SPEAKERS CONTENTS INSERTS
Page 1 TOP OF DOC
96–357PDF
2005
''ANNUAL REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS
FREEDOM 2004'' AND DESIGNATIONS OF
COUNTRIES OF PARTICULAR CONCERN
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
OCTOBER 6, 2004
Serial No. 108–154
Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations
Page 2 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman
JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey,
Vice Chairman
DAN BURTON, Indiana
ELTON GALLEGLY, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina
DANA ROHRABACHER, California
EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
PETER T. KING, New York
STEVE CHABOT, Ohio
AMO HOUGHTON, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York
ROY BLUNT, Missouri
THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado
RON PAUL, Texas
NICK SMITH, Michigan
JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania
JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia
Page 3 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
MARK GREEN, Wisconsin
JERRY WELLER, Illinois
MIKE PENCE, Indiana
THADDEUS G. McCOTTER, Michigan
KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida
VACANCY
TOM LANTOS, California
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American Samoa
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey
SHERROD BROWN, Ohio
BRAD SHERMAN, California
ROBERT WEXLER, Florida
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York
WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York
BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania
EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
Page 4 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
ADAM B. SCHIFF, California
DIANE E. WATSON, California
ADAM SMITH, Washington
BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky
THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel
ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director
RENEE AUSTELL, Professional Staff Member and Counsel
MARILYN C. OWEN, Senior Staff Associate
C O N T E N T S
WITNESSES
The Honorable John V. Hanford III, Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, U.S. Department of State
Preeta Bansal, Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
Paul Marshall, Senior Fellow, Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House
Timothy Shah, Senior Fellow in Religion and International Affairs, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life
Page 5 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Mark B. Levin, Executive Director, National Conference on Soviet Jewry
Ali Al-Ahmed, Director, The Saudi Institute
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey and Vice Chairman, Committee on International Relations: Prepared statement
The Honorable John V. Hanford III: Prepared statement
Preeta Bansal: Prepared statement
Paul Marshall: Prepared statement
Timothy Shah: Prepared statement
Mark B. Levin: Prepared statement
Ali Al-Ahmed: Prepared statement
APPENDIX
The Honorable Joseph R. Pitts, a Representative in Congress from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania: Prepared statement
Page 6 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Honorable Dan Burton, a Representative in Congress from the State of Indiana: Prepared statement
Responses from the Honorable John V. Hanford III to questions submitted for the record by the Honorable Joseph R. Pitts
''ANNUAL REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 2004'' AND
DESIGNATIONS OF COUNTRIES OF PARTICULAR CONCERN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2004
House of Representatives,
Committee on International Relations,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:04 a.m. in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (Vice-Chairman of the Committee) presiding.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Good morning, everybody. Today, the Committee on International Relations will hold an oversight hearing on the congressionally mandated International Religious Freedom Report and on the designations of Countries of Particular Concern for 2004.
Page 7 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I will begin this hearing with a simple, yet powerful statement:
''Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right includes freedom to change one's religion or belief, and the freedom, either alone or in a community with others and in public or private, to manifest one's religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.''
This statement, of course, is article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and this statement, coupled with the passion with which the United States holds this statement to be true, is the reason we are here today.
Six years ago, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) became law. The enactment of IRFA sent a powerful message around the world that the promotion of religious freedom is an integral component of United States foreign policy, and that the United States will not only monitor religious freedom around the world, but will actively advance religious freedom abroad and respond when this freedom is violated.
In addition to the promotion and protection of religious freedom and the annual report that we will discuss today, the IRFA also established the Office of International Religious Freedom and created the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The IRFA also calls on the President to take action to address severe violators of religious freedom.
Today we welcome to the Committee the principal advisor to the President of the United States and the Secretary of State on issues of religious freedom, Ambassador John Hanford. We thank him and his staff for their devotion and tireless efforts to advance religious freedom around the world.
Page 8 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The quality of this year's reporting exceeds even that of previous years, and the designations of Countries of Particular Concern, or CPC countries, certainly more accurately reflect the findings in not only the International Religious Freedom Report, but also in the country reports on human rights practices.
We commend the Administration's additions of CPC designees Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam to the prior list of countries, which include Burma, China, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. Our ultimate goal is to have no countries that engage in egregious violations of religious freedom, such that all people can fully exercise the right encapsulated in article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
By forthrightly naming the countries who are systematic violators, whether they are friend or foe, we can at a minimum begin an honest dialogue of our views of the situation and what might be done in order to fulfill the tenants of article 18.
Many of us in Congress have long called for Saudi Arabia and Vietnam to be designated as CPC countries. In Vietnam, human rights have gotten worse, not better, since the bilateral trade agreement with the United States was enacted in 2001.
Since then, the Vietnamese Government has escalated its abuses of human rights and cracked down on religious freedom through jailing of the intellectuals, writers, scientists, academics, journalists, religious leaders and even veteran communists who spoke out against corruption; forcible closing over 400 Christian churches in the Central Highlands; the attack of Montagnard protestors this past Easter weekend; the forcing of large numbers of Christians to renounce their faith; the confiscation of properties of nonconformist Christians; the detention of the leadership of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam; the abduction and forcible return of dissidents who had escaped to neighboring countries; the refusal to allow victims of persecution access to United States refugee programs; and the severe curtailment of access even to the Internet and arrest of dissidents at Internet cafes.
Page 9 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
We must not remain silent while the Government of Vietnam continues to persecute religious and political dissidents and ethnic minorities. They must be aware that their continued record of human rights abuses will hamper the development of warm and cordial United States/Vietnam relations.
I look forward to hearing not only the panelists' thoughts on these designations, but, perhaps more importantly, suggestions on how we can make a change and promote positive results.
I would also note, parenthetically, that in July the House passed a bill that I had introduced called the Human Rights in Vietnam Act. It passed overwhelmingly in the House, and again now for the third time it is pending over on the Senate side.
Beyond the new CPC designees, there are also far too many countries that continue to allow or actively create barriers to freedom. On Monday, the House passed H. Con. Res. 304, expressing a sense of Congress that the Government of the People's Republic of China should cease its egregious persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the United States, as well as in China itself.
We have an obligation to continue to bring the light to this brutal suppression of human rights and religious freedoms being carried out by the People's Republic of China. I would point out parenthetically that I, myself, on a trip to China in the early 1990s, met with a Catholic bishop by the name of Bishop Shu of Baoding Province. This bishop has now spent 27 years in Chinese gulogs, and never in my life have I met a more gentle, compassionate and kind-hearted person who had no malice whatsoever for the People's Republic of China and for its Government.
Page 10 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
As a matter of fact, he told me in a conversation that he prays for the People's Republic of China's Government in Beijing. He has no malice, does not want to overthrow the Government; just wants to practice his faith. Bishop Shu was out only briefly. I met with him in Beijing; he is now back in prison and has spent a total of 27 years there.
I look forward to hearing action-oriented strategies from our distinguished witnesses to address the situations in countries like China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Laos and Cuba.
In addition to considering these issues, I would just like to note that in my capacity as Chair of the Helsinki Commission, that we have in our audience a very distinguished man, Stephan Minikes, who is the U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE, and who has been a brave and courageous fighter on behalf of human rights, just like our Ambassador John Hanford. Ambassador Minikes has brought the issue of anti-Semitism to the European countries, the 55 countries that make up the OSCE, and I just want to publicly laud him for his extraordinary efforts. They have yielded results. The conference that occurred in Vienna and then the followup conference, the big conference in Berlin, are largely attributed to his great work, and I do want to thank him for that. This rising tide of anti-Semitism is unconscionable and must be stopped. I again want to thank him for his work.
I would like to yield to my good friend and colleague and a great friend of human rights and a great friend of the religious freedom issue, Congressman Tom Lantos, the Ranking Member.
Page 11 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
[The prepared statement of Mr. Smith follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY AND VICE CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Today, the Committee on International Relations will hold an oversight hearing on the Congressionally mandated International Religious Freedom report and on the designations of Countries of Particular Concern for 2004.
I will begin this hearing with a simple, yet powerful statement: ''Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.'' This statement, of course, is Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and this statement coupled with the passion with which the United States holds this statement to be true, is the reason that we are here today.
Six years ago, the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA) became law. The enactment of the IRFA sent a powerful message around the world that the promotion of religious freedom is an integral component of United States foreign policy; not only would the United States monitor the status of religious freedom around the world, but we would actively advance religious freedom abroad and respond when this freedom is violated. In addition to the promotion and protection of religious freedom and the annual report that we will discuss, the IRFA also established the Office of International Religious Freedom, created the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and calls for Presidential action to address severe violators of religious freedom.
Page 12 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Today, we welcome to the Committee the principal advisor to the President and the Secretary of State on issues of religious freedom, Ambassador John Hanford, and we thank him and his staff for their devotion and indefatigable efforts to advance religious freedom around the world. The quality of this year's reporting exceeds even that of previous years', and the designations of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) certainly more accurately reflect the findings in not only the International Religious Freedom Report, but also in the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.
We commend the Administration's additions of CPC designees Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam to the prior list of countries: Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan. Our ultimate goal is to have no countries that engage in egregious violations of religious freedom, such that all people can fully exercise the rights encapsulated in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And by forthrightly naming the countries who are systematic violators, whether they are friend or foe, we can at a minimum begin an honest dialogue of our views of the situation and what must be done to fulfill the tenants of Article 18.
Many of us in Congress have long called for both Saudi Arabia and Vietnam to be designated as CPC countries. In Vietnam, human rights have gotten worse—not better—since the Bilateral Trade Agreement with the U.S. was enacted in 2001. Since then, the Vietnamese government has escalated its abuses of human rights and crackdown on religious freedom through jailing intellectuals, writers, scientists, academicians, journalists, religious leaders, and even veteran communists who spoke out against corruption; forcibly closing over 400 Christian churches in the Central Highlands; attacking Montagnard protesters Easter weekend; forcing large numbers of Christians to renounce their faith; confiscating the properties of non-conformist Churches; detaining the leadership of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam; abducting and forcibly returning dissidents who had escaped to neighboring countries; refusing to allow victims of persecution access to US refugee programs; and severely curtailing access to the Internet and arresting dissidents at Internet cafes.
Page 13 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
We must not remain silent while the government of Vietnam continues to persecute religious and political dissidents and ethnic minorities. They must be aware that their continued record of human rights abuses will hamper the development of warm and cordial US-Vietnam relations. I look forward to hearing not only the panelists' thoughts on the designations themselves, but perhaps more importantly, suggestions on forward movement and engagement that will realize positive results.
Beyond CPC designees, there are also far too many countries that continue to allow or actively create barriers to religious freedom. On Monday, the House passed HConRes 304, expressing the sense of Congress that the Government of the People's Republic of China should cease its persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the United States and in China. We have an obligation to continue to bring to light the brutal suppression of human rights and religious freedoms being carried out by the People's Republic of China. From forced abortion and labor camps, to the imprisonment and sometimes even execution of brave Chinese like Bishop Shu who dare to stand up for their faith or political beliefs, Hu Jintao's regime, like that of Jiang Zemin before, is one of the worst violators of human rights in the world.
I look forward to hearing action-oriented strategies to address the situation in countries such as China, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Laos and Cuba.
In addition, considering the rise of anti-Semitic violence in Europe and North America over the past two years, I am glad we will be addressing the religious freedom for Jewish people. I look forward to a discussion and concrete proposals on how to eradicate these senseless acts of hatred.
Page 14 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I now turn to my good friend and colleague, and true champion of religious freedom and human rights for all, Mr. Lantos.
Mr. LANTOS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Before I say a few words about today's topic, let me publicly state there is no Member of the Congress either in the House or in the Senate who has been a more consistent and articulate champion for human rights in general and religious freedom in particular than you. You deserve the profound gratitude of all of us who are concerned with this issue.
Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this important hearing to evaluate the State Department's efforts to promote religious freedom around the globe. Promoting religious freedom has always been a worthwhile cause, but in recent years it has also become central to our country's core security interest.
No one could have anticipated this when I joined you and our colleague from Virginia, Mr. Wolf, in sponsoring the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, which made this report mandatory. As it turned out, Mr. Chairman, our timing in enacting a legislative mandate requiring the Department of State to evaluate and to confront the problem of religious persecution could not have been more appropriate.
The terrorists, 15 of them Saudi, who viciously attacked the United States 3 years ago, were the product of societies and governments that teach, promote and enforce contempt for freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. The horrific events of 9/11 focused our Nation like never before on the issues of religious hatred and intolerance, causing a sea change in America's perception of regimes such as the one ruling Saudi Arabia that bears such a heavy responsibility for creating the swamps that breed terrorism.
Page 15 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Despite the sea change that has taken place in America's perception, Mr. Chairman, it has taken the Administration an incredibly long time to adjust to reality and to designate Saudi Arabia a Country of Particular Concern, as required by the law we passed in 1998.
Finally, belatedly, the Department has decided to use the mechanism provided by our Committee under the International Religious Freedom Act to call a spade a spade by adding the Saudi regime to America's official list of the world's most religiously hate-filled and intolerant nations. This designation was delayed and delayed, despite the fact that no nation in the world has persecuted the practice of religion more than Saudi Arabia except for its own brand of extremist Islam. This medieval kingdom requires all of its citizens to be Muslims and recognizes only one interpretation, the most bigoted interpretation of Islam.
The authors of this year's report do not even attempt to claim that the horrendous situation in Saudi Arabia worsened during the course of the year, necessitating the first-time designation. In fact, the report acknowledges up front that the situation of the past year is no different from that of previous years. The only thing that has changed is that the issue can no longer be swept under the rug.
Nevertheless, Mr Chairman, I am heartened that the Administration has finally taken the step of designating Saudi Arabia as a Country of Particular Concern. I remain interested, however, that the Administration continues to treat the Saudis with kid gloves.
I was especially disturbed to see that, during the Department's press conference on the report last month, Secretary Powell felt it necessary to assure the Saudi monarchy that the designation as a Country of Particular Concern would not lead to any real U.S. pressure toward reform, stating, and I quote Secretary Powell, ''This is not to punish them or in any way to show displeasure.''
Page 16 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I want to repeat the Secretary's statement because I find it so incomprehensible. This is what he said, ''This is not to punish them or in any way to show displeasure.'' Mr. Chairman, I found myself wondering what planet the Secretary is living on. Not in any way to show displeasure?
Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers who attacked America were Saudi citizens. The Saudi monarchy sponsors fundamentalist religious schools throughout the world that preach a syllabus anchored in hatred of the west and contempt for all non-Wahhabi religious practice. Saudi money, directly or indirectly, funds the world's major terrorist organizations, often through so-called religious charities.
The Administration must finally learn and articulate that we will never win the war on terrorism unless we confront this reality and demand that the Saudis put a halt to their sickening efforts to export hate and intolerance. The best assurance in this regard is that we demand that they end the preaching of hate and the practice of the most extreme form of religious intolerance, persecution and hate within Saudi Arabia.
Mr. Chairman, the Department's groundbreaking designation of Saudi Arabia, along with two other new designations, Vietnam and Eritrea, has taken us into unchartered territory. For the first time since the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act, countries have been designated as Countries of Particular Concern that do not already have existing U.S. sanctions on them.
Mr. Chairman, the Secretary must now take action against these countries and under the statute report back to us on the impact of those actions. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the Administration must demand that the regime, through the sponsorship of so-called religious schools that promote hate, take effective action to prevent financing of terrorist organizations, reform its laws to safeguard the freedom to worship privately and permit non-Wahhabi places of worship to function openly.
Page 17 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Mr. Chairman, I am pleased that you have called Ambassador John Hanford here to testify today. Ambassador Hanford deserves a great deal of credit for his efforts to move U.S. policy toward full compliance with the requirements of the International Religious Freedom Act, and I look forward to his testimony.
I am also pleased that we will hear from Preeta Bansal, who chairs the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which is also a product of the International Religious Freedom Act.
Finally, I look forward to hearing the testimony of our distinguished NGO experts, all of whom are leaders in America's effort to promote respectful basic human dignity.
Mr. Chairman, I believe that the history of the United States is marked by the steady and continuous closing of what I call the hypocrisy gap. When this country was created, we said all men are created equal. The people who said that were slave owners, and we were not even talking about women.
The passing of the Civil Rights Act ensured equality under our law. Similarly, I believe we are drawing ever nearer to closing the gap in our hypocritical approach toward United States relations with the Middle East. Designating Saudi Arabia as a Country of Particular Concern is one more step toward closing the hypocrisy gap.
The State Department needs to follow up on this important step by taking meaningful action. Otherwise the designation itself will only make that gap wider and more conspicuous.
Page 18 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Lantos.
Chairman Leach?
[No response.]
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. The Chair recognizes Ms. Watson.
Ms. WATSON. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank Chairman Hyde and Ranking Member Lantos for holding this hearing today to review the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom.
The report lists a number of countries—eight to be exact—that are designated as Countries of Particular Concern. Many of the countries on the list, including North Korea, Sudan, Burma and Iran, are known to be substantial abusers of human rights and have even obtained a status of pyorrhea nation. I will be particularly interested in hearing from both the Administration and private witnesses what action, if any, can be taken to improve religious freedom in those countries.
I am also concerned by the actions of countries, in particular Belgium, France and Germany, that have been classified in the report as denouncing certain religions by affiliating them with dangerous cults or sects.
Page 19 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Within my district is located the University of Scientology, and I can tell you the President has been jailed in countries such as Spain and hassled in others as well. I think all of you are aware that the University of Scientology views their particular practice as a fully certified religion, and so I am going to be interested in hearing the report from our Ambassador—I want to thank you so much for coming—on what actions are we taking in these countries to ensure the religious freedoms of all groups.
I am a strong advocate that people have a right to believe the way that they determine is the right way, and I will ask our State Department to give us the best of your thinking and the report to see how we are advancing.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you.
The Chair recognizes Mr. Pitts.
Mr. PITTS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for holding this important and timely hearing on the State Department's Report on International Religious Freedom.
I would like first of all to thank the State Department personnel for the hard work that went into this report. The State Department's Annual Report on Religious Freedom, in addition to the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, is an important part of raising religious freedom concerns in order to shine light on the dark deeds committed against these peaceful religious believers.
Page 20 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
In the environment of terrorism facing our world today, governments must find the proper balance between pursuing terrorists who seek to harm others and protecting those who peacefully practice their religious beliefs even if the state might disagree with those beliefs.
Unfortunately, as governments around the world crack down on terrorism, there are many peaceful religious believers and citizens who are arrested by officials. Now, more than ever, we must work to ensure that fundamental human rights are protected. Now is the time to help national lawyers, journalists, religious leaders and others who seek to promote democracy and freedom in their nations.
Every day I receive reports from around the world detailing the atrocities experienced by religious minorities at the hands of their Governments and/or communities. In Burma, North Korea, Colombia, Sudan, China, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Vietnam, Laos, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia and numerous other countries, religious freedom remains under attack.
As the witnesses on panel III will share, religious freedom violations are rampant around the world. The military dictatorship of Burma is a prime example of a Government whose policies and practices blatantly violate religious freedom and other fundamental human rights.
Reports detail the widespread use of rape, forced porterage, imprisonment and even murder against those who dare to oppose the regime. The Karen and Chin ethnic minority groups have faced particularly strong repression. Reports make clear that Buddhist priests are in prison for peacefully practicing their faith, which directly impacts their rejection of the military's actions. In addition, accounts reveal that the military has attempted to force ethnic national Christians to convert to Buddhism.
Page 21 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Muslims in Burma also face persecution for their religious beliefs. It is critical that our Government maintain strong pressure on Burma's military dictatorship through public and private means so that the people of Burma can live in peace and so that the burgeoning drug trade of the Burmese military is stopped.
In the interest of time, I will not go into other countries. I would like to submit the rest of my statement for the record.
Mr. Chairman, again thank you for holding this important hearing. Religious freedom is one of the most fundamental human rights, and those who threaten that right or engage in violations of that right must be exposed and brought to justice.
I look forward to hearing the witnesses. Thank you.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Pitts, without objection, your full statement will be made a part of the record.
The Chair recognizes Mrs. Berkley.
Ms. BERKLEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would like also to thank Chairman Hyde and my dear friend, Congressman Lantos, for holding this hearing and acknowledge the extraordinary work that Congressman Smith does in a most impressive and appreciated way in highlighting these issues for all of us.
Page 22 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I want to thank you, Ambassador, for being here to present the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom from the State Department. Well over a year ago I attended a briefing by the State Department behind closed doors, Members only, where a very similar report was presented.
At that time, the Saudis were named as the worst offenders when it came to religious persecution in the world. Worst offenders. Given the state of the world, that is not an easily achievable distinction, but in fact the Saudis did have that distinction. It is incomprehensible to me then and now that our State Department and our Administration continue to call the Saudis strong allies of ours.
What happens in that country is opposite everything that our Nation says it believes in. I cannot believe that if it were not for the oil that we would be treating the Saudis as they deserve to be treated rather than standing side by side with them in this pretense that they are actually our allies in this war against terrorism, particularly given the fact that it is Saudi money and Saudi people who have perpetrated the terrorism around the globe against us and many other nations.
Now, when I was a youngster, I was very involved in a number of Jewish youth organizations, and seared into my memory are the films that I saw mostly from the Anti-Defamation League of the liberation of the concentration camps after World War II. I sat there as an 11-, 12-, or 13-year-old kid who had grown up in the United States of America and who had never experienced one moment of anti-Semitism in this great Nation and watched those films with the mistaken belief that what happened then could never happen again. How wrong I was.
Page 23 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
When we look at all of these nations and the rise of religious persecution and anti-Semitism that is once again rearing its ugly and frightening head throughout the world, let us not forget our own Nation, and let me share briefly with you what happened a year ago when my own son, Max, a college student at the University of Arizona, was here in our Nation's capital attending an APAC policy conference.
After one of the dinners, he and his friends were walking around Dupont Circle when someone went over to them and asked my son if he was Jewish. My son, also growing up in the United States and never having experienced a moment of anti-Semitism, naturally and effusively declared his Jewishness, at which time he was told that he should leave the country because Jews were not welcome here.
The reason it is so important to root out this religious persecution and anti-Semitism is because it is so terribly contagious. What is happening in Europe and Africa and the Middle East can very easily happen here.
I appreciate you bringing this report to our attention, but I am hopeful, and although I cannot be half as eloquent as Congressman Lantos, I would hope that our Secretary of State is more judicious in his comments to the Saudis because they can only interpret that as a green light to do business as usual, and business as usual in Saudi Arabia is a disgrace to every freedom loving person throughout this world.
Thank you very much.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mrs. Berkley, thank you very much.
Page 24 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Chair recognizes Mr. Chabot.
[No response.]
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Gallegy?
[No response.]
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. The Chair recognizes Ms. Lee.
Ms. LEE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would just ask that my remarks be revised for the record.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Without objection. Your full statement will be made part of the record.
Ms. LEE. I would only want to just commend the Chair and Mr. Lantos for holding this hearing.
I think it is very important, and I want to associate myself with the remarks of my colleague from Nevada and also want to remind this Committee that while this hearing is very important as it relates to international religious freedom, quite frankly we see an erosion here of religious freedom in our own country because the separation of church and State is becoming very blurred. I am not sure how we address this internationally at this point, given the gross violations of human rights and religious freedom in other countries, when we see unfortunately a backwards direction in our own country.
Page 25 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Thank you. I want to put my full statement in.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you. Without objection.
Ms. LEE. Thank you.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. The Chair recognizes Mr. Tancredo.
[No response.]
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Weller?
[No response.]
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Is there anybody else that I missed? No.
Before going to our very distinguished witnesses to lead off today's hearing, I want to thank all the Members for being here. One of the aspects of the OSCE work that I find most rewarding, and I know Tom Lantos and I have done this on many occasions, are the interparliamentary exchanges. We are constantly meeting with delegations from other nations who are coming over and meeting them in their host countries.
Page 26 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
We are joined today, and in the spirit of that kind of dialogue, by a member of the Swedish Parliament, Mikael Oscarsson, whom I have known now since 1998. He is a board member of Sweden's Evangelical Alliance. He has been on that board. He works in the Parliament of Sweden on religious freedom issues.
While we often focus on the most egregious violators like Vietnam, China and Saudi Arabia, there is a very disturbing trend in Europe, as I think most people know and certainly Ambassador Hanford knows, where France and Austria and other countries are using the law to circumscribe religious freedom in those countries. These countries are excluding many denominations from participation in the free exercise of religion.
I just want to welcome our good friend, Mr. Oscarsson. If you would like to just say a word or two, we would welcome it.
Mr. OSCARSSON. Thank you, Congressman Smith and the International Relations Committee, for recognizing me and for your good work on religious freedom.
I am also very concerned about religious freedom, especially with the recent situation in my country that has been broadly reported. A pastor, Walter Grimm, has now been sentenced to 1 month in jail for publicly stating his personal position on homosexuality.
While there is disagreement over the topic, my hope is that we all can agree that people should be able to speak freely about their own religious convictions.
Thank you again for your work and for your concern about religious freedom.
Page 27 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you very much for joining us. You are more than welcome to be here.
I would like to now welcome our very distinguished Ambassador John V. Hanford III. Ambassador Hanford was sworn in as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom on May 2, 2002. He serves, as I said in my opening comments, the Principal Advisor to President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell on issues of religious freedom worldwide.
He has traveled extensively. He has met face-to-face with foreign ministers and prime ministers all over the globe advocating and pushing very, very aggressively and substantively the issue of religious freedom, providing them with a blueprint on how they can get on the glide-path to reforming their own country from within. For that advocacy, which is priceless, I want to thank our very distinguished Ambassador.
From 1987 to 2002, Ambassador Hanford served on the staff of Senator Richard Lugar as an expert on international religious freedom. As Tom Lantos and I can attest, the IRFA bill that went to the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, was authored by Congressman Frank Wolf, who was ever vigilant in getting that bill through the House. However, once it got to the Senate it faced a very uncertain future, and it looked like it was going to be dead on arrival there.
Ambassador Hanford worked tirelessly to make sure the Senate acted on that and did great work on getting the bill itself enacted into law, so I want to thank him for that and yield to him for such time as he may consume.
Page 28 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN V. HANFORD III, AMBASSADOR–AT–LARGE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Ambassador HANFORD. Thank you, Chairman Smith. I am relieved to learn that the man to your right is not a Member of the Committee because I have been scratching my head trying to remember who he was. He is a member of another parliament.
With your permission, I will give abbreviated remarks today and ask that the rest of my remarks be placed into the record.
It is an honor to be here today before the full Committee on International Relations. It has been my pleasure to work with many of you over the past several years, and I am grateful for this Committee's commitment to this noble cause, for the support you give to our efforts and for the advocacy each of you do in your own right.
As you all know, we recently released our sixth Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, and for the first time we made a simultaneous announcement of those countries we are designating as Countries of Particular Concern or CPCs. Today I would like to comment on the importance of religious freedom in our foreign policy and discuss both the International Religious Freedom Report and CPCs.
President Carter once said, ''America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America.'' This is particularly true for the foundational human right of religious freedom, which drew so many to immigrate to these shores and which, early on, was enshrined in our founding charters.
Page 29 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Beginning with the arrival of the pilgrims in 1620, millions have come to this country seeking freedom to worship according to the dictates of conscience or fleeing the religious repression they suffered under an intolerant Government.
In his farewell address to the Nation, President Washington deemed the twin pillars of religion and morality to be what he called indispensable supports to the new Nation's political flourishing and insisting, in 1789, that,
''No one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against . . . every species of religious persecution.''
This deep-rooted insistence of the American people on the individual right to freedom of religion, along with the priority that many Americans continue to place on the importance of religious faith in their own lives, accounts for our widespread domestic support for promotion of religious freedom internationally. At the same time, there is a growing international understanding that freedom of religion is an inalienable right of all mankind. As President Bush often says, ''Freedom is not America's gift to the world, but the Almighty's gift to mankind.''
Since the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, we have made important strides advocating religious freedom as part of our foreign policy. President Bush has worked to strengthen this commitment as a national priority, stating in his National Security Strategy that the U.S. Government will ''take special efforts to promote freedom of religion and conscience and defend it from encroachment by repressive Governments.''
Page 30 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
For all of our efforts, considerable challenges remain. Too many people continue to suffer for the belief or practice of their faith. Too many Governments, despite having pledged to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, still refuse to protect this universal right. Freedom may be a reality for many, but it remains still only a dream for far too many others.
This year's report covers events and conditions in over 190 countries. Millions of people around the world live under totalitarian or authoritarian regimes where religious belief and practice are tightly controlled. Some countries have discriminatory laws or policies that disadvantage certain religions. Others are negligent in ensuring that religious minorities or adherents of unapproved religions do not suffer discrimination or persecution. Others stigmatize certain religions by wrongfully associating them with dangerous cults or sects.
Sometimes intolerance has several components, including a religious dimension. Anti-Semitism, for example, touches on both religious discrimination and ethnic discrimination, and it continues to be a problem of great concern to the U.S. Government and the international community.
This year's report shows a disturbing increase in anti-Semitism in several European countries, as well as ongoing anti-Semitism in many predominantly Muslim countries. To address this issue, in April the OSCE hosted in Berlin a conference on anti-Semitism in which Secretary Powell participated.
As a result of these conferences, the OSCE is implementing a process to monitor and report in a consistent manner on anti-Semitic incidents. These conferences were the first multilateral gatherings devoted solely to this subject and also the first to deal with anti-Semitism as a human rights issue.
Page 31 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Allow me to take a moment to highlight a few places where positive developments have taken place. In Afghanistan, the Constitution, ratified in January, helps secure religious freedom and equal rights for women and minorities, including Shi'ite and Sufi Muslims, all of whom had been severely restricted under the Taliban regime. Article 7 commits the Government to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international treaties and conventions that include robust protections for religious freedom.
In India, the new coalition Government that came into power in May pledged to respect the country's traditions of secular government and religious tolerance and to pay particular attention to the rights of religious minorities.
Prime Minister Singh has spoken out strongly against the riots in Gujarat State in 2002 that left at least 1,000 Muslims dead. The Supreme Court ruled that the Gujarat Government must reopen nearly 2,000 cases stemming from this violence. The State of Tamil Nadu announced the repeal of its anti-conversion law.
In Turkmenistan, there continue to be violations of religious freedom, though our intense diplomacy helped to secure some important progress. In March, amendments to the law on religious organizations and subsequent Presidential decrees paved the way for registration of some religious congregations and have engendered a noticeable reduction in harassment of minority congregations.
Four minority religious groups have now been registered, the first minority groups allowed to do so. The Government also repealed criminal penalties for unauthorized religious activity. Despite these improvements, my colleagues and I will continue to make clear to the Government of Turkmenistan the need for greater improvements in religious freedom.
Page 32 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Despite these improvements, there are far too many places where people still suffer persecution, torture, and imprisonment for their faith. As you are all well aware, besides mandating the production of the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, the International Religious Freedom Act also requires us to review conditions around the world and determine which countries, if any, have committed particularly severe violations of religious freedom. These are the Governments we designate as CPCs, or Countries of Particular Concern.
The CPC designation is one of a number of tools in our arsenal, and every effort should be made to use it in such a way that offers the greatest potential to effect change. Our office works hard on many fronts, but we devote special attention to countries where there are severe violations of religious freedom.
While there have been some successes, this year Secretary Powell found it necessary to redesignate Burma, China, Iran, North Korea and Sudan and to designate for the first time Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
I should also note that Iraq has been removed from the CPC list. Iraq had been designated in the past due to the Saddam Hussein regime's repression of religious belief and practice, particularly its vicious persecution of the Shi'a Muslims. Now that he has been removed from power with the passage last spring of the Transitional Administrative Law, which guarantees freedom of religion, Iraq is no longer a CPC.
While the Iraqi people are experiencing freedom of religion without governmental restrictions, we are concerned about the violence that has been directed toward the indigenous Christian and Mandaean communities, particularly since the bombing of five Christian churches on August 1. It will ultimately be up to the Iraqi people to create a society and establish a Government that protects the right to freedom of religion.
Page 33 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Nondiscrimination among Iraq's many ethnic and religious groups is at the heart of the Transitional Administrative Law. We continue to work very closely with the Iraqi interim Government through our Embassy in Baghdad and through our bilateral assistance programs to promote human rights and to encourage religious tolerance.
Now to cover quickly the CPC countries. In Burma, some religious leaders, including a number of Buddhist monks, are imprisoned, and some Christian clergy face arrest and the destruction of their churches. The Government has destroyed some mosques, and Muslims face considerable discrimination, including occasional state-orchestrated or tolerated violence.
In China, the Government continues to repress Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Catholics faithful to the Vatican, and underground Protestants. Many religious believers are imprisoned for their faith, and others continue to face detention, beatings, torture, and the destruction of places of worship. Many observers believe that in recent months China has engaged in a crackdown against some independent religious groups and also continues its repression of Falun Gong practitioners.
In Iran, religious minorities, including Sunni Muslims, Baha'is, Mandaeans, Jews and Christians, face imprisonment, harassment, intimidation and discrimination based on their religious beliefs. Baha'is are forbidden from practicing their faith, and Government authorities destroyed two Baha'i holy sites earlier this year.
In North Korea, arguably the worst in the world on religious freedom, genuine religious freedom does not exist. The regime has severely repressed unauthorized religious groups. There are unconfirmed reports of the killing of members of underground Christian churches.
Page 34 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Religious persons who proselytize or who have ties to overseas evangelical groups operating in China appear subject to arrest and harsh penalties. Reliable sources claim that Christians were imprisoned and tortured for reading the Bible and talking about God, and that some Christians were subjected to biological warfare experiments. The Government effectively bars outside observers from confirming these reports.
In Sudan, the Government continues to attempt to impose Shari'a law on non-Muslims in some parts of the country, and non-Muslims face discrimination and restrictions on the practice of their faith. Applications to build mosques generally are granted. However, the process for applications to build churches is much more difficult. Many non-Muslims state that they are treated as second class citizens and discriminated against in Government jobs and contracts.
In Darfur, the war between Government-supported Arab Muslim militias and African Muslims continues. This conflict is primarily an ethnic and racial one, not religion based. The United States has concluded that genocide has taken place in Darfur, and President Bush has called on the Government of Sudan to honor the cease-fire and stop the killing in Darfur.
In Eritrea, the Government in 2002 shut down all religious activity outside of four officially recognized groups. All independent religious groups have been forced to close, and over 200 Protestant Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses remain imprisoned for their faith. Some reportedly have been subjected to severe torture and pressured to renounce their faith, and many others have been detained and interrogated.
Page 35 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Our Ambassador and our Embassy officers have raised the cases of detentions and restrictions with senior Government officials on numerous occasions, and I have met repeatedly with senior Eritrean officials. We have vigorously pressed them to release prisoners and to reopen churches, but our efforts have not yielded positive results, and the Secretary felt it necessary to designate Eritrea as a CPC.
In Vietnam, a number of religious believers remained imprisoned, including members of the Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai faiths. Hundreds of churches and places of worship in the Central Highlands were shut down following ethnic unrest in 2001, and only a small number have been permitted to reopen.
There have been credible reports for several years that officials have continued to pressure many ethnic minority Protestants to recant their faith, usually unsuccessfully. Some have been subjected to physical abuse. One Protestant leader in the Northwest Highlands reportedly was beaten to death this last year for refusing to recant his faith. The Government is currently denying this allegation.
Vietnam has been a high priority for me almost since I walked in the door as Ambassador. The first trip I made as Ambassador-at-Large was to Vietnam, followed by another visit last year, as well as three visits by my staff. Our concerns about religious freedom have been raised by Secretary Powell and other senior Administration officials, but ultimately the Vietnamese fail to respond, and Vietnam was designated as a CPC.
In Saudi Arabia, the Government rigidly mandates religious conformity. Non-Wahhabi Sunni, Shi'a and Sufi Muslims face discrimination and sometimes severe restrictions on the practice of their faith. A number of leaders from these traditions have been arrested and imprisoned.
Page 36 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Government prohibits public non-Muslim religious activities. Non-Muslim worshippers risk arrest, imprisonment, or deportation for engaging in religious activity that attracts official attention. There have been frequent instances in which mosque preachers whose salaries were paid by the Government use violent language against non-Sunni Muslims and other religions in their sermons.
While we believe that the Government of Saudi Arabia's restriction on religious charities have reduced the export of religiously intolerant ideas abroad, much more can be done. My staff and I have made multiple visits to Saudi Arabia to meet with senior Government officials and press for improvements, and our Ambassador to Saudi Arabia has raised religious freedom concerns with senior Government and religious leaders. We have called on the Government to enforce its public commitment to allow private religious practices and to respect the rights of Muslims who do not follow the Wahhabi tradition.
While we are designating these new countries because of their poor record on religious freedom, it is important to note that we have a broader relationship with each of these nations. We appreciate their cooperation on a range of important issues, and we have shared interests in many areas. We will continue working together on these and other important issues, but we will also continue to encourage these Governments to guarantee internationally recognized standards of religious freedom.
In conclusion, promoting religious freedom is a part of our Nation's role in the world in which we can all take pride. As I am sure some of you can attest from your own travels, it is an endeavor that often brings our Nation goodwill around the world.
Page 37 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Many religious believers overseas find it remarkable that the United States gives such attention to religious freedom, and they encourage us to persevere in our efforts. I have spent much of my professional life devoted to the ideal that religious freedom is the inalienable right of all humanity, and it is my distinct honor to serve as America's second Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.
Again, I offer my sincere thanks to each of you for your commitment to ensuring freedom of thought, conscience, and belief in every nation and every society around the world, and I look forward to continuing to work with each of you on behalf of religious freedom.
Now I would be pleased to take any questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Ambassador Hanford follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JOHN V. HANFORD III, AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
STATUS OF INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee: It is an honor to be here today before the full Committee on International Relations. Thank you for holding this hearing and for giving me the opportunity to discuss the recent work of the State Department on behalf of religious freedom.
Page 38 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
It has been my pleasure to work with many of you over the past several years, and I am grateful to this committee's commitment to this noble cause, for the support you give to our efforts, and for the advocacy each of you do in your own right.
As you all know, we recently released our sixth Annual Report on International Religious Freedom and, for the first time, we made a simultaneous announcement of those countries we are designating as ''countries of particular concern,'' or CPCs. Together, I believe that this report and these designations represent our nation's concern for the ideal of religious freedom and our compassion for those who are deprived of it. Today, I'd like to comment on the importance of religious freedom in our foreign policy and discuss both the International Religious Freedom Report and CPCs.
President Carter once said, ''America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way round. Human rights invented America.'' This is particularly true for the foundational human right of religious freedom, which drew so many to immigrate to these shores, and which, early on, was enshrined in our founding charters.
Beginning with the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620, millions have come to this country seeking freedom to worship according to the dictates of conscience or fleeing the religious repression they suffered under an intolerant government. As our founders undertook the American experiment in self-government, they recognized the centrality of religious liberty, as evidenced by enactment of Thomas Jefferson's Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786, and the robust guarantees in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In his Farewell Address to the nation, President Washington deemed the twin pillars of religion and morality to be ''indispensable supports'' to the new nation's political flourishing, and insisted in 1789 that ''no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against . . . every species of religious persecution.''
Page 39 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
This deep-rooted insistence of the American people on the individual right to freedom of religion, along with the priority that many Americans continue to place on the importance of religious faith in their own lives, accounts for our widespread domestic support for the promotion of religious freedom internationally. At the same time, there is a growing international understanding that freedom of religion is an inalienable right of all mankind. This is best evidenced by the robust affirmation of religious freedom in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights. Religious freedom is indeed a universal right, not confined to any particular nation, culture, or faith. Not just in America, but in many nations and cultures around the world religious freedom is equally valued as precious. Indeed, many people would say that their freedom to believe and worship is their most vital and indispensable right. It is this aspiration that we seek to serve through the work of our office. As President Bush often says, ''Freedom is not America's gift to the world, but the Almighty's gift to mankind.''
While our own historical record is far from perfect, we continue to strive, at home and abroad, to uphold religious freedom as the sacred right that it is. The spiritual longings of the human heart have an innate dignity all their own, deserving our respect and demanding our protection.
Today, some of the greatest threats to both our national security and to international peace define and even justify their violence in religious terms. Our work, in advocating societies based on the respect for human rights, including religious freedom, offers a compelling alternative. Religious extremists cling desperately to the idea that religion demands the death of innocents and the destruction of liberty. We hold confidently to the idea that religious freedom respects the life of all and the cultivation of human dignity.
Page 40 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
This is seen in practice as much as in principle. Nations that respect religious freedom rarely pose a security threat to their neighbors. Nations that affirm religious liberty also lay a cornerstone of democracy and the rule of law. For these reasons alone, promoting religious freedom is as much in our national interest as it is our national ideal.
Since the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, we have made important strides advocating for religious freedom as part of our foreign policy. President Bush has worked to strengthen this commitment as a national priority, stating in his National Security Strategy that the U.S. Government will ''take special efforts to promote freedom of religion and conscience and defend it from encroachment by repressive governments.''
For all of our efforts, considerable challenges remain. Too many people continue to suffer for the belief or practice of their faith. Too many governments, despite having pledged to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, still refuse to protect this universal right. Freedom may be a reality for many, but it remains still only a dream for too many others.
International Religious Freedom Report
As you can imagine, preparing this report is a daunting undertaking, and I'd like to preface my discussion of its contents by expressing my profound appreciation for the exemplary work done by the countless employees of the Department of State here and abroad who make the International Religious Freedom Report possible. I also owe a special debt of gratitude both to the hardworking staff of the Office of Country Reports and Asylum Affairs and to my own staff in the Office of International Religious Freedom whose commitment to religious freedom is an inspiration to me and to persecuted people of faith around the world.
Page 41 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
This year's report covers events and conditions in over 190 countries from July 1, 2003 through June 30, 2004. In our Executive Summary we survey different restrictions on religious freedom, highlight countries where religious freedom conditions have improved, and describe U.S. actions to promote international religious freedom.
Millions of people around the world live under totalitarian or authoritarian regimes where religious belief and practice are tightly controlled. Some countries have discriminatory laws or policies that disadvantage certain religions; others are negligent in ensuring that religious minorities or adherents of ''unapproved'' religions do not suffer discrimination or persecution. Others stigmatize certain religions by wrongfully associating them with dangerous ''cults'' or ''sects.''
Sometimes intolerance has several components, including a religious dimension. Anti-Semitism, for example, touches on both religious discrimination and ethnic discrimination, and it continues to be a problem of great concern to the U.S. Government and to the international community. This year's report shows a disturbing increase in anti-Semitism in several European countries, as well as ongoing anti-Semitism in many predominantly Muslim countries. To address this issue, in April the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) hosted in Berlin a second conference on anti-Semitism, in which Secretary of State Powell participated. As a result of these conferences, the OSCE is implementing a process to monitor and report in a consistent manner on anti-Semitic incidents. These conferences were the first multilateral gatherings devoted solely to this subject and also the first to deal with anti-Semitism as a human rights issue.
Page 42 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Improvements
Allow me to take a moment to highlight a few places where positive developments have taken place. In Afghanistan, the Constitution, ratified in January, helps secure religious freedom and equal rights for women and minorities, including Shi'ite and Sufi Muslims, all of whom had been severely restricted under the Taliban regime. Article 7 commits the Government to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international treaties and conventions that include robust protections for religious freedom. A curriculum and textbooks that emphasize general Islamic terms and principles continues steadily to replace the preaching of extremist views in schools. All Kabul schools and the surrounding provinces are using the new texts.
In India, the new coalition government that came to power in May pledged to respect the country's traditions of secular government and religious tolerance and to pay particular attention to the rights of religious minorities. Prime Minister Singh has spoken out strongly against the riots in Gujarat state in 2002 that left at least 1,000 Muslims dead. The Supreme Court ruled that the Gujarat government must re-open nearly 2000 cases stemming from the 2002 violence, and it ordered the re-trial in a neutral location of the Best Bakery case, in which Hindu extremists killed 14 Muslims in a mob attack. The state of Tamil Nadu announced the repeal of its anti-conversion law.
In Turkmenistan, there continue to be violations of religious freedom, though our intense diplomacy helped to secure some important progress. In March, amendments to the law on religious organizations and subsequent Presidential decrees paved the way for registration of some religious congregations and have engendered a noticeable reduction in harassment of minority congregations. Four minority religious groups have now been registered, the first minority groups ever allowed to do so. The Government also repealed criminal penalties for unauthorized religious activity. The President amnestied six members of Jehovah's Witnesses serving prison sentences for conscientious objection to military service. Despite these improvements, my colleagues and I will continue to make clear to the Government of Turkmenistan the need for greater improvements in religious freedom.
Page 43 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Countries of Particular Concern
In spite of some improvements in certain countries, regrettably, there are far too many places where people still suffer persecution, torture, and imprisonment for their faith. The worst of these we have designated ''countries of particular concern.'' As you all are well aware, besides mandating the production of the annual report, the International Religious Freedom Act also requires us to review conditions around the world and determine which countries, if any, have committed particularly severe violations of religious freedom. These are the governments we designate as ''Countries of Particular Concern,'' or a ''CPCs'' for short. By definition, a CPC is a government that has engaged in or tolerated ''systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.''
In my view, the CPC designation is one of a number of tools in our arsenal, and every effort should be made to use it in such a way that offers the greatest potential to affect change. Therefore, before designating a government as a CPC, we undertake a careful study of the status of religious freedom violations in that country. When possible, we also engage in sustained, vigorous and high level diplomacy with authorities in that country, describing to them the religious freedom violations that place them at the threshold of designation, and suggesting specific steps they can take to improve religious freedom and avoid designation. Our office is working hard on many fronts, but we devote special attention to countries where there are severe violations of religious freedom. And while there have been some successes, this year Secretary Powell found it necessary to redesignate Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan, and to designate for the first time Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
Page 44 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I should also note that Iraq has been removed from the CPC list. Iraq had been designated in the past due to the Saddam Hussein regime's repression of religious belief and practice, particularly his vicious persecution of Shi'a Muslims. Now that he has been removed from power, and with the passage last spring of the Transitional Administrative Law, which guarantees freedom of religion, including the right to ''freedom of thought, conscience, and religious belief and practice,'' Iraq is no longer a CPC. While the Iraqi people are newly experiencing freedom of religion without governmental restrictions, we're concerned about the violence that has been directed toward the indigenous Christian and Mandaean communities, particularly since the nearly simultaneous bombing of five Christian churches on August 1. It will ultimately be up to the Iraqi people to create a society and establish a government that recognizes and protects the right to freedom of religion. Non-discrimination among Iraq's many ethnic and religious groups is a key value for Iraq's future; it is at the heart of the Transitional Administrative Law. We have encouraged Christians and Mandaeans to reach out to other like-minded groups to forge political coalitions to ensure they have a voice in the political and constitutional process. In addition, we are continuing to work very closely with the Iraqi Interim Government through our embassy in Baghdad and through our bilateral assistance programs to promote human rights and to encourage religious tolerance.
In Burma, the regime's high level of overall repression includes severe violations of religious freedom. Some religious leaders, including a number of Buddhist monks, are imprisoned, and some Christian clergy face arrest and the destruction of their churches. The Government has destroyed some mosques, and Muslims face considerable discrimination, including occasional state-orchestrated or tolerated violence.
In China, the government continues to repress Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Catholics faithful to the Vatican, and underground Protestants. Many religious believers are imprisoned for their faith, and others continue to face detention, beatings, torture, and the destruction of places of worship. Many observers believe that in recent months China has engaged in a crackdown against some independent religious groups, and also continues its repression of Falun Gong practitioners.
Page 45 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
In Iran, religious minorities—including Sunni Muslims, Baha'is, Mandaeans, Jews, and Christians—face imprisonment, harassment, intimidation, and discrimination based on their religious beliefs. Bahai's are forbidden from practicing their faith, and government authorities destroyed two Baha'i holy sites earlier this year. Christians continue to face severe restrictions.
In North Korea, genuine religious freedom does not exist, and particularly severe violations of religious freedom continue. The regime has severely repressed unauthorized religious groups in recent years; there are unconfirmed reports of the killing of members of underground Christian churches. In addition, religious persons who proselytize or who have ties to overseas evangelical groups operating in China appear subject to arrest and harsh penalties, according to several unconfirmed reports. Reliable sources claim that Christians were imprisoned and tortured for reading the Bible and talking about God and that some Christians were subjected to biological warfare experiments. The Government effectively bars outside observers from confirming these reports.
In Sudan, the Government continues to attempt to impose ''Shari'a'' law on non-Muslims in some parts of the country, and non-Muslims face discrimination and restrictions on the practice of their faith. Applications to build mosques generally are granted; however, the process for applications to build churches is more difficult. Claiming that local restrictions prohibit building places of worship in residential neighbourhoods, the Guidance and Endowment Minister has so effectively closed the door to the issuance of building permits to most non-Muslim religious groups that it appears that the last permit was issued in 1975. Many non-Muslims state they are treated as second-class citizens and discriminated against in government jobs and contracts. In the three Darfur states, a war between government-supported Arab Muslim militias and African Muslims continues. This conflict is primarily a ethnic and racial one, and not a religion-based conflict, but it is important that the United States Government has concluded that genocide has taken place in Darfur, and President Bush has called on the government of Sudan to honor the cease-fire and to stop the killing in Darfur.
Page 46 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
In Eritrea, the government in 2002 shut down all religious activity outside of four officially recognized groups. All independent religious groups have been forced to close, and over 200 Protestant Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses remain imprisoned for their faith. Some reportedly have been subjected to severe torture and pressured to renounce their faith, and many others have been detained and interrogated. Our Ambassador and other Embassy officers have raised the cases of detentions and restrictions on sanctioned religious groups with government officials in the President's Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the leaders of the sole legal party, the People's Front for Democracy and Justice. I have met with senior Eritrean officials, as have our ambassador, the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, and other State Department officers, and we have all vigorously pressed them to release religious prisoners, and permit closed churches to re-open. Unfortunately, our considerable efforts did not yield positive results, and Secretary Powell found it necessary to designate the Government of Eritrea a CPC.
In Vietnam, a number of religious believers remain imprisoned, including members of the Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Hoa Hao, and Cao Dai faiths. Hundreds of churches and places of worship in the Central Highlands were shut down following ethnic unrest in 2001, and only a small number have been permitted to reopen. There have been credible reports for several years that officials have continued to pressure many ethnic minority Protestants to recant their faith, usually unsuccessfully. Some have been subjected to physical abuse. According to credible reports, the police arbitrarily detained and sometimes beat religious believers, particularly in the mountainous ethnic minority areas. One Protestant leader in the Northwest Highlands reportedly was beaten to death in 2003 for refusing to recant his faith. The Government specifically denied the allegation. Vietnam has been a high priority for me almost since I walked in the door. The first trip I made as Ambassador at Large was to Vietnam, followed by another visit last year, as well as three visits by my staff. I have met with numerous Government officials, both here and in Vietnam. In addition, the US Government's concerns about religious freedom have been raised by Secretary Powell and other senior Administration officials. Ultimately, the Vietnamese failed to respond to our diplomatic efforts, and Secretary Powell found it necessary to designate them a CPC.
Page 47 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
In Saudi Arabia, the Government rigidly mandates religious conformity. Non-Wahhabi Sunni, Shi'a, and Sufi Muslims face discrimination and sometimes severe restrictions on the practice of their faith. A number of leaders from these traditions have been arrested and imprisoned. The Government prohibits public non-Muslim religious activities. Non-Muslim worshippers risk arrest, imprisonment, or deportation for engaging in religious activity that attracts official attention. There have been frequent instances in which mosque preachers, whose salaries were paid by the government, used violent language against non-Sunni Muslims and other religions in their sermons. While we believe that the Government of Saudi Arabia's restrictions on religious charities have reduced the export of religiously intolerant ideas abroad, much more can be done. My staff and I have made multiple visits to Saudi Arabia to meet with senior government officials and press for improvements, and our Ambassador to Saudi Arabia has raised religious freedom concerns with a wide range of senior Government and religious leaders. We have called on the Government to enforce its public commitment to allow private religious practice and to respect the rights of Muslims who do not follow the state-sanctioned Wahhabi tradition of Islam.
While we are designating three new countries because of their poor record on religious freedom, it is important to note we have a broader relationship with each of these nations. We appreciate their cooperation on a range of important issues, and we have shared interests in many areas—including counter-terrorism, energy, trade, and regional stability. We will continue working together on these and other important issues, but we will also continue to encourage these governments to guarantee internationally recognized standards of religious freedom.
Conclusion
Page 48 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
In conclusion, promoting religious freedom is a part of our nation's role in the world in which we can all take pride. As I'm sure some of you can attest from your own travels, it is an endeavor that often brings us good will across the globe. Many religious believers overseas regularly thank our diplomats for the priority that our government devotes to their plight. They find it remarkable that the United States gives such attention to religious freedom, and they encourage us to persevere in our efforts.
I have spent most of my professional life devoted to the ideal that religious freedom is the inalienable right of all humanity, and it has been my distinct honor to serve as America's second Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom.
Again, I offer my sincere thanks to each of you for your commitment to insuring freedom of thought, conscience, and religion for every individual, in every nation and society around the world. I look forward to continuing to work with you on behalf of religious freedom, and I'd be pleased to take any questions you may have.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Ambassador Hanford, thank you very much for that very comprehensive statement and again for the hard work of diplomacy that you personally and your staff engage in. It is making a difference.
I would just note parenthetically at the outset that when we wrote this law, you were very helpful over on the Senate side, even when there was opposition from the State Department.
Page 49 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck testified against it and claimed that it would set up a hierarchy of human rights whereby religious freedom somehow would trump other human rights initiatives. I and others, with a bipartisan spirit, thankfully, opposed that wrong and misguided perspective. Madeleine Albright likewise was against it for the same reason, that it set up a hierarchy of human rights.
We argued the point, and thankfully, it was successful. Eventually President Clinton did sign it. When we fought against apartheid in South Africa, it was seen as value added. We said that the egregious problems associated with that kind of racism required very real, sustained, and effective policy sanctions.
We said the same thing with Jackson Vanik. In that time, we risked superpower confrontation because we were trying to provide a safety valve, a release, a way out, an underground railroad, if you will, for Soviet Jewry, and Jackson Vanik was an important part of our human rights.
Like Jackson Vanik, this IRFA legislation did not detract one iota from anything else we were doing in human rights. It only adds to a more consistent approach, and I am glad to see, especially having read your report, that the misguided view that this was a hierarchy of human rights and we would somehow hurt the more serious aspects of state craft and diplomacy has been shown to be a very false assumption on their part.
Again, I want to thank you for your great work. That is why it was such a heavy lift, as you know. There was official opposition to this legislation, which gradually got turned around and eventually became support.
Page 50 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Let me ask a couple of just very brief questions. You mentioned the People's Republic of China. I do not think it could be stated too strongly just how barbaric is the use of torture, which is commonplace against religious and political prisoners. If somebody is a believer, you know, the estimates are now in excess of 300 Falun Gong who have been tortured to death, including quick cremation to ensure that the body, which is riddled with the evidence of torture, does not become something that is exposed.
What can we say to the Chinese Government, which is currying favor all over the world and trying to say that somehow they have religious freedom when the Catholics, as you pointed out, the Uighurs, and all of the others, including the Buddhists, are so grossly mistreated?
Secondly, what perhaps can we do with our own business community to enlighten them about these issues? I remember meeting with the Beijing Chamber of Commerce on one trip to China, a human rights trip. I met with several very committed businessmen and women who said religious freedom flourishes here. I told them they had bought the party line hook, line and sinker. They were referring to the officially-recognized church. Step across that line and practice as part of the underground church or as a Falun Gong, and the full weight of the Government comes against you.
In Vietnam, you might want to touch, if you would, on the new law that goes into effect in November, which is as draconian as any law that I have read. They are, as you pointed out in your testimony, cracking down harshly and with great cruelty upon religious believers of various faiths. This law now will further institutionalize that repression.
Page 51 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
On the issue of anti-Semitism, which so many of us care so deeply about, our Helsinki Commission takes a back seat, as does this Committee, to no one on promoting that issue through these interparliamentary efforts. Mark Levin, who will be testifying later, makes a very valid point about the Arab media.
We had a meeting on anti-Semitism in the Helsinki Commission last June 15. Nathan Sharansky testified, who is a longstanding political dissident from Russia, a giant, and a hero in the dissident movement and now in the Government of Israel. He brought a tape of an Arab television show that shows the blood libel of a young Christian boy named Josef in this fictitious, grotesque story that was told. The boy had his throat cut, and then it was used to make matzah for the Jews.
If that is not the most despicable incitement. You could have heard a pin drop in our hearing room when Sharansky showed this. As he pointed out, this is commonplace in the Arab world. It goes uncontested. These grotesque myths and caricatures of Jews lead and breed a certain hatred.
In his statement, Ali Al-Ahmed from The Saudi Institute, who will be testifying later, points out that Saudi Arabia's lack of religious freedom is a major factor in the breeding of terrorism, extremism, and religious xenophobia. It is not a coincidence that Saudi Arabia is now the leading exporter of terrorists.
Again, can you address this idea that if it is unchecked, whether it be in the classroom or in the media, anti-Semitism and hatred takes hold?
Page 52 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Just parenthetically, Mr. Lantos and I offered an amendment to the International Relations Committee, the State Department bill, last year on the whole issue of UNRWA, the U.N. Works and Relief Agency, and the fact that biased textbooks are being given out to children. We are the largest donor to UNRWA, $2.5 billion and counting, so we should have some pull. These textbooks are filled, replete, with anti-Semitic, anti-Israel incitement. When Hamas has its impact as it does on these textbooks and the teaching of children, it is no wonder there is terrorism.
Remember that famous Rodgers and Hammerstein song, ''You Have To Be Taught,'' in the musical South Pacific? You have to be taught hatred. We wonder why suicide bombers engage themselves at age 12 in Israel against Israeli targets. When you watch that kind of thing and when you open up their textbooks and it is filled with that hatred, it seems to me that teaching just incites hatred, and it leads to terrible acts of violence.
Mr. Ambassador?
Ambassador HANFORD. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Concerning China and the problem of torture of some religious believers there, these are the sorts of cases that give you trouble sleeping at night. I know they do you. They do me as well. They make you wonder if you worked a few hours longer could you get someone out of jail.
We have raised these and even been very graphic in our descriptions of what we know and believe to be the case of what is going on. I think, for example, of one group of Christians that you are well aware of, the South China Church, where for some reason the Government, they occasionally will decide to target a particular denomination or group or movement.
Page 53 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Falun Gong, which is not entirely a religion, but has spiritual overtones, they have gone after them. The South China Church, more recently the Little Flock Movement, are other groups that they have targeted and gone after. The treatment, what is done, is just unthinkable.
In the case of the South China Church, they wanted to execute the pastor, Pastor Gong, and so they were willing to go to any lengths to do this. They arrested lots of his parishioners. They tortured many of his parishioners, including women. Their modus operandi was to get women to falsely accuse him of having raped them, so that they could execute him.
There were some women who refused even under horrendous torture. I know Nicholas Kristof wrote an editorial in the New York Times about one of these women whom he interviewed. I got that article translated into Chinese, and on my second trip to China, we held a formal human rights dialogue with the Chinese Government with judicial officials of the region of the country being adjudicated. I passed this out, and we discussed the case.
Four women were tortured into the false accusation. The Government would resort to things like hauling in family members, children, and torturing them in the room next door to try to get a mother to falsely accuse this man of rape. As soon as those women got out, they courageously came forward and said he did not rape me. I was tortured into this false accusation. Of course, they were thrown right back into the prisons.
These are the kind of cases that we raise, that we raise in detail, that we let the Chinese know are happening and that we continue to press on. In this particular case, we are glad that at least the death penalty was reduced to a lesser penalty, which is very rare in China to happen, but there is much more work that remains to be done.
Page 54 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
In China, unfortunately, while this is not the norm in religious cases, it still happens with too much frequency. As you mentioned, it happens to Uighur Muslims. It happens to some Buddhists. The Government would sometimes like to blame local officials. As you know, many governments use that excuse, but when I have traveled there and brought this case to their attention and I go back 6 months later and they have still not done anything about it, they cannot blame local officials any longer.
Your second question was about Vietnam. The new law is one that we are very disappointed in. I have been talking with Vietnamese officials for a long time about this new law. It has been in the offing for a very, very long time. It was just released on June 18. It will be flushed out in more detail. I think it is about November 15 when the implementation regs come out.
I have made it very clear to the Vietnamese even in a meeting since we have designated them as CPC that this is an opportunity for them to move forward and establish a greater degree of religious freedom in Vietnam than has been known there in a long, long time.
The law is positive in the sense that it does state that citizens have the right to believe or not to believe. This, believe it or not, is a positive because there has heretofore not been something at the level of a law which grants this degree of religious freedom.
It also makes illegal the abuse of freedom of religion to undermine the country's peace, independence, and unity. Of course, our fear is that this sort of language will wind up being abused, so we are going to work with them over the coming weeks in the hope that the implementation regs will wind up being liberal.
Page 55 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
We have suggested to them as a starting place that they outlaw forced renunciations. These have occurred by at least the tens of thousands in the Northwest Highlands and the Central Highlands, and I have asked them ever since I have been Ambassador to issue a public statement from the central Government that they have a policy against these. It is very telling. They have never been willing to do this. All they are willing to do is say well, this is not the policy of our Government.
If it is not, make an announcement. Make it official. Here is an opportunity for them, even though their new law, it disappoints us to say, does not make this clear. Perhaps they can put in the implementation regs that this is the case. Then there will be a basis upon which to discipline the officials in various areas of the country that continue to do this. We continue to get stories of forced renunciations of faith.
Then your question about the problem in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere of denigration of other faiths in the media. This is a very, very serious problem throughout the Middle East and other parts of the world, and one that I take great pains to raise because often you can sit and argue with foreign officials until you are blue in the face, but this is a case where you can quickly put down on the table in black and white something which their Government is sponsoring, be it on the Government-sponsored television or Government-owned newspapers, and so this is something that I am determined, as long as I am Ambassador, to raise.
We are seeing some improvements. I think the spotlight is being shined on this horrible problem in many countries. Even in Saudi Arabia we are seeing improvements. I met with the Minister of Education when I was there, along with other officials, and they are claiming that they have now revised over half of their textbooks to take out the sort of horribly defamatory comments that were in there about non-Muslims and also about non-Wahhabi Muslims.
Page 56 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
We are still trying to follow up and verify to what extent this has happened. I have gotten mixed reports. I met with someone from Saudi Arabia just a week or so ago, who says that there is still bad material in the revised ones, including some very negative comments about non-Wahhabi Muslims. We will be vigilant on this.
I also was given just in the last week something from a Saudi publication which was talking about Barbie dolls being a Jewish ploy and their clothing and all of this reflecting Jewish values. It was just being used as an excuse to again tear down a non-Muslim religion.
We are encouraged that at least they are becoming aware of this problem. Another encouraging sign that we need to see more follow-up is that the Saudis are beginning to pull back their Offices of Islamic Affairs, which they place in Embassies around the world.
It is interesting. There is no government in the world that is better at recognizing religious freedom in other countries because they will then establish Islamic centers, bring in preachers under diplomatic visas, and have them preaching their Wahhabi views in that country. Some of these preachers have been extremely intolerant and hateful toward other religions and other Muslims other than Wahhabis.
Our Government has sent some of these people packing because it is obvious that they are not diplomats. The Saudis have finally realized what an embarrassment this is, and they have pledged that they are going to shut down the Islamic offices in all of their Embassies, and so we will watch and see if this happens.
Page 57 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you very much.
Ms. Berkley?
Ms. BERKLEY. Thank you, Congressman, and thank you, Ambassador, very much for your report and your testimony. I think I can sleep better at night now knowing that you are not sleeping so well at night.
I have four areas that I would like to get your response on. One is the Baha'i faith in Iran, one is on the Saudis, the Darfur region in the Sudan, and a general question on anti-Semitism.
You touched on this briefly, but the Baha'i community in Iran faces near constant persecution, executions, imprisonments, confiscation of property, and an inability to practice their faith in Iran.
Congress has been considering H. Con. 319, which is a resolution that condemns this persecution, for quite a while. On June 24, it passed unanimously out of this Committee. It carries 29 co-sponsors, including myself, Mr. Lantos, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Smith.
Can you tell me the State Department's position or opinion on this resolution? Have you one? Should you have one?
Ambassador HANFORD. Okay. I am sorry. You have asked about Iran and about anti-Semitism. What was the——
Page 58 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Ms. BERKLEY. I have questions on each one.
Ambassador HANFORD. Okay.
Ms. BERKLEY. Did you want me to ask all four?
Ambassador HANFORD. Why don't we go through each one of them, if that is all right.
Ms. BERKLEY. Okay. Yes, that would be good.
Ambassador HANFORD. The first one, let us talk about the Baha'is in Iran. That is a particular problem there. Of course, Iran is one of our CPC countries and has been for a number of years.
The Constitution says that the investigation of an individual's beliefs is forbidden, and no one may be molested for holding a particular belief. This situation definitely is not upheld concerning Baha'is, because their beliefs and their communities are highly monitored.
Now, there were three Baha'is released from prison this year, two upon the completion of their sentences, but one remains in state custody, so the Baha'is receive the worst sort of treatment in Iran.
Page 59 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The Government has a policy, which it reiterated in September 2001 when the Ministry of Justice issued a report, and their policy is the eventual elimination of Baha'is as a community. They are also banned from higher education in Iraq, so that is how serious it is there.
Ms. BERKLEY. Would it be helpful to you if Congress passes this resolution?
Ambassador HANFORD. I will have to take a look at it. I am afraid I do not have as current a sense of it as I should have.
Ms. BERKLEY. Could I ask you to get back to us?
Ambassador HANFORD. Sure.
Ms. BERKLEY. Perhaps that will tell us to move forward on this.
The second issue is anti-Semitism. As you may know, this Committee passed legislation last week that would amend the International Religious Freedom Act to require that the reports, where appropriate, include comprehensive coverage of anti-Semitism.
Currently the Department is not legally required to cover anti-Semitism in its reports, and there have been suggestions that the State Department is considering dropping the reporting because anti-Semitism is seen as being anti-ethnic rather than anti-religious.
Page 60 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Is there any truth to these suggestions? Is there any truth to this?
Ambassador HANFORD. No. Our report has always covered anti-Semitism. It is true that often it is more of an anti-ethnic issue than an anti-religious practice issue.
There are cases, of course, where synagogues are bombed, in which case you would have a clear religious persecution issue, or where people who are gathered for Jewish worship are interrupted.
We cover the general problem in our report, and the Human Rights Report, of course, should cover the entire problem in every facet.
Ms. BERKLEY. So you will continue doing this even if Smith-Voinovich is not passed by the Congress?
Ambassador HANFORD. That is right. We have done it up until this year.
Ms. BERKLEY. Two very quick ones. Regarding the Sudan and the Darfur region, is this ethnic cleansing? Religious persecution? Racial prejudice? I mean, what is the impetus for this, and what is it that this Congress can do to help more than we are?
Ambassador HANFORD. Both President Bush and Secretary Powell have come forward and called this genocide. It is not an issue of religious persecution because it is Muslim on Muslim violence, and so it appears to be much more an ethnic and racial issue.
Page 61 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Our Government has been very strenuously involved in this, as you know, and we are pressing for the Government of Sudan to take this much more seriously. A great deal of attention is being devoted to this, but it is not really a religious persecution issue per se.
We work a lot in Sudan on the civil war between the north and the south because there are heavy elements of religious freedom related issues involved in that.
Ms. BERKLEY. Okay. My last question is regarding the Saudis, and much has been said about them. Do you think it is in any way helpful for the Secretary of State, and I do not mean to put you on the spot, but to make comments to the Saudis easing their minds that you may be being placed on this list, but you have obviously worked very hard and dedicated your entire life to this issue.
To have the Secretary of State kind of wink at the Saudis and say no problem here. It is business as usual. We are just going to submit this to Congress. They are going to look at it. We are going to have a hearing, but you are okay.
Ambassador HANFORD. Well, I need to go see that quote in its context because I know from my discussions with Secretary Powell and our appearances together on this, that he is not sugar-coating this issue at all when it comes to religious freedom violations in Saudi Arabia. This is something he has discussed with top leadership himself.
There are other issues of strategic importance, other issues of cooperation. The Saudis have awakened to the whole problem of terrorism, particularly now that it struck them within their own borders. They are important partners in that battle. In fact, some of the same forces that threaten us are the very same ones that threaten them from the inside.
Page 62 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I think Secretary Powell's concern is to send the message that we will continue to cooperate where we should cooperate, but that the time has come to say that the problem of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia is so severe that it must be called what it is.
We have been very clear to point out that it is the treatment of other Muslims in Saudi Arabia that perhaps as much as anything places them on that list. Actually, it is Muslims that wind up most often in prison because of the religious persecution problems in Saudi.
Ms. BERKLEY. I would submit to you that most of the world's problems right now in our fight against terrorism were caused by the Saudis, so it is awfully nice at this late date that they realize that we have the same problem since they were the perpetrators of this problem and the exporters of it.
We will provide for you the statement that was made by the Secretary of State which is, ''This is not to punish them,'' meaning the Saudis, ''or in any way to show displeasure.'' We will get you the context in which that statement made.
In any context, it seems unforgivable to me to let the Saudis off the hook this way. It is shameful, and I would appreciate if you spoke to the Secretary of State, but also commented back to us on what we can do to ensure that that type of statement does not happen again.
I thank you again for your hard work on behalf of our country.
Page 63 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Ambassador HANFORD. I think Secretary Powell is trying to clarify that we are speaking truth to a situation that deserves the truth be spoken to it.
When he uses the word punish, I think he means we are not going to be shutting down relations or ceasing to cooperate in areas where we should be cooperating.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Mr. Tancredo?
Mr. TANCREDO. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Ambassador, I just have one question, and really it revolves around your ability to look at areas of the world that are perhaps not so definitively designated as a country, but have problems nonetheless, that are governmentally constructed, problems with religious persecution. That is to say I am thinking specifically now of republics let us say in Russia.
I recently returned from Beslan, which is in North Ossetia, where I witnessed what I can only tell you is the most horrible thing I have seen for a long, long time, and it certainly brought back a lot of ugly thoughts about what happened even in my own district in Columbine where a school was attacked by terrorists. In this case, the terrorists were motivated by both political and religious ideology. The terrorists were from Ingossetia and of course Chechnya.
As I understand it, what started out in 1991 as a civil war is now a war for secession. It has turned into now as much a sort of religious movement as it is a political movement. That is to say that radical Islam is present. It has essentially taken over the Government.
Page 64 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Are you constrained by whatever is in the act so that you cannot focus on something like this because it is not a separate country? It is a republic inside of a country. It seems to me that here we are looking at a governmentally imposed religious persecution, and it just is not sanctioned by the national Government, but it is certainly happening.
What, if anything, could we do about that in terms of in your area of responsibility?
Ambassador HANFORD. We have spent a lot of time working on religious freedom issues in Russia. In fact, I have spent a lot of time this summer focused on that. When I worked up here on the Hill, that also was a time where I worked for many months first trying to stop a bad law on religion in 1993 in Russia——
Mr. TANCREDO. I recall.
Ambassador HANFORD [continuing]. And then with many Members here trying to stop a bad law in 1997, which we failed to stop. Now we are living with the consequences of that.
For the most part, Russia has not implemented the law in a severe way, but there are exceptions, and there are cases in which particular denominations are suffering some serious restrictions.
In the case of the situation in Chechnya, our Government is trying in a very careful and sensitive way to work with the Government to encourage them to address the criminal activity and the wrongful activity without coming down in such a way that it will radicalize the entire populous there.
Page 65 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Because of the sensitivity and the difficulties in that region, this is not a region that I have traveled to and worked on religious freedom per se.
Mr. TANCREDO. I assure you it is a region in which religion will play a role in the kind of conflicts that we have witnessed. They have played a role in that. They will continue to play a role in the conflicts we are going to witness there, unfortunately, and it will be governmentally approved. It will be governmentally-sponsored religious persecution. It is just that it is a different level of government.
That is why I was wondering whether you had any responsibility and whether you look at this and say yes, we can actually identify. Could we put them on the list, the Government of Chechnya?
Ambassador HANFORD. We have not yet, no.
Mr. TANCREDO. I would just encourage you to think about this because, frankly, if we are going to be constrained by the fact that it is a republic inside of a——
Ambassador HANFORD. Right.
Mr. TANCREDO [continuing]. Country, we are going to have some very serious problems here. I do not know that we can forestall them anyway, even with whatever action you can take.
Page 66 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
It seems to me to ignore them, to say that it makes it appear as if they do not exist, is also wrong for us. We should at least identify the problem, whether or not we have the ability to actually solve it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Tancredo.
Mr. Faleomavaega?
Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly want to welcome also Ambassador Hanford before our Committee.
I read through your statement, Ambassador Hanford. The fact is you quoted our first President, George Washington, commenting about religious freedom. My belief at the time is that African-Americans were not even recognized as full-fledged human beings, and we were then supposedly a Christian Nation.
As a Christian Nation, I believe that we believe that judge not that he be judged, or before pointing fingers at others, make sure our own house is in order. There is no double standard. Hypocrisy is not a good word to apply to ourselves, as well as to others.
I wonder if our own Government has documented our own history of religious intolerance and persecution among our own citizens. Historical discrimination I think is well known against Jews and Catholics. I think the discrimination against Mormons has its own story to tell about religious intolerance and persecution against that group that had its own religious beliefs.
Page 67 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
The unwritten rule that a Catholic can never become the President since he supposedly raises the question of his allegiance whether to the Pope in Rome or to the American people, and I believe President John Kennedy destroyed that longstanding myth.
It is tradition also in our own country that you had to be a WASP—a WASP meaning a white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant—to enter the elite schools and to hold a prominent position on Wall Street. Only in recent years were our own Native Americans finally allowed to practice their own religious beliefs.
My point is, Mr. Ambassador, we need to show or to share with the world our own struggles in making religious freedom not 100 percent there, but as a process. We are not perfect, but we are still working at it.
My problem is that when the Lieutenant General of our own Government, who heads the Intelligence Division at the Department of Defense, makes public statements to the effect that my Christian God is greater and stronger than yours, it sends a very different message to non-Christians.
The implications are very obvious. It sounds like a rallying cry for the second crusades against those barbaric Muslims versus the Christian infidels. Sadly to say, it is my understanding that this General has not yet been reprimanded or disciplined by his superiors.
My point, Mr. Ambassador, is if you are entitled to your own religious beliefs, that is no problem, but if you are making statements in an official capacity, then I believe it is not only resentful for the Muslim community but any Muslim for that matter. I just am a little concerned that as much as I appreciate the report that has been made about religious persecution in other countries, I just want to make sure we are on the right track ourselves before we do this.
Page 68 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
I notice in your statement that discrimination legislation is being imported against Israel; Can you explain that? There seems to be discrimination legislation. Is there a problem here with Israel, religious intolerance or persecution? I am just reading from what you have here on this.
I thought this was the only democracy we have there in the Middle East, democracy, religious tolerance.
Ambassador HANFORD. Well, let me first agree with you on the importance of making it clear to other governments that we are not perfect. This is a point that I raise continually and which is appreciated. I have actually had a foreign diplomat say to me, I read the introduction to your last year's annual report, and in it you say you are not perfect. I appreciate that.
I put it in this year's annual report, and I put it in my remarks to you today. I am not sure if it got edited out for the sake of brevity, but it is an important concession that we need to make.
A lot of these governments are early in their time of establishing rule of law and are not as far along as we are now. We struggled a great deal in our early period in trying to define what freedom of religion meant. Nevertheless, I have leaders say why do you care so much about religious freedom?
At the same time, I am not ashamed to explain to them our history and how so many have fled to our shores and continue to flee to our shores, including Muslims. So many Muslims come here and say they have greater religious freedom in America than they did in their Muslim country.
Page 69 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC
Your point is well taken. I usually segue from that point with foreign leaders to say we do not expect perfection from you. My job is not to get churches and temples and mosques established on every corner. It is to get people out of jail, out of torture chambers, and to get freedom for people to follow the dictates of their own heart, whether they believe in religion or not.
Concerning Israel, there are of course unique problems there because of terrorism and the conflict that is going on there that puts the Government of Israel under unique pressures. There is some discrimination against mainly Arab Christians and Muslims in housing, education, and employment, and also because of state-sanctioned Orthodox Jewish control over personal status laws such as marriage and divorce and burial. This can discriminate against Jews who have other interpretations of those practices.
The security barrier is raising some issues, and attempts are being made to sort these out where certain Christians and Muslims are finding themselves divided from places of worship or from holy sites. These are the kinds of problems, unfortunately, that are going on right now given the tensions, given the terrorism, but we continue to try to work with the Government of Israel to make as much progress as we can.
T