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Buddhist Monasteries destroyed by S



Subject: Buddhist Monasteries destroyed by SPDC/Slorc?

Is this true?

"Buddhists say the military government of Myanmar has executed some
Buddhist monks and destroyed monasteries, charges the authorities have
denied."
 
> U.S. Adds Religious Freedom to Old Sanctions
> 03:45 p.m Dec 23, 1999 Eastern
> 
> By Jonathan Wright
> 
> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will impose no new sanctions
> on the five countries it says are particularly restrictive of
> religious activity, the State Department said on Thursday.
> 
> The countries -- China, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar and Sudan -- are already
> subject to layers of sanctions and Secretary of State Madeleine
> Albright has told Congress which of the existing measures meet the
> requirements of the International Religious Freedom Act, passed by
> Congress in 1998.
> 
> The act requires that the U.S. administration annually designate
> governments which have ``engaged in or tolerated particularly severe
> violations of religious freedom''.
> 
> It offers a menu of 15 policy responses -- eight diplomatic and seven
> prohibitions on U.S. aid or economic sanctions, but also gives the
> administration the option not to act.
> 
> The State Department designated the five countries in October, to
> criticism from religious activists who thought it should have cast its
> net much wider.
> 
> Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican who fought hard
> for the Religious Freedom Act, said the Administration should not have
> spared countries such as Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, Cuba and Saudi
> Arabia.
> 
> In the case of China, Albright told Congress the operative sanctions
> under the act would be the existing restrictions on exports of crime
> control and detection instruments and equipment, a State Department
> statement said.
> 
> The State Department will continue to pursue all means to change
> Chinese behavior toward religious freedom, it added.
> 
> In the cases of Iran and Iraq, the sanctions will be the existing
> restrictions on U.S. security assistance. For Myanmar, it will be the
> prohibition on exports of defense articles and defense services, the
> statement said.
> 
> In the case of Sudan, the United States will continue to oppose any
> loans to Sudan by international financial institutions, it added.
> 
> The decisions have no immediate effect but State Department spokesman
> James Rubin said in October that in cases where the original reason
> for imposing sanctions no longer applied, the same sanctions could
> stay in force to meet the requirements of the Religious Freedom Act.
> 
> In its annual report on religious freedom worldwide, the State
> Department cited China for persecuting Tibetan Buddhists, Muslim
> Uighurs and Protestant and Roman Catholics who do not belong to
> ``official'' churches.
> 
> It said the Chinese constitution provides for freedom of religious
> belief but in practice the government ``seeks to restrict religious
> practice to government-sanctioned organizations and registered places
> of worship and to control the growth and scope of religious groups.''
> 
> Iran was faulted for trying to ``eradicate'' the Bahai faith, while
> Iraq was criticized for conducting a campaign of murder, execution and
> arrests against the Shiite Muslim population.
> 
> The Sudanese government has been repeatedly accused of trying to
> impose Islam on the animists and Christians of the south. Buddhists
> say the military government of Myanmar has executed some Buddhist
> monks and destroyed monasteries, charges the authorities have denied.