A special Report by ICC
3/16/2013 Washington D.C. (International Christian Concern) – Although Laos has taken formal steps to further religious freedom, recent incidents show that little has changed as Christian persecution is often tolerated, permitted or even endorsed by the state.
An elderly couple, Mr. Sakien and his wife Dong, are living in temporary shelter in an unfinished church building without walls in Intee village in the Sanamsai district of the south-eastern Attapeu province. The Chief of Chumpoy village, where their home is, evicted the couple.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom says the couple was expelled late last month after they sought prayers for physical healing and then embraced the Christian faith. When the village elders found out about their conversion, they ordered the eviction saying that the village did not welcome or allow followers of the Christian faith.
The elderly man is in need of medical treatment, and his current health condition is not known.
Such evictions are common as local authorities fear no legal consequences for acting on their prejudice against Christians.
Three pastors in the Phin district of southern Savannakhet province are in jail after being arrested for trying to make copies of a Christian movie about the End Times. On Feb. 5, a police man noticed them and tipped off his superiors. Within minutes, the police stormed the shop and arrested the pastors, who are still being detained in the Phin district prison. They have been charged with trying to spread the Christian religion, despite the pastors’ objections that the copies were for personal use.
However, even if the pastors were trying to propagate Christianity, according to the Prime Minister’s 2002 Decree on Religious Practice – known as Decree 92 – the spread of religious material has been legalized and there is no just cause to keep them in prison. The arrest simply underlines the superficiality of the “reforms” that provide for subjective interpretation of violations and allows the government to control and interfere in any religious activity.
Seven years after the decree was passed, Human rights group Amnesty International estimated that, between July and September 2009 alone, at least 90 ethnic minority Protestants were arrested and detained without charge or trial.
Apart from expulsions and arbitrary arrests, killing of Christians is also not uncommon.
In a brutal incident in April 2011, troops of the Lao People’s Army (LPA) caught a group of Hmong Christians, confiscated their Bible and shot four women to death – after repeatedly raping two of them – forcing their husbands and children to witness the deplorable crime. Such oppression is possible because the minority Christian community does not have the means or the voice to take a stand for itself.
Among the Christian groups in the country, the government only recognises the Catholic Church, the Laos Evangelical Church and the Seventh Day Adventists. The Hmong Christian community, which allied with the U.S. in the Vietnam War and later during the civil war in Laos, is still targeted for persecution by the governments of Laos and Vietnam and Hmong insurgents, who have existed since the end of the Vietnam War.
The state has acknowledged the ongoing persecution of Christians but done little to change the situation, often ignoring, permitting or even endorsing incidents like expulsion from villages, forced relocation, pressure to renounce faith, detention and arrest, closure of churches and the destruction of livestock and crops.
Ryan Morgan, International Christian Concern’s Regional Manager for Southeast Asia, said, “It is highly unfortunate that local authorities in Laos are still given great leeway to persecute religious minorities.” This policy, he added, is implicitly endorsed by the federal government due to which Christians are finding themselves socially ostracized, banned from their homes, and even arrested. “We call on Prime Minister Thammavong to carefully review his country’s polices towards religious minorities and to quickly punish local authorities that choose to persecute Lao citizens who adhere to the Christian faith.”
To protect its citizens against persisting persecution and violations of the rule of law, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) exists with the charge to scrutinize the implementation of law and prosecute officials in case of a contravention. But this is a farce, given that the PPO is almost completely under state control. Since the freedom of the press is restricted, news and information spreads slowly and officials who abuse their powers are hardly ever punished. Even the judiciary is not independent. The judges are appointed by the National Assembly, all the members of which are from the one and only party in the country.
Without any fear of state reprisals, local authorities are emboldened to act out against Christians. Violations of religious freedom are common throughout Laos, particularly in rural areas where people are mostly poor, illiterate, ignorant of their own rights and incapable of securing legal advice or judiciary action. It is understood that the only way to be protected from such violations is to have political connections, social influence or the means to buy justice with a bribe – something that most Christians in Laos simply do not have.
Despite the positive move of reforms for religious freedom, the last few years have shown that the changes are only on paper. Minority Christians in Laos continue to be harassed and intimidated in a single-party authoritarian state that views them as “imperial imports” who threaten political stability and national identity.
Further international pressure is needed to show the government in Laos that curbing religious and civil liberties will only hurt the economy, strain international relations, tarnish their global reputation, drain human resources, demoralize the people and only work against the nation’s best interests. It remains to be seen whether Laos will heed the voice of reason.