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Death Toll of Christians 48 in Jos, Nigeria Clash
Posted on January 28, 2010 by particularkev
Outbreak of violence in Plateau state results in burning of 10 church buildings.
LAGOS, Nigeria, January 27 (CDN) — Two pastors and 46 other Christians have been confirmed killed in the outbreak of violence 10 days ago in Jos, Plateau state in Nigeria, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
In the religious clash, triggered when Muslim youths on Jan. 17 attacked a Catholic church, 10 church buildings were burned and 27 Christians are still missing, CAN officials said at a press conference in Jos today. Police estimate over 300 lives were lost in the clash.
The Plateau state CAN chairman, the Most Rev. Ignatius Kaigama, said the CAN Directorate of Research has carefully investigated the clash "without any sentiment and come out with a factual account."
Kaigama said flashpoint areas where clashes have repeatedly occurred should be identified and security personnel deployed.
Police said violence was triggered by an unprovoked attack by Muslim youths on worshippers at the St. Michael's Catholic Church in Nasarawa Gwong, in the Jos North Local Government Area. Burned buildings included the Christ Apostolic Church, Assemblies of God Church, three branches of the Church of Christ in Nigeria and two buildings of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA), Christian leaders said.
The ECWA on Saturday (Jan. 23) reported that some of its members were missing and appealed to security agencies to help locate their whereabouts.
"Many of our members whose houses were burnt have to date not be found, despite all efforts by the church and their relatives to find their bodies or know their whereabouts," said the Rev. Anthony Farinto, national president of the ECWA. "ECWA suspects strongly that many of the dead bodies hurriedly buried in mass graves by the Muslims included some of its members who were murdered within the Muslim neighborhoods."
The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) accused the state General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major-Gen. Salleh Maina, and some soldiers of taking sides in the clash.
"Soldiers were seen in some parts of Jos watching Muslim youths shooting Christians and burning places without any efforts to stop them," read a PFN a press statement.
The process of selecting GOCs nationwide should be open and brought under the supervision of the National Assembly, as the choice of GOC by one man does "not augur well for the peaceful co-existence of the nation," according to the PFN.
The PFN urged the state government to form an Anti-Religious Riot Vigilante Group "whose officials should be well trained in surveillance, intelligence, security and brute self-defense as the first response group to any uprising before the arrival of the police to quell any uprising and save senseless killings."
The Rev. Chuwang Avou, secretary of the state chapter of CAN, said the crisis broke out when Muslim youths pursued a woman into a church during worship on Sunday, wreaking havoc on the service. A Muslim group in the area, however, dismissed claims that Muslim youths ignited the tensions. They accused Christian youths of stopping a Muslim from rebuilding his house.
State Commissioner of Police Greg Anyating stated that Muslim youths were to blame for setting off the violence.
The violence comes at a time of a leadership vacuum in Nigeria, with illness requiring Muslim President Umaru Yar'Adua to leave the country on Nov. 23 to seek treatment in Saudi Arabia.
The same area suffered on Nov. 28-29, 2008, when murderous rioting sparked by Muslim attacks on Christians and their property left six pastors dead, at least 500 other people killed and 40 churches destroyed, according to church leaders. More than 25,000 persons were displaced in the two days of violence.
What began as outrage over suspected vote fraud in local elections quickly hit the religious fault line as angry Muslims took aim at Christian sites rather than at political targets. Police and troops reportedly killed about 400 rampaging Muslims in an effort to quell the unrest, and Islamists shot, slashed or stabbed to death more than 100 Christians.
Sectarian violence in Jos, a volatile mid-point where the predominantly Muslim north meets the mainly Christian south, left more than 1,000 people dead in 2001. Another 700 people were killed in sectarian outbreaks of violence in 2004. Located in Nigeria's central region between the Muslim-majority north and the largely Christian south, Plateau state is home to various Christian ethnic groups co-existing uneasily with Muslim Hausa settlers.
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BURMA: AUTHORITIES CLAMP DOWN ON CHRISTIANS
Churches ordered to cease services, stop meeting in 'unauthorized' venues.
DUBLIN, January 21 (Compass Direct News) – Burmese authorities last week increased restrictions on Christian activity in the capital city of Rangoon and surrounding areas, including the closure of several churches, Compass sources confirmed yesterday.
Orders issued on Jan. 5 had already forced many Christians meeting in residential homes or apartments to cease gathering for worship. Officials last week ordered several major Rangoon churches, including Wather Hope Church, Emmanuel Church and the Assemblies of God Church, to cease holding services and continued enforcing the Jan. 5 ban on meetings held in unauthorized facilities.
In the late 1990s authorities stopped issuing permits for land purchase or the construction of new churches, leading many Burmese Christians to conduct services in rented apartments or office buildings, according to the Burmese news agency Mizzima.
The Kyauktada Township Peace and Development Council on Jan. 5 invited pastors from more than 100 Rangoon churches to a meeting where they were told to sign documents pledging to cease operation of their churches. About 50 pastors attended, according to Mizzima.
The documents threatened punishment, including potential jail terms and the sealing of church facilities, for pastors who refused to obey the closure orders.
Another local online news source, the Democratic Voice of Burma, claimed officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs had summoned the owners of buildings where churches met and ordered them not to rent their properties to religious groups.
Mizzima quoted an unnamed Burmese Christian who claimed that 80 percent of churches in Rangoon were affected by the order.
History of Religious Repression
Some local Christians and international observers say the crackdown is related to Christian involvement in relief efforts for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which hit Burma in May 2008.
Despite widespread devastation and loss of life, Burma's reclusive government initially banned foreign aid but finally accepted it on condition that Burmese officials would distribute it. Christians, however, had responded immediately to the crisis, gathering relief supplies and transporting them to the Irrawaddy Delta region. Police or army officials stopped some groups, but many were allowed to proceed. At least one such group told Compass that officials likely feared the conversion of Buddhists who accepted aid from Christians.
The military junta ruling Burma promotes Buddhism at the expense of other minority religions, according to Paul A. Marshall's 2008 Religious Freedom in the World. The country's population is 82 percent Buddhist, 9 percent Christian and 4 percent Muslim, with traditional ethnic, Chinese and Hindu religions accounting for the rest.
The church closure orders may simply be an extension of Burma's existing religious policies, which elevate Buddhism in an effort to solidify national identity. Burma ranks high on lists of religious and human rights violators at several watch organizations, including the U.S. State Department, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House and Open Doors.
Documents declaring the government's intention to "stamp out" Christianity have circulated for some time. Rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide drew attention to one such document in a 2007 report entitled, "Carrying the Cross: The military regime's campaign of restriction, discrimination and persecution against Christians in Burma." The report summarized a 17-point document allegedly produced by an organization affiliated with the Ministry of Religious Affairs entitled, "Program to Destroy the Christian Religion in Burma."
The first point in this document declared that, "There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practiced."
A military dictatorship has ruled Burma since 1962. Following the takeover, the government renamed Burma as the Union of Myanmar and the capital city as Yangon, but many news agencies and government bodies continue to use the original names. When elections were held in 1988, with the opposing National League for Democracy clearly in the majority, the generals rejected the popular vote and used brute military force to cement their power throughout Burma. A similar show of force met hundreds of Buddhist monks who initiated mass anti-government protest rallies on the streets of Rangoon in September 2007.
While almost all Burmese citizens suffer under the regime, Christians are often singled out for specific attack or repression because of their perceived connections with the West.
Reports from various mission groups suggest Christianity is flourishing under the regime, but believers must be creative with their worship – particularly in rural areas. In reports confirmed by Compass, Christians in one state began photocopying Bibles to overcome restrictions on religious publications. Others baptized new Christians during the annual water festival, where citizens douse each other with buckets of water, ceremonially washing away the "sins" of the past year.
Heightened Security, Control
Rangoon residents say a much heavier security presence has been evident in the city since early January, when political activists began distributing anti-government leaflets, The Irrawaddy newspaper reported on Jan. 13. The leaflet drops may have contributed to the current crackdown on church gatherings, as generals suspect all organized groups of having a political agenda.
At a graduation of military students in Rangoon on Jan. 9, Vice-Senior Gen. Maung Aye, who is commander-in-chief of the army and deputy commander-in-chief of Defense Services, warned students to steadfastly uphold the country's "Three Main National Causes" to prevent "recurrences of past bitter experiences." The causes were listed as non-disintegration of the Union of Myanmar, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty.
The New Light of Myanmar, a government newspaper, reported the general as saying that, "You will have learned bitter lessons from a number of world events, in which certain States have become weaker … owing to external intervention in their conflicts."
Posted in Assemblies of God, Buddhism, China, Christianity, Islam, Myanmar, Open Doors, USA | Tagged accepted, accounting, activists, activity, affected, affiliated, agenda, aid, allegedly, allowed, annual, anti-government, apartments, areas, army, Assemblies of God Church, attack, attended, authorities, ban, banned, baptized, believers, Bibles, bitter, bodies, brute, buckets, Buddhism, Buddhists, buildings, Burma, Burmese, campaign, capital, carrying, causes, cease, cement, ceremonially, certain, Chinese, Christian, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Christianity, Christians, churches, circulated, citizens, city, claimed, closure, commander-in-chief, condition, conduct, confirmed, conflicts, connections west, construction, continued, contributed, control, conversion, country, crackdown, creative, crisis, cross, current, cyclone, declaring, defense services, Democratic Voice of Burma, deputy commander-in-chief, destroy, devastation, dictatorship, Discrimination, distribute, documents, douse, effort, efforts, elections, elevate, Emmanuel Church, enforcing, entitled, ethnic, events, evident, existing, expense, experiences, extension, external, facilities, feared, finally, flourishing, following, force, forced, foreign, Freedom House, gathering, generals, government, graduation, groups, heavier, heightened, Hindu, History, hit, holding, homes, human rights, Human Rights Watch, including, increased, initially, initiated, intention, international, intervention, invited, involement, Irrawaddy Delta, Islam, issued, issuing, jail, junta, Kyauktada Township Peace and Development Council, land purchase, leading, leaflets, learned, lessons, life, listed, local, loss, main, major, majority, mass, Maung Aye, meeting, military, Ministry of Religious Affairs, minority, mission, Mizzima, Monks, Muslim, muslims, names, Nargis, national, national identity, National League for Democracy, new, news, news agency, newspaper, non-disintegration, obey, observers, office, officials, online, Open Doors, operation, opposing, ordered, orders, organizations, organized, original, overcome, owners, pastors, Paul A. Marshall, perceived, permits, perpetuation, Persecution, photocopying, pledging, police, policies, political, popular, population, potential, power, practiced, prevent, proceed, produced, program, promotes, properties, protest, publications, punishment, quoted, rallies, Rangoon, reclusive, recurrences, refused, regime, region, rejected, related, relief, religions, religious, Religious Freedom in the World, renamed, rented, repression, residential, residents, responded, restriction, restrictions, ruling, rural, sealing, security, services, sign, singled, sins, solidify, source, sovereignty, specific, stamp out, state, states, steadfastly, stop, streets, students, suffer, suggest, summarized, summoned, supplies, surrounding, suspect, takeover, terms, The Irrawaddy, The New Light of Myanmar, threatened, traditional, transporting, U.S. State Department, unauthorized, Union of Myanmar, unnamed, venues, vice-senior general, victims, violators, vote, warned, washing, watch, water festival, Wather Hope Church, weaker, widespread, world, worship, Yangoon | 1 Comment