AUSTRALIAN PRAYER NETWORK NEWSLETTER * BORN INTO A LIFE IN NORTH KOREAN GULAG FOR SINS OF UNKNOWN ANCESTOR * WAVE OF PERSECUTION AGAINST CHRISTIAN GROUPS IN IRAN * RURAL CHINA'S SUICIDE PROBLEM * ELECTION SETBACK FOR MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER * DRAMATIC INCREASE IN VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN SRI LANKA * UZBEKISTAN: CHURCH CLOSES BECAUSE OF OFFICIAL PRESSURE ----------------------------------------------- BORN INTO A LIFE IN NORTH KOREAN GULAG FOR SINS OF UNKNOWN ANCESTOR As a boy, Shin Dong-hyok believed everyone in the world inhabited a North Korean prison. He was born in Camp 14 in South Pyongan province and expected to die behind its razor wire. Mr Shin, now 24, was innocent of any crime. The world's last Stalinist state not only jails anyone suspected of opposing its "Dear Leader", Kim Jong-il, but also locks up the next three generations of their family. Because an unknown ancestor had been a suspected dissident, Mr Shin was born a prisoner to inmate parents. But at the age of 22, Mr Shin managed to escape and make his way to South Korea. His experience provides a rare glimpse of life inside the world's most isolated, repressive state, where a chain of labour camps comparable to the Soviet Gulags holds perhaps 200,000 people. When he was 13 his mother and brother acted without his knowledge and made a failed attempt to escape. "After that my life began to fall apart," Mr Shin said. "On the day my family tried to escape I was brought into the underground torture chamber." Guards bound the hands and feet of the 13-year-old and roasted him over a fire. The burns still scar his back. Then he was forced to watch as his mother and brother were executed in public on April 6, 1996. "Afterwards, me and my father could not mingle with other prisoners, and we had to work even harder than the rest." Yet for the first time Mr Shin encountered an inmate who had not spent his entire life inside Camp 14. "During the time I spent with him, I learned so much about the outside world." Mr Shin and his companion resolved to escape. In January 2005 they were assigned to work in a clothes factory in a lightly guarded area of the camp. They scaled the barbed wire fence. But neither realised that thousands of volts ran through the barrier. Mr Shin's companion was electrocuted, while he crawled through a gap in the barbed wire torn by his dead friend, suffering terrible leg burns. He eventually reached the South Korean consulate in Shanghai, where he was given asylum. It is estimated as many as a million people may have died in North Korea's prison camps. Source: Telegraph London ----------------------------------------------- WAVE OF PERSECUTION AGAINST CHRISTIAN GROUPS IN IRAN A wave of persecution of Iranian believers is occurring in Iran. Many Christians in several different parts of the country have been detained by police, interrogated but then released. As it is very widespread across different Christian groups, it seems like a very concerted effort to put pressure on the church in Iran. This new action is coming against Christians who are meeting to worship God in the privacy of their homes. Says one source, "One house was stormed by an elite police team that confiscated a computer, several CDs and Christian materials. A Christian was arrested in this attack and remains in prison." Iran ranks third on the Open Doors World Watch list of the world's worst persecutors of Christians. Even though Christians belong to one of the recognized religious minorities who are guaranteed religious freedom, they have reported imprisonment, harassment and discrimination because of their faith. Various Christian groups known to use literature and other means to spread their faith among the majority Shiite Muslim population were targeted over the past year. According to Open Doors, in at least eight known incidents, former Muslims who had converted to Christianity were arrested and held in custody for several weeks before being released. In most cases, they were forced to pay large bail amounts and were told their cases remained open for possible criminal prosecution. Most governors are denying there is any form of discrimination in their provinces. The church is growing at an incredible rate in Iran. Christians are being very bold in their witness. They're witnessing in public parks, and they are doing some great work to get the Gospel out. The result of that is that the church is growing. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten the attention of the government as well. Pray that believers in Iran will remain steadfast in their faith despite this new wave of persecution. Pray, too for the release of the believers in prison and for protection for all Christians in Iran. Source: Voice of the Martyrs ----------------------------------------------- RURAL CHINA'S SUICIDE PROBLEM China has one of the highest rates of female suicide in the world. And the problem is most acute in poor rural areas. In his small home, deep in the mountainous north of China, Sun Jiangbao slowly lifts himself from his bed into his wheelchair. A recent mining accident left him paralysed from the waist down. That alone would be hard enough to live with. But just a few years before the accident his wife killed herself by drinking poison after they got into an argument. Now every day is a struggle to survive. The only person left to care for him is his 60-year-old mother. "I never believed my wife would kill herself," Mr Sun said. "I'm paralysed and I can't do anything, not even look after my own 12-year-old son." Mr Sun and his wife had no money, so he went to the city to find work. That pushed their relationship to breaking point. His story is a common one in rural China. Three times more women kill themselves in the countryside than in the cities. More women kill themselves than men in a country where the number of suicides every year is 50% higher than the global average. There is no mains water supply in this part of China, so Li Suxiang still collects water the old fashioned way - using a pump. Despite economic reforms, poverty is still widespread in the countryside and the relentless economic hardship push many women to try to commit suicide. Many women drink pesticides that are easily available in rural China. They die quickly. The Cultural Development Centre for Rural Women tries to try help poor women living in rural areas - offering education and counselling. Project officer, Xu Rong, said another major factor behind female suicide is that old traditions in the countryside, which give women a low social status, still have not disappeared. "In the countryside women still move in with their husband's families when they get married in accordance with old customs - so they have no close relatives or friends to turn to when times get tough," she explained. "If they are having difficulties in their marriage they can't divorce, because everything is in the husband's name so they would be left with nothing. Often women can feel trapped, and suicide seems like the only way out." China simply does not have the resources to deal with this problem. The country only has 17,000 psychiatrists for a population of 1.3 billion people. Poverty, tradition and underfunding combine together to create a crisis that goes largely undetected. All the time, in the many remote corners of this vast country, the same quiet tragedy is being played out again and again, lost in the thunder of China's headlong rush into the future. Source: Intercessors Network ----------------------------------------------- ELECTION SETBACK FOR MALAYSIAN PRIME MINISTER The ruling coalition in Malaysia has suffered its worst election result in decades by winning only a simple majority, say election officials. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's National Front coalition lost its two thirds parliamentary majority and control of five state assemblies. The ruling coalition won 137 out of 219 seats, with three results still to come in, the Election Commission said. Analysts blame ethnic tensions, crime, and inflation for a drop in popularity. Opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim hailed the result as a message that it was time for change in Malaysia. Mr Ibrahim's Justice Party has 31 seats out of the opposition's 82 so far, according to the commission's website. Mr Badawi, in office since 2003, said he would meet the constitutional monarch and ask to form a new government. He dismissed suggestions that he would now face pressure from party members to step down. His son-in law, Khairy Jamaluddin, told reporters: "We suffered a lot of losses tonight. But we are going to fight on. We are not going to quit. It is not the end of the world and we are going to get through this." No one expected the opposition to do so well across the board. Experts say that this is a defining moment, unprecedented in the nation's history. It is clear that people wanted change and Chinese and Indian ethnic minority voters deserted the National Front, in power for 50 years. Before the elections only one state was under opposition control. Now there are five. Ethnic minorities in Malaysia make up more than a third of the population. Many complain that government policy has denied them fair access to jobs, education, and housing. Growing tensions between minority communities and the Malay majority dominated the election campaign. Source: BBC ----------------------------------------------- DRAMATIC INCREASE IN VIOLENCE AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN SRI LANKA Christians in Sri Lanka have seen a "dramatic" increase in violence within the last month, according to reports from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL). On 3 March the Zion Mount Prayer House in Mulaitivu District was set on fire. The pastor, his wife, child and two other people were inside at the time, although it is believed they were able to escape. The previous day ten Bible School students in Lunuwila, Putlam District, were attacked by ten masked men on motorbikes. On the same day a mob of 200 people surrounded a local pastor's home in Udugama, Galle District, and told him to leave the village or face death. These attacks are the latest in a series of incidents since the beginning of February. On 17 February Pastor Neil Edirisinghe was shot dead. His wife was also shot and wounded, and she remains in a critical condition. On the same day, a mob of 50 people armed with rods attacked King's Revival Church in Mathugama, Kaluthara District, and assaulted a 10 year-old child, one man and two women. On 14 February a Christian home in Weeraketiya, Hambanthota District, was stoned while the local pastor, his wife and two children were inside visiting a sick parishioner. In addition to violence, Christians are facing other forms of harassment. On 3 March, the 'Pradeshiya Sabhawa' (Provincial Council) in Kelaniya, Gampaha District revoked approval for the construction of a new church building. The Foursquare Gospel Church had received approval for the new building, but was then ordered to stop construction immediately. No reason was given. Alexa Papadouris, Advocacy Director at Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said: "The recent severe escalation in violence is deeply troubling. Although there have been similar periods of hostility towards Christians in Sri Lanka in the past, acts of violence had significantly decreased in the last two years. We urge the Sri Lankan authorities to take immediate action to quell this new upsurge of attacks, bring the perpetrators of violence to justice, and to ensure that a climate of impunity does not develop." Source: Christian Solidarity Worldwide ----------------------------------------------- UZBEKISTAN: CHURCH CLOSES BECAUSE OF OFFICIAL PRESSURE Complaining that it was "too dangerous" to continue to meet, the Resurrection Full Gospel Church in the Fergana Valley town of Andijan - long denied state registration - has decided to close down. "We have faced such pressure from the leaders of the local mahallas [urban districts] and from the prosecutor, especially this year," the church's pastor Bakhtier Tuichiev said. "It is too painful to talk about all the threats and insults we have had to endure." Tuichiev says that a police car is now permanently posted outside the former church building and he is among a growing number of active Protestants denied permission to leave Uzbekistan. Source: Forum18 News Service
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