Lao Officials Destroy Rice Paddies, Expel More Christians
0 views
Skip to first unread message
Pastor Dale Morgan
unread,
Dec 31, 2010, 2:27:05 AM12/31/10
Reply to author
Sign in to reply to author
Forward
Sign in to forward
Delete
You do not have permission to delete messages in this group
Copy link
Report message
Show original message
Either email addresses are anonymous for this group or you need the view member email addresses permission to view the original message
to Bible-Pro...@googlegroups.com
Faith Under
Fire......
Lao Officials Destroy Rice Paddies, Expel More Christians
Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010 Posted: 9:42:21PM HKT
DUBLIN (CDN) - Officials and residents of Katin village in Ta Oih
district, Saravan Province, on Sunday (Dec. 26) destroyed rice
paddies farmed by 11 Christian families previously living in the
village. The destruction followed the expulsion of another seven
families last Thursday (Dec. 23).
Residents drained water from the rice paddies, burned fencing that
protected the crop from animals and stamped on new seedlings to
ensure the rice would not grow, advocacy group Human Rights Watch
for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported.
“All 11 families were doing off-season farming on their old rice
paddies on communally-owned village land,” a spokesman from HRWLRF
told Compass. “If they don’t farm, they will most likely lose the
right to work on their land. Also, they need the rice to sustain
themselves.”
The fields were destroyed just a few days after the Katin village
chief and other village authorities armed with guns entered the
homes of another seven Christian families, totaling 15 people, and
ordered them to give up their faith.
When they refused, officials marched them out of the village and
warned them not to return.
Two of these families professed faith after officials expelled 11
Christian families last January, and another four families joined
them after officials in July threatened to shoot any of the
expelled Christians who attempted to return to Katin.
Yet another family professed allegiance to Jesus Christ after
officials in late October warned that the six Christian families
would be evicted in January 2011 if they held to their beliefs.
(See www.compassdirect.org, “Officials to Expel More Christian
Families from Village,” Nov. 9)
The newly-expelled Christians then sought shelter with the 11
families who were still living at the edge of the jungle despite
assurances from provincial and district officials that they had
every right to remain in Katin village. (See
www.compassdirect.org, “Lao Officials Visit Expelled Christians,
Give Assurances,” March 19.)
HRWLRF believes district-level officials may have secretly
approved the expulsions.
“Village officials don’t usually do anything without informally
consulting the district head,” a spokesman told Compass. “So it’s
hard to believe that Katin village officials are simply acting on
their own authority.”
Last Thursday’s (Dec. 23) incident was immediately reported to the
Ta Oih district religious affairs office, but at press time no
officials had responded.
The families whose rice paddies were destroyed also reported the
incident to district agricultural and religious affairs offices,
but authorities have yet to respond.
Deprived of Rights
When village officials last January expelled the 11 families,
totaling 48 people, for refusing to give up their faith, the
Christians built simple shelters at the edge of the jungle but
suffered from a lack of adequate food and water.
Officials also destroyed their houses, confiscated livestock and
essential registration documents and denied their children access
to the village school.
In May, village officials granted the families permission to take
rice stored in their family rice barns to ward off starvation.
Shortly afterwards, members of the eleven families returned
off-season to farm their family rice paddies, adjacent to the
village, in order to preserve land rights and maintain their food
supplies.
Life in Communist Laos is highly communal. Residents of Katin
village don’t have title deeds but are granted the right to farm
plots of communally-owned land. If the land is left idle, these
rights revert to the village, according to HRWLRF.
Laos is 1.5 per cent Christian and 67 per cent Buddhist, with the
remainder unspecified. Article 6 and Article 30 of the Lao
Constitution guarantee the right of Christians and other religious
minorities to practice the religion of their choice without
discrimination or penalty. In reality, however, other laws and
policies contradict and restrict these rights, as confirmed by the
U.S. State Department in its 2010 report on International
Religious Freedom.