The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in testimony before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on September 7 commended the second annual International Religious Freedom Report of the US State Department (USSD) but urged the USSD to take a tougher stand towards the worst violators--especially Sudan, a country previously cited for genocidal atrocities by the USCIRF and US Congress. USCIRF agreed with USSD in labeling Afghanistan, Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, Serbia and Sudan as "countries of particular concern" (CPC) but faulted the ommission of Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Turkestan from this list and said that four other countries are "close to earning the CPC label": India, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Almost two million (1.9) civilians were estimated to have been killed in the south and Nuba mountains by late 1998, five-sixths of whom are victims of genocide, said Millard Burr (US Committee for Refugees, December 1998).

In its May report, the USCIRF focussed on the need to end the conflict in order to end the victimization of the people in the south and Nuba mountains. It proposed a comprehensive 12 month plan for the US to press Sudan's government to respect human rights and increase economic pressure on Khartoum by tightening current US sanctions on the government and limiting the ability of foreign firms doing business with Sudan to raise money (which fortifies the Khartoum government) in US capital markets, such as the China National Petroleum Company which owns 40 percent of the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company. The USCIRF plan includes incentives and disincentives to press Sudan to make peace. It asks the President to launch a vocal public campaign to inform the world about war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocidal activities by Sudan. USCIRF suggests that if this does not work within 12 months and if opposition groups have taken steps to improve their human rights records, the US should be prepared to provide direct non-lethal and humanitarian aid to appropriate opposition groups.

USCIRF Chairman Elliot Abrams wrote on August 14 to the National Security Advisor, Samuel Berger, asking for US action to enable the UN to re-start aid operations which it was forced to stop because of bombings by the Government of Sudan. The letter cited reports of starvation and disease in the "no-go" areas (where the government forbids aid), use of food aid to coerce religious minorities to convert to Islam, and reiterated (as stated in its May 1 report) that the Sudan government atrocities are at a genocidal level. It urged the US (as advocated in its May 1 report) to strengthen economic sanctions against Sudan so as to further restrict companies helping to develop Sudanese oil fields from raising capital on the US market. Although USCIRF asked for a response by the end of August, as of September 20 no reply had been received by USCIRF but, an official at USCIRF said, there have been substantive discussions about the issues raised with some government agencies. USCIRF also recommended in its testimony before the Sendate Foreign Relations Committee that the US take action against Sudan's control of foreign food aid and use of it as a weapon of war.

Sudan has been involved in internal war almost continuously since independence in 1956. The present 17 year old conflict began with the revolt of the south--predominantly Christian and African-- against the imposition of Islamic (Shari'a) law by the northern Khartoum government. Since 1989 the Government of Sudan has been an extremist Islamic military dictatorship, not representative of the range of northern opinion as independent expression has been repressed. The war has been extended against other regions and peoples such as the Nuba, a campaign authorized in 1992 by the Governor of Kordofan (fortified by a fatwa by pro-government imans) as a "jihad against the Nuba, rewarding Arab tribal leaders with new titles, guns and Landcruisers" (Helen Fein, Health and Human Rights [2:2], 1997: 29) Although some human rights organizations observe that all parties are guilty of violations of the rules of war, most agree that the major responsibility for atrocities and "genocide by attrition" (Fein 1997) lies with the government. This genocidal campaign is occasionally reinforced by the bombing of international medical and relief facilities, as observed in the government bombing of the International Rescue Committee compound and a Red Cross plane in August (Washington Post, August 19, 2000, A 18).

However, most coverage of Sudan in the US press relates to the slavery of over 50,000 southerners, caught by Arab militias organized by the government, and alleged terrorism against the US which has led to UN sanctions and US bombing (see Sudan in Signs and Sequels, this issue).

The USCIRF was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA), an act supported by a wide range of religious communities and some human rights organizations including the Institute for the Study of Genocide. IRFA stated that it was the policy of the US to oppose violations of religious freedom conducted or tolerated by other governments and to promote religious freedom through specific actions targeting violators. IRFA created the Office of International Religious Freedom headed by an Ambassador-at-Large at the USSD and mandated that the USSD issue an annual report on international religious freedom each September. Members of the commission (USCIRF) include representatives of religious groups, officials and researchers in this area. The Annual Religious Freedom Report (1,000 pp.) is prepared by the USSD Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor and is available on the web at http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/

The USCIRF is thus dependent on the USSD but organizationally independent. The USSD has many interests in Sudan, said a highly placed USSD official recently: supporting conflict-resolution processes; working to improve the human rights performance of the Government of Sudan and rebel organizations; pursuing humanitarian objectives to get access for aid; and defense against terrorism.

In its May report, USCIRF complained that USSD "withheld certain documents relating to the application of economic sanctions on Sudan on grounds of executive privilege and even more importantly is resisting making embassy cables available to the Commission on the same grounds, despite the fact that Commissioners and Commission senior staff hold the requisite security clearances. The Commission believes that this violates the spirit of Congress's intent...." (see http://www.uscirf.gov/reports/01May00/ExecSummary.htm). In a conversation on September 13, a representative of USCIRF said that the issue regarding cable traffic has been resolved but they still lack information on economic sanctions.

The Washington Post charged that US economic sanctions will be made more ineffectual by a proposed exemption of gum arabic (HR 4868m Section 1439), a substance used by printers and soft drink makers and one of Sudan's chief exports, prompted by commercial interests in the district of one member--Rep. Robert Menendez (Editorial WP, "Spineless on Sudan," September 10, 2000, B6).

Most persecution occurs in authoritarian--usually communist and former communist states-- and Islamic states. Since ethnicity often coincides with religion, this may involve large religio- ethnic groups at risk, such as Tibetan Buddhists by China. Because religious persecution frequently stems from religion or interpretations of religion which sanction gender and group inequality, several religious repressive regimes also practice severe gender discrimination and even "gender apartheid" (as has been noted in Afghanistan), involving half or more of the majority group. Minorities experiencing discrimination globally include non-Muslims--and some Muslims in Muslim countries such as non-Wahabi Muslims in Saudi Arabia, Shi'a in Afghanistan and Malaysia, and in India--, Christians, religio-ethnic minorities and independent sects (e.g., Falung Gong in China; Jehovah's Witnesses in several countries).

Moreover, some formally democratic states without any official prohibitions on religious minorities do not protect religious minorities from violence. In some countries, popular violence and terrorism may be state-organized or tolerated against minorities. The Chairman of the USCIRF, Elliot Abrams, in a letter to Sec. of State Madeleine Albright on July 28, observed the toll of permitted or undeterred mob violence between religious communities and against minorities in India, Indonesia and Nigeria. (See Indonesia in Signs and Sequels, this issue). Northern Nigerian states' imposition of the Shari'a, Islamic law, triggered interreligious riots in February and March leading to the deaths of hundreds of Christians and Muslims.

Often, religious freedom is directly curtailed by government edict, leading to harassment, detention, imprisonment, deportation of individuals, bans on congregations and destruction of meeting places and religious books. The USSD report also criticizes registration laws and investigation of "sects" in Belgium, France, and Germany as curtailments of religious freedom.