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Local residents are blocking access to the Canadian-owned and -operated Kumtor gold mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan to protest health and environmental damage caused by a cyanide spill in 1998.  The government is threatening to send in armed forces to disperse the demonstrators.

Output at the Kumtor mine, operated by Canadian miner Centerra Gold Inc. <CG.TO>, accounted for more than four percent of Kyrgyzstan's gross domestic product last year.

"The Kyrgyzstan government has ordered law enforcement agencies to use strong force in case participants block roads and violate public order," the government said in a statement.

The protestors are calling for the government to re-nationalise Kumtor, and a bill to effect this has been introduced in the country’s parliament. However, Foreign Minister Ednan Karabaev has assured the Canadian ambassador that the government has no plans to nationalise the mining venture.

In May 1998 a mining truck accidentally overturned and dumped more than 1.5 tons of cyanide into the Barskaun River, which drains into nearby Lake Issyk-Kul.  Over 2500 people are believed to have been affected, with 800 requiring hospital treatment.  The mine paid $4.6 million in damages, but high-ranking government officials embezzled most of the funds, and local residents received little benefit.

Kumtor, among the largest gold mining complexes in the world, was launched as a joint venture between Kyrgyzstan and Cameco Corporation.  In January 2004, by mutual agreement, the assets were transferred to Centerra Gold, a new publicly traded Canadian company, with Cameco holding the majority of shares.  The Kyrgyz government presently owns 16% of Centerra.

The mine is located in a mountainous and glaciated region south of Lake Issyk-Kul, 60 kilometres northwest of the Chinese border.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the largest regional security organization in the world, consists of 56 states in Europe, Central Asia, and North America.  The one with the highest number of journalists in custody is Azerbaijan, with a total of seven.  Predictably, the government says there’s no problem.

The number of Azerbaijani journalists in prison has reached a record high over the past month, even while one senior government official maintains that the country’s leadership is doing everything possible to respect press freedom.

The latest to be sentenced to prison are the editor and a reporter of opposition newspaper Muhalifat.  The two were put away for 2-1/2 years for slandering the president’s uncle.

Since then, the government has ordered two independent newspapers to halt publication.  Officials said the order was given because of safety issues with the building shared by the two journals.  Subsequent government actions don’t fit with that rationalisation, however.

Officials say the closure was due to safety concerns with the building.

Since then, National Security Ministry personnel have searched the offices of the Russian-language "Realny Azerbaijan" and its Azeri-language sister newspaper, "Gundelik Azerbaycan." Police have confiscated files and equipment.

State security forces have reportedly seized computer hard drives and other items unrelated to building safety "concerns".

A more plausible explanation for the crackdown is political.  President Ilham Aliyev is running for re-election later this year and wants to avoid press scrutiny and criticism.

Previous related posts:

• Two journalists imprisoned for “insulting Islam”
• Iran calls for death of “blasphemous” journalist
• Azerbaijan’s baby-name police are on the job

The outgoing president of Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America (FIACONA) has charged that Hindutva (Hindu nationalist) groups in the United States are abetting persecution of Christians in India.  At FIACONA’s recent annual general meeting, held in New York on 19 May, Dr Jose Nidiry stated that divisions between the Hindu majority and the Christian minority are being exacerbated by disinformation circulated by American supporters of Hindu extremism.

Also at FIACONA’s annual general meeting, a paper submitted by Professor Raju G.‚Ä®C. Thomas argued that the social environment of Christians in India today has many similarities with that of Jews in 1930s Germany.

"Amidst the surge of Hindu nationalism in India since 1998, and especially among the Hindu diaspora in the United States who fund such activities, Christians in India live in a social and political atmosphere similar to that of the Jews who lived in Germany during the 1930s. Just as those Jews were every bit German but following a different religion than Christianity, Christians in India are every bit Indian but following a different religion than Hinduism. Both Jews in Germany then, and Christians in India now, are perceived as following an alien faith from that of the majority and therefore do not belong in the state unless they joined the majority religion. A similar atmosphere of hate and potential violence is being generated against Christians in India which needs to be closely watched by the international community."
. . .
"Harassment and attacks on Christians are likely to grow in India
 under such government regulations since Christians are all considered
 Hindu converts to Christianity, an assumption that is patently false.
 . . . Many Hindu law enforcement officials 
are sympathetic to the Hindu nationalist's anti-Christian cause. They
 are unwilling to take action against those responsible for attacks on
 Christians, thereby encouraging further attacks on Christians.


Dr Thomas also pointed out that Dalits (former Untouchables) are officially discouraged from converting to Christianity.  The state grants special rights and privileges to Dalits, but these are denied to Dalit Christians.  This policy, he maintains, contravenes India’s constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.

Dr Raju G.C. Thomas is the Allis Chalmers Distinguished Professor of International Affairs Emeritus at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and an internationally recognised scholar of Indian society and politics.

Hindutva supporters reject the secular democratic nature of the Indian state and continue to insist that India is a Hindu nation.

Previous related posts:

• Another Indian state set to pass anti-conversion law
• Hindu militants invade Sunday services, attack pastors
• British Hindu tells Christians to stop evangelising in India
• Nationalist Hindus want Christian missionaries arrested
• Christian conversions present “grave threat to Hindu society”

Coptic Christians in Egypt are urging the international community to speak out in defence of their religious freedom.  A research organisation has collected evidence that, in recent decades, Copts have suffered over one hundred attacks and sustained over 4000 deaths and injuries as a result.  In all those incidents, not one perpetrator has been appropriately punished.

A coalition of Coptic Christians is calling on governments of the world to intervene on behalf of the Coptic Christians of Egypt and demand that Egypt stop religious persecution and guarantee religious freedom and justice for all citizens.

For nearly four decades, the Coptic Christians in Egypt have been targeted by a wave of brutal attacks on their persons, churches, homes and businesses.
. . .
The researchers noted that many of these attacks took place on Fridays, after the Muslim prayer in mosques. As well, the vast majority of these attacks were not committed by organized terrorist groups, but by ordinary people from the neighborhood.

The most recent attack took place last weekend in Bahma, on the outskirts of Cairo.  Muslims torched over 25 Christian-owned shops and homes after word got out that Christians wanted to convert a house already used for prayer meetings into a church.

Egyptian authorities imposed an agreement on local Muslims and Christians that absolved the perpetrators of all liability and responsibility.

Under the terms of the settlement, Muslims were not bound to pay for damages nor assume any criminal responsibility. As well, the prayer house, which was the center of dispute, would be used only for Sunday school classes and a cross may not be displayed on the building.   

Only days after the Bahma violence, Egypt became a member of the infamous United Nations Human Rights Council.  That may seem ironic at first but, when one considers the HRC’s abysmal record, it’s entirely appropriate.

Previous related posts:

• Egyptian Muslims attack Christians over church plans
• Human Rights Council “falling down on the job”
• UN Human Rights Council votes against identifying rights-abusing nations
• Egyptian Christian girls kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam