US Report on Religious Freedom is Flawed

(New York, October 26, 2001) The State Department's annual report on
international religious freedom has failed to single out a number of
egregious violators that are members of the U.S.-led "anti-terrorism"
coalition, Human Rights Watch said today.

The report, released today, candidly described violations of religious
freedom around the world, but failed to designate Uzbekistan, Saudi
Arabia, and Turkmenistan as "Countries of Particular Concern."
"Clearly, the Administration doesn't want to offend key allies in the
coalition through excessive truth-telling," said Tom Malinowski,
Washington Advocacy Director for Human Rights Watch. "The irony is that
getting too close to countries that crush religious freedom may be more
dangerous for America right now than keeping its distance-particularly
when the religion being crushed is Islam."

Among those countries not named is Uzbekistan, where several thousand
non-violent Muslims have been arrested in the last three years for
practicing their faith outside state controls. Uzbekistan is hosting
U.S. forces involved in operations in Afghanistan.

The State Department report acknowledges that the Uzbek government has
committed "abuses against many devout Muslims for their religious
beliefs" - arresting people for proselytizing, for private teaching of
religious principles, for wearing of religious clothing in public, and
for distributing religious literature. It also acknowledges that
authorities systematically torture religious prisoners.

"By not designating Uzbekistan a 'Country of Particular Concern,' the
Administration missed an easy opportunity to show that the war on
terrorism cannot be a campaign against Islam," Malinowski said.

Saudi Arabia was not designated, although, as State Department spokesman
Richard Boucher said today, "there is essentially no religious freedom"
there. Christians working in the country are forbidden to conduct any
form of public worship. The country's Shi`a Muslim minority faces severe
discrimination. Conservative Sunni clerics associated with the
government have publicly denigrated Shi`a as "apostates" and
"non-believers" because some of their religious practices are at odds
with the strict Wahhabi doctrine imposed by the country's rulers. In few
countries in the world is the denial of religious freedom so integral to
the self-conception and ethos of the government.

Also not designated was Turkmenistan, which suppresses all forms of
religious practice other than state-sanctioned Islam and Russian
orthodoxy. Hundreds of Protestants, followers of Hare Krishna and other
minority religions have been harassed, questioned by police, and
threatened with arrest for exercising their religious convictions.
Turkmenistan is the only state in the former Soviet Union where
authorities have confiscated and destroyed houses of worship (Seventh
Day Adventist, Hare Krishna, and Muslim).

China was designated a "Country of Particular Concern," and the report's
analysis of abuses of religious freedom is generally accurate, with one
exception: The reporting on Xinjiang, the mainly-Muslim region of
northwest China, is strikingly less critical than last year's. The
government's "Strike Hard" anti-crime campaign, launched nationwide in
April 2001, has led to many arbitrary arrests and summary executions in
Xinjiang. Separatism and religion appear to be as much the targets as
ordinary crime. Under "Strike Hard," people have been arrested, for
example, for having "illegal religious publications" in their
possession. Last year's State Department report accurately described a
"harsh crackdown on Uighur Muslims...that failed to distinguish between
those involved with illegal religious activities and those involved in
ethnic separatism or terrorist activities." Today's report, by contrast,
merely notes that "government sensitivity to Muslim community concerns
is varied...and (in areas where there has been violence attributed to
separatists) police crackdown on Muslim religious activity and places of
worship accused of supporting separatism" in Xinjiang. The "Strike Hard"
campaign isn't even mentioned.

Also designated were Burma, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Sudan and the
Taliban. Under the International Religious Freedom Act, when a country
is named to this list, the Secretary of State must choose from an
optional menu of steps, from diplomatic pressure to the imposition of
sanctions. Most of the designated governments, however, are already
subject to U.S. sanctions.

"The State Department has been least likely to use this tool in the
countries where it might have the most impact," Malinowski said.

For more information on the State Department report on freedom of
religion, please see:

Memorandum on Religious Persecution in Uzbekistan (HRW Memorandum,
August 2001) at
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/uzbek-aug/index.htm

Uzbekistan: Muslim Persecution (HRW Press Release, August 20, 2001) at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/08/uzbekistan0820.htm

Memorandum on Religious Violence in the Republic of Georgia (HRW
memorandum, August 2001) at
http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/georgia/georgia_memo_full.htm

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