Showing posts with label Isaiah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isaiah. Show all posts
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Religious Freedom and Realpolitik
By Elizabeth Kendal
On 22 May 2013, the Washington Post published a piece by Lauren Markeo, entitled: ANALYSIS: Does religious freedom report need more 'teeth'?
The title is drawn from the words of Knox Thames, the director of policy and research at the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), who laments that the State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2012 -- released by Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday 20 May 2013 -- does not include an updated list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs). The USCIRF insists that the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Act that mandates the State Department Report also requires new designations of CPCs annually.
As Thames explained to Markoe, for years the annual report and the CPC designations were simultaneous, but that changed late in the Bush administration and has been continued under Obama. And according to Thames, the list of CPCs "is what gave all of this teeth" . . . for the list prompts "countries to do things they don't normally want to do".
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, REALPOLITIK AND DENIAL
On the contrary, the CPC list did not give the US IRF Act its "teeth"; US economic leverage gave the Act its teeth. The CPC list was only effective because aid could be extended or sanctions applied on the grounds of the religious liberty findings. As long as the US had political will and economic leverage, dictators had economic incentive to reign in their most hostile and belligerent elements and pursue at least a modicum of reform.
As I maintain in the introduction to my book, Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Dec 2012), the US IRF Act "only had teeth as long as the US had economic leverage. Thus the financial collapse of 2008 seriously undermined its power."
The reality is, persecution escalated dramatically immediately after the financial crisis: "It was as if the veil of protection that US economic . . . leverage had provided was stripped away in a moment, leaving minority Christians exposed and vulnerable before a rising tide of militant religious nationalism, intolerant Islamic fundamentalism and brutal, atheistic totalitarianism."
Compounding the crisis, US financial collapse converged not only with the rise of China -- and who needs US aid when China gives aid without strings attached? -- but also with the decline of US political and military influence in the Middle East.
That the US IRF Act has indeed lost its "teeth" (economic leverage) is a fact about which most persecuted believers and religious liberty advocates are actually in profound denial.
CASE STUDY: VIETNAM
Thames offers Vietnam as an example of how the CPC designations "work", noting that reforms, pressed by US diplomats, resulted in Vietnam's delisting in 2006.
But that was then -- before the financial crisis -- this is now!
Furthermore, Vietnam never really reformed -- it just did what it had to do in order to get from the US what it wanted to get. Behind the dressed-up facade, Vietnam remained a repressive, Communist regime.
As Human Rights Watch reported in October 2009: "In 2006, the State Department removed Vietnam from the [CPC] list, citing the release of religious prisoners and less-restrictive legislation governing religion. Two months later, the US granted Vietnam permanent normal trade status, which led to Vietnam's membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO)."
See, Vietnam: Sharp backsliding in religious freedom
HRW, 10 Oct 2009
But soon as Vietnam joined the WTO in January 2007, repression and persecution returned. In March 2007 I wrote of a watershed moment. "Through a wave of harassments, arrests and criminal charges against human rights and democracy advocates engaged in peaceful and perfectly legal activities, Vietnam is openly showing its hand and waiting to see if anyone will challenge, or if everyone will fold."
See: Vietnam's crackdown creates watershed
By Elizabeth Kendal, 20 March 2007
In the US, the usual voices spoke out against the persecution -- US Congressmen Chris Smith, Frank Wolf, Ed Royce, Dana Rohrabacher and others -- warning Vietnam that it risked being returned to the CPC list; but to no avail. By September 2008, Vietnam was right back to its old ways: breaking promises and using state violence to crack down hard on Hanoi's Catholics as they followed the courageous Archbishop Kiet into the streets, week after week, in one of the most courageous and phenomenal prayer movements I have ever seen.
See: Vietnam: Govt belligerence escalates against Hanoi Catholics.
By Elizabeth Kendal, 26 September 2008
Persecution in Vietnam's Central Highlands also skyrocketed. The HRW report -- Montagnard Christians in Vietnam: a case study in religious repression (March 2011) -- reveals a campaign of widespread systematic harassment, violence and public shaming through which many hundreds, if not thousands, of Protestant families have been forced to recant their faith.
The reality is, since late 2008, persecution with impunity has become the order of the day -- not just in Vietnam, but worldwide. The US can't prevent it and the persecutors know it!
Today's world is a world of realpolitik, where economic and geo-strategic concerns trump inconvenient human rights abuses -- especially the persecution of Christians -- every day.
END DENIAL AND STEP OUT IN FAITH
It goes against the grain of human pride to admit that we are helpless and powerlessness. It is also very frightening. But I would maintain that this is exactly what we must do if we are to lay hold of what God has promised.
When the Assyrian Rabshakeh and his "great army" arrived at the gates of Jerusalem in 701 BC, the Assyrians had already crushed everything and everyone in whom King Hezekiah had hoped: Babylon (the great city), Tyre and Sidon (the great economic powers), Hezekiah's Western Alliance (collective security) and military aid from Egypt (Judah's ally in the south). With the Assyrians "at the gate", the conquest of Jerusalem was imminent and inevitable . . . until Hezekiah returned to the way of faith, and prayed (Isaiah 36-37). And Isaiah makes it perfectly clear that this is not mere history, this is type with universal application.
Religious liberty advocates would do well to take Isaiah as their role model. In the midst of an existential political and military crisis, Isaiah obeyed the Lord and approached the king -- first Ahaz, then Hezekiah. A prophetic voice -- as distinct from a negotiator or union representative -- Isaiah spoke truth to power without ever putting his faith in that power or in his diplomacy or the political process or military might or collective security or economic leverage. On the contrary, his faith was always in the Lord alone.
The world has changed and US influence and leverage is not what it used to be. Yet I believe this may yet prove to be providential. Without its "teeth" (economic leverage) the US IRF Act may be released to just equip us with truth uncontaminated by political considerations -- truth that is absolutely essential if we are to "fight" effectively (Ephesians 6:14) and turn back the battle. Meanwhile, after more than a decade of looking to the US for help, the Church might finally return to the way of faith and look once more to the one who really does rule this world: the faithful, Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. "Blessed are those who wait for him." (Isaiah 30:18)
---------------------------------
Elizabeth Kendal is the Director of Advocacy at Christian Faith and Freedom (Canberra), and the author of Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Dec 2012)
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
ERITREA: RELENTLESS PERSECUTION
Christianity came to Ethiopia-Eritrea in the early 4th Century, brought into the court of King Ezana by two Syrian merchants, Frumentius and Aedesius.[1] Today Eritrea is around 50 percent Christian, with more than 90 percent of all Eritrean Christians belonging to the Eritrean Orthodox Church (EOC). In recent decades a Biblical revival movement known as 'Medhane Alam' (lit. Saviour of the World) has grown within the EOC. While some priests and churches have been accommodating, even open, others have resisted, some aggressively, forcing those seeking a more evangelical Christianity to leave the EOC for Protestant fellowships. The exodus has caused great angst in the hierarchy of the EOC.
Following a second war with Ethiopia (1998-2000), the government cracked down hard in 2001 on anything it viewed as a potential threat to national unity. They cancelled elections, closed down all independent media, rounded up and imprisoned their political opponents and repressed all civil opposition. In May 2002, reportedly at the behest of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the government also cracked down on 'foreign' and 'non-traditional' religion, banning all churches other than the state-sanctioned Muslim, Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Mekane Yesus (Evangelical Lutheran) denominations.
If the EOC thought it could support a cruel, totalitarian regime's religious repression and then trust that regime to protect it, then it was naive indeed.
". . .the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys." (Isaiah 21:2a)
By 2005 the regime was repressing the EOC, sending its priests into military service, and removing and detaining 'dissident' priests who objected to the persecution of Medhane Alam. When EOC Patriarch Abune Antonios protested the attacks on his own church, he was removed from office (defrocked). He was placed under house arrest in January 2006 and replaced with a government political appointee, Mr Yoftahe Dimetros. Today the EOC -- its priests, properties, funds and historic manuscripts -- is under the control of the regime.
Eritrea is now one of the most repressive, human-rights-abusing states in the world. The repression has created a refugee crisis, and many of them are Christians. The Army has orders to shoot to kill anyone who tries to flee across the border. An estimated 3000 Christians, mostly Protestants, are in prison for their faith. Some are in military prisons and some have been 'disappeared' into the State's network of secret underground prisons. Prison conditions are inhumane and torture is routine. A number of Christians have died in custody and many others have been crippled and scarred for life. Eritrean authorities arrested eleven more Christians on 9 May. International Christian Concern reports that Pastor Mesfin, Pastor Tekie and Mr Isaac and his four children were arrested, as well as four women while conducting a prayer meeting in a private home in the capital, Asmara. They are all members of Faith Church of Christ which has existed in Eritrea since 1950 but was banned in 2002.
Eritrea's President Isayas Afewerki denies there is any religious persecution in Eritrea. Because there is no free media, Eritrean Christians have to risk their life and liberty to leak information of their plight to the outside world.
For more information see:
Amnesty International
Eritrea: 'You have no right to ask' - Government resists scrutiny on human rights
Index Number: AFR 64/003/2004
Date Published: 18 May 2004
This document reports on the human rights record of the Eritrean government. It covers such issues as torture, arbitrary detention, "disappearances", religious persecution, abuses of national military service conscripts, refugees and returnees, constitutional rights and international treaties and political imprisonment.
US Commission on International Religious Freedom
Annual Report 2010
Chapter on Eritrea
Christian Persecution in Eritrea
29 November 2007
This site contains a short video on religious persecution in Eritrea, featuring Eritrean gospel singer Helen Berhane, a victim of this persecution who now has asylum in Denmark.
(This post is a slightly extended version of Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 056 | Wed 19 May 2010)
[1] A World History of Christianity. Edited by Adrian Hastings. Cassell 1999, p197
Following a second war with Ethiopia (1998-2000), the government cracked down hard in 2001 on anything it viewed as a potential threat to national unity. They cancelled elections, closed down all independent media, rounded up and imprisoned their political opponents and repressed all civil opposition. In May 2002, reportedly at the behest of the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the government also cracked down on 'foreign' and 'non-traditional' religion, banning all churches other than the state-sanctioned Muslim, Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Mekane Yesus (Evangelical Lutheran) denominations.
If the EOC thought it could support a cruel, totalitarian regime's religious repression and then trust that regime to protect it, then it was naive indeed.
". . .the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys." (Isaiah 21:2a)
By 2005 the regime was repressing the EOC, sending its priests into military service, and removing and detaining 'dissident' priests who objected to the persecution of Medhane Alam. When EOC Patriarch Abune Antonios protested the attacks on his own church, he was removed from office (defrocked). He was placed under house arrest in January 2006 and replaced with a government political appointee, Mr Yoftahe Dimetros. Today the EOC -- its priests, properties, funds and historic manuscripts -- is under the control of the regime.
Eritrea is now one of the most repressive, human-rights-abusing states in the world. The repression has created a refugee crisis, and many of them are Christians. The Army has orders to shoot to kill anyone who tries to flee across the border. An estimated 3000 Christians, mostly Protestants, are in prison for their faith. Some are in military prisons and some have been 'disappeared' into the State's network of secret underground prisons. Prison conditions are inhumane and torture is routine. A number of Christians have died in custody and many others have been crippled and scarred for life. Eritrean authorities arrested eleven more Christians on 9 May. International Christian Concern reports that Pastor Mesfin, Pastor Tekie and Mr Isaac and his four children were arrested, as well as four women while conducting a prayer meeting in a private home in the capital, Asmara. They are all members of Faith Church of Christ which has existed in Eritrea since 1950 but was banned in 2002.
Eritrea's President Isayas Afewerki denies there is any religious persecution in Eritrea. Because there is no free media, Eritrean Christians have to risk their life and liberty to leak information of their plight to the outside world.
For more information see:
Amnesty International
Eritrea: 'You have no right to ask' - Government resists scrutiny on human rights
Index Number: AFR 64/003/2004
Date Published: 18 May 2004
This document reports on the human rights record of the Eritrean government. It covers such issues as torture, arbitrary detention, "disappearances", religious persecution, abuses of national military service conscripts, refugees and returnees, constitutional rights and international treaties and political imprisonment.
US Commission on International Religious Freedom
Annual Report 2010
Chapter on Eritrea
Christian Persecution in Eritrea
29 November 2007
This site contains a short video on religious persecution in Eritrea, featuring Eritrean gospel singer Helen Berhane, a victim of this persecution who now has asylum in Denmark.
(This post is a slightly extended version of Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 056 | Wed 19 May 2010)
[1] A World History of Christianity. Edited by Adrian Hastings. Cassell 1999, p197
Monday, May 17, 2010
Sacrificed on the altar of "quiet diplomacy"?
". . .the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys." (Isaiah 21:2a ESV)
VIETNAM: Archbishop of Hanoi, Msgr. Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet (57), replaced.
Those who have followed the dramatic developments in Vietnam over the recent years will know the significance of Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, Archbishop of Hanoi. Msgr. Kiet has risked his own life and liberty seeking justice and religious freedom for the church in Vietnam. In the process he inspired many hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese Catholics, as well as local Protestants and global religious liberty advocates. Consequently, Kiet became a thorn in the flesh of the repressive Communist Party dictatorship that rules Vietnam -- a regime that has spent recent years escalating repression.
BACKGROUND
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels stated in their 1848 Communist Manifesto: 'The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.' Consequently, when the Communists came to power in northern Vietnam in 1945 and in the south in 1975, they confiscated private properties, including those owned by the Church.
Vietnamese Catholics and Protestants have long sought the return of their confiscated properties. For decades the Church and State have been stuck in a cycle of political and diplomatic jostling: church petitions -- government rejections -- church petitions with international support -- minimalist government appeasement followed by more land seizures and demolitions -- more church petitions followed by frustration and discouragement.
In December 2007, as Msgr Kiet petitioned the government for the return of Hanoi nunciature (the Vatican Embassy -- a large and beautiful historic house built next to St Joseph's Cathedral -- confiscated in 1959), he decided to try a new strategy. Frustrated by years of futile political activism, Archbishop Kiet simply asked the faithful to pray. And pray they did. On 18 December 2007, as a Spirit of prayer gripped the church, the Catholic faithful poured out onto the streets of Hanoi.
The public prayer vigils initially focused on the Hanoi nunciature. Crowds grew daily until, on Christmas Eve of 2007, some 5,000 Catholic faithful sang, worshipped and prayed in the open air outside the Hanoi nunciature.
And that was merely the beginning. The prayer vigils spread to other sites across the city as Catholics came out to show solidarity and pray for justice and religious liberty. The prayer vigils in Hanoi's Thai Ha Redemptorist parish were particular large. Those participating in the prayer vigils held flowers and crosses, and candles on dark nights and umbrellas on rainy days.
By August 2008, the government was clearly stressed. Responding as dictator regimes do, they sent in riot police to break up prayer vigils; they started beating and arresting participants and journalists; they started beating and arresting their lawyers; they started sending in Communist vigilantes to do government dirty-work; and they accused Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of inciting protests.
The Catholics, however, were not bowed -- the prayer vigils continued.
Eventually the authorities agreed to return Hanoi's apostolic nunciature to church ownership if only the Catholics would end the prayer vigils.
The Catholics ended their vigils, and then, on 19 September 2008, the Communists bulldozed the Hanoi nunciature to the ground and turned the site into a public park.
". . .the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys." (Isaiah 21:2a)
Despite the loss of the Hanoi nunciature the prayer vigils continued. On Sunday 21 September 2008, some 10,000 Catholics turned out in the street to sing, worship and pray for justice and religious liberty. It was the largest public demonstration seen in Vietnam since the Communists seized power.
The Communist Party responded with a virulent media campaign targeting Msgr Kiet and calling for his removal. The Catholic faithful responded with yet more prayer vigils, this time in support of Archbishop Kiet.
See:
Vietnam: Prayer vigils push government to breaking point.
Religious Liberty News & Analysis by Elizabeth Kendal, 16 September 2008
VIETNAM: PRAYER VIGILS CONFRONT GOVERNMENT
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLP) 496, Wed 17 Sep 2008
Vietnam: Govt belligerence escalates against Hanoi Catholics.
Religious Liberty News & Analysis by Elizabeth Kendal, 26 September 2008
Vietnamese Catholics Under Communist Iron Grip.
VietCatholic News 29 Sept 2008 (includes pictures)
Biggest protest since 1954 over Hanoi old nunciature demolition
CathNews 22 Sept 2010
State media launch campaign for Hanoi’s archbishop removal
VietCatholic News, 17 Oct 2008 (with photos)
The struggle continued through 2009, with more prayer vigils and more property destruction.
See:
VIETNAM: GREATER DESTRUCTION AS PERSECUTION ESCALATES
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 009, Wed 17 Jun 2009
VIETNAM: BRUTALITY CONFRONTED THROUGH PRAYER
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 017, Wed 12 Aug 2009
. . . and into 2010 . . .
See:
Redemptorist Superior General urges prayer for persecuted Vietnamese Catholics.
Catholic News Agency, 26 Jan 2010 (with picture)
KIET "RETIRES"
In April 2010, Msgr. Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet (57), Archbishop of Hanoi, announced that he would "retire" for health reason. He would be replaced by Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon (72), a bishop who has the approval of the Communist Party.
Msgr. Kiet reports that his chronic insomnia and asthenia (weakness) is preventing him from fulfilling his duties as Archbishop and so he sought leave from the Vatican to retire. According to Kiet, neither the Bishop's Conference nor the Holy See wanted to accept his resignation. Eventually however, he managed to convince them. Msgr. Kiet is appealing to Vietnamese Catholics to embrace their new Archbishop and stay united.
See:
Archbishop Kiet: They did not want me to retire, I had to ask the Pope myself
by J.B. An Dang, Hanoi, AsiaNews 14 May 2010.
The Communist Party however, is singing a different tune. According to official State media reports, the Communist Party is treating the removal of Kiet as a significant victory on their "road map" to removing stubborn, dissident, religious liberty activist priests. According to State media, the Vatican agreed to remove Kiet and replace him with government-approved Bishop Nguyen Van Nhon, in exchange for a Papal visit to Vietnam and talks on normalisation of diplomatic ties.
See: Hanoi launches a press campaign, using Msgr. Kiet to discredit the Vatican
by Emily Nguyen, Hanoi, AsiaNews, 13 May 2010
The drama is dividing the church. Catholics who believe Kiet is telling the whole and absolute truth, suspect there is a government conspiracy afoot to hurt the Vatican. Others sense a government conspiracy to silence Kiet and decapitate the prayer movement, and that they secured Kiet's removal in a deal struck with the Vatican.
The division is such that the government is scoring a victory no matter what the truth of the matter. However, if Kiet is telling the whole truth, then the Pope needs to confirm his story with a public statement that will end speculation and division. The fact that the Pope has not done so only fuels suspicion that the Communist Party's version is the correct one. Clearly the Communist Party is using its media channels to stoke division -- and doubtless it is loving every minute of it.
". . .the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys." (Isaiah 21:2a )
Asia Times Online is unambiguous in its assessment, publishing its report under the title: Vatican, Vietnam sacrifice a holy man (Asia Times Online, 7 May 2010).
The author writes, "Against this backdrop [the continuing prayer vigils and years of persistent government slander and threats against Msgr. Kiet], President Nguyen Minh Triet paid a visit to Pope Benedict XVI in December 2009, following Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's historic Vatican trip in 2007. The two sides are reported to be discussing normalization of diplomatic ties.
"Following Triet's meeting with the pope, Kiet went on medical leave and traveled to Rome for treatment. Vietnamese Catholic websites report that Triet insisted that the Vatican remove Kiet as a condition for establishing closer ties. This request, if true, would be consistent with the tone of government-controlled newspapers.
"On returning to Vietnam in April [2010], Kiet announced that he was retiring, for 'health reasons'. His stepping down, though not unexpected, was a disappointment for many Vietnamese, Catholic and non-Catholic, who admired his courageous leadership. Several online petitions have been organized calling on Pope Benedict to keep Kiet as archbishop of Hanoi."
See also :
Vietnam: Catholics shaken by new Hanoi coadjutor's appointment
VietCatholic News, 23 Apr 2010
A ceremony to install Bishop Nguyen Van Nhon of Dalat, President of Vietnam Episcopal Council, as coadjutor archbishop of Hanoi, was held on 7 May. It was however, met with angry protests.
See:
Repercussion of Hanoi coadjutor installation ceremony
VietCatholic News (09 May 2010) (includes photos)
Hanoi Catholic journalist JB Nguyen Huu Vinh, who was beaten by police in February as he was reporting religious repression, told VietCatholic News that he fears the controversy will hurt the good standing the Catholic hierarchy has had in the eyes of Catholic faithful.
Reporting on the installation ceremony he wrote: "In a strategy obviously planned to avoid a direct confrontation with protestors, the procession of bishops and clergy had to enter through a side door, not the main entrance of the cathedral as in other previous solemn ceremony.
"Likewise, at the end of the ceremony, the bishops returned to the archbishopric office by a backdoor where they could escape the sea of protestors." Further to this, reports Huu Vinh, the new coadjutor bishop of Hanoi, Mgr. Peter Nguyen Van Nhon did not give the traditional blessings to the faithful.
And so it appears likely that Archbishop Kiet has met the fate of other problematic front-line religious liberty and justice advocates and been sacrificed on the altar of "quiet diplomacy" by Church leaders who, for some reason and despite the evidence of history, continue to invest their hopes and trust in human beings and human institutions, even in traitors and destroyers whose ultimate ambition is to silence the song of God's people.
VIETNAM: Archbishop of Hanoi, Msgr. Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet (57), replaced.
Those who have followed the dramatic developments in Vietnam over the recent years will know the significance of Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet, Archbishop of Hanoi. Msgr. Kiet has risked his own life and liberty seeking justice and religious freedom for the church in Vietnam. In the process he inspired many hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese Catholics, as well as local Protestants and global religious liberty advocates. Consequently, Kiet became a thorn in the flesh of the repressive Communist Party dictatorship that rules Vietnam -- a regime that has spent recent years escalating repression.
BACKGROUND
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels stated in their 1848 Communist Manifesto: 'The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.' Consequently, when the Communists came to power in northern Vietnam in 1945 and in the south in 1975, they confiscated private properties, including those owned by the Church.
Vietnamese Catholics and Protestants have long sought the return of their confiscated properties. For decades the Church and State have been stuck in a cycle of political and diplomatic jostling: church petitions -- government rejections -- church petitions with international support -- minimalist government appeasement followed by more land seizures and demolitions -- more church petitions followed by frustration and discouragement.
In December 2007, as Msgr Kiet petitioned the government for the return of Hanoi nunciature (the Vatican Embassy -- a large and beautiful historic house built next to St Joseph's Cathedral -- confiscated in 1959), he decided to try a new strategy. Frustrated by years of futile political activism, Archbishop Kiet simply asked the faithful to pray. And pray they did. On 18 December 2007, as a Spirit of prayer gripped the church, the Catholic faithful poured out onto the streets of Hanoi.
The public prayer vigils initially focused on the Hanoi nunciature. Crowds grew daily until, on Christmas Eve of 2007, some 5,000 Catholic faithful sang, worshipped and prayed in the open air outside the Hanoi nunciature.
And that was merely the beginning. The prayer vigils spread to other sites across the city as Catholics came out to show solidarity and pray for justice and religious liberty. The prayer vigils in Hanoi's Thai Ha Redemptorist parish were particular large. Those participating in the prayer vigils held flowers and crosses, and candles on dark nights and umbrellas on rainy days.
By August 2008, the government was clearly stressed. Responding as dictator regimes do, they sent in riot police to break up prayer vigils; they started beating and arresting participants and journalists; they started beating and arresting their lawyers; they started sending in Communist vigilantes to do government dirty-work; and they accused Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of inciting protests.
The Catholics, however, were not bowed -- the prayer vigils continued.
Eventually the authorities agreed to return Hanoi's apostolic nunciature to church ownership if only the Catholics would end the prayer vigils.
The Catholics ended their vigils, and then, on 19 September 2008, the Communists bulldozed the Hanoi nunciature to the ground and turned the site into a public park.
". . .the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys." (Isaiah 21:2a)
Despite the loss of the Hanoi nunciature the prayer vigils continued. On Sunday 21 September 2008, some 10,000 Catholics turned out in the street to sing, worship and pray for justice and religious liberty. It was the largest public demonstration seen in Vietnam since the Communists seized power.
The Communist Party responded with a virulent media campaign targeting Msgr Kiet and calling for his removal. The Catholic faithful responded with yet more prayer vigils, this time in support of Archbishop Kiet.
See:
Vietnam: Prayer vigils push government to breaking point.
Religious Liberty News & Analysis by Elizabeth Kendal, 16 September 2008
VIETNAM: PRAYER VIGILS CONFRONT GOVERNMENT
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLP) 496, Wed 17 Sep 2008
Vietnam: Govt belligerence escalates against Hanoi Catholics.
Religious Liberty News & Analysis by Elizabeth Kendal, 26 September 2008
Vietnamese Catholics Under Communist Iron Grip.
VietCatholic News 29 Sept 2008 (includes pictures)
Biggest protest since 1954 over Hanoi old nunciature demolition
CathNews 22 Sept 2010
State media launch campaign for Hanoi’s archbishop removal
VietCatholic News, 17 Oct 2008 (with photos)
The struggle continued through 2009, with more prayer vigils and more property destruction.
See:
VIETNAM: GREATER DESTRUCTION AS PERSECUTION ESCALATES
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 009, Wed 17 Jun 2009
VIETNAM: BRUTALITY CONFRONTED THROUGH PRAYER
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 017, Wed 12 Aug 2009
. . . and into 2010 . . .
See:
Redemptorist Superior General urges prayer for persecuted Vietnamese Catholics.
Catholic News Agency, 26 Jan 2010 (with picture)
KIET "RETIRES"
In April 2010, Msgr. Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet (57), Archbishop of Hanoi, announced that he would "retire" for health reason. He would be replaced by Bishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon (72), a bishop who has the approval of the Communist Party.
Msgr. Kiet reports that his chronic insomnia and asthenia (weakness) is preventing him from fulfilling his duties as Archbishop and so he sought leave from the Vatican to retire. According to Kiet, neither the Bishop's Conference nor the Holy See wanted to accept his resignation. Eventually however, he managed to convince them. Msgr. Kiet is appealing to Vietnamese Catholics to embrace their new Archbishop and stay united.
See:
Archbishop Kiet: They did not want me to retire, I had to ask the Pope myself
by J.B. An Dang, Hanoi, AsiaNews 14 May 2010.
The Communist Party however, is singing a different tune. According to official State media reports, the Communist Party is treating the removal of Kiet as a significant victory on their "road map" to removing stubborn, dissident, religious liberty activist priests. According to State media, the Vatican agreed to remove Kiet and replace him with government-approved Bishop Nguyen Van Nhon, in exchange for a Papal visit to Vietnam and talks on normalisation of diplomatic ties.
See: Hanoi launches a press campaign, using Msgr. Kiet to discredit the Vatican
by Emily Nguyen, Hanoi, AsiaNews, 13 May 2010
The drama is dividing the church. Catholics who believe Kiet is telling the whole and absolute truth, suspect there is a government conspiracy afoot to hurt the Vatican. Others sense a government conspiracy to silence Kiet and decapitate the prayer movement, and that they secured Kiet's removal in a deal struck with the Vatican.
The division is such that the government is scoring a victory no matter what the truth of the matter. However, if Kiet is telling the whole truth, then the Pope needs to confirm his story with a public statement that will end speculation and division. The fact that the Pope has not done so only fuels suspicion that the Communist Party's version is the correct one. Clearly the Communist Party is using its media channels to stoke division -- and doubtless it is loving every minute of it.
". . .the traitor betrays, and the destroyer destroys." (Isaiah 21:2a )
Asia Times Online is unambiguous in its assessment, publishing its report under the title: Vatican, Vietnam sacrifice a holy man (Asia Times Online, 7 May 2010).
The author writes, "Against this backdrop [the continuing prayer vigils and years of persistent government slander and threats against Msgr. Kiet], President Nguyen Minh Triet paid a visit to Pope Benedict XVI in December 2009, following Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's historic Vatican trip in 2007. The two sides are reported to be discussing normalization of diplomatic ties.
"Following Triet's meeting with the pope, Kiet went on medical leave and traveled to Rome for treatment. Vietnamese Catholic websites report that Triet insisted that the Vatican remove Kiet as a condition for establishing closer ties. This request, if true, would be consistent with the tone of government-controlled newspapers.
"On returning to Vietnam in April [2010], Kiet announced that he was retiring, for 'health reasons'. His stepping down, though not unexpected, was a disappointment for many Vietnamese, Catholic and non-Catholic, who admired his courageous leadership. Several online petitions have been organized calling on Pope Benedict to keep Kiet as archbishop of Hanoi."
See also :
Vietnam: Catholics shaken by new Hanoi coadjutor's appointment
VietCatholic News, 23 Apr 2010
A ceremony to install Bishop Nguyen Van Nhon of Dalat, President of Vietnam Episcopal Council, as coadjutor archbishop of Hanoi, was held on 7 May. It was however, met with angry protests.
See:
Repercussion of Hanoi coadjutor installation ceremony
VietCatholic News (09 May 2010) (includes photos)
Hanoi Catholic journalist JB Nguyen Huu Vinh, who was beaten by police in February as he was reporting religious repression, told VietCatholic News that he fears the controversy will hurt the good standing the Catholic hierarchy has had in the eyes of Catholic faithful.
Reporting on the installation ceremony he wrote: "In a strategy obviously planned to avoid a direct confrontation with protestors, the procession of bishops and clergy had to enter through a side door, not the main entrance of the cathedral as in other previous solemn ceremony.
"Likewise, at the end of the ceremony, the bishops returned to the archbishopric office by a backdoor where they could escape the sea of protestors." Further to this, reports Huu Vinh, the new coadjutor bishop of Hanoi, Mgr. Peter Nguyen Van Nhon did not give the traditional blessings to the faithful.
And so it appears likely that Archbishop Kiet has met the fate of other problematic front-line religious liberty and justice advocates and been sacrificed on the altar of "quiet diplomacy" by Church leaders who, for some reason and despite the evidence of history, continue to invest their hopes and trust in human beings and human institutions, even in traitors and destroyers whose ultimate ambition is to silence the song of God's people.
Friday, May 14, 2010
SPLM - NCP alliance: a "covenant with death" (Isaiah 28:15)
As was expected, the Arab, Islamist, dictatorial and genocidal regime of Omar al-Bashir won Sudan's totally compromised April elections.
Omar al-Bashir won 68 per cent of the presidential votes, while candidates belonging to al-Bashir's party, National Congress Party (NCP, formerly the National Islamic Front), won the majority of seats in the National Assembly as well as governorships in 13 of the North's 14 states.
See: Dream election result for Sudan's President Bashir
By James Copnall, BBC News, 27 April 2010
The southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM, a political opposition movement based in the South) retains control of Southern Sudan, having won 93 percent of the vote in the South. SPLM leader Salva Kiir, a former rebel army commander, was confirmed as leader of the South with 92.99 per cent of the Southern vote. He will be sworn in as Sudan's Vice President on 21 May.
According to the Financial Times, the National Consensus' presidential candidate, Yasir Arman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), picked up 21.7 per cent of the vote, in spite of his having pulled out of the elections, allegedly in protest over electoral fraud. Who's to say what could have been achieved had the opposition stayed united?
(In the days prior to the elections, the SPLM betrayed and abandoned the National Consensus alliance of opposition parties to renew its coalition with al-Bashir's NCP. The deal involved the SPLM guaranteeing al-Bashir the presidency in exchange for al-Bashir guaranteeing the Southern Self-Determination Referendum. See my blog-post of 8 April 2010 entitled, Sudan's elections: already totally compromised. )
Western powers, including the US, while acknowledging the election was flawed, are accepting the results as legitimate, citing progress in the "process of democratisation". (In reality, the only "progress" that has been made has been in the art of cheating.)
See: Sudan Votes: Responding to an Electoral Travesty
Eric Reeves, 20 April 2010
The SPLM thinks it can guarantee South Sudan -- home to 80 percent of Sudan's oil -- a smooth secession by empowering, and entering into an alliance with, the lying, treacherous, oil-dependent NCP of Omar al-Bashir. What a travesty!
For background and analysis on the Khartoum-SPLM alliance, see: Southern Sudan: on the path to war By Elizabeth Kendal, 3 Oct 2007
In an article entitled, "How political prostitution might cost South Sudanese their hard-earned freedom", New Sudan Vision's John Penn de Ngong decries the fact that Khartoum has once again been able to use promises and inducements to divide not only the oppositional National Consensus, but the SPLM itself.
Further to this, according to Penn de Ngong, the South's "neighbours who once were our symphasizers have started stabbing our backs". Both Chad's President Idris Derby and Eritrea's President Isaias Aferwoki have now expressed opposition to Southern secession. Furthermore, Penn de Ngong reports that IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), the UN and the AU (African Union) have likewise expressed reservations about Southern secession. (Egypt has never supported Southern secession on account of concerns over the possible impact on Nile water supply.)
"Why," asked Penn de Ngong, "are Kenyans, Ugandans, Congolese, etc. shifting their border posts deeper into Southern Sudan this time than last time? Why the military confrontation at our borders of Nadapal (Kenya), Moyo (Uganda), Bazi (Congo DR)? Now with the discovery of oil and other minerals in our land (South), be afraid, be very afraid! Or else be prepared, be very ready!"
In an article entitled, Many Sudans yet to come, in the 22 - 28 April 2010 issue of Al-Ahram (Cairo), reporter Ali Belail interviews Mansour Khaled, a member of the Political Bureau of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and former advisor to the Sudanese Presidency; and Mubarak Al-Fadil Al-Mahdi, a former interior minister and the leader of the Reform and Renewal faction of the Umma Party, one of the opposition parties that boycotted the elections; and questions whether Sudan's elections mark a step forward.
According to Mansour Khaled, the last few decades could well be like a honeymoon compared to what could happen to Sudan in the next few years.
Belail reports that tensions are high and that while there are several issues that could trigger anger and conflict, "oil is perhaps the most potent factor". As Belail notes: "almost 80 per cent of oil is produced south of what would be the border between the two countries".
According to Mubarak Al-Fadil Al-Mahdi, revenue from oil represents nearly 95 per cent of Sudan's total revenue. "Oil has become the livelihood of this government," he says, "and they got used to lavish spending."
Al-Mahdi's fear is that because the regime in Khartoum has neglected the economy, he cannot see them willingly relinquishing their lifeblood. "Our information is that the National Congress Party [NCP] will not let go of the oil," says Al-Mahdi. He predicts that the government will not allow the south to separate. Rather, the regime will "stall as it has done before so that the referendum is not carried out".
Al-Ahram notes that such stalling could trigger a unilateral declaration of independence from the South, which would inevitably trigger a return to armed conflict. (For other scenarios see: Khartoum's strategic assault on Southern Self-Determination Referendum, By Eric Reeves, 26 August 2009 )
"Anyway," states Al-Mahdi, "there is going to be a confrontation between the south and the north again . . . back to the war." And, according to Al-Mahdi, if and when war does resume, Sudan -- with its heavily armed, poverty-stricken population -- risks becoming another Somalia.
"There were mistakes done by the elite," says Al-Mahdi. "They should have seen that Sudan was multi-coloured, multi-ethnic, multi-religious. Sudan should be taken back to the drawing board -- a civil state that recognises multiplicity. This is the only way if you want to keep Sudan together."
Indeed, that was exactly what the late Dr John Garang (SPLM war-time leader) envisioned. But, as Mansour Khaled notes: "The ruling elite in the north do not accept diversity."
There will certainly be war in Sudan -- only now, instead of being a war between a discredited and desperate regime in Khartoum and a united, encircling opposition fighting for a united, secular, democratic Sudan, it will be war between an empowered, enriched, confident Khartoum and disparate, disillusioned, embittered and divided minority peoples each fighting for whatever they can manage to get for themselves.
There will be a massive war for control of the oil fields presently situated on the southern side of the North-South border.
The SPLM's alliance with the NCP is nothing other than a "covenant with death" (Isaiah 28:15). May God have mercy on the Church in Sudan.
Omar al-Bashir won 68 per cent of the presidential votes, while candidates belonging to al-Bashir's party, National Congress Party (NCP, formerly the National Islamic Front), won the majority of seats in the National Assembly as well as governorships in 13 of the North's 14 states.
See: Dream election result for Sudan's President Bashir
By James Copnall, BBC News, 27 April 2010
The southern-based Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM, a political opposition movement based in the South) retains control of Southern Sudan, having won 93 percent of the vote in the South. SPLM leader Salva Kiir, a former rebel army commander, was confirmed as leader of the South with 92.99 per cent of the Southern vote. He will be sworn in as Sudan's Vice President on 21 May.
According to the Financial Times, the National Consensus' presidential candidate, Yasir Arman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), picked up 21.7 per cent of the vote, in spite of his having pulled out of the elections, allegedly in protest over electoral fraud. Who's to say what could have been achieved had the opposition stayed united?
(In the days prior to the elections, the SPLM betrayed and abandoned the National Consensus alliance of opposition parties to renew its coalition with al-Bashir's NCP. The deal involved the SPLM guaranteeing al-Bashir the presidency in exchange for al-Bashir guaranteeing the Southern Self-Determination Referendum. See my blog-post of 8 April 2010 entitled, Sudan's elections: already totally compromised. )
Western powers, including the US, while acknowledging the election was flawed, are accepting the results as legitimate, citing progress in the "process of democratisation". (In reality, the only "progress" that has been made has been in the art of cheating.)
See: Sudan Votes: Responding to an Electoral Travesty
Eric Reeves, 20 April 2010
The SPLM thinks it can guarantee South Sudan -- home to 80 percent of Sudan's oil -- a smooth secession by empowering, and entering into an alliance with, the lying, treacherous, oil-dependent NCP of Omar al-Bashir. What a travesty!
For background and analysis on the Khartoum-SPLM alliance, see: Southern Sudan: on the path to war By Elizabeth Kendal, 3 Oct 2007
In an article entitled, "How political prostitution might cost South Sudanese their hard-earned freedom", New Sudan Vision's John Penn de Ngong decries the fact that Khartoum has once again been able to use promises and inducements to divide not only the oppositional National Consensus, but the SPLM itself.
Further to this, according to Penn de Ngong, the South's "neighbours who once were our symphasizers have started stabbing our backs". Both Chad's President Idris Derby and Eritrea's President Isaias Aferwoki have now expressed opposition to Southern secession. Furthermore, Penn de Ngong reports that IGAD (Intergovernmental Authority on Development), the UN and the AU (African Union) have likewise expressed reservations about Southern secession. (Egypt has never supported Southern secession on account of concerns over the possible impact on Nile water supply.)
"Why," asked Penn de Ngong, "are Kenyans, Ugandans, Congolese, etc. shifting their border posts deeper into Southern Sudan this time than last time? Why the military confrontation at our borders of Nadapal (Kenya), Moyo (Uganda), Bazi (Congo DR)? Now with the discovery of oil and other minerals in our land (South), be afraid, be very afraid! Or else be prepared, be very ready!"
In an article entitled, Many Sudans yet to come, in the 22 - 28 April 2010 issue of Al-Ahram (Cairo), reporter Ali Belail interviews Mansour Khaled, a member of the Political Bureau of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and former advisor to the Sudanese Presidency; and Mubarak Al-Fadil Al-Mahdi, a former interior minister and the leader of the Reform and Renewal faction of the Umma Party, one of the opposition parties that boycotted the elections; and questions whether Sudan's elections mark a step forward.
According to Mansour Khaled, the last few decades could well be like a honeymoon compared to what could happen to Sudan in the next few years.
Belail reports that tensions are high and that while there are several issues that could trigger anger and conflict, "oil is perhaps the most potent factor". As Belail notes: "almost 80 per cent of oil is produced south of what would be the border between the two countries".
According to Mubarak Al-Fadil Al-Mahdi, revenue from oil represents nearly 95 per cent of Sudan's total revenue. "Oil has become the livelihood of this government," he says, "and they got used to lavish spending."
Al-Mahdi's fear is that because the regime in Khartoum has neglected the economy, he cannot see them willingly relinquishing their lifeblood. "Our information is that the National Congress Party [NCP] will not let go of the oil," says Al-Mahdi. He predicts that the government will not allow the south to separate. Rather, the regime will "stall as it has done before so that the referendum is not carried out".
Al-Ahram notes that such stalling could trigger a unilateral declaration of independence from the South, which would inevitably trigger a return to armed conflict. (For other scenarios see: Khartoum's strategic assault on Southern Self-Determination Referendum, By Eric Reeves, 26 August 2009 )
"Anyway," states Al-Mahdi, "there is going to be a confrontation between the south and the north again . . . back to the war." And, according to Al-Mahdi, if and when war does resume, Sudan -- with its heavily armed, poverty-stricken population -- risks becoming another Somalia.
"There were mistakes done by the elite," says Al-Mahdi. "They should have seen that Sudan was multi-coloured, multi-ethnic, multi-religious. Sudan should be taken back to the drawing board -- a civil state that recognises multiplicity. This is the only way if you want to keep Sudan together."
Indeed, that was exactly what the late Dr John Garang (SPLM war-time leader) envisioned. But, as Mansour Khaled notes: "The ruling elite in the north do not accept diversity."
There will certainly be war in Sudan -- only now, instead of being a war between a discredited and desperate regime in Khartoum and a united, encircling opposition fighting for a united, secular, democratic Sudan, it will be war between an empowered, enriched, confident Khartoum and disparate, disillusioned, embittered and divided minority peoples each fighting for whatever they can manage to get for themselves.
There will be a massive war for control of the oil fields presently situated on the southern side of the North-South border.
The SPLM's alliance with the NCP is nothing other than a "covenant with death" (Isaiah 28:15). May God have mercy on the Church in Sudan.