Asia

Persecution plans uncovered
A LEADING human rights group has produced chilling evidence of religious persecution in China, endorsed by the communist regime.
The 142-page document, published this month by the UK based Jubilee Campaign. contains statements from China's Ministry of Public Security which confirm the Beijing government's intention to identify and ban a variety of "cults", which they say are a "crawling danger to domestic security and defence".
The documents were smuggled out of China by an American/Chinese religious rights group.
Indonesia peace deal reached
SEVENTY Muslim and Protestant Christian representatives from Indonesia's Molucca Islands last week signed a pact committing themselves to abandoning violence, but an Islamic paramilitary group said it wouldn't abide by the accord.
"We have no business with the Malino agreement because our mission in the Moluccas focuses on humanitarian work and every citizen of this country has the right to stay anywhere he wants," Laskar Jihad spokesman Ayip Syarifuddin said.
Confrontations broke out in the Indonesian islands in 1999 tbllowing a personal dispute between a Christian and a Muslim.
Clashes have caused 10.000 deaths so far (15,000, according to the Vatican agency Fides). produced 500,000 refugees, and ;devastated the archipelago's economy, particularly tourism.
Megawati Sukarnoputri welcomed the peace deal, the second negotiated by her Cabinet ministers in two months.
A December agreement ended Muslim-Christian fighting in the Poso region of central Sulawesi.
Blasphemy case breakthrough
A PAKISTANI court has allowed a Christian convicted under the nation's strict blasphemy laws to appeal.
It marks the first legal breakthrough for Ayub Masih since his arrest and jailing in October 1996.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan granted the "Leave to Appeal" petition filed following a High Court decision in July 2001 to uphold a guilty verdict.
This meant that Masih was to be executed for allegedly stating that Salman Rushdie's book, The Satanic Verses, was accurate.
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions called for the Pakistani government to take necessary steps to grant a pardon or commutation of the sentence. and have called for Masih's release.
Throughout January and February 2002, Jubilee Campaign, a Christian human rights group, has been presenting the UN findings to various Pakistani authorities.
A spokesman said: "Jubilee Campaign is pleased with this breakthrough considering that Ayub Masih has been confined more than five years on false charges of blasphemy.
"We demand that the Pakistani government immediately release and fully pardon Ayub Masih. We will not rest until this happens."
Kidnap priest `is still alive'
AN ITALIAN priest kidnapped last October by an extremist Muslim Gang in the town of Dimataling, Philippines is still alive.
Fr Giuseppe Pieratoni sent a letter to his church superiors dated January 11 asking them to pay the ransom demanded by his kidnappers — the socalled Pentagon Group.
The Church and the government in the Philippines had previously rejected the kidnap
pers demands for one million dollars. Police said the note raised hopes that Fr Pierantoni would soon be released. It is unclear whether or not a ransom has been paid.
Other Muslim groups are holding an American missionary couple and a Filipina nurse in the southern island of Basilan. A South Korean and his Filipino business partner are still held hostage in the main island of Mindanao.