Скачать или смотреть USA: RELIGIOUS REPRESSION IN CHINA

(6 Sep 2000) English/Nat
XFA
Religious repression in China has increased over the past year, according to a new U-S State Department report released on Tuesday.

The report found global violations of religious freedom, particularly in communist and Muslim countries.

This comes one day before the opening of the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York -- where leaders from over 150 countries will be gathering throughout the week.

The United State's State Department has released its annual report on the state of international religious freedom.

The report says that much of the world's population lives in countries in which the right to freedom of worship is restricted or prohibited.

U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright presented the report at a press briefing in New York, a day ahead of the U-N's Millennium Summit, which runs from September 6 - 9.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Much of the report we issued today is grim reading. It details many incidents and patterns of religious persecution that continue in many parts of the globe. The victims it spotlights are Bahais and Buddhists, Christians and Hindus, Jews and Muslims, Seikhs and others. The sad truth is that religious intolerance remains far too common in far too many places."
SUPERCAPTION: Madeleine Albright, US Secretary of State

The report states that government respect for religious freedom in China has deteriorated over the past year as persecution of several religious minorities increased.

It finds that in some regions religious restriction was minimal.

But Chinese officials in other regions closed houses of worship and actively persecuted members of some unregistered religious groups.

The report was drafted by Robert Seiple, the United States' Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"It was a tough year last year in China. We saw this time about a year ago the beginning of the attacks on Falun Gong. We saw legislation, the Implementation Act in October, that essentially identified fourteen different groups, including Falun Gong, that gave enormous power to local and state officials to crack down not only on this particular movement but also the house church, the unofficial church, the non-registered church."
SUPERCAPTION: Robert Seiple, US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom

The criticism of China comes at a politically sensitive time.

Congress is due to vote later this month on legislation to provide permanent normal trade relations status for China.

It would eliminate annual congressional reviews that linked normal trade ties with China's human rights performance.

In 1998 Congress asked the State Department to submit annual reports on the state of international religious freedom.

This is the second such report and covers the period from July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2000.

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