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NEWS - U.S. cites five countries fo (r)



Subject: NEWS - U.S. cites five countries for religious persecution

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>U.S. cites five countries for religious persecution
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>WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has designated
>China, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar and Sudan as countries of particular concern
>for violations of religious freedom, spokesman James Rubin said on
>Wednesday. 
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>The designation makes the countries liable for U.S. sanctions. But
>Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has not yet made any decision on
>sanctions and the United States already has limited contacts with
>several of the countries, he said. 
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>14:47 10-06-99  
>The State Department also intends to identify Serbia and the Taleban
>movement in Afghanistan as ``particularly severe violators of religious
>freedom,'' he said. 
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>The designations are the first of their kind under the Religious Freedom
>Act passed by Congress last year. 
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>The act offers the administration 15 policy responses -- eight
>diplomatic and seven prohibitions on U.S. aid or economic sanctions. The
>options range from diplomatic protest and cutting diplomatic exchanges
>to limits on export licenses and votes against loans by international
>institutions. 
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>Rubin said Robert Seiple, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international
>religious freedom, would announce the designations at a congressional
>hearing on Wednesday and formal congressional notification would follow
>within a few days. 
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>14:54 10-06-99
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