US classifies Lanka among religious freedom violators

WASHINGTON, Saturday (AFP) - The United States on Friday classified six Asian countries as religious freedom violators, aside from China, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam already blacklisted as worst offenders in the region.

Afghanistan, Brunei, India, Laos, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were included in a “significant” list of violators of religious freedom in the US State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report 2006.

John Hanford, US envoy for international religious freedom, said there was a possibility that one or more from the six nations could be added to a blacklist of “countries of particular concern” that includes China, Myanmar, North Korea and Vietnam.The blacklist is renewed annually and the State Department is expected to publish an update in coming weeks.

In this year's report, the State Department emerged with two categories of countries.

The first list of eight “countries of particular concern” or “severe”violators of religious freedom comprised Myanmar, China, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.

The other list of 20 countries, including the eight, where religious freedom was seen with “significant interest” were Afghanistan, Brunei, Cuba, Egypt, India, Israel and Occupied Territories, Laos, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

“The list of 20 countries are ones that we just felt gave a good overview of some of the dynamics that constitute this past year of religious freedom issues in the world,” Hanford said at a media briefing after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice launched the report covering 197 countries and territories.

“Yes, I think generally speaking they reflect some of the more serious violators of religious freedom. I think it's fair to say that if we add any countries this year (to the Countries of Particular Concern), probably they'll come from that list,” Hanford said.

The religious freedom report illustrates “the importance and the salience of religion in all the big issues in Asia -- extremism, terrorism, democratic transition and integration of countries such as China and Vietnam into the international system,” said Scott Flipse, a senior policy analyst with the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a Congress-mandated panel.

“Policy makers and diplomats ignore religion at their peril. More and more the salience of religion is becoming an international relations strategic factor,” he said.

The commission each year recommends to Rice which countries should be blacklisted.

In Sri Lanka, the report highlighted “violent resistance” by some Buddhists to Christian church activity of particularly evangelical groups.

There also were sporadic attacks on Christian churches by Buddhist extremists, it said.

In Afghanistan, the report cited “a conservative culture of intolerance, which at times manifested in acts of harassment and violence against reform-minded Muslims and religious minorities.”

Oil-rich Brunei was accused of using laws to restrict the expansion of religions other than official Islam while in India “some extremists continued to perceive ineffective prosecution of attacks on religious minorities” as a “signal that they could commit such violence with impunity.”In addition, religious conversion remained a highly contentious issue and terrorists carried out deadly violence against religious targets in India, it said.

In Laos, the authorities were accused in the report of “intolerance” for minority religious practice, especially by evangelical Christians.

Pakistan was cited for having “discriminatory legislation and the government's failure to take action against societal forces hostile to those who practice a different faith.”This fostered religious intolerance and acts of violence and intimidation against religious minorities, the report said.