RFE/RL
- 8 May 2002
Posted 17 May 2002 on RELIGIOSCOPE
In
its International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the U.S.
Congress established an Office of International Religious
Freedom within the U.S. State Department. The law also created
an advisory Commission on International Religious Freedom.
As RFE/RL correspondent Don Hill reports, the State Department
and the religious-freedom commission can, and sometimes do,
disagree -- a divide highlighted by the commission's annual
report, released this month.
The
U.S. Congress has directed the U.S. Commission on International
Religious Freedom to issue a report each May assessing the
state of religious freedom in countries around the world.
This
year's third annual commission report points critically to,
among other countries, Afghanistan, China, France, Georgia,
Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan,
and Uzbekistan. And then there's another country whose government
policies the commission finds occasional fault with: the United
States.
Commission
spokesman Lawrence J. Goodrich says the commission is disappointed
that the U.S. government has failed to label Saudi Arabia
and Turkmenistan as "countries of particular concern" (CPCs) -- a designation that can trigger U.S. sanctions. The
commission says both these countries practice religious suppression
severe enough to warrant CPC status.
"Both
in the summer of 2000 and the summer of 2001, the commission
recommended to the secretary of state and president that Turkmenistan
be designated a 'country of particular concern.' That has
not happened as of yet and the commission is disappointed
in that, and continues to urge that the designation be made."
In
its report, the commission calls Turkmenistan "one
of the most totalitarian states in the world today." It urges the United States to immediately suspend all nonhumanitarian
assistance to the Turkmen government.
The
report says that Saudi Arabia prohibits all forms of public
religious expression except for what the commission describes
as "the government's interpretation and presentation
of the Hanbali school of Sunni Islam." The report
expresses regret that the U.S government twice has failed
to act on the commission's recommendation of CPC status for
Saudi Arabia.
Goodrich
says the International Religious Freedom Commission has urged
the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush to avoid
placing the needs of the fight against international terrorism
above human and religious rights. "There were some
actions during the [autumn] that created the impression that
there were trade-offs going on, that the U.S. government was
telling other governments that it needed their cooperation
in the war on terrorism and that therefore, it would look
the other way." He says the commission for a time
was concerned that Bush's government was wooing countries
with dubious religious freedom records like Sudan and Uzbekistan
in this way.
Another
concern of the commission is that the United States fails
to invoke all the pressures that it might on countries on
which it has placed the CPC designation. These are Burma,
China, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and North Korea.
In
its latest annual report, the commission seems to express
itself more boldly and independently than in past years. Many
of its members -- from varied religious backgrounds and professions
-- are newly appointed. The commission chair, Michael K. Young,
dean of George Washington University Law School, is an expert
on Asian law. He was the commission's first vice chair. All
the commissioners are part-time and are unpaid for their service.
Goodrich
said the commissioners have sought to be independent in their
judgment from the outset and the current commissioners even
more so. "And also, I think, there's the feeling that
the commission is now in its third year and, in some cases
perhaps, a little stronger language needs to be used to get
attention -- the attention of the administration -- on some
issues."
Despite
some disagreements over policy emphasis, Goodrich says the
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the
Bush administration agree more often than they disagree. "I
have to say, though, that the commission has been very encouraged
in conversations it has had with senior U.S. government officials
that they do not intent to trade off, in fact, human rights,
religious freedom against the war on terrorism."
The
commission's report finds religious freedom issues in countries
of Western Europe as well as in the Middle East and among
developing nations. The 2002 report, for example, expresses
substantial worry over France's adoption last year of an anti-cult
law and publication of a list of what French authorities call "cult movements." The report says the commission
is formulating recommendations about France to be made public
later.
The
report decries what it says is an increase in religious violence
in Georgia, especially against Jehovah's Witnesses. It says
the government of Iran engages in or tolerates "systematic,
ongoing, and egregious" violations of religious freedom.
In Iraq, it says, Saddam Hussein's government has for decades
conducted a campaign of murder, summary execution, arbitrary
arrest, and prolonged detention against religious leaders.
In
its first two annual reports, the commission maintained that
Afghanistan's Taliban regime was a severe violator of religious
freedom. Here, too, the current report says that the commission
is working on a report and recommendations concerning post-Taliban
Afghanistan.
One
question frequently addressed to the commissioners and the
commission staff is, "What right does the United States
have to tell other countries what to do about religious freedom?" Goodrich responds: "The answer to that is that almost
all of these countries have signed the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, and almost all of them have signed and ratified
the International Convention of Civil and Political Rights.
Now, when the United States signs an arms-control convention
or an environmental treaty or a trade agreement with a country,
it has a right to see that these conventions and agreements
are being upheld and respected. It is no different, no different
at all, with human rights and religious freedom."
Many
of the countries targeted by the commission dispute that stance.
China in past years protested angrily against what it considered
U.S. interference in its internal affairs. Turkmenistan's
President Saparmurat Niyazov said in March that people in
his country are free to practice any religion they wish. He
said Turkmenistan's laws controlling religion are aimed at
foreigners trying to spread what he called "alien" faiths.
Imam
Alisher Sobirov of Uzbekistan's state-approved Khoji Akhror
Grand Mosque said recently that Uzbek government policy and
Uzbek law on religious freedom are in accord with Islamic
rules opposing division within Islam. He said other groups
active in his country claim to be Muslims but really "are
lost people."
Don
Hill
