By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Sep 10 1999 (IPS)

Religious minorities suffered greater repression under authoritarian regimes, although democratic governments also were not immune from religious persecution, according to the US State Department.

In its first global survey of on religious freedoms, issued Thursday, the State Department found that while most countries subscribed to the ideal, far too many nations did not respect it.

“The vast majority of the of the world’s governments have committed themselves to respect religious freedom,” said Robert Seiple, Washington’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.

“But there remains a substantial and often vast difference between promise and practice,” he said in releasing the report, which covered the record of 194 countries and territories for 1998 and the first half of 1999.

The report found that some of the most serious cases of religious persecution were in the band of countries running from northeast Africa – especially Sudan – across the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula into South Asia.

Sudan, Iraq and Afghanistan – countries with which Washington has hostile relations – came in for especially harsh criticism in the report.

On the other hand, staunch US allies, notably Saudi Arabia where “freedom of religion does not exist,” also were cited as major violators of religious freedoms.

The report, mandated by legislation passed last year, was designed to inform Congress about religious persecution abroad and lay the groundwork that could be used by the administration to impose a range of sanctions against abusive governments.

Originally an initiative of the “Christian Right” – determined to impose tough sanctions against China and largely Muslim countries accused of persecuting Christians – the legislation was watered down by the administration of President Bill Clinton as it made its way through Congress.

As a result, Clinton has complete discretion in imposing sanctions against countries for religious persecution, as opposed to the the scheme of mandatory sanctions which were originally proposed by the Christian Right.

According to the report, totalitarian and authoritarian governments often regard minority religious groups as enemies of the State and are persecuted for that reason.

In Afganistan, for example, the dominant Taliban movement engaged in the persecution and killing of Afghan Shi’a in significant part because of their religious beliefs.

In Iraq, the government of President Saddam Hussein for decades had conducted a “brutal campaign of murder, summary execution, and protracted arbitrary detention” against Shi’a religious leaders and activists.

In the past 18 months, the report said, Baghdad had intensified “a systematic campaign to eliminate the senior Shi’a religious leadership.

In China, unregistered religious groups faced harassment, prolonged detention or incarceration, including in “reform through labour” camps, and the closure of places of worship in some regions, while in others government supervision of religious activity was “minimal.”

Cuba and Vietnam also use registration of religious groups as a means to monitor and control them, the report said.

In Burma, the military government systematically arrested and imprisoned Buddhist monks who promoted human rights, and its security forces had destroyed religious buildings – including churches, mosques, and Buddhist monasteries – in areas of ethnic insurgencies, according to the report.

The report accused the government of Iran of implementing policies “designed to eradicate the Baha’i Faith” through prolonged detention and even execution of Baha’is, confiscation and desecration of holy places, and the denial of certain social and civil rights.

Other religious minorities in Iraq, including Jews, Sunni Muslims, and Christians, also suffered from varying degrees of discrimination, it added.

The Tuirkish government was waging a “private and public campaign against Islamic fundamentalism, which they view as a threat to the secular republic,” the report said.

In other cases, governments, while less interested in exerting control over minority religious, effectively encouraged or even incited persecution.

In Pakistan, for example, discriminatory legislation had “encouraged an atmosphere of religious intolerance,” which has led to violence, including killings, by extremists against Christians, Hindus, Ahmadis, and Zikris. A blasphemy law has been used to intimidate minority citizens, while Ahmadis and Christians in particular, faced harassment.

Saudi Arabia used arbitrary detention, travel restrictions and discrimination against the Shi’a minority while non-Muslims could be punished severely for public worship – and sentenced to death if they tried to convert Muslims – according to the report.

In war-torn Sudan, Christians, followers of traditional indigenous religions and Muslims who deviated from the government’s intepretation of Islam, were vulnerable to a number of abuses, from curbs on their religious freedom to forced conversion to execution, the report said.

In yet other cases, government attitudes toward religious minorities may be one of neglect, even in the face of persecution, the report noted.

In India, for example, state governments generally downplayed incidents of extremist violence against religious minorities, notably Christians, according to the report.

It also cited Indonesia as an example where the central government, while committed to religious tolerance, had failed to take strong action to prevent or prosecute violent acts against members of minorities.

Similarly in Egypt, non-Muslims generally xould worship without interference, but there some discrimination remained against minorities and the government had failed to adequately investigate at least one 1998 incident of police killings in a Copt village, the report said.

In Israel, non-Jews suffered discrimination in education, housing, employment, and social services; and the Irsaeli government was spending far less money on non-Jewish areas, according to the report.

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