[wanabidii] Fw: Still No Christmas in Laos:

Still No Christmas in Laos:

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Dan Wooding <woodingdan@gmail.com>
To: assistnews@sheperd.com
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2014 9:19 AM
Subject: Still No Christmas in Laos:

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609-0609 USA  Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: assistnews@aol.com Friday, December 26, 2014 Still No Christmas in Laos: State Sponsored Persecution Directed Against Lao Hmong Believers, Political Dissidents Increases By Dan Wooding Founder of ASSIST Ministries WASHINGTON, DC (ANS) -- On Christmas Day, 2014, the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) has raised concern about the increased persecution of minority Christian, Animist and independent Buddhist believers in Laos at the hands of military and security forces of Laos and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Anguish on the face of a Hmong woman  as children look on They say that religious freedom and human rights violations have dramatically increased under the Hanoi-backed, one-party communist government in Laos, especially against various Laotian and Hmong minority groups, including religious believers and political dissidents. "Intensified religious freedom violations directed against ethnic Laotian and Hmong Christian believers are increasingly violent and egregious, with independent religious ceremonies and Christmas celebrations prohibited, or under attack, by the Lao military and security forces," said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the CPPA in Washington, D.C. "In the latest crackdown, Lao and Hmong Christians, and Animist, believers have been arrested, tortured, killed , or have simply disappeared, on a systematic and more frequent basis, as the Marxist government of Laos, working in coordination with the Vietnam People's Army and authorities in Hanoi, continues its policy of attacking independent religious believers who wish to worship freely outside of state-controlled, and state-monitored, religious institutions." Christians in Laos meet to listen  to a radio broadcast "Clearly, under these dark and grim conditions, there is still no Christmas in Laos for those who seek to celebrate and worship outside of the watchful eye of the military, secret police and communist authorities in Vientiane and Hanoi," Smith stated. "It is also clear, and unfortunate, that the current Stalinist government in Laos is unwilling to cooperate on the many international appeals for the release of prominent political dissidents and prisoners, including Sombath Somphone, the Lao Students' Movement for Democracy protesters, and significant numbers of Hmong refugees," Smith concluded. Hmong women praying Earlier this month, the CPPA and a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) urged the United Nations to address ongoing serious human rights violations, as well as religious and press freedom violations, by the government of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR). The NGOs also raised concern about the plight of a growing number of Lao and Hmong people who have disappeared at the hands of Lao military and security forces, including Sombath Somphone, Lao student protest leaders, Hmong refugees and others. For more information, please go towww.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org or send an e-mail to either Maria Gomez or Philip Smith atinfo@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org           See all ASSIST News articles at www.assistnews.net Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for more than 51 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. He is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS) and he hosts the weekly "Front Page Radio" show on the KWVE Radio Network in Southern California and which is also carried throughout the United States and around the world. He is the author of some 45 books, the latest of which is a novel about the life of Jesus through the eyes of his mother called "Mary: My Story from Bethlehem to Calvary". For imore information, please go to http://marythebook.com/, where you can find details of how to order the book. ** You may republish this story with proper attribution. Send this story to a friend.

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