U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Chairman of the Committee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations issued the following statement today after the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) presented its Annual Recommendations to Secretary of State Rice on Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs). 

    “I fully agree with the Commission’s recommendations that Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, People’s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Vietnam retain their designation as CPCs for their ongoing, systematic and egregious abuse of religious freedom.

    “The Commission is also correct that Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan should be added to the list of CPCs. By forthrightly naming the countries that seriously violate the right to religious freedom, we can begin to develop solutions that will guarantee the right to religious freedom to all people as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” 

    Turkmenistan, one of the most repressive states in the world, allows virtually no independent religious activity. Uzbekistan’s highly restrictive religion law severely limits the ability of religious communities to function, and the government continues to crack down harshly on Muslims who do not kowtow to state-prescribed practices. 

    “The State Department has the power to designate CPC’s at any time. It should act forthwith to add Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan,” said Smith. “The United States must use all of our means to encourage greater respect for human rights and democratic development in Central Asian countries. We can no longer afford to remain silent while dictators like President Karimov oppress their citizens and terrorize their own people with impunity.” 

    Smith has authored the Central Asia Democracy and Human Rights Act of 2006 (HR 3189), which provides constructive foreign assistance to support democratization, human rights and radio broadcasting, as well as condition US aid to the central governments. It would condition all non-humanitarian US assistance – both economic and military – to the individual governments of Central Asia (including Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) upon the President’s determination that a country is making “substantial, sustained and demonstrable progress” toward full respect of human rights.

    In China, citizens practicing a faith other than officially sanctioned religions are often subject to torture, imprisonment, and death. After death, prisoner organs are frequently harvested for commercial purposes. Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, and Muslim Uighurs are all being persecuted for their faith. Falun Gong practitioners are subject to an eradication campaign. Hundreds – perhaps thousands – of Falun Gong are dead as a result of torture while tens of thousands more remain jailed in labor camps, prisons and mental hospitals where they are forced to endure torture brainwashing sessions.

    “China’s continued repression of religious beliefs remains among the most despotic in the world, as became clear by the protests and other human rights actions during President Hu’s visit to Washington two weeks ago,” said Smith, who held a hearing in China’s continued human rights abuses on April 19. 

    At Rep. Smith’s March 29 hearing on human rights in Vietnam, USCIRF testified that Vietnam had not sufficiently addressed the issues that led their CPC designation in 2004. Religious prisoners remain behind bars, new arrests have been made, hundreds of churches remain closed, forced renunciations of faith continue, and restrictions on and harassment of all of Vietnam’s diverse religious communities remain. Those who suffer especially are Montagnard and Hmong Protestants, unregistered “house churches,” Vietnamese Mennonites, followers of Hoa Hao Buddhism, and the banned United Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV). 

    “We cannot be blinded by the illusion that economic activity automatically brings progress in human rights,” said Smith. “This is an opportunity to insist that broader relations between Vietnam and the world community depend on progress in human rights – particularly religious freedom.”

    Smith called for action on his bill, HR 3190, the Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2005, which would condition U.S. non-humanitarian assistance on Vietnam’s respect for human rights.