on July 23 from a severe case of malaria.  He was weak after continuous torture in an underground cell for two weeks, after he refused to sign a recantation form, renouncing his faith. Andom is the third Christian known to have died this year at Mitire camp. More than 2,800 Christians remain imprisoned in Eritrea for their faith. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Vietnam

Protestants and Catholics in Vietnam are facing growing repression and violence at the hands of the authorities. Police brutality is a serious issue, as is police use of Communist vigilantes to beat up Christians. Police raiding the Protestant house church of Pastor Duong Van Tuan in June viciously assaulted his wife until she collapsed unconscious. Catholics seeking the return of seized properties likewise are being assaulted and imprisoned. The Government has combined a virulent anti-Catholic propaganda campaign with blocking Catholic news agency websites. In December 2006 the US deemed Vietnam's religious liberty reforms sufficient to reward the country with normal trade relations. Since then, persecution has kept escalating. Please pray in solidarity with thousands of Vietnamese courageously confronting all this oppression with public prayer vigils. [Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission]

China

The trial of Uyghur Christian Alimujiang Yimiti was due to be held in July, but no news has yet been received. He has been a peacemaker between Uyghurs and Han Chinese. He was charged with ‘revealing state secrets to overseas organisations’, but his friends believe he has been imprisoned because of his Christian faith and witness.

Another Uyghur Christian in prison is Wusiman Yimong, given two years for ‘revealing state secrets’ and ‘illegal proselytising’.

There is still no news of Gao Zhisheng, who was forcibly taken by Public Security Bureau officers in February 2009. He defended house-church Christians and the poor. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Pakistan

Pakistan's infamous Blasphemy Laws (Articles 295 b & c of the Penal Code) deem defilement of the Qur’an and blasphemy against Muhammad as criminal offences punishable by life in prison or death. The blasphemy laws are frequently exploited for personal gain and false accusations are frequently made to effect the removal of a person who is unwanted for any reason. In just over a month, three pogroms in Punjab Province have left hundreds of Christian families homeless and feeling very insecure. In Gojra, eight Christians were murdered: two shot and six burnt to death. Please pray for God to intervene in Pakistan. Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission]

Burma

The faith of Burmese churches, pastors and workers is being severely tested.  The Government has put tough restrictions on work for cyclone victims, believing that Christians are doing it for political purposes. Even Buddhist monks who help victims are being sentenced to long jail terms.

In addition to the many thousands in the ethnic minorities of Kachin, Chin, Karen and Karenni, who are under constant threat – many of them are Christian, there are also 2,100 political prisoners in Burma. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Sri Lanka

It has been recently reported that the Sri Lankan Government has taken steps to create Sinhalese settlements in the north of the country, before re-settling displaced Tamil civilians living in the refugee camps. The main camp is Manik Farm, a tent city of 280,000. Journalists who have reported on these conditions have been deported. [Tears of the Oppressed] 

Further information may be found at: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/unlock-camps-sri-lanka-2

Please write to the Australian Foreign Minister asking that the IMF address significant post-conflict human rights abuses before approving loans. A sample letter follows.

19 June 2009

Vietnam

Across all Vietnam persecution against both Catholics and Protestants is escalating. Communist authorities have recently demolished two Catholic monasteries in the south and an historic Protestant church in the Central Highlands. In the north Catholics continue to be harassed in Hanoi where the evangelical religious liberty advocate Nguyen van Dai also remains incarcerated.

Vietnam's Central Highlands are home to around one million indigenous ethnic Degars (also known as Montagnards). More than half are Protestant and some 200,000 are Catholic. Vietnam's persecution of the Degars is severe with many believing it constitutes ethnic cleansing. Indigenous Degar house church leader Puih H'Bat, a mother of four whose husband is a refugee in the USA, was arrested in April 2008 and her fate is still unknown. This is of grave concern as Vietnamese ethnic and religious hatred of Degars is intensive and several have been tortured to death.

Vietnam seeks to present an international facade of religious freedom but the reality is entirely different. Please pray for all Vietnam’s imprisoned Christians. [Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (AEA RLC)]

Sri Lanka

The war is over, but many Tamils are in refugee camps, including a lot of Christians. Their needs are massive.

Journalists were barred from the war zone. Journalist J S Tissainayagam was indicted under terrorism legislation for having published two articles criticising the government’s war on the Tamil Tigers in 2006. He has been in prison for a year, and remains there while his trial continues. He suffers from an eye condition and could go blind if he does not receive specialist medical treatment. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely in connection with his journalistic activities. President Obama says he is “guilty of nothing more than a passion for truth.”   [Amnesty International]

India

Christians in India are relieved that the etxtremist Hindu Nationalsist party (BJP) was routed in both national parliamentary and state asembly elections in Orissa state. The remote, violence-wracked Hindutva stronghold of Kandhamal district, however, was won by the BJP, even though the BJP candidate is in prison for his part in the anti-Christian pogrom of September-October 2008. This indicates  that Kandhamal's displaced and vulnerable Christians are surrounded  by a majority of highly radicalised, unrepentant Hindus who still strongly support the Hindutva agenda. Pray that the newly elected,  professedly secular, centrist BJD government in Orissa will exercise  its clear state-wide mandate to disempower Hindutva, ending the shameful and destructive communalism it engenders and the impunity  it has long enjoyed. [Australian Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (AEA RLC)]

Pakistan

Many Christians are among the people fleeing from the Swat Valley to escape from the Government’s anti-terrorist campaign. Nine pastors in two neighbouring villages were arrested for broadcasting prayers and sermons through loudspeakers on Easter Sunday. [Tears of the Oppressed] 

Egypt

In a bold move, Egypt’s Coptic Church has issued its first-ever certificate of conversion to a former Muslim, supporting his petition to have his national identification card denote his Christian faith. Maher Ahmad El-Mo’otahssem Bellah El-Gohary’s request to legally convert is only the second case in Egypt of a Muslim-born citizen trying to change his religious affiliation to Christianity on identification documents. His case will be heard in court on June 13 with two others. He is in hiding and has received death threats. 

Christian convert Raheal Henen Mussa and her Coptic husband, Sarwat George Ryiad, are hiding from police and her Muslim family for violating an article of Islamic law (sharia) that doesn’t exist in the Egyptian penal code.

Miss Inas Rafaat as-Sa’id Muhammad Hassan is a convert to Christianity from the Muslim faith. Several months ago she informed her family that she had converted to Christianity. Soon afterwards the secret police started to follow her. Early in the morning of April 29 she was detained at Cairo international airport from where she had a ticket to fly to South Africa. She was kept at the al-Waiely police station until she was transferred to al-Kanater prison the next day. There is real concern that she is suffering abuse. [Tears of the Oppressed]

You might like to send the following letter or something like it, on Inas’s behalf. Or you might like to email the Minister of the interior, Mr Habib Ibrahim El Adly, Cairo, at moi@idsc.gov.eg   [Salutation: Dear Minister]

15 April 2009

Iraq

At the time of invasion about 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq—now it is much less than half that number.

The catastrophe that has befallen Iraq's indigenous Christian peoples is virtually never mentioned in news reporting — it would conflict with the 'success' propaganda. The tragic plight of Iraqi Christians is so profoundly ignored one could be forgiven for thinking they are invisible or non-existent!

Last October violence against them intensified.  Around 2,500 families were forced to leave Mosul, capital of northern Nineveh Province. 12 were killed. In Nineveh Province, Sunni Arabs defeated the incumbent Kurds and have taken power. Nineveh has been the centre of the Assyrian homeland for several millennia and is where most of Iraq's remaining Christians live. Tensions are high in Nineveh Province. [WEA Religious Liberty]

The BBC reports that US combat troops may stay in northern Iraq after a deadline for them to pull back by the end of June has passed. US and Iraqi officials describe Mosul as al-Qaeda in Iraq's last major urban stronghold in the country.

Canon Andrew White has the largest Christian congregation in Iraq with some 2,000 people attending his services in Baghdad each week. But this is a dangerous time and 93 members of his church were killed last year. He now refuses to baptise any converts as every single one of them has been killed. He also works in diplomacy to try to resolve hostage situations. And on top of all this he has multiple sclerosis.

He talks to Owen Bennett-Jones at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002nrqx

India

Hindu nationalists in Orissa, NE India, are humiliating Christians who have returned to their homes after being evicted by the Orissa state government who closed the relief camps. They are traumatised, homeless and without any protection or security. Those who have returned are often being forced to 'become Hindus' or pay a fee. If they attend church they are threatened with the loss of sanctions such as supply of water and firewood.

The violence has not been confined to Orissa. Fourteen other states have been affected, seven seriously. Karnataka is second only to Orissa in crimes against Christians.

The Hindu nationalist government in Karnataka, the southern state which recorded the highest number of attacks in 2008, now plans to introduce an ‘anti-conversion’ law that has provided the pretext for violence in other states. [Tears of the Oppressed]

Burma

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released in January details serious and ongoing abuses against the Chin people, a minority group in Burma’s northwest who claim to be 90 percent Christian.

HRW’s report describes how an increasing number of army battalions stationed in Chin state since 1988 have inflicted forced labor and arbitrary fines on the Chin people, as well as bullied them away from Christianity toward Buddhism. It notes that soldiers frequently forced Christians to donate finances and labour to pagoda construction projects in areas where there were few or no Buddhist residents.
More at   http://www.hrw.org/en/features/chin-people-burma

China

Earlier this year a Chinese human rights advocate, Gao Zhisheng, who has been called ‘The Conscience of China’, authorised the advocacy group China Aid Association (CAA) to release his account of 50 days torture by state-sponsored thugs in September and October of 2007. The account was released on February 9, 2009. Gao wrote the account in November 2007 while under house arrest in Beijing after prolonged beatings and electric shocks on his mouth and genitals. “Every time when I was tortured,” Gao wrote, “I was always repeatedly threatened that if I spelled out later what had happened to me, I would be tortured again, but I was told, ‘This time it will happen in front of your wife and children.’’’ He was also told “Your death is sure if you share this with the outside world.”

Gao was abducted by State security agents in his home village in Shanxi Province on February 4, 2009. On January 9, his wife and children began their escape from China. They were safely in USA via Thailand on March 11. Geng He, Gao’s wife, his 16-year-old daughter Geng Ge, and 5-year-old son Gao Tianyu, fear for his safety.

A Chinese delegate, at the UN review of Christians and other minorities, stated that China would never allow torture against religious members or other minorities. Advocacy groups were critical that serious abuses were omitted from the review.

The good news is that on February 20, four house church leaders in Henan province were released after worldwide prayer and international pressure.

Meanwhile, elderly house church pastor, Hua Zaichen, was ordered to leave Beijing Dianli Hospital although he was severely ill. Government officials refused to allow his wife, Shuang Shuying, to be released to him unless she agreed to inform on other Christians. She refused, but was eventually released on February 8, the day before Hua died. Both suffered years of persecution because of their house church involvement. [Tears of the Oppressed]

You may write to our Prime Minister and/or the Chinese Ambassador as follows:

Addresses:

6 February 2009

Uganda/Congo Update

On Friday 30 January, the Ugandan Army (UPDF) attacked an LRA camp in north-east Congo. To avoid civilian casualties, the UPDF hit the camp only indirectly, scattering the rebels into the bush. A senior LRA commander, Major Okore Okello, was killed and 90 Congolese captives — all women and children — were rescued. Brig. Kankiriho reports: 'The abductees were tied to each other on ropes like the old slave traders used to do.' This is the first rescue of abducted civilians since Operation Lightning Thunder started on 14 December. The International Organisation for Immigration (IOI) reports additionally that LRA deputy commander Okot Odhiambo has requested safe passage to surrender. Okot Odhiambo replaced former deputy Vincent Otti who was assassinated in 2007 on Kony's orders after a rift. Rumours have it that Okot has defected and is seeking protection after having likewise fallen out with Kony. He has told the IOI that if they can get him out he will bring 45 rebels and 10 abductees with him.

Please continue to pray for defections, rescues and an end to Joseph Kony's blasphemy and terror. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty Prayer List]

India Update

The Karnataka High Court has reopened approx. 12 churches that were closed down by the Deputy Commissioner of Davangere district, Karnataka, India in early September due to claims that forcible conversions were taking place. At 7:30 p.m. on January 9, 2009 police officials disrupted a weekly prayer meeting held in the home of Pastor Iswar Albannavar (30) and his wife, Renuka Iswar Albannavar (26), in Gangavadi, Belgaum district accusing the couple of forcible conversion. The police confiscated Bibles and hymnals and took several believers to the police station. Although the Christians stated that they were not coerced into attending the meeting, Pastor Albannavar and another believer were charged with "promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion ... and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony." At last report, the two Christians remained in detention.

Government authorities have shut down relief camps in Orissa, India, without adequate protection for Christians against further attacks or compensation for damages. Many fear further attacks if they return to their homes, many of which have not been rebuilt. Reports of attacks and beatings of pastors and Christian workers have come from the states of Karnataka, Andra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Orissa. In Orissa, three Christians were arrested on false charges of “attempting to rape and murder” in Guntaput, Koraput district. A worker from the extremist group RSS named only ‘Nanda’ filed the charge. The tribal woman involved said she had not been attacked and had no idea why the Christians were accused. The men were released on bail.   [Tears of the Oppressed]  

Iraq

Provincial council elections were held in 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces on Saturday 31 January. Because Iraqi politics is totally tribal the stakes are high and Christians, as a small minority, are inevitably marginalised. For various reasons the elections were generally peaceful. Also no voting was held in the still ethnically mixed, highly contested and volatile northern provinces of Dahuk, Arbil, Sulaymaniyah or Kirkuk.

Tensions are high in the northern Nineveh Province where a massive ethnic power-shift is about to take place. It has been the centre of the Assyrian homeland for several millennia and is where most of Iraq’s remaining Christians live. However, for the past few centuries it has also been Kurdish 'frontier' territory. When the Sunni Arabs boycotted the 2005 vote, they opened the door for Kurds to extend their control into Arab-majority areas — lands Arabised by Saddam Hussein to ensure Arab majorities in oil-rich areas. Oil-rich Mosul (Nineveh's capital) subsequently became a front-line in the Sunni Arab insurgency. After the US-led surge in central Iraq drove militants north, Mosul also became al Qaeda's new Iraq base in its jihad for the imposition of fundamentalist Islam.

Arab nationalists, rumoured to have ties to both Baathists and al Qaeda, campaigned on a platform of rolling back Kurdish expansion. They are now set to take power in Nineveh from incumbent Kurdish nationalists who campaigned on a platform of Kurdish consolidation, de-Arabisation and autonomy. Assyrian Christians, who for centuries have suffered intensive persecution and numerous massacres at the hands of both Arabs and Kurds, were reportedly threatened and intimidated for their vote. The power shift could create an explosive situation. Iraq's Christians are once again going to be stuck in the middle and torn between warring and vengeful ethnic nationalists, to the delight of al Qaeda, which will doubtless use any ethnic conflict as a cover for its Islamic jihad.

The catastrophe that has befallen Iraq's indigenous Christian peoples is virtually never mentioned in news reporting as it would conflict with the 'success' propaganda. The tragic plight of Iraqi Christians is so profoundly ignored you could be forgiven for thinking they are invisible or non-existent! This terrorised, traumatised, largely displaced remnant — less than half of Iraq's pre-war Christian population — is facing genocide.

Pray that God will protect and preserve his Church in Iraq and that it will increase prayerfulness, faith, brotherly love and solidarity across ethnic and denominational lines.

[World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty Prayer List]

Bangladesh

Jhontu Biswas, 31, a Christian pastor in the Meherpur district of Bangladesh, has suffered torture and harassment for more than a year. On December 9, 2008 a 4000-strong crowd celebrating Islam’s largest festival confronted him en masse at Fulbaria, 270kms west of Dhaka. They accused him of misleading Muslims by distributing Christian booklets and threatened to harm him and other Christians if a new government came to power. Fortunately for him, the Grand Alliance won the election. Two of his congregation, Ishmael Sheikh and his wife Rahima Khatun, were baptised on November 9. By the end of the month, Muslim neighbours in their village in Meherpur district, had compelled their own sons to expel them from their house. The neighbours threatened the sons that their children would not be allowed to marry anyone in the village if Sheik and Rahima stayed.

In the SE Rangamati district a young father who converted to Christianity four months before, was beaten and driven from his home by Buddhist villagers on December 18. He can no longer provide for his wife and six year old son.    [Tears of the Oppressed]   

23 January 2009

Gaza: Christians caught up in war

The Palestinian Bible Society (PBS) confirmed Monday 12 January  that on the previous Friday, that the building where their Bookshop is located was hit with a missile, though fourth the Bookshop and the Community centre which is located on the ground and first floor did not suffer any damage. “ It remains to be seen whether the hit caused any unseen structural damages. No life casualties or injuries have been reported." The Palestinian Bible Society realizes that not only Palestinians suffer from this situation, in a recent newsletter they stated: 'We also understand the suffering that the Israelis are going through in the different settlements and cities of the south, the continues shelling of missiles over civilians with only 15 seconds pre-warning is horrifying and unacceptable.'

Pastor Hanna Massad, leader of the Baptist church in Gaza, showed that any person can become a victim: "A few days ago we heard about a Christian who sat down and was drinking tea with his neighbour on the sixth floor of their apartment building. The Christian man then was called down by his wife. A few moments after he had gone downstairs a missile came down, shaking the building to its foundations. Their building was hit and when he ran back upstairs it became clear that the floor, where he had been sitting down a few minutes before, was directly hit by the projectile. His neighbour died instantly."

Evan Thomas, one of the leaders of a Messianic congregation in Netanya, recently emailed a similar reflection after the loss of civilian life as the UN school was fired upon by Israeli tanks. He wrote: "Please do not make the mistake of 'brushing off' this deplorable tragedy as insignificant or even worse - justifiable. Taking such a position will lead us very quickly down the road of seeing the entire Palestinian population as our enemies and, as such, less than human. This process is called dehumanisation and will sabotage our effectiveness in prayer. .."  [Open Doors. More at: http://www.opendoors.org.au/index.cfm?page=182]

Kyrgyzstan:  Impending Law Set to Restrict Religious Freedom

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, religious freedom came to Kyrgyzstan in the 1990s. The door opened for missionaries and the gospel, with many Russian and Kyrgyz people becoming Christians. Kyrgyzstan enjoyed religious freedom until recently when the government started to strengthen its control over religious organisations.

On 6 November 2008 the Kyrgyzstan Parliament unanimously passed the new Law on Religion and is now expecting the final signature of approval from the President, Kurmanbek Bakiev. The new law is unconstitutional by its nature and greatly concerns religious leaders. Its restrictive rules require 200 local residents to support the registration of a religious organisation, which is impossible for many village and ethnic churches with far fewer believers. The new law prohibits changing one's religion, which would affect foremost the ethnic Kyrgyz Christians and cause them harsh persecution. The new law is also very difficult for foreign missionaries and prohibits free distribution of religious literature.

The Alliance of Kyrgyz Churches has written to the President on behalf of all Kyrgyz Christians, defending their constitutional rights and asking him not to sign the Bill, as did leaders of other Christian organisations. The European Union has scrutinised the new law and expressed its concern that parts of it do not meet the regulations and requirements of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The EU is asking the President not to sign the law but to consider the OSCE experts' recommendations for its improvement., [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty]

Eritrea: Christian deaths mount  in prisons

Three Christians incarcerated in military prisons for their faith have died in the past four months in Eritrea, including the death on Friday Jan 16 of a 42-year-old man in solitary confinement, according to a Christian support organization. Sources told Open Doors that Mehari Gebreneguse Asgedom died at the Mitire Military Confinement centre from torture and complications from diabetes. Asgedom was a member of the Church of the Living God in Mendefera.

His death followed the revelation this month of another death in the same prison. Mogos Hagos Kiflom, 37, was said to have died as a result of torture he endured for refusing to recant his faith, according to Open Doors, but the exact date of his death was unknown. A member of Rhema Church, Kiflom is survived by his wife, child and mother. In October Teklesenbet Gebreab Kiflom, 36, died while imprisoned for his faith at the Wi’a Military Confinement centre. He was reported to have died after prison commanders refused to give him medical attention for malaria. In June 2008, 37-year-old Azib Simon died from untreated malaria as well. Weakened by torture, sources told Compass, Simon contracted malaria only a week before she died. Together with the deaths this month, the confirmed number of Christians who have died while imprisoned for their faith in Eritrea now totals eight.

Incarcerated Christians from throughout Eritrea have been transferred to the Mitire prison in the country’s northeast. In 2002 the Eritrean regime outlawed religious activity except that of the Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran or Muslim religions. At the same time, the government of President Isaias Afwerki has stepped up its campaign against churches it has outlawed, earning it a spot on the U.S. Department of State’s list of worst violators of religious freedom. The government arrested 15 members of the Kale-Hiwot Church in Keren on Jan. 11, and before Christmas at least 49 leaders of unregistered churches in Asmara were rounded up over two weeks, Open Doors reported. Last November, 34 members of the Kale-Hiwot Church in Dekemhare were arrested. Those arrested included members of the Church of the Living God, Medhaniel Alem Revival Group and the Philadelphia, Kale-Hiwot, Rhema, Full Gospel and Salvation by Christ churches, according to Open Doors. The church leaders’ names appeared on a government list of 180 people who were taken from their homes and work places. [Compass Direct.  More at http://www.compassdirect.org/en/display.php?page=breaking&lang=en&length=long&idelement=5764]

Uganda

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has waged a murderous campaign of terror for over 20 years in Uganda and neighbouring countries.  During Christmas 2008 the LRA's assault continued with an attack on a Catholic church's Christmas Day service in north-east Congo, leaving 150 dead with 280 massacred over the following days.  Recent government military strikes have devastated LRA bases resulting in LRA's commander, Joseph Kony, and generals fleeing for food and shelter. Demoralised and divided, many in the remaining rebel forces are reportedly close to surrender.  Pray for a final end to the LRA's reign of terror and for those suffering from its unspeakable evils. [World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty]