As well as genocide against ethnic minorities, many of whom are Christians, Burma is suffering due to political struggles, economic strife and natural disasters. Severe flooding and rat infestations have plagued the land, bringing death, disease and famine. Severe famine is reportedly unfolding in Chin State.

courageous relief teams take in supplies and medical aid to ethnic minorities struggling to survive as they hide from attacks of the Burmese Army.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released in January details serious and ongoing abuses against the Chin people, a minority group in Burma’s northwest who claim to be 90 percent Christian.

HRW’s research echoes a 2004 report by the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) that described targeted abuse of Christians in Chin state, with the Burmese army subjecting pastors and church members to forced labor, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and sometimes death.

HRW’s report describes how an increasing number of army battalions stationed in Chin state since 1988 have inflicted forced labor and arbitrary fines on the Chin people, as well as bullied them away from Christianity toward Buddhism.

It notes that soldiers frequently forced Christians to donate finances and labor to pagoda construction projects in areas where there were few or no Buddhist residents.

CHRO’s report gave clear evidence of government support for co-erced conversions e.g. the government offered free secular education to several children from impoverished families, only to place them as novice monks in Buddhist monasteries in Rangoon.

CHRO likened monks working with Burmese soldiers to “military intelligence” personnel. CHRO also reported that a Chin man who attended a government-sponsored “social welfare” training said, “..we were taught the 17 facts of how to attack and disfigure Christians”.

They trusted God to provide food and housing and He did 

This  story was told by Naw Moo Eh and Naw Rosemary to an FBR relief team leader.

“The Burma Army continued their attacks and we had to keep fleeing. Eventually we had to leave to another district.

“We always were yearning to come back home, and praying to be able to come back. We didn't want to go to a refugee camp, and there was nowhere we could stay and work the fields. Everyone was suffering, and some could share their food with us and some could not.

“The Burma Army continued to attack and shell the villages and fields in our district, and we kept praying. Some friends were killed and some were wounded.

“We were tired, hungry, and afraid. Sometimes the Burma Army shelled every day. Our father is very old, and also did not want to, nor could he, walk to a refugee camp.

"We continued to pray, and we cried out to God to help: 'please let us stay in our home'. Finally after praying, we all felt we should try to go home.

“We heard the attacks had subsided, and even though there were new Burma Army camps in the area, we wanted to try. So we prayed and went in faith.

“We had no food, but we trusted God would provide something for us. We felt very sure He was helping us to come back.

 “As we moved back to our old area, we realized we could not go back to our old village and farms, as they were now directly under a new Burma Army camp, so we climbed over a ridge and down into another valley, and to our amazement came to a field full of rice that had not yet been harvested.

“We found out that the owners of the field had fled before they could harvest, and would not be coming back, and that the farm was now abandoned.

“We began to harvest the rice and thanked God that we could now eat. Since then we have been back here, and we thank God and we thank you all.

“We have rebuilt our village. This is our home.

“Thank you so much for coming and for your help".        

Tortured Chinese human rights advocate abducted

Earlier this year a Chinese human rights advocate, Gao Zhisheng, authorised advocacy group China Aid Association (CAA) to release his account of 50 days torture by state-sponsored thugs in September and October of 2007. The account was released on February 9, 2009.

Gao wrote the account in November 2007 while under house arrest in Beijing after prolonged beatings and electric shocks on his mouth and genitals. “Every time when I was tortured,” Gao wrote, “I was always repeatedly threatened that if I spelled out later what had happened to me, I would be tortured again, but I was told, ‘This time it will happen in front of your wife and children.’’’

He was also told “Your death is sure if you share this with the outside world.”

Gao was constantly watched but on January 9, his wife and children began their escape from China. They were safely in USA via Thailand on March 11.

Geng He, Gao’s wife, his 16-year-old daughter Geng Ge, and 5-year-old son Gao Tianyu, fear for his safety.

He was abducted by State security agents in his home village on February 4, 2009.   

China’s central government last December issued a number of secret documents calling on provincial officials to strive to prevent massive unrest in a rapidly collapsing economy.     The Committee for Social Stability issued an internal report on January 2 listing 127,467 incidents of serious protests or other incidents in 2008.

Yet while the Sichuan earthquake last May proved that Christians were willing and able to assist in times of national crisis, raids on house church groups have continued in recent weeks.

Concerned by the growth of unregistered house church groups in an uncertain political and social climate, the Chinese government has increased efforts both to identify Christians and to portray Christianity as a subversive foreign force.

A Chinese delegate, at the UN review of Christians and other minorities, stated that China would never allow torture against religious members or other minorities. Advocacy groups were critical that serious abuses were omitted from the review.

The good news is that on February 20, four house church leaders in Henan province were released after worldwide prayer and international pressure.

Meanwhile, elderly house church pastor, Hua Zaichen, was ordered to leave Beijing Dianli Hospital although he was severely ill. Government officials refused to allow his wife, Shuang Shuying, to be released to him unless she agreed to inform on other Christians.

She refused, but was eventually released on February 8, the day before Hua died. Both suffered years of persecution because of their house church involvement.

At the time of invasion about 800,000 Christians lived in Iraq—now it is much less than half that number.

The catastrophe that has befallen Iraq's indigenous Christian peoples is virtually never mentioned in news reporting - it would conflict with the 'success' propaganda.

The tragic plight of Iraqi Christians is so profoundly ignored one could be forgiven for thinking they are invisible or non-existent!

This terrorised, traumatised, largely displaced remnant is facing genocide and a return to crippling, de-humanising, brutal dhimmitude.

Last October violence against them intensified.  Around 2,500 families were forced to leave Mosul, capital of northern Nineveh Province. 12 were killed.

In Nineveh Province, Sunni Arabs defeated the incumbent Kurds and have taken power. Nineveh has been the centre of the Assyrian homeland for several millennia and is where most of Iraq's remaining Christians live.

Tensions are high in Nineveh Province where a massive ethnic power-shift is about to  take place.

For the past few centuries it has also been Kurdish 'frontier' territory but Saddam Hussein ensured there were Arab majorities in oil-rich areas. Oil-rich Mosul became a front-line in the Sunni Arab insurgency.

After the US-led surge in central Iraq drove militants north, Mosul also became al Qaeda's new Iraq base in its jihad for the imposition of fundamentalist Islam.  

Many observers believe war could be imminent. A violent battle for northern Iraq may be just beginning.

INDIA  Hindu nationalists in Orissa, NE India, are humiliating  Christians who have returned to their homes after being evicted by the Orissa state government who closed the relief camps.

They are traumatised, homeless and without any protection or security.

 Those who have returned are often being forced to 'become Hindus' or pay a fee. If they attend church they are threatened with the loss of sanctions such as supply of water and firewood.

   The violence has not been confined to Orissa. Fourteen other states have been affected, seven seriously. Karnataka is second only to Orissa in crimes against Christians.

The Hindu nationalist government in Karnataka, the southern state which recorded the highest number of attacks in 2008, now plans to introduce an ‘anti-conversion’ law that has provided the pretext for violence in other states.

Indoctrination and surveillance have been heightened. Christians are “political subversives”. If caught, they are either executed or sent to a prison camp with three generations of their family—for hard work, torture and starvation to death.

KENYA    Multitudes of southern Somali Christians have fled across the southern border into NE Kenya. Now they risk  suffering from an escalating persecution by a growing Muslim majority.

Sharia in Indonesia

Sharia based laws have crept into half of Indonesia’s provinces. These new laws discriminate against religious minorities.

This is despite freedom of religion being guaranteed in Article 29 of the Indonesian constitution and is in violation of the policy of ‘Pancasila’ or ‘unity in diversity’.

Although Aceh is the only province completely governed by Sharia law, more than 50 regencies in 16 of 32 provinces throughout the country have passed laws influenced by Sharia.

In West Papua, where there is a long history of violence against the Kingmi Church in the Nabire Region, health and education services have been neglected by the state. There were two outbreaks of cholera in 2008; one is ongoing causing hundreds of deaths.

Saudi Arabia news

The Saudi government planned a $2.7 billion scholarship fund for Australian universities, for the entry of Saudi students into Australia after restrictions on their entry into US and UK in post-9/11 security environment.

In April 2008, it was revealed Griffith University ‘practically begged the Saudi Arabian Embassy to bankroll its Islamic campus for $1.3million”, assuring them that arrangements could be kept secret if required. The Vice-Chancellor offered the embassy an opportunity to reshape the Griffith Islamic research Unit.                                                                        The Australian

A convert to Christianity has been killed by her father in Saudi Arabia, and another convert, Hamoud Bin Saleh was arrested.

Yemane Gebriel, an Eritrean pastor In Riyadh, has fled because of death threats from the muttawa (religious police). His church of about 300 is now very frightened.

Freedom of religion is under attack from new and intended laws in many countries today.

Surprisingly, these laws often infringe the national constitution and are contrary to internationally accepted standards of human rights. Some courts are making judgments against Christians even when there is no related, applicable law. Here are a few examples.

Azerbaijan. Total censorship of all religious literature—Christian Bibles, books, tracts - both imports and exports.

Belarus. ‘Worship’ must be registered to be legal.

Kazakhstan. Prosecutions, fines, property confiscations against Baptists for holding unregistered services.

Kyrgystan. Ban on ‘proselytism’, religious literature, print and audio-visual materials. At least 200 members needed to register a church.

Tajikistan. Repressive new law signed by the President. It is expected to severely restrict the rights of Christians and some Muslims

Uzbekistan. Since early March– officials claim permission is needed for prayer meetings  - no laws exist for this. Pastors and church members are denied exit visas to travel out of the country.