Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 120 | Wed 10 Aug 2011
SUDAN: GENOCIDE OF NUBA BY STARVATION
By Elizabeth Kendal
[For background see RLPB 113 (22 June 2011) & RLPB 117 (20 July 2011) ]
Daily bombing raids targeting the Nuba populations of South Kordofan have resulted in significant loss of life and destruction of properties, including homes, crops and livestock. While the UN estimates that some 73,000 Nuba have been displaced, the former deputy governor of South Kordofan, Abdel Aziz el-Hilu, estimates the figure is closer to 500,000. Nuba seeking to flee the region are being intercepted and killed at roadblocks. Numerous tens of thousands of Nuba, many of whom are wounded, have been forced to seek shelter in hillside caves where they have nothing to eat but grass and leaves. The rainy season is making survival even more difficult. Furthermore the Government of Sudan (GoS) has sealed off the region so that humanitarian aid cannot get in. Without intervention, mass starvation will be inevitable.
The GoS has considerable experience in waging genocide. Scorched earth warfare followed by denial of humanitarian aid has been used in the Nuba Mountains (early 1990s), Bahr el-Ghazal (South Sudan, 1998) and Darfur to kill many tens of thousands of Africans in just a few months. Yet while Khartoum is engineering a famine in the Nuba Mountains, it is also congratulating itself for pouring aid worth nearly two million dollars into famine relief in Somalia (Sudan Tribune, 28 July). That too is standard for Khartoum which routinely starves its own people while exporting food and receiving food aid. [See 'Why is Akobo hungry?' By Elizabeth Kendal for Religious Liberty Monitoring, 9 April 2010 ]
Whilst the GoS's motive is greed and its goal is the theft of resource-rich land, it recruits fighters amongst Arab-Islamists with the language of Islamic jihad. In April 1992 Muslim clerics in South Kordofan issued a fatwa for the GoS that legitimised killing the Nuba as 'apostates' (Muslims not supporting the regime) and 'infidels' (unbelievers) 'who stand as a bulwark against the spread of Islam'. Today the Nuba are again being labelled rebels and infidels, and are being targeted by Islamic jihad to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of this resource-rich region.
Bradford Phillips is the founder and president of Persecution Project Foundation and the director (Sudan) of Voice of the Martyrs. He recently returned from 12 days in the Nuba Mountains. On Thursday 4 August he gave eye-witness testimony to a US House of Representatives subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights. To Phillips 'the issue is genocide'. He is gravely concerned about the humanitarian crisis facing Sudan's largest Christian community. 'There are 70,000 to 90,000 people that are probably going to die in the next month to two months,' he warns. Local Nuba told Phillips the GoS views the church as an extension of the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement which the GoS deems a 'foreign' force, although it is not. Phillips heard stories of pastors being arrested and horrifically tortured by soldiers seeking to extract the names of church members. Refusing to betray their flock, many pastors have been imprisoned, whilst some have died under torture or been executed.
Also testifying before the House Committee was Bishop Andudu Adam Elnail, the Anglican Bishop of Kadugli. Andudu has been told soldiers searched for him house-to-house. He believes that had he not been in the US for medical treatment he would now be lying in a mass grave. Bishop Andudu is pleading for intervention.
Like other Sudan experts Brad Phillips is calling for action that would neutralise/destroy Khartoum's Antonov bombers. Dedicated religious liberty and persecuted church advocate Congressman Frank R Wolf pleaded passionately for the Church to stand up and speak up for its persecuted brothers and sisters in Sudan. As Phillips told a CBN interview on 6 August, the most important thing the Church can do is 'intercede through prayer'.
[For more information on the 4 August hearing with links to transcripts and videos, see Religious Liberty Monitoring ]
PLEASE PRAY THAT GOD WILL --
* draw the Nuba and the global Church into dependent prayer for divine intervention; for the LORD will surely rise to show compassion at the sound of our cry (Isaiah 30:18,19). May Khartoum's bombers be neutralised and Omar el-Bashir's arrogant and racist reign of terror be ended. (Psalm 10)
'Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.' (Isaiah 40:10,11 ESV)
* provide displaced Nuba with their every need of shelter, food, healing and protection; may he ease their anxiety, bring rest to their souls and increase their faith.
* protect Nuba pastors, hiding them from those who intend to torture and kill them; may those imprisoned be protected and preserved, experiencing God's presence and being assured of his love.
~~~~
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GENOCIDE OF NUBA BY STARVATION IN SUDAN
Continual aerial bombardment has displaced hundreds of thousands of Nuba, the predominantly Christian African tribes indigenous to the Nuba Mountains in Sudan's South Kordofan State. Furthermore, the Government of Sudan (GoS) is preventing humanitarian aid entering the region. Sudan experts warn that if there is no intervention 70,000 or more Nuba will starve to death within the next two months. This is exactly what the genocidal and racist GoS wants as it pursues total control of the resource-rich Nuba Mts. Eye-witnesses report that Christian pastors specifically are being targeted for arrest, torture and execution, because the Church has been labelled an enemy. Please pray for God to intervene on behalf of his imperilled and besieged people in the Nuba Mts.
-------------
To receive the RLPB by email, write to join-rlpb@hub.xc.org
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
119. Indonesia: dangerous days for Christians
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin | RLPB 119 | Wed 03 Aug 2011
INDONESIA: DANGEROUS DAYS FOR CHRISTIANS
By Elizabeth Kendal
China is not landlocked, but it might as well be. China's coast does not open to the Pacific Ocean (where the US Navy is supreme) but opens to the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. To get to the Pacific Ocean, Chinese ships must navigate through archipelagos controlled by various US allies: Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Indonesia is especially strategic, straddling the Pacific and Indian Oceans and controlling some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Indonesia's geo-strategic value is rising in line with China's economic and military ascendancy. Because Beijing is aggressively courting Jakarta, the US is reluctant to challenge Indonesia over declining religious liberty. Because President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is dependent on Islamist support in parliament, he is reluctant to challenge Islamists over escalating and increasingly violent Islamic intolerance. All this leaves Indonesia's Christian minority increasingly vulnerable.
On 24 January an Indonesian court sentenced three soldiers to eight, nine and ten months imprisonment for insubordination after video footage emerged showing the soldiers torturing Papuan civilians -- beating, burning, knifing and suffocating them. Whilst the US expressed regret over the leniency of the sentences, they praised the fact that the soldiers were tried at all, hailing it as 'progress'. (Without the trial, the US would have been obliged by its own laws to withhold military aid.) On 6 February a 1500-strong Muslim mob attacked a house in Cikeusik village, Banten Province, West Java, where a small number of Ahmaddiya Muslims -- regarded as heretical by mainstream Muslims -- were meeting for worship. Video footage posted on Youtube and broadcast worldwide shows Muslims hacking and bludgeoning the 'infidels' to death as the assailants' supporters cheer and shout 'Allahu Akbar' (Allah is great). Three Ahmadiyya were killed and five were seriously wounded, and Ahmaddiya property was torched. On Thursday 28 July Serang District Court in Java sentenced 12 of the instigators and killers to prison for between three and six months. As the deputy director for Asia of Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, notes: 'The Cikeusik trial sends the chilling message that attacks on minorities like the Ahmadiyya will be treated lightly by the legal system.'
Religious liberty is seriously threatened in Indonesia and Christian security is increasingly tenuous. West Java is a hotbed of militant Islamic fundamentalism where Christians are less than two percent of the population. As tensions escalate and protection diminishes, Christians in West Java and restive Papua become increasingly vulnerable. In June last year, at the second Bekasi Islamic Congress held in Al-Azhar Mosque, Bekasi, West Java, Muslims there were instructed to form Islamic paramilitaries in readiness for a war against Christians. See 'Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia: Dhimmitude or death' (12 July 2010)
On 23 July 2011 Fides [Catholic] News Service reported they had received an 'SOS' appeal from The Indonesian Christian Church (Gereja Kristen Indonesia -- GKI), a Protestant denomination. This warned of such tension that 'the Christian faithful are at risk of mass persecution'. The GKI cites impunity as a major factor fuelling the Islamic fundamentalist trend towards violence. In Bogor and Bekasi, suburbs of Jakarta, West Java, local authorities are defying the law (including Supreme Court rulings) at the expense of Christians to appease belligerent Islamic fundamentalists. At a recent City Council meeting in Bogor, authorities threatened 'mass mobilisation' against 'the Christians of the GKI'. In other words: submit in silence or risk suffering and death!
Islamic zeal and belligerence will escalate through August as Ramadan progresses . These are dangerous days for the vulnerable Christians of West Java and restive Papua. Though the world's powers abandon them, our supreme and sovereign God never will.
THEREFORE, LET US PRAY THAT GOD WILL:
* draw his people into prayerful dependence, that they might 'wait for him' (Isaiah 30:18) and see his salvation; through it all, may the Indonesian Church -- in grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit -- be light, salt and yeast for the glory of God.
* intervene for the protection of his people and the advance of the gospel in Indonesia.
* expose the intolerance of Islam, while frustrating the schemes of the wicked (Psalm 146:9).
~~~~
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DANGEROUS DAYS FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA
Because President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono depends on Islamist support in parliament, he is reluctant to challenge the issue of increasingly violent Islamic intolerance. Because the ascendant China is courting Indonesia, the US is reluctant to challenge Indonesia over its serious decline in religious liberty. West Java is a hotbed of militant Islamic fundamentalism where Christians are less than two percent of the population. Last year Muslims there were called to form Islamic paramilitary forces in readiness for jihad. As tensions grow and protection diminishes, Christians in West Java and Papua become increasingly vulnerable. Islamic zeal and belligerence will escalate as Ramadan progresses during August. A city council has threatened 'mass mobilisation' against the Christian population, for whom these are dangerous days. Please pray for God's intervention and for divine protection.
----------------
To receive the RLPB by email, write to join-rlpb@hub.xc.org
INDONESIA: DANGEROUS DAYS FOR CHRISTIANS
By Elizabeth Kendal
China is not landlocked, but it might as well be. China's coast does not open to the Pacific Ocean (where the US Navy is supreme) but opens to the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea. To get to the Pacific Ocean, Chinese ships must navigate through archipelagos controlled by various US allies: Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Indonesia is especially strategic, straddling the Pacific and Indian Oceans and controlling some of the world's busiest shipping lanes. Indonesia's geo-strategic value is rising in line with China's economic and military ascendancy. Because Beijing is aggressively courting Jakarta, the US is reluctant to challenge Indonesia over declining religious liberty. Because President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is dependent on Islamist support in parliament, he is reluctant to challenge Islamists over escalating and increasingly violent Islamic intolerance. All this leaves Indonesia's Christian minority increasingly vulnerable.
On 24 January an Indonesian court sentenced three soldiers to eight, nine and ten months imprisonment for insubordination after video footage emerged showing the soldiers torturing Papuan civilians -- beating, burning, knifing and suffocating them. Whilst the US expressed regret over the leniency of the sentences, they praised the fact that the soldiers were tried at all, hailing it as 'progress'. (Without the trial, the US would have been obliged by its own laws to withhold military aid.) On 6 February a 1500-strong Muslim mob attacked a house in Cikeusik village, Banten Province, West Java, where a small number of Ahmaddiya Muslims -- regarded as heretical by mainstream Muslims -- were meeting for worship. Video footage posted on Youtube and broadcast worldwide shows Muslims hacking and bludgeoning the 'infidels' to death as the assailants' supporters cheer and shout 'Allahu Akbar' (Allah is great). Three Ahmadiyya were killed and five were seriously wounded, and Ahmaddiya property was torched. On Thursday 28 July Serang District Court in Java sentenced 12 of the instigators and killers to prison for between three and six months. As the deputy director for Asia of Human Rights Watch, Elaine Pearson, notes: 'The Cikeusik trial sends the chilling message that attacks on minorities like the Ahmadiyya will be treated lightly by the legal system.'
Religious liberty is seriously threatened in Indonesia and Christian security is increasingly tenuous. West Java is a hotbed of militant Islamic fundamentalism where Christians are less than two percent of the population. As tensions escalate and protection diminishes, Christians in West Java and restive Papua become increasingly vulnerable. In June last year, at the second Bekasi Islamic Congress held in Al-Azhar Mosque, Bekasi, West Java, Muslims there were instructed to form Islamic paramilitaries in readiness for a war against Christians. See 'Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia: Dhimmitude or death' (12 July 2010)
On 23 July 2011 Fides [Catholic] News Service reported they had received an 'SOS' appeal from The Indonesian Christian Church (Gereja Kristen Indonesia -- GKI), a Protestant denomination. This warned of such tension that 'the Christian faithful are at risk of mass persecution'. The GKI cites impunity as a major factor fuelling the Islamic fundamentalist trend towards violence. In Bogor and Bekasi, suburbs of Jakarta, West Java, local authorities are defying the law (including Supreme Court rulings) at the expense of Christians to appease belligerent Islamic fundamentalists. At a recent City Council meeting in Bogor, authorities threatened 'mass mobilisation' against 'the Christians of the GKI'. In other words: submit in silence or risk suffering and death!
Islamic zeal and belligerence will escalate through August as Ramadan progresses . These are dangerous days for the vulnerable Christians of West Java and restive Papua. Though the world's powers abandon them, our supreme and sovereign God never will.
THEREFORE, LET US PRAY THAT GOD WILL:
* draw his people into prayerful dependence, that they might 'wait for him' (Isaiah 30:18) and see his salvation; through it all, may the Indonesian Church -- in grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit -- be light, salt and yeast for the glory of God.
* intervene for the protection of his people and the advance of the gospel in Indonesia.
* expose the intolerance of Islam, while frustrating the schemes of the wicked (Psalm 146:9).
~~~~
SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DANGEROUS DAYS FOR CHRISTIANS IN INDONESIA
Because President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono depends on Islamist support in parliament, he is reluctant to challenge the issue of increasingly violent Islamic intolerance. Because the ascendant China is courting Indonesia, the US is reluctant to challenge Indonesia over its serious decline in religious liberty. West Java is a hotbed of militant Islamic fundamentalism where Christians are less than two percent of the population. Last year Muslims there were called to form Islamic paramilitary forces in readiness for jihad. As tensions grow and protection diminishes, Christians in West Java and Papua become increasingly vulnerable. Islamic zeal and belligerence will escalate as Ramadan progresses during August. A city council has threatened 'mass mobilisation' against the Christian population, for whom these are dangerous days. Please pray for God's intervention and for divine protection.
----------------
To receive the RLPB by email, write to join-rlpb@hub.xc.org
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)