‘Pinpricks’ of Truth Making Way into North Korea

Citizens increasingly enlightened about world’s worst violator of religious freedom.

DUBLIN, April 26 (CDN) — As refugees from North Korea and activists from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) gather in Seoul, South Korea this week to highlight human rights violations in the hermit kingdom, there are signs that North Korean citizens are accessing more truth than was previously thought.

A recent survey by the Peterson Institute found that a startling 60 percent of North Koreans now have access to information outside of government propaganda.

“North Koreans are increasingly finding out that their misery is a direct result of the Kim Jong-Il regime, not South Korea and America as we were brainwashed from birth to believe,” Kim Seung Min of Free North Korea Radio said in a press statement. The radio station is a partner in the North Korea Freedom Coalition (NKFC), which is holding its annual North Korea Freedom Week (NKFW) in Seoul rather than Washington, D.C. for the first time in the seven-year history of the event.

“We set out to double the radio listenership of 8 or 9 percent, and we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of people who have access to information,” said NKFC Co-Chair Suzanne Scholte. She described the flow of information as “pinpricks in a dark veil over North Korea. Now those pinpricks are becoming huge holes.”

The radio station now air-drops radios into North Korea and broadcasts into the country for five hours a day, adding to information gleaned by refugees and merchants who cross the border regularly to buy Chinese goods.

In recent years the government has been forced to allow a limited market economy, but trade has brought with it illegal technology such as VCR machines, televisions, radios and cell phones that can detect signals from across the border. Previously all televisions and radios available in North Korea could only receive official frequencies. 

“The government hasn’t been able to stamp out the markets, so they begrudgingly allow them to continue,” Scholte confirmed. “This means North Koreans aren’t relying solely on the regime anymore.”

Holding the annual event in Seoul this year sends a significant message, Scholte told Compass.

“This is a spiritual conflict as well as a physical one – some people didn’t want us to call it freedom week,” she said. “But we’re making a statement … God gives us freedom by the very nature of being human and North Koreans are entitled to that too.”

All people say they would never allow the World War II holocaust to be repeated, Scholte said, “but this is a holocaust, a genocide. I firmly believe we will be judged if we fail to intervene.”

The coalition hopes this week’s event will empower the 17,000 strong North Korean defectors in South Korea, awaken the consciousness of the world about human rights conditions in North Korea, and inform all who are suffering in North Korea that others will “work together until the day their freedom, human rights and dignity are realized,” Scholte said in the press statement.

As part of the week’s activities, the coalition will send leaflets into North Korea via balloon stating in part, “In the same year the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was passed, Kim Il-Sung was ensuring that you wouldn’t have any of those rights.”

Religious freedom in particular is almost non-existent. The only accepted belief is Juche – an ideology that strictly enforces worship of the country’s leaders.

“The regime is a perversion of Christianity,” Scholte told Compass. Juche has a holy trinity just as Christianity does, with Father Kim Il-Sung, son Kim Jong-Il, and the spirit of Juche said to give strength to the people.

“Kim Il-Sung is God; a real God can’t replace him,” a former North Korean security agent confirmed in David Hawke’s 2005 report, “A Prison Without Bars.”

While four churches exist in the capital, Pyongyang, experts believe these are largely showpieces for foreign visitors.

The government has allowed token visits from high-profile foreign Christians such as Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, who preached at Bongsu Protestant church in Pyongyang in August 2008; and two U.S. Christian bands, Casting Crowns and Annie Moses, attended and won awards at the Spring Friendship Arts Festival in April 2009.

Worship outside limited official venues is simply not tolerated, giving North Korea first place on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2010 World Watch List for persecution of Christians.

Ordinary citizens caught with a Bible or in a clandestine prayer meeting are immediately labeled members of the hostile class and either executed or placed in prison labor camps, along with three generations of their immediate family. Every North Korean belongs to either the “hostile,” “wavering” or “core” class, affecting privileges from food and housing to education and physical freedom, according to Hawke’s report.

There are no churches outside the capital, but the regime in 2001 estimated there were 12,000 Protestants and 800 Catholics in North Korea. In July 2002 the government also reported the existence of 500 vaguely-defined “family worship centers” catering to a population of approximately 22.7 million, according to a September 2009 International Religious Freedom report issued by the U.S. State Department.

By contrast, South Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo newspaper in July 2009 put the estimate at 30,000 Christians, some NGOs and academics estimate there may be up to several hundred thousand underground Christians.

Uncertain Future

As North Korea celebrated the birthday of Kim Jong-Il on Feb. 16, rumors spread that the elderly leader, currently battling heart problems, had chosen third son Kim Jong-Eun as his successor.

Documents extolling the virtues of Kim Jong-Eun began circulating as early as November, according to the Daily NK online news agency. An official “education” campaign for elite officials began in January and was extended to lesser officials in March. One document obtained by the agency described the “Youth Captain” as being “the embodiment of Kim Il-Sung’s appearance and ideology.”

“Kim picked this son because he’s ruthless and evil,” Scholte said, “but I don’t think they’re quite ready to hand over to him yet. There is an uncertainty, a vulnerability.”

Scholte believes this is the ideal time to “reach out, get information in there and push every possible way.”

“There are many double-thinkers among the elite,” she explained. “They know the regime is wrong, but they have the Mercedes, the education for their kids and so on, so they have no incentive to leave.”

The coalition is trying to persuade South Korea to establish a criminal tribunal, she said.

“North Koreans are actually citizens of South Korea by law,” she said. “We have to let these guys know there’s going to be a reckoning, to create a good reason for them not to cooperate [with authorities].”

Those in other countries have an obligation too, Scholte concluded. “When people walk out of the camps, it will haunt us. They’ll want to know, ‘What were you doing?’ We will be held accountable.”

Article 26 of North Korea’s constitution declares that the people have freedom of religion. The organizers of this year’s freedom week fervently hope that this declaration will soon become a reality.

SIDEBAR

The Cross at the Border: China’s Complicity in Refugees’ Suffering

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) estimate anywhere from 30,000 to 250,000 refugees from North Korea are living in China, either in border areas or deeper inland. Few are Christians when they emerge from North Korea, but the whispered advice among refugees is to “head for a cross,” signaling a Chinese church that may assist them, according to a February 2009 National Geographic report.

Since China will not allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees access to border areas, Chinese Christians work with Christian NGOs to provide an “underground railroad” moving refugees via several routes to safety, most often in South Korea.

Chun Ki-Won, director of Christian NGO Durihana, admits that some of the refugees adopt Christianity to win favor with their rescuers, but others retain and strengthen their faith on arrival in South Korea.

China insists that the refugees are economic migrants and pays police a bounty to arrest and return them to North Korea. On arrival, North Korean officials pointedly question the refugees about contact with Chinese Christians or Christian NGOs. If any contact is admitted, execution or imprisonment is likely, according to David Hawke’s 2005 report, “A Prison Without Bars.”

As one refugee told Hawke, “Having faith in God is an act of espionage.”

Still others choose to return to North Korea with Bibles and other Christian resources at great risk to themselves. For example, officials in June 2009 publicly executed Ri Hyon-Ok, caught distributing Bibles in Ryongchon, a city near the Chinese border, South Korean activists reported.

China remains impervious to the refugees’ plight.

“China fears being flooded by refugees if they show compassion,” said Suzanne Scholte, co-chair of the North Korea Freedom Coalition. “But refugee flows aren’t going to collapse the [North Korean] regime. If that was going to happen, it would have happened already during the famine, so their argument doesn’t hold water.”

She added that North Koreans don’t want to leave. “They leave because of Kim Jong-Il,” she said. “Those [North Korean refugees] in South Korea want to go back and take freedom with them.”

Two U.S. Christians entered North Korea in recent months with the same goal in mind. Robert Park, an evangelical Christian missionary, crossed the border on Dec. 25 with a letter calling for Kim Jong-Il to resign.

Officials immediately arrested Park, according to the regime’s Korean Central News Agency. He was later sentenced to eight years of hard labor but released in late February after making what many experts believe was a forced confession.

Fellow activist Aijalon Mahli Gomes entered North Korea on Jan. 25, the same news agency reported. Officials sentenced Gomes to nine years of hard labor and fined him 70 million new Won (US$518,520). At press time Gomes remained in detention.

Report from Compass Direct News 

PAKISTAN: PARTIAL VICTORY SEEN IN RULING ON KIDNAPPED GIRLS

With both minors saying they had converted to Islam, lawyers feared worse.

ISTANBUL, September 15 (Compass Direct News) – Christian human rights lawyers in Pakistan saw a partial legal victory in a judge’s ruling last week that one of two kidnapped girls be returned to her Christian parents. The judge further ruled that her sister be free to choose whether to go with the Muslim man who allegedly forced her to convert and marry him.

Justice Malik Saeed Ejaz ruled on Tuesday (Sept. 9) that 10-year-old Aneela Masih be returned to her parents – an unprecedented legal victory for Christian parents of a girl who supposedly converted to Islam, according to one lawyer – while leaving her sister, 13-year-old Saba Masih, free to choose whether to go with Amjad Ali, a Muslim man who married her after the June 26 kidnapping.

Saba Masih, whose birth certificate indicates that she is now 13 but who testified that she is 17, said she did not want to return to her parents and tried to keep her little sister from returning to them. Their Muslim captors have repeatedly threatened the two girls that their parents would harm them if they returned.

The older sister is not willing to meet with any of the family members or her parents, said Rashid Rehman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

“It’s normal behavior,” he told Compass. “She was tutored and brainwashed by the family of her husband Ali, and naturally they made up her mind that her parents will hurt her and treat her inhumanely. In fact that will never happen. Her family is really peaceful, and remained so peaceful the whole time the case was heard in high court.”

After more than three hours of heated legal arguments in the Multan branch of Lahore’s High Court, the judge deemed the oldest child sui juris – capable to handle her own affairs – based on her testimony that she is 17 years old and on a Lahore medical board’s ruling that she is between 15 and 17. The medical board may have been pressured to declare Saba Masih as an adult, according to the parents’ lawyers.

Conditions set in the ruling called for the parents not to “interfere” with Aneela Masih’s religious beliefs, that they be allowed to visit Saba Masih and that the groom’s family pay them 100,000 rupees (US$1,316) according to Pakistani marriage tradition.

Raised in a Christian family in the small town of Chowk Munda, the two girls were kidnapped on June 26 while traveling to visit their uncle in Sarwar Shaheed, northwest of Multan. Saba Masih was married to Ali the next day, and the kidnappers filed for custody of the girls on June 28 based on their alleged forced conversion to Islam.

Islamic jurisprudence and Pakistani law do not recognize the forced marriages of minors.

 

‘Pleased with Outcome’

“We are pleased with the outcome,” said Joseph Francis, head of the Center for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). He said, however, that the verdict was not complete without the return of Saba Masih to her family.

Francis and two other CLAAS lawyers were present at the Sept. 9 judgment despite repeated threats against their office over the course of the hearings.

CLAAS lawyer Akbar Durrani told Compass that it was the first time in his life that he had seen such a decision. “In my experience they have not given us the custody of minor girls even as young as 9 years old that have been declared Muslim,” said Durrani, who has been practicing law in Pakistan for 18 years. “It is a legal victory.”

As a minor, though, Aneela Masih’s previous declaration that she had converted from Christianity to Islam was not explicitly recognized. Calling the lawyers into his private chamber to present options before ruling, according to the parents’ lawyers, the judge said he would make no mention of the girls’ supposed conversion to Islam.

“This was a very favorable thing for us,” said Durrani. “He said, ‘I’m only going to decide the custody,’ so we decided this is acceptable to us.”

In his private chamber, the judge gave them different options, warning them that if they didn’t cooperate or accept his proposals he would make his own judgment. In the end he said he would hand the little girl to her mother and set the other free.

“Wherever she wants to go she can go,” the judge told the parties. “But if she wants to go with you she can go, and if she wants to go to her husband she can go.”

The girls, their mother and Ali were then invited into the judge’s chamber, where the judge announced the decision to them.

Durrani said that Aneela Masih went to her mother willingly, while her older sister gave a cry and tried to pull the 10-year-old back to her.

“The minor resisted for a fraction of a second to go to the mother,” Durrani said. “The little girl was under pressure; every time she was instructed by her elder sister not to talk to her mother.”

Her mother hugged her, and the lawyer said the little girl seemed very comfortable in her lap. There her mother tried to remove the veil from her daughter to look at her, but she resisted. Outside the courtroom, however, Aneela Masih removed the veil herself and later accepted food and drink. The girls had been fasting during Ramadan.

The lawyers said it was clear from the 10-year-old girl’s reactions that she was confused from the ordeal.

 

Supreme Court Question

Lawyers for the parents are weighing the options and feasibility of getting the oldest daughter back through the Supreme Court.

On Friday (Sept. 12), the girls’ uncle, Khalid Raheel, who has spearheaded the efforts to get them back, told CLAAS lawyers that Aneela was readjusting into her life at home. Raheel asked the family lawyers that they continue to try to get Saba back.

Rehman said he does not think the case would stand in the Supreme Court. “She willingly said, ‘I don’t want to go with my parents,’” he said.

Durrani and Francis, however, said they would continue to fight for her. “We’ll go to the Supreme Court for Saba,” said Francis.

“We will try getting the statement of Aneela and then will re-open the case,” said Durrani, adding that Aneela Masih had told her family, “Please get her back from that place.”

Rehman told Compass in a phone interview that Saba Masih’s statement that she is 17, her supposed embrace of Islam and her marriage by consent will make getting her back very difficult.

“She has admitted the marriage at the court and produced the marriage papers and has claimed that she’s over 16, so it was very difficult for us to prove our case that she’s a minor girl… because it is denied by Saba herself,” said Rehman.

He explained that the only way to secure the oldest daughter’s return to her family would be by proving she is a minor, something virtually impossible at this point because of her testimony. The court has refused to admit her birth certificate as evidence.

Saba Masih still refuses to communicate with her parents.

 

‘Frightened, Small Girl’

In court last week, both sisters sat in hijab dress fully veiled next to a policewoman from the Dar Ul Rahman women’s shelter, where the two girls had stayed since a July 29 hearing.

Their mother tried to talk to them and show them photos. Durrani said that Aneela Masih was responsive to her mother, but her older sister would pull her away, forbidding her from talking to her.

The judge had ruled that the girls stay at the shelter in order to think of their alleged conversion to Islam away from external pressures. Lawyers for the parents said that while in the shelter the girls were continually harassed and threatened that their family would not take them back.

Aneela Masih stated to the lawyers and her parents after the court decision that Ali’s family and their captors told them that everyone was Muslim – the lawyers, the judge, society – and that their parents could not take them back.

Knowing the attention the case of the two girls had attracted, Durrani said, the judge left the case till last. Yet the courtroom, he said, was full of “those who had kidnapped the girls, their supporters, the Islamic fanatics; all these were present in the court and interested in the hearing of the case.”

From the outset at last week’s hearing, the judge wanted to ask Aneela Masih questions about Islam to extract a statement on which he could rule on her custody. Durrani and colleague Justin Gill fought against the lawyer and the judge, arguing that as the 10-year-old was a minor, her statement on faith could not be valid and that she must be returned to her mother.

“We concentrated our efforts on Aneela, that at least we should have some relief to get her back and then we can fight in the Supreme Court if we wish to go for any other thing,” he said, referring to the older sister’s case.

The judge had decided to postpone the verdict till this Thursday (Sept. 18) and place the girls back in the Dar Ul Rahman shelter, where their mother could visit them for two hours every day. But the CLAAS lawyers said they feared waiting would only work against their case in the long run, making it more difficult to gain custody of the younger sister if both were exposed to more harassment and possible brainwashing.

“Even if she is a Muslim and has changed her religion, according to Islam a mother is the best custodian of the child,” Durrani said he and Gill argued.

Rehman said that Aneela Masih seemed frightened and, according to information he had obtained, the girl was afraid of her abductors and her own family even while in the shelter.

“She was a frightened, small girl,” he said. “They told her that if she returned to her parents she’d be treated unkindly.”

 

Threats, Car Chase

On Sept. 8, the day before the hearing, while traveling together from Lahore to Multan, the three lawyers for the Christian parents – Francis, Durrani and Gill – received threatening calls from the supporters of the girls’ kidnappers.

That night while, on their way back from dinner to a bishop’s house where they were staying in Multan, the CLAAS team was approached by armed men on motorcycles who threatened them, warning them to not go to the judgment hearing the next day.

“They said, ‘You should not be in court or you will be responsible for the consequences,’” said Durrani.

When nearby police saw the scene and approached, the armed men left the scene.

“We were afraid, but we knew we had to go,” Durrani said.

After the hearing, while traveling back to Lahore, Durrani said that Muslim fanatics chased them for about 100 kilometers (62 miles).

“Then we went to another city and got to the highway from another shortcut,” he said.

Durrani said the lawyers have many cases like this, causing them concern for their own safety.

“It is not the first time we get threats, but by the grace of God, and by the refuge of our Holy Ghost we are safe,” he said. “Every time we know the prayers of our church and other Christians are with us, which is why we are able to get the victory for our Lord.”

Report from Compass Direct News

INDIA: NEWS BRIEFS – Recent Incidents of Persecution

Karnataka, August 21 (Compass Direct News) – About 100 Hindu extremists disrupted an August 17 worship service, attacked Christians and destroyed church furniture and music instruments in Davengere. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the extremists, headed by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) leader Deepak Ranode and three others barged into Jesus Prayer Hall armed with sticks and saffron-colored flags chanting anti-Christian slogans. The assailants threatened the believers and pressured them to give false statements accusing the pastor and others of “alluring” people to convert to Christianity. When the Christians refused, the Hindu extremists began assaulting them and smashing church furniture and musical instruments. Two Christians identified only as Rodrappa, 50, and Ramesh, 25, were injured and received hospital treatment. A GCIC representative told Compass that the two parties met at the office of the District Collector and reached a compromise, with the official ordering the extremists not to attack the Christians again.

Madhya Pradesh – Police on August 15 detained two Christians in Ratlam district for “forced conversion” under the so-called Freedom of Religion Act after about 35 Hindu extremists stormed a prayer meeting organized by the Union of Evangelical Students at St. Bartholomew Church, Railway Colony area. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that on the occasion of India’s Independence Day, nearly 75 believers belonging to various Christian groups including Youth With a Mission (YWAM) and World Vision had congregated at the church when the extremists began beating them and chased them away, forcing a few into a local police station. Sam Mathew, GCIC regional coordinator, told Compass that soon additional forces swelled the number of the mob to nearly 70. “Amos Avula of YWAM, who was earlier targeted by the extremists, was questioned and allowed to return home,” Mathew said. “However, police arrested Satyanarayan Rao and another believer identified only as N.T. Murti. They were released on bail on August 16 at 4:30 p.m.”

Karnataka – Hindu extremists on August 15 tore up tracts and beat Bible College students in Bajpai, Mangalore district. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said that at 2:30 p.m., after Independence Day celebrations, six Bible College students accompanied by a warden identified only as Martha P. went to Panambur Beach to distribute Christian literature. Local pastor Sunny Mathew told Compass that neither the students nor the warden were aware that they were being watched by two Hindu extremists as they handed out tracts to people on the beach. The extremists phoned other intolerant Hindus who arrived at the beach, swelling the mob to 30, and surrounded the students, kicking and punching them after destroying their pamphlets. Two students were injured. Police took the students and extremists to the police station. With GCIC intervention a compromise was reached and no case was registered against either the students or the extremists.

Karnataka – In Davengere, Hindu extremists belonging to the Hindu Jagarana Vedike and Shiva Sainya youth association on August 12 surrounded the house of a pastor, threw stones at it and demanded that all senior pastors leave the district. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that a mob of about 200 extremists stoned the house of pastor Prem Kumar, demanding that he and two other senior pastors leave. They warned the pastors not to conduct any future prayer and worship services in their homes. Carrying their anti-Christian campaign throughout the district, they visited people who had recently shown interest in Christianity and demanded to know what inducement they had been offered to convert. Following the advice of police officials, many pastors fled their homes leaving their wives and children behind. GCIC told Compass that the atmosphere was still tense at press time, and police were reluctant to take any action against the extremists.

Karnataka – Police in Karnataka on Aug 11 arrested a pastor and an evangelist for hurting religious sentiments and making derogatory remarks about Hindu gods after Hindu extremists attacked them and their house church in Yemanna Bethur, Harpanahalli taluk, Davangere district. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians said that at around 5:45 p.m. nearly 20 Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Shiva Sainya youth association attacked house church pastor Rajendra Gowda’s prayer service, slapping and punching him and an evangelist identified only as Kumara. The intolerant Hindus threatened members of the congregation and chased them away. They ripped the shirts of Gowda and Kumara, tied their hands to a van that had saffron flags and posters of Hindu gods on it, and forced the Christians to walk nearly seven kilometers (about four miles). The exhausted church leaders were then pushed into the van and taken to the Davangere rural police station nearly 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, with the extremists slapping and punching them in the van on the way. Police arrested Gowda and Kumara after extremists registered a false complaint against them of outraging religious feelings and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace. “Gowda and Kumara were released on bail on August 13 at 6:15 p.m.,” George said.

Karnataka – Hindu extremists belonging to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh disrupted an August 10 worship service and injured believers in Gadag. Pastor Samuel Philip was conducting the service under police protection, having been warned the previous day of a possible attack, but the extremists seized the chance to attack when officers returned to the police station, reported the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC). The intolerant Hindus barged into the church and attacked the pastor and other Christians, with the injured receiving first aid at a local hospital. GCIC told Compass that the Christians and the extremists have reached a compromise, and police assured the Christian community of future protection.

Chhattisgarh – Three Hindu extremists on August 10 assaulted Pastor Dev Kumar Sahu in Chalaty village, Ambagarh Chowki, Rajnandgaon district. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said Sahu of Indian Full Gospel Church was commissioned by his senior pastor, the Rev. K.J. George, to visit house churches in Chalaty village. As Sahu was sipping a beverage at a tea stall in Chalaty, area Hindu extremist Tulsi Ambade came up to him and angrily questioned him about the reason for his visit to the village. Ambade falsely accused him of forced conversions, George said, and two other extremists joined in and repeatedly kicked and punched the pastor while shouting filthy curses at him. They left only after Sahu collapsed to the ground. Sahu later filed a complaint against the extremists at the local police station. “Sahu had recently undergone a hernia operation,” Rev. George, the senior pastor, told Compass. “He had swollen arms, legs and face from the extremists’ attack and was admitted to a private nursing home for treatment.” With Rev. George’s intervention Ambade and Sahu reached a compromise: Tulsi agreed not to harass the Christians in the village, and Sahu forgave him and withdrew the case on August 19.

Karnataka – Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists on August 8 attacked a prayer meeting, then beat and falsely accused a pastor of forcible conversion in Kodipura village, Ramanagara district. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said that as pastor M. Mahesh of Agape Church was conducting a thanksgiving prayer service at the house of a church member identified only as Lokesh for 12 people, a mob of around 15 extremists led by persons identified only as Ganesh and Madesh barged into the house. The intolerant Hindus loudly cursed at the pastor and others and disrupted the service. George told Compass that the extremists falsely accused Mahesh of “alluring” villagers to convert to Christianity and warned Lokesh to stop future Christian prayers in his house. The extremists phoned local police as the anti-Christian mob swelled to nearly 50. Police brought the pastor and Lokesh to the police station, where the extremists shouted Hindu devotional chants. Police permitted Mahesh and Lokesh to leave the station at about 11 p.m. “With GCIC’s intervention, a First Information Report was registered against the extremists,” George said. “Police arrested three extremists and released them on bail.”

Andhra Pradesh – Hindu extremists on August 7 forcibly tried to occupy land belonging to a church and school in Ranga Reddy district. The All Indian Christian Council of India reported that the extremists forcibly occupied the land in front of JW International School and a church and erected a temporary Hindu temple. After school officers filed a complaint, government officials destroyed the temple, telling the Hindus they could not build such a structure on the land without permission. The next day, about 400 intolerant Hindus gathered at the site, beating drums and holding flags, and erected the structure anew. Once again the government demolished it. Later that evening, the extremists stoned the church and school buildings. With the intervention of police officials, the Hindu extremists left the school area.

Karnataka – Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists on August 4 broke open the locked gate of a Christian elementary school, stormed the principal’s office and demanded replacement of a Christian cross with a Hindu OM symbol in Mudhol, Bagalkot district. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) told Compass that at around 3:30 p.m. a mob of nearly 35 Hindu extremists armed with saffron-colored, triangular flags and wooden batons broke into the Samuel Memorial Convent School. They angrily demanded that principal Margaret Samuel replace the cross in the school logo with the OM symbol and instructed her to install idols of Hindu gods in the corridors. They also demanded that pictures of Saraswati Devi, the Hindu goddess of learning, be framed in the principal’s office, and warned that there would be repeated attacks on the school if their demands were not met. “Around 5:30 p.m., Mrs. Samuel called for an emergency Parent-Teachers Association [PTA] meeting,” George said, “wherein with GCIC support, she apprised the PTA of the extremists’ attacks and demands on the school. The PTA pledged their support to the Christian institution and took a resolution not to give in to the extremists.” Started in 2005, the school has 625 students.

Madhya Pradesh – Members of the Hindu fundamentalist Abhinav Bharat and other groups attacked pastor Sam Oommen and his family at Jayprakash Nagar, Adhartal, Jabalpur district on August 3. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said that a mob of nearly 45 Hindu extremists from the Bajrang Dal and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh began shouting “Jai Shri Ram [Hail Lord Ram]” outside Pastor Oommen’s home, where his house church meets. Oommen and his family, not home at the time, returned at 3:30 p.m. but extremists prevented them from entering their house. Police were reportedly silent spectators while the assailants harassed Pastor Oommen and his family. The attackers accompanied by police dragged the 43-year-old pastor of a Full Gospel Church home fellowship and his wife, Jessy Sam, and two children to the Adhartal police station, where the couple was charged with forcible conversion. Pastor Oommen’s children were sent home at 5 p.m. According to Assistant Sub-Inspector Saras Tripathi, electrician Hemant Kumar Sahu filed the complaint. Sahu met the couple in May when he went to the house to fit electrical equipment. He told police that Pastor Oommen and his wife subsequently “brainwashed” him on the pretext of praying for his ailing mother, forced him to be baptized and asked him to remove pictures of Hindu gods from his home. Sahu also said that the couple promised him that his mother’s medical expenses would be paid and that he should denounce Hindu gods and goddesses. Sahu told police that the resulting heavy mental stress led him to report the matter to Abhinav Bharat extremists, who along with the other Hindu nationalist groups then staged a demonstration demanding police action. Leading the Abhinav Bharat mob was state organization Vice Chairman Maya Ram Jethwani, who spoke to local media and accused the church of operating illegally. He also said a conspiracy by Christian missionaries was underway to convert the entire area and called for an investigation. Pastor Oommen and Christian leaders of Jabalpur denied the charges, which they say are concocted. Police locked up the church and put security guards in place. Pastor Oommen and his wife were released on bail on August 6.

Karnataka – Police on July 31 arrested Christians of the Believers Church in Turuvekere, Tumkur district after Hindu extremists allegedly belonging to the Ram Sena (Army of Ram) attacked a prayer meeting, beating Christians present. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that at around 8 p.m. nearly 30 Hindu extremists armed with wooden clubs stormed a dedication prayer service at the house of a believer identified only as Ramkrishnappa. The intolerant Hindus beat a pastor identified only as Shivshankar H.D. and four other Christians and destroyed 18 Bibles. They then took the Christians to the Turuvekere police station and registered a First Information Report (FIR) against them for inciting communal disharmony. Dr. Sajan K. George of the GCIC told Compass that police registered no counter FIR against the extremists. George has written to the National Human Rights Commission seeking justice for the Christians, who were released on bail on August 8.

Andhra Pradesh – Hindu extremists on July 29 attacked Christian students, accusing them of distributing Christian literature to “forcefully convert” college students, and burned and dumped three boxes of Christian books in a ditch in Miryalyuda, Nalgonda. The All India Christian Council (AICC) reported that two young Christian women were distributing gospel tracts among college students when three extremists seized the literature from them and burned it. Both parties have filed a police complaint. Moses Vattipalli of AICC told Compass that they have reached a compromise, with police assuring local Christian leaders of protection against such incidents in the future.

Andhra Pradesh – Hindu extremists belonging to the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party on July 27 attacked a pastor and a Christian media team for showing a film about Jesus Christ, tore the screen and burned it along with Bibles in Janagam. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that about 20 furious extremists barged into the home of a pastor identified only as Devadanam while about 100 people were watching the film and destroyed the projector, speakers and tables and threatened to kill the pastor if he tried screening the film again. The pastor filed a police complaint, and six attackers were taken to the police station. Dr. Sajan K. George of the GCIC told Compass that the attackers were released after a stern warning not to disturb the Christians again.

Karnataka – Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) extremists on July 27 attacked a gospel meeting in Anugraha Hotel, Bagalkot district and beat the pastor and other Christians, including a 4-year-old girl. Dr. Sajan K. George of the Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) said that nearly 40 extremists barged into the meeting hall cursing and beating pastor Basappa Durgappa of Free Fellowship Pentecostal Churches of Karnataka. They punched and slapped other Christians, including women and children. “The extremists flung chairs at the congregation, causing serious head injury to a 4-year-old child identified only as Priyanka, and four believers also suffered minor injuries,” George told Compass. The extremists also tore up nearly 100 Bibles and hymnals, he said. Police took the pastor, his wife and two daughters to the police station for interrogation, with the extremists shouting Hindu chants along the way. “The extremists filed a complaint against Durgappa, but with the intervention of the GCIC, Durgappa and his family were allowed to leave the police station around 10:30 p.m. and all the charges were dropped,” George said. “The Christians were treated at the Keruddi Hospital in Bagalkot, and Priyanka has received 13 stitches on her head.”

Karnataka – Police in India continued their custom of jailing Christian victims of Hindu aggression on July 27, arresting a pastor in Ankoal, Karwar district after nearly 20 Hindu extremists dragged him out of his house church service and repeatedly slapped him. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that the intolerant Hindus barged into the house church of independent pastor Anand Huva Naik on Kenny Road, disrupted worship and cursed and slapped Naik before yanking him out of his home. They threatened the other Christians, including women, chasing the congregation away. Police who had prior information about the attackers’ intent arrived at noon and took the pastor to the Ankola town police station and charged him with intentional insult, provocation, breaking public peace and causing hurt. With the legal help of the GCIC, Naik was released at 1:45 p.m. the next day.

Orissa – In Badrak district, Hindu extremists on July 26 ruptured a believer’s eardrum and threatened to burn him alive. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that Hindu extremists led by Utpal Nayak summoned Baloy Kumar Baraik, a Christian laboratory assistant at Sunshine Mission School, to the principal’s office. There Hindu extremists who formed part of the school’s management board beat and punched Baraik in the ear for nearly half an hour, forcing him to sign a blank document and threatening to burn him and his family in the same way that Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were killed in 1999. The Hindu extremist board members seek to remove all Christian staff members from the school. Baraik, who received hospital treatment for severe ear injuries, lodged a police complaint but no arrests had been made at press time. GCIC officials told Compass that the school management had fired Baraik from his job, but the rights organizations were taking the case to a higher court.

Karnataka – A mob of about 20 Hindu extremists vandalized a church building, seriously injured a pastor and accused him of forced conversion on July 20 in Konvallichawla, Haveri. The Global Council of Indian Christians reported that the intolerant Hindus barged into the Sunday worship service of Friends Prayer Band Church, brutally attacked the pastor and destroyed all Christian literature, including Bibles. The Hindu extremists took the pastor to the police station, where he collapsed from his injuries. Police initially refused to accept the complaint of assault by the pastor’s wife, Mary, instead threatening to throw the couple out of the district if they filed charges. The pastor was discharged from the hospital after receiving intensive care for three days. A case has been filed against the extremists, but no arrests had been made at press time.

Report from Compass Direct News