Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to complete within two years the return of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who fled an army crackdown last year in Myanmar. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR), responding to the plan, said they were concerned about forcibly repatriating over 650,000 Rohingya who fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after a conflict erupted in western Rakhine State in August. Statements from the Myanmar and Bangladesh foreign ministries said Bangladesh would set up five transit camps on its side of the border. Those camps would send Rohingyas to two reception centres in Myanmar. The repatriation process would start shortly, the statements said. Myanmar said it would build a transit camp that can house 30,000 returnees. The Bangladesh statement said: “Myanmar has reiterated its commitment to stop (the) outflow of Myanmar residents to Bangladesh.” Guterres said the UNHCR had not been involved directly in the agreement. “It will be very important to have UNHCR fully involved in the operation to guarantee that the operations abide by international standards,” he said.
Category Archives: Asian
Filipino priest turns church into dance floor
A Filipino Catholic priest is in hot water after turning his parish church into a dance floor, complete with disco lights, to celebrate his birthday. Father Wilfredo Lucas, priest of San Miguel Archangel Parish in the town of Plaridel, Bulacan province, was caught on video dancing in front of the church altar. Bishop Jose Francisco Oliveros of Bulacan Diocese said he is already investigating the incident. “I am sorry this thing happened,” said the prelate. Msgr. Bart Santos, the diocese’s vicar general, said he had met with Father Lucas, who said he was sorry about what happened. “He was very apologetic,” he said. A Manila television station showed on Jan. 23 a video of the priest dancing with a woman inside the church. The news report said the priest usually holds events inside the church to save on costs.
Chinese officials demolish yet another church: in Shanxi
Authorities in China demolished a large church in the city of Linfen, Shanxi province on Jan. 9, despite efforts by worshippers to halt the demolition and who were then pressured to remain silent, according to witnesses. It was the third Christian church demolition or closure in China in just over two weeks and comes amid a broader crackdown on “Western” religions by the government of authoritarian leader Xi Jinping. Muslims groups, especially in the far flung province of Xinjiang have also been targeted.
Officials surrounded the Golden Lampstand Church, while bulldozers reduced the large building to rubble, a witness told Radio Free Asia “It has now been demolished,” a church member said.
The church member, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a large anti-riot team carried out the demolition. ChinaAid, a Texas-based Christian human rights organization, said the Golden Lampstand Church had been subject to government pressure since it was built in 2009.
“China repeatedly cracks down on house churches, which are churches that refuse to register, often to opt out of government monitoring. Officials often prosecute such choices, however, and some of Golden Lampstand Church’s leaders have been imprisoned for one to seven years, simply for serving at their church,” ChinaAid said in a statement on Jan.9.
In Zhejiang province more than 1,500 churches, both Catholic and Protestant, have been targeted for demolition or cross removals in recent years, sources have said in a campaign against churches not coming under state control. Chinese authorities are increasingly using property regulations to remove crosses and demolish churches.
The betrayal of Vietnam’s forgotten Christians
Exasperated after violent interrogations and round-the-clock intimidation at the hands of the Vietnamese government, Christian Montagnard Y-Man Eban escaped into the forests of eastern Cambodia on July 7, 2015.
“The reason I ran away from my country was because the Vietnamese police interrogated me four or five times and put me in jail for a week. They beat me a lot,” Eban, 30, said from Dak Lak province.
When asked why he was arrested, Eban said it was because he sought “the freedom and independence for Dega people.”
Eban was one of more than 300 Montagnard Christians, the indigenous peoples of the Vietnamese Central Highlands, also known as Dega, who three years ago started fleeing into Cambodia with tales of oppression at the hands of the Hanoi government. It was the first exodus in around a decade, when thousands fled amid crackdowns on protests in 2001 and 2004.
Persecuted for decades due to reasons including their support for America in the Vietnam War and their faith, there have been widespread accusations of human rights abuses and land grabs in the rolling hills of the Montagnards’ homeland.
Virtually all have since been returned by the Cambodian authorities and just 20 have been granted refugee status. Eban said the persecution and surveillance back in the Central Highlands had continued unabated since he was sent back in October 2015 after being denied asylum.
“Since I came back to Vietnam, the authorities have viewed me as a criminal,” Eban said. “l regularly read the Bible and pray to God to bless us,” he said. Back in the Central Highlands, Eban had little doubt as to why the Cambodian government appeared so eager to prevent his people finding a safe haven from the wrath of Vietnamese authorities.
US lists Pakistan for ‘violations of religious freedom’
Days after US President Donald Trump threatened to cut American aid to Pakistan, the State Department placed the South Asian Islamic country on a Special Watch List for “severe violations of religious freedom” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
The move came three days after Trump, in his first tweet of the new year, accused Pakistan of providing a safe haven to terrorists despite receiving billions of dollars in aid over the years.
“The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!” Trump wrote.
Rejecting Trump’s accusa-tions, Pakistan said its counter-terrorism campaign had served as a bulwark against the expa-nsion of scores of terrorist orga-nizations in Afghanistan — a fact acknowledged by US authorities at the highest level.
Pakistan’s successful counter-terrorism cooperation against Al-Qaeda had led to Pakistan suffe-ring a brutal backlash, including the killing of hundreds of its schoolchildren by terrorists based in Afghanistan, a statement by Pakistan’s powerful National Security Committee said on January 2.
Apart from Pakistan, the US Secretary of State also re-designated Myanmar, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as “countries of particular concern” on Dec. 22.
On Jan. 4, the Trump admi-nistration announced it had sus-pended all security assistance to Pakistan until it proves its commitment to fight all terrorist groups operating in the region.
Voice from Singapore: ‘Demographic winter’ isn’t just Europe
On January 8 Pope Francis delivered his annual address to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Vatican, in what’s generally considered his most important foreign policy speech of the year. It was a typically wide-ranging overview of the global scene, from nuclear disarmament and the dangers of anti-immigrant rhetoric to the pro-life cause and “ideolo-gical colonization.” Crux spoke with Ambassador Barry Desker of Singapore, who was part of the first generation of diplomats from his country after it gained independence from Malaysia in 1965, and who today serves as one of the “non-residential” ambassadors to the Vatican, meaning he does not live full-time in Rome. He said: “The second factor which will have drawn attention is the reference to a “demographic winter,” meaning the decline in birthrates. In Asia, this is something that’s of concern to countries around the region, including Singapore. For example, many have said that China is likely to grow old before it grows rich because of the one-child policy.”
After 50 years, the first public Christmas Festival in Yangon
The Christian communities in Myanmar, Catholic and Protest-ant, have publicly celebrated Christmas in the streets of Yangon, for the first time in 50 years: as Agenzia Fides learns, in the past Christmas was strictly confined within the walls of churches, several liturgies, feasts, processions, took place in the city, especially from 23 to 25 December, with the specific authorization of the government authorities of the region of Yangon.
The Festival was inaugurated on December 23 in the Methodist Church of the Holy Trinity and ended on December 25 with a solemn liturgy in the Catholic Cathedral of Santa Maria in Yangon, in the presence of Henry Van Thio, vice president of the Republic of Myanmar. Bishop John Saw Yaw Han, Auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Yangon, declared the happiness of the Burmese Christians for this first Festival and encouraged all fellow citizens “to contribute in every possible way to the peace and prosperity of the nation.” The special Christmas Festival was initiated with the consent of Phyo Min Thein, Prime Minister of the Regional Government of Yangon, and Mg Mg Soe, Mayor of Yangon, with the explicit intention of “honoring Pope Francis’ visit to Myanmar held in November 2017 and to show solidarity with Christians in Myanmar and in the world.”
Second Pakistan Church attacked by armed mob
Another church has been attacked in Pakistan, this time by a violent mob amid escalating pre-Christmas tensions.
More than 50 armed men stormed St Paul’s Catholic Church on the night of Dec. 19 night in Sambrial Town of Sialkot district in Punjab Province.
The assailants fired shots into the air and entered the church compound, pulling off its plaque and damaging a window.
Parish priest Father Victor Sawera filed a complaint with police.
According to the priest, the mob was led by Asadullah Randhawa from the purportedly centrist Tehreek-e-Insaf political party of retired Pakistani Muslim cricketer Imran Khan.
Fr Sawera said some Protestant pastors were trying to apply political pressure to be able to use Catholic premises for small religious gatherings.
“This is our internal matter and Muslims should not get involved,” said Fr Sawera, who has been negotiating with Protestants over the disagreement since his transfer to the parish in July.
Desperate pastors were now trying to close the church, he added.
Fr Sawera expressed concern for the safety of worshippers in the wake of the Dec. 17 suicide bombing at the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan Province.
“We have a team of security volunteers, but they will not be on duty at Christmas,” Fr Sawera said.
“I do not want another conflict between locals. We shall get a court stay and try to resolve the matter peacefully.”
According to media reports, 16 churches have been attacked by terrorists and violent mobs in Punjab Province since 1997.
Christians, Muslims join for Christmas Mass in liberated Mosul
Cries of joy and seasonal hymns once again filled St Paul Cathedral in Mosul as Christmas Mass was celebrated there for the first time in three and a half years, following the northern Iraqi city’s liberation from Islamic State militants.
The Iraqi national anthem opened the Mass as women wailed with emotion. Armoured police outside protected the worshippers. Led by Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad, Christians and Muslims attended the Christmas Mass on Dec. 24 in a display of unity. “My message is to our brothers the Muslims,” said Patriarch Sako. “I ask them to change their way of thinking; you should know Christianity better. In the past, Christians were the majority in Iraq; today we are minority, but without us, Mosul will never be the same.”
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina holds Christmas gathering for Christian leaders
Prime Mini-ster Sheikh Hasi-na of Bangladesh hosted a Christ-mas celebration in the capital Dhaka, which was attend-ed by some 500 leaders of various Christian Chur-ches and commu-nities of the overwhelmingly Muslim nation.
Organized by the Bangladesh Christian Association (BCA), the pre-Christmas get-together was held at Gana Bhaban, the Prime Minister’s official residence.
During the Dec. 21 event, Hasina mentioned Pope Francis’s pastoral visit to Dhaka, on Nov. 30-Dec.2, and urged her guests to convey her gratitude to the leader of the world’s Catholics “for his call to the international community to stand beside Bangladesh on the Rohingya crisis.”
Among the important guests of the Prime Minister was Cardinal Patrick D’Rozario, the Archbishop of Dhaka.
Cardinal D’Rozario told Vatican News that the Christmas gathering is hosted by the Prime Minister every year at Gana Bhaban and BCA takes the initiative of organizing the event which includes a high tea party. He said at gathering there were about 500 Christians from all denominations.