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Annual Report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom May 2011 (Covering April 1, 2010 – March 31, 2011) Commissioners Leonard A. Leo Chair (July 2010 – June 2011) Dr. Don Argue Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou Vice Chairs (July 2010 – June 2011) Imam Talal Y. Eid Felice D. Gaer Dr. Richard D. Land Dr. William J. Shaw Nina Shea Ted Van Der Meid Ambassador Jackie Wolcott Executive Director Professional Staff Tom Carter, Director of Communications David Dettoni, Director of Operations and Outreach Judith E. Golub, Director of Government Relations Paul Liben, Executive Writer John G. Malcolm, General Counsel Knox Thames, Director of Policy and Research Dwight Bashir, Deputy Director for Policy and Research Elizabeth K. Cassidy, Deputy Director for Policy and Research Scott Flipse, Deputy Director for Policy and Research Sahar Chaudhry, Policy Analyst Catherine Cosman, Senior Policy Analyst Deborah DuCre, Receptionist Carmelita Hines, Office Operations Manager Tiffany Lynch, Senior Policy Analyst Jacqueline A. Mitchell, Executive Coordinator Kristina G. Olney, Associate Director of Government Relations Muthulakshmi Anu Vakkalanka, Communications Specialist Front Cover: KHUSHPUR, Pakistan, March 4, 2011 – Pakistanis carry the coffin of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan‘s slain minister of minorities, who was assassinated March 2 by the Pakistani Taliban for campaigning against the country‘s blasphemy laws. Bhatti, 42, a close friend of USCIRF, warned in a Washington visit just one month before his death that he had received numerous death threats. More than 15,000 persons attended his funeral. (Photo by Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images) Back Cover: JUBA, Sudan, January 9, 2011 – Southern Sudanese line up at dawn in the first hours of the week-long independence referendum to create the world‘s newest state. The referendum vote was the final milestone in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended more than 20 years of north-south civil war in Sudan. (Photo by Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images) U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 800 North Capitol Street, NW, Suite 790 Washington, DC 20002 202-523-3240, 202-523-5020 (fax) www.uscirf.gov The 2011 Annual Report is dedicated to the memory of Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs. Shahbaz was a courageous advocate for the religious freedoms of all Pakistanis, and he was assassinated on March 2 by the Pakistani Taliban for those efforts. Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom May 2011 (Covering April 1, 2010 – March 31, 2011) Table of Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………….1 Report Overview and IRFA Implementation…………………………………………………4 Selected Accomplishments………………………………………………………………5 Countries of Particular Concern and the Watch List…………………………………….7 Overview of CPC Recommendations and Watch List………………………………….10 Implementation of IRFA………………………………………………………………..16 Assessing the Status of Religious Freedom Firsthand…………………………………..21 Engaging the U.S. Executive Branch and Foreign Governments on Religious Freedom………………………………………………………………24 Convening Public Hearings, Testifying before Congress, Briefing Congressional Staff, and other Public Events…………………………………..30 Working with Congress…………………………………………………………………32 Raising Public Awareness through the Media…………………………………………..33 Country Chapters: Countries of Particular Concern Burma…………………………………………………………………………………....34 Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea (North Korea)………………………………...42 Egypt…………………………………………………………………………………….49 Eritrea……………………………………………………………………………………67 Iran………………………………………………………………………………………74 Iraq……………………………………………………………………………………....88 Nigeria…………………………………………………………………………………..98 Pakistan…………………………………………………………………………………110 People‘s Republic of China…………………………………………………………….124 Saudi Arabia…………………………………………………………………………….141 Sudan…………………………………………………………………………………...157 Turkmenistan…………………………………………………………………………...168 Uzbekistan……………………………………………………………………………...181 Vietnam………………………………………………………………………………....196 Country Chapters: The Commission’s Watch List Afghanistan…………………………………………………………………………….215 Belarus………………………………………………………………………………….227 Cuba……………………………………………………………………………………236 India…………………………………………………………………………………..243 Indonesia……………………………………………………………………………...261 Laos…………………………………………………………………………………...281 Russian Federation……………………………………………………………………287 Somalia………………………………………………………………………………..301 Tajikistan……………………………………………………………………………...308 Turkey…………………………………………………………………………………317 Venezuela……………………………………………………………………………...339 Additional Countries Closely Monitored Bangladesh……………………………………………………………………………345 Kazakhstan……………………………………………………………………………348 Morocco..……………………………………………………………………………...350 Promoting International Religious Freedom through Multilateral Institutions The United Nations……………………………………………………………………353 The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)…………………..358 Appendix 1: Biographies of Members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom…………………………………………………………………………….364 Appendix 2: The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, Selected Provisions.........370 Appendix 3: Summary of International Human Rights Standards on Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion or Belief………………………………………………..373 INTRODUCTION In January of this year, the world witnessed a stunning triumph for the right to freedom of religion or belief when the people of southern Sudan voted on a historic referendum on independence. The referendum resulted from a peace agreement signed in 2005 which ended the 20-year north/south civil war which had been triggered by the Khartoum regime‘s militant attempts to impose its radical version of Islam on southern Sudanese Christians and animists. Religious freedom won another victory in March when the UN Human Rights Council rebuffed a drive for an international blasphemy law, instead adopting a resolution against religious intolerance that excluded the infamous ―defamation-of-religions‖ language of prior years. Both of these developments were the fruit of years of intensive effort by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), as well as members of Congress and the executive branch. These triumphs notwithstanding, USCIRF documented severe violations of religious freedom and related human rights over the past year. Three weeks before the UN Human Rights Council‘s action concerning blasphemy, Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who was Pakistan‘s Minister for Minority Affairs and a longtime champion of religious freedom for all people, was assassinated for opposing his own country‘s blasphemy law. Bhatti‘s murder followed the assassination in January of another Pakistani government official, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, a Muslim, for similar opposition. These terrible murders signify an alarming rise in religiously-related violence that governments have failed to redress through effective investigation, prosecution, and punishment of the perpetrators. Fueled by blasphemy laws that encourage vigilante attacks on perceived violators, this problem of impunity has shown no sign of subsiding over the past year, and, in many places, it has worsened considerably. With public attention focused on the unfolding political drama in Egypt, a number of world leaders, including President Obama and Pope Benedict XVI, have expressed serious concern about the dramatic upsurge in attacks against that nation‘s largest religious minority, the Coptic Orthodox Christian community. Since 2008, the Copts have endured dozens of assaults, including the 2011 New Year‘s Day church bombing in Alexandria, the worst sectarian strike against Egypt‘s Christians in a decade, leaving at least 23 dead and scores wounded. For years, President Hosni Mubarak‘s government tolerated widespread discrimination against religious minorities, from Copts to Baha‘is and dissident Muslims, while allowing state-controlled media and state- funded mosques to deliver incendiary messages against them. Materials vilifying Jews have appeared regularly in the state-controlled and semi-official media. Egypt‘s government not only neglected to protect religious minorities against violence, but failed to punish those responsible for it. In late February 2011, an emergency court acquitted two of three individuals indicted in last year‘s drive-by shooting of six Christians and a Muslim guard in Naga Hammadi on Coptic Christmas Eve. Even since Mubarak‘s departure, conditions have failed to improve. In Nigeria, Muslims and Christians remain locked in escalating cycles of violence. On Christmas Eve of 2010, churches were attacked in Madiuguri, allegedly by Muslim militants, killing a pastor and others. This was accompanied by bombings in Jos which killed 32 people and injured at least 70. Bouts of retributive violence followed, raising Jos‘ toll of the dead and injured higher. Earlier that year, in April 2010, Christian youth barricaded a road in Riyom Local Government Authority, stopped vehicles, and killed seven people after interrogating passengers on their religious and ethnic identity. Nigeria‘s government has failed even to attempt to stem the violence by bringing the perpetrators of these atrocities to justice. 1 Christians, Mandaeans, Yazidis, and other vulnerable religious minorities in Iraq face similar problems to those in Egypt, and the government‘s failure to protect them against attacks or to bring the guilty to justice has created a climate of impunity which clouds their future. Since 2004,
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