Ministry Rep Hails Saudi Arabia's Addition to Religious Freedom Violators List
by Chad Groening
September 27, 2004
(AgapePress) - A ministry dedicated to helping the persecuted Church is heartened by the fact that the U.S. Department of State has put Saudi Arabia on its list of countries "of particular concern."Todd Nettleton, director of news services for Voice of the Martyrs, has examined the State Department's 2004 International Religious Freedom Report to Congress. He says he is pleased to see that Saudi Arabia has finally been included among on the list of those nations whose governments engage in or allow religious freedom violations so egregiously as to be designated "countries of particular concern."
Nettleton says he is encouraged to see that the State Department is willing to hold accountable even a country that is considered by America to be "one of our allies -- one of our key allies -- in the war on terror." It is "heartening," he says, "to see that the State Department is still willing to hold their feet to the fire on religious freedom issues."
But while the State Department's list provides good information about where the religious freedom violations "hot spots" are around the globe, Nettleton points out that there is, unfortunately, no mechanism in place to compel compliance with international human rights standards.
The idea of the list, the VOM spokesman says, "is to let people know what's going on. There is not really a stick behind it to enforce the opinions or to enforce some kind of change, but we hope that it leads to negotiations and that it leads to conversations which will increase religious freedom in these countries."
The State Department's inclusion of Eritrea on the list of "countries of particular concern" is another addition Nettleton finds encouraging. "Eritrea is a country that I have visited and met with some of the believers there. It's known that there are over 400 evangelical Christians who are being held in Eritrean prisons," he says.
The 2004 International Religious Freedom report was released Sept. 15, 2004. This year's report saw Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, and also Vietnam added to the list of "countries of particular concern." Other countries on the list are Burma, China, Iran, North Korea, and Sudan.
