AUCKLAND, New Zealand (Compass Direct News) – Lao officials on Thursday (April 5) confiscated and sealed a church building in southern Laos after holding a two-day seminar warning against religious belief, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

Besides sealing the church building in Khamnonsung village, Saybuly district, they also warned that other unrecognized churches in the district in Savannakhet Province would soon be shut down.

Local Communist Party official Saysamorn, along with Saysana, district deputy chief of police, and Bountha, district head of religious affairs, ordered all villages to attend the seminar, held from Tuesday through Thursday (April 3 to 5) and entitled “Tricks of the Enemy.”

According to villagers present at the seminar, the officials declared that Westerners, particularly those from the United States, were using the Christian faith to destabilize the government. They then declared that the 745 Christians in the village could only meet in private homes, claiming that they did not have permission to construct the Khamnonsung church building – although it was erected in 1963, prior to the 1975 Communist takeover of Laos.

“How do these officials know that Khamnonsung did not follow proper procedures back in 1968?” HRWLRF asked in a press release issued today. “And if a permit is required for this building, why wait 49 years to tell them?”

The officials also declared that only one church in the district, located in Dongpoong village, was officially recognized and that all others would soon be shut down, HRWLRF reported.

There are a total of 30 church buildings scattered throughout Savannakhet Province – but only seven are approved by the government.

Christians Protest
On Sunday (April 1), members of two other Lao churches in Saybuly district met for worship in buildings that were earlier confiscated by authorities, according to HRWLRF.

Authorities confiscated the 37-year-old Kengweng village church building on Feb. 22 and another belonging to a church in Dongpaiwan village on Sept. 22. At 7 a.m. on Sunday (April 1), Kengweng church members removed the padlock from the door of their building, entered and worshipped there. Members of Dongpaiwan did not enter their building but assembled outside it, HRWLRF reported.

The congregations met as a protest against the continued lack of access to worship facilities, a spokesman from HRWLRF told Compass.

Another church in Nadeng village was confiscated on Dec. 4, but members have not yet dared to meet in or go near the building.

Saysamorn, Saysana and Bountha also traveled to Kengweng on Feb. 21 and conducted a compulsory two-day seminar for villagers, urging them not to adopt or follow foreign religions, according to HRWLRF. At the close of the seminar on Feb. 22, they confiscated and sealed the village church building and ordered the 178 Christian not to hold services there.

Church members were instructed to submit a formal written request to village, district and provincial level officials if they wished to use the building again, according to a local church member who preferred to remain unnamed.

On Sept. 14, some 20 Saybuly district officials, military and police personnel seized Dongpaiwan village church and tore down a cross on the building on grounds that church members, numbering around 200, had not obtained prior approval for construction. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Lao Officials Seize Church Building, Convert it into School,” Sept. 26, 2011.)

The villagers argued that while permission was necessary, the local government routinely denied new applications for the construction of churches, thereby creating an impossible situation and denying them the right to worship freely as guaranteed in the constitution.

Officials then converted the church into a school for fifth graders, moving chairs and desks into the building and posting a military guard on the property to prevent Christians from returning there.

Trouble in the North
In northern Laos, Officials in Luang Namtha and Luang Prabang provinces recently ordered Christians in several villages to renounce their faith or face expulsion, according to HRWLRF reports.

On March 2, some 20 officials including district police officers, Communist Party members and village security forces, summoned pastor Khamla of Dongvieng village, Viengphuka district in Luang Namtha Province, and sharply rebuked him for believing in Christianity. After interrogation, officials ordered Khamla to give up his faith within five days or “be cast out of the village.”

Khamla was the only known Christian in a district with a population of 20,000.

On Feb. 18, the chief of Hueygong village in Pakoo district of Luang Prabang Province ordered 10 Christian families in the village, a total of 65 people, to give up their faith or face expulsion. The Christians, most of whom became Christians only three months prior to the eviction order, were meeting for worship in the home of church leader Yar Yang.

Before the order was given, Pakoo district officials told Christians in the district to report the number of church members and churches and apply for official permission to adopt the Christian faith. A leader of one of eight house churches in Pakoo explained to HRWLRF that the district chief, the religious affairs office and the local secretary of the Communist Party had to give their approval before Christians could openly confess faith and worship God.

When Christians failed to comply with these orders, officials gave them a month to recant their faith or face expulsion.

Before the expulsion could take place, however, Bousee Chantuma, head of religious affairs in Luang Prabang, reportedly told Pakoo officials that they must reverse the expulsion order as they had no legal grounds to issue it, and threatened to take the matter to provincial and central religious affairs offices. He also warned them that Christians in the district could not be arrested without his permission, according to HRWLRF.

Earlier, on Jan. 13, authorities in Hueysell village, Ngoi district of Luang Prabang Province, summoned two Christian leaders and ordered them and their congregation of about 80 people to abandon their faith or be expelled.

To date the Christians have held firm to their faith, and authorities have yet to follow through on the eviction order.

BANGKOK, Thailand (Compass Direct News) – Officials in a village in southern Laos on Sunday (March 25) arrested and detained five Christians during worship and charged them with leading a religious movement without official approval, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

The five Christians from Palansai district were attending a worship service in nearby Boukham village in Ad-Sapangthong district. HRWLRF identified the five by their single names, as is customary in Laos: Phosee (male), Viengsai (male) and Alee (female) from Phosai village; Poon (female) from Pone village and Narm (also female) from Natoo village.

Previously they had attended many services in Boukham, Savannakhet Province, without interference from authorities.

“This is typical of Laos now,” a pastor from the capital, Vientiane, told Compass on condition of anonymity. “In Vientiane we see things opening up a little. But the law is fluid. Things can change from day to day, and the situation is still very difficult in the provinces.”

Boukham church members meet in a private home, as do Christians in most other provincial villages. Officials strongly oppose small groups meeting outside the umbrella of the government-approved Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), but many Christians prefer meeting as house churches, citing strict controls over LEC activities.

Following the arrest at 2 p.m. on Sunday, officials detained the five at the Boukham village headquarters, also used in December 2011 to hold eight church leaders arrested for gathering some 200 Christians together for a Christmas celebration.

The eight leaders arrested in December said they had sought and received permission for the event; they had even invited the village chief to attend. The chief joined them for the celebratory meal but left before the sermon. Village security forces arrived not long afterwards.

At that time, LEC representatives paid a fine for the release of one detainee but pleaded unsuccessfully for the release of the other seven.

One week later, on Dec. 21, officials warned 47 Christians from Natoo village church in nearby Palansai district that they must give up their faith or face eviction from the village.

“We urge the government to respect the freedom of religion or belief as guaranteed by the Lao constitution,” HRWLRF officials said in a statement issued Sunday (March 25).

The Vientiane pastor said that while conditions have slightly improved in the capital, churches are starting to face problems typical of Western churches.

“Now we have many groups coming into Laos offering money,” he said. “Until now, all the pastors shared one broken-down car. Now they all have their own car, their own computer, and nobody shares their resources anymore. They all want a good house and money to send their children to school – and who can blame them?”

Previously, he said, churches experienced greater unity.

“Before this, they looked to God as their only source,” he added. “Now they look to others. Our greatest need is to get back to our first love, and to live in unity.”

DUBLIN, December 30  – Officials this week forced Christians in a Lao village to give up their faith in order to bury a family member in the village graveyard, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

In Huey, Ad-Sapangthong district of Savannakhet Province, where immediate burial is essential in the hot tropical climate, the village’s eight Christian families quickly began to arrange a funeral for the deceased, a woman who died on Christmas Day who went by the single name of Wang. On Monday (Dec. 26), however, village officials ordered that her body be buried according to Buddhist funeral rites or be taken to a burial ground in Savannakhet city, HRWLRF reported.

Lacking the resources for a city burial, the 40 Christians reluctantly agreed. But the village monk then refused to carry out the ceremony because Wang was a Christian.

On Tuesday (Dec. 27), district officials summoned representatives of the Christian community in Huey to their headquarters in Ad-Sapangthong. HRWLRF reported that one of them told the Christians, “Don’t do anything with the dead body; let the body rot if you insist on clinging to the Christian faith.”

With Wang’s body already decomposing, the Christians verbally agreed to cease practicing their faith in order to bury her in the village cemetery, according to HRWLRF.

Once the funeral was over, five of the families told church leaders in another city that they regretted their decision and that they would continue to worship God.

On Wednesday (Dec. 28), sources close to district officials told HRWLRF that they suspected two people were directly responsible for the refusal of a Christian burial in Huey village as well as the Dec. 16 arrests of eight Christian leaders for gathering some 200 church members for a Christmas celebration in Boukham village (See “Lao Officials Arrest Eight Christian Leaders,”). They identified the two as Major Gad, a former military officer now serving as deputy district chief of Ad-Sapangthong and also as head of religious affairs in the district; and the district commissioner, identified by the single name Pornsai.

Still in Stocks
Following the release of one of the Christian leaders, Boukham village authorities have moved six of the detained Christians to an animal pen, blocked visits from family members and banned direct delivery of food, local sources told HRWLRF.

Another detainee had been released temporarily to attend a government training session, but he is now being held with the others. The seven Christians are being held in wooden stocks.

When last seen, the health of one of the detained leaders, identified as Puphet, had clearly deteriorated; Puphet suffers from a kidney ailment. The legs of six of the detainees, but particularly those of Puphet, Wanta and Oun, were swollen and infected, according to HRWLRF.

“This is because their legs, being fastened in wooden stocks, are raised higher than their bottoms, obstructing blood flow,” a spokesman from HRWLRF told Compass. “The stocks are also causing excruciating physical pain and bruises.”

Family members fear that authorities may employ starvation tactics in order to force the six to give up their faith, the spokesman added.

In neighboring Natoo village, 47 Christians threatened with expulsion on Dec. 21 were able to worship on Christmas day without interruption, the spokesman said. Officials have yet to carry out the threatened expulsion. (See “Give Up Your Faith or Face Eviction“)

DUBLIN (Compass Direct News) – Nearly 50 Christians await their fate today after officials in Natoo village, southern Laos, on Wednesday (Dec. 21) summoned four of their leaders and warned that they would evict the entire church “within 24 hours” if they refused to give up their faith.

Officials told the Christians they had forfeited their right to live in the village because of their faith, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported.

Established just two years ago, the church in Natoo village, Palansai district of Savannakhet Province meets every week in the home of church leader Sompu. The forty-seven members include men, women and children belonging to four extended families.

Immediately after the discussion with Natoo officials, Sompu reported the incident to sub-district police, but at press time district officials had not intervened, according to HRWLRF.

“We are alarmed because the police and military seem to have taken over authority from the religious affairs department in Savannakhet,” a spokesman from HRWLRF told Compass.

Religious affairs staff should take action, he added, because village officials have violated Lao law, the Constitution and international human rights standards by threatening eviction on the basis of religious belief.

The Natoo eviction notice came less than a week after officials in Boukham village, just five kilometers away from Natoo, arrested eight church leaders for organizing a Christmas event attended by some 200 Christians. The arrests – and putting seven of the leaders in wooden stocks – came even though Christians had secured permission for the event. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Lao Officials Arrest Eight Christian Leaders,” Dec. 19.)

Two of the church leaders have since been released after paying steep fines, the first on Sunday (Dec. 18) and the second one this morning, according to a source who preferred to go unnamed.

“We are at a critical juncture,” the HRWLRF spokesman told Compass. “Persecution is likely to spread without strong intervention from central government.”

HRWLRF strongly suspects the involvement of higher-level officials in these incidents.

“It is unheard of that a village headquarters would have access to wooden stocks – they have to obtain them from district or provincial authorities,” the spokesman explained. “So it’s clear that the arrest in Boukham was pre-planned and was approved by at least the district officials and possibly provincial authorities as well.”

Police List
Six of the eight church leaders arrested in Boukham were still detained in wooden stocks at press time.

Representatives of the Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), the only Protestant denomination recognized by the Lao government, on Sunday (Dec. 18) paid a fine of 1 million kip (US$123) to secure the release of the eighth leader, identified by the single name Kingmanosorn, who pastors a church in Savannakhet city.

A second detainee was released yesterday after paying the same fine, a source who preferred to go unnamed told Compass today.

“Seven of the eight leaders initially detained in Boukham were on a police list to be arrested for the Christmas event,” a spokesman from HRWLRF told Compass. “The police had been following them because they were actively building the church and spreading the faith. However, Kingmanosorn was not on the list.”

Last year, when Boukham officials gave permission for a Christmas event, the village chief spoke to the 70-odd Christians who had gathered and gave them his blessing. In December 2009, however, officials tore down the tent where some 40 Christians had gathered to celebrate Christmas. At that time there were no arrests.

In July 2008, district police stormed into the home of Pastor Sompong in Boukham and ordered the approximately 60 Christians present to cease worshipping God or face imprisonment. When they refused, officials arrested Sompong, three other leaders identified as Kai, Sisompu and Phuphet, and Kunkham, the 17-year-old daughter of Phuphet. Police took all five to a district prison and charged them with spreading the Christian faith and conducting a religious meeting without permission. (See www.compassdirect.org, “Authorities Detain 90 Christians,” Aug. 8, 2008.)

Police released them two days later after Christians from Savannakhet city intervened, arguing that the Boukham Christians were neither spreading their faith nor holding a public meeting – but simply worshiping God in a private residence. The five were ordered to pay a fine of 350,000 kip (then US$42) for expenses related to the arrest.

Officials re-arrested Sompong along with two other leaders in August 2008. Although Boukham’s chief had threatened to sentence them to life terms in a maximum security prison and ordered family members to renounce their faith, local and international advocacy efforts secured their release in October 2008.

The present chief of Boukham has been in office for just six months and has not shown any antagonism towards Christian residents until now, HRWLRF told Compass.

DUBLIN (Compass Direct News) – Police early this morning traveled to Boukham village in Laos’ Savannakhet Province to meet with officials about the arrest on Friday (Dec. 16) of eight Christian leaders who had gathered some 200 church members for a Christmas celebration, an advocacy group reported today.

Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported that the leaders had secured permission for Friday’s event from Boukham’s village chief and invited him to attend. He stayed for the Christmas meal but left before the sermon began. After the sermon, at about 9 p.m., village security forces entered the building, isolated the eight leaders and marched them to the Boukham government headquarters, where they were detained without charge.

Four of the detainees were placed in handcuffs and wooden stocks, while the other four were left unrestrained. Family members were allowed to bring blankets and other provisions to the detainees but were given no explanation for their arrest, according to HRWLRF.

“While they were held without formal charges, it is quite clear that they were arrested for gathering people for worship,” an HRWLRF spokesman told Compass.

Bouthong sub-district police arrived on Saturday morning (Dec. 17) to investigate the incident and record the names of the detainees. Later that afternoon, the deputy chairman of the Savannakhet branch of the Lao Evangelical Church (LEC), the only Protestant group recognized by the government, came to plead for the detainees’ release, but his efforts proved fruitless.

The following day, LEC representatives managed to negotiate the release of one of the detainees held in stocks, who goes by the single name of Kingnamosorn, after paying a fine of 1 million kip (US$123) to the village chief. By comparison, the average monthly wage for an unskilled laborer in the province is close to US$40.

The content of this morning’s discussion between village leaders and the sub-district police remains unknown. When the police left the village, however, the chief ordered the other four unrestrained detainees to be placed in stocks as well, HRWLRF reported.

Wooden stocks are commonly used in Lao prisons and detention centers and are sometimes combined with exposure to red fire ants as a form of torture.

The arrests of the church leaders were confirmed by another source who preferred to go unnamed.

HRWLRF identified the eight by their single names, as is customary in Laos: Sompong, Ma and Kaithong – the only female detainee – all from Boukham village church; Oun from Dansai village church; Puphet from Donpalai village church; Wanta from Liansai village church; Kai from Nonsomboon village church and Kingmanosorn from Tongsamakee church in Savannakhet city.

It is customary for Lao Christians to hold Christmas celebrations before or after Dec. 25 in order to avoid drawing the attention of authorities.

Offending the Spirits
Yesterday (Dec. 18) the village chief told the detainees that they had violated “hiit,” or the traditional spirit cult of the village, by gathering for a Christian worship service. He then ordered them not to practice Christianity in Boukham for fear that the spirits would be offended, HRWLRF reported.

Under hiit, residents must worship and placate the spirits of the village to ensure the fertility of their fields and to ensure ongoing safety and prosperity for their families.

Many believe that the departure of a few people from this practice will bring distress for the entire village.

Boukham’s chief asked the detainees to admit their guilt and agree not to worship Christ in the village, but all seven refused, according to HRWLRF.

Since the district authorities have not publicly chastised village officials, “the case could get complicated, and the Christians will suffer in the process,” the HRWLRF’s spokesman said, adding that public advocacy was the best way to direct attention to their plight and perhaps secure their release.

Following the confiscation of livestock from Christian families earlier this month, officials in a village in Laos on Saturday July 11 called a special meeting for all residents and announced that they had “banned the Christian faith in our village.”

The chief of Katin village, along with village security, social and religious affairs officials, warned all 53 Christian residents that they should revert to worshiping local spirits in accordance with Lao tradition or risk losing all village rights and privileges – including their livestock and homes, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom HRWLRF.

The Katin village leader also declared that spirit worship was the only acceptable form of worship in the community, HRWLRF reported. Katin village is in Ta Oih district, Saravan Province.

Full story at Compass Direct News.

Last Sunday July 5 officials and residents of Katin village in Ta Oih district, Saravan province, Laos, confiscated and slaughtered livestock belonging to nine Christian families in an effort to force them to renounce their faith.

In June village elders had warned the families, 53 people in total, to renounce the faith they had adopted in late May or face “serious consequences,” according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom HRWLRF.

When the Christians ignored this warning and attended worship services in a neighboring village, villagers broke into their pig pens and seized one pig per family, later slaughtering the animals and distributing the meat among themselves, according to HRWLRF.

Officials said the seizure of the pigs – each worth the equivalent of six weeks’ salary for an average laborer in the area – was a form of punishment for ignoring the order to abandon Christianity.

The slaughter followed a similar “punishment” meted out last September, when officials seized a buffalo worth approximately US$350 from a Christian resident identified only as Bounchu, telling him the animal would be returned only if he renounced his faith. When he refused, they slaughtered the animal in the village square, distributing the meat to non-Christian residents.

Read the full story at Compass Direct News

Police in Borikhamxay province, Laos, on March 19 destroyed a church building in Nonsomboon village while Christian residents attended a meeting called by district officials.

A member of the provincial religious affairs department, identified only as Bounlerm, has since claimed that police destroyed the worship facility because it was built without official approval.

Tension between the Christians and local authorities escalated last year when officials ordered at least 40 Christian families living in Ban Mai village to relocate some 20 kilometers 12 miles to Nonsomboon for “administrative reasons,” according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom HRWLRF. Local sources said the forced relocation to Nonsomboon village was an effort to control the activities of Christians in Ban Mai who were sharing their faith with other people in the district.

Previously authorities had evicted Christians from several other villages in the district and relocated them to Ban Mai village, HRWLRF reported. Families were expected to cover their own relocation expenses, including the cost of rebuilding their homes and re-establishing their livelihoods.

Read the full story at Compass Direct News.

The chief of Boukham village in Savannakhet province, Laos, on Friday (Sept. 19) called a special community meeting to resolve the “problem” of eight resident Christian families who have refused to give up their faith. The meeting concluded with plans to expel all 55 Christians from the village.

Although all adult members of a village are usually invited to such meetings, on this occasion the Christians were deliberately excluded, according to rights group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF).

Pastor Sompong Supatto, 32, and two other believers from the village, Boot Chanthaleuxay, 18, and Khamvan Chanthaleuxay, also 18, remain in detention in the nearby Ad-Sapangthong district police detention cell. HRWLRF earlier reported that police have held the men in handcuffs and wooden foot stocks since their arrest on Aug. 3, causing numbness and infection in their legs and feet due to lack of blood circulation.

Authorities have said they will release the three only if they renounce their faith.

Read the full story at Compass Direct News.