DUBLIN, December 30 (CDN) — Officials this week forced Christians in a Lao village to give up their faith in order to bury a family member in the village graveyard, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). In Huey, Ad-Sapangthong ....
DUBLIN, December 23 (CDN) — Nearly 50 Christians await their fate today after officials in Natoo village, southern Laos, on Wednesday (Dec. 21) summoned four of their leaders and warned that they would evict the entire church “within 24 hours” if they refused to give up their ....
DUBLIN, December 19 (CDN) — Police early this morning traveled to Boukham village in Laos’ Savannakhet Province to meet with officials about the arrest on Friday (Dec. 16) of eight Christian leaders who had gathered some 200 church members for a Christmas celebration, an ....
DUBLIN, September 26 (CDN) — Authorities in Laos forcibly confiscated a church building in Savannakhet Province on Sept. 14 due to lack of official permission; the church had not applied for a building permit as the country routinely denies such applications, sources said. ....
DUBLIN, July 26 (CDN) — Authorities in a village in northern Laos have ordered all Christian residents to cease meeting for worship in private homes following the arrest of four Christians on July 10, rights advocates said. Also on July 10, police arrested a Christian in ....
DUBLIN, July 8 (CDN) — A Lao pastor imprisoned six months ago for holding a “secret meeting” has lost weight under harsh prison conditions and is extremely weak, according to his family. Police arrested Wanna and fellow pastor and inmate Yohan, both identified ....
DUBLIN, February 25 (CDN) — A total of 62 Christians forced from their village to crude shelters at the edge of the jungle in Saravan Province, Laos, are at a “critical stage” from lack of food and water, an advocacy group warned. “The wells are drying up as they are ....
DUBLIN, January 6 (CDN) — Following the arrest of 11 Christians at gunpoint on Tuesday (Jan. 4), three house church leaders remain behind bars for “holding a secret meeting,” according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). Lao ....
DUBLIN, December 29 (CDN) — Officials and residents of Katin village in Ta Oih district, Saravan Province, on Sunday (Dec. 26) destroyed rice paddies farmed by 11 Christian families previously living in the village. The destruction followed the expulsion of another seven ....
DUBLIN, November 9 (CDN) — Officials in Katin village, southern Laos have ordered six more Christian families to renounce their faith or face expulsion in early January, advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported today (Nov. 9). The Katin ....
DUBLIN, May 14 (CDN) — In spite of assurances of religious rights by officials in March, Lao Christians expelled from a village in Saravan Province in January are suffering from a prolonged lack of adequate food and clean water. The lack of basic resources has ....
DUBLIN, March 19 (CDN) — Officials in Laos’ Saravan Province yesterday visited 48 Christians expelled from Katin village and assured them that they had the legal right to embrace the faith of their choice, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious ....
DUBLIN, March 16 (CDN) — Officials in southern Laos in the next 48 hours plan to burn temporary shelters built by expelled Christians unless they recant their faith, according to advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF). Authorities ....
LOS ANGELES, February 8 (CDN) — About 100 local officials, police and villagers put guns to the heads of Christians during their Sunday morning service in a village in Laos last month, forcing them from their worship and homes, according to an advocacy organization. Human Rights ....
LOS ANGELES, September 11 (CDN) — Authorities in Laos last week jailed a church leader in Savannakhet Province for embracing Christianity and threatened to expel him unless he renounces his faith – and kill him if his arrest is made public, according to a human rights ....
DUBLIN, July 16 (CDN) — Following the confiscation of livestock from Christian families earlier this month, officials in a village in Laos on Saturday (July 11) called a special meeting for all residents and announced that they had “banned the Christian faith in our ....
July 16 (CDN) — DUBLIN, July 16 (Compass Direct News) – Following the confiscation of livestock from Christian families earlier this month, officials in a village in Laos on Saturday (July 11) called a special meeting for all residents and announced that they had ....
DUBLIN, July 10 (CDN) — Last Sunday (July 5) officials and residents of Katin village in Ta Oih district, Saravan province, Laos, confiscated and slaughtered livestock belonging to nine Christian families in an effort to force them to renounce their faith. In June ....
July 10 (CDN) — DUBLIN, July 10 (Compass Direct News) – Last Sunday (July 5) officials and residents of Katin village in Ta Oih district, Saravan province, Laos, confiscated and slaughtered livestock belonging to nine Christian families in an effort to force them ....
March 30 (CDN) — WELLINGTON, New Zealand, March 30 (Compass Direct News) – Police in Borikhamxay province, Laos, on March 19 destroyed a church building in Nonsomboon village while Christian residents attended a meeting called by district officials. A member of the ....
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, March 29 (CDN) — Police in Borikhamxay province, Laos, on March 19 destroyed a church building in Nonsomboon village while Christian residents attended a meeting called by district officials. A member of the provincial religious affairs department, identified only ....
November 17 (CDN) — DUBLIN, November 17 (Compass Direct News) – Lao officials have released three prisoners from Boukham village, Savannakhet province, after several weeks of detention, but restrictions on Christian worship in the village are still in force. Pastor ....
September 25 (CDN) — DUBLIN, September 25 (Compass Direct News) – The chief of Boukham village in Savannakhet province, Laos, on Friday (Sept. 19) called a special community meeting to resolve the “problem” of eight resident Christian families who have refused to give ....
September 18 (CDN) — DUBLIN, September 18 (Compass Direct News) – Confronted with evidence of rights abuses yesterday, an official in Champasak province, Laos, said district officials had “misunderstood” religious freedom regulations when they arrested and detained two ....
August 28 (CDN) — DUBLIN, August 28 (Compass Direct News) – The chief of Boukham village in Savannakhet province, Laos today ordered the families of three detained Christians to sign documents renouncing their faith. Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom ....
August 8 (CDN) — DUBLIN, August 8 (Compass Direct News) – Authorities in Laos have detained or arrested at least 90 Christians in three provinces in recent weeks, including an arrest last Sunday (Aug. 3) of a pastor and two other believers from a house church in ....
March 11 (CDN) — LOS ANGELES, March 11 (Compass Direct News) – Laotian officials arrested 15 Hmong Christian families in Bokeo district on February 22, a day before a court sentenced nine area Hmong church leaders to 15 years in prison for conducting Christian ....
October 11 (CDN) — LOS ANGELES, October 11 (Compass Direct News) – Following a brutal government sweep of suspected insurgents in July, a village church in Laos that once had nearly 2,000 members has shrunk to only a few dozen daring to attend. Most of its leaders are ....
August 7 (CDN) — LOS ANGELES, August 7 (Compass Direct News) -- Soldiers, police and others have killed at least 13 Christians in Laos in the past month in a swarming crackdown on Hmong villagers falsely accused of stirring rebel dissent, sources told Compass. In ....
January 5 (CDN) — January 5 (Compass) – In a shocking display of brutality, Aroun Voraphorn, an itinerant evangelist, pastor and father of four children, was murdered in southern Laos the week before Christmas. His body was found on December 23, abandoned on a jungle ....
April 25 (CDN) — April 25 (Compass) -- In recent weeks, details have emerged from Laos outlining a new crackdown on tribal Christians in the southern province of Savannakhet. A local source has confirmed to Compass that 24 Christians from the Bru tribe were arrested ....
March 26 (CDN) — March 26 (Compass) — Christians from the southern province of Attapeu, Laos, have faced increasing persecution during March; however, due to pressure applied by international humanitarian organizations, persecution has shifted from the provincial to ....
September 12 (CDN) — (Compass) — Twelve Lao Christians arrested in May 2003 are still being held in prison. A recent report from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said the 12 are under extreme pressure to abandon their faith. The 12 were among 21 Christians from the ....
May 19 (CDN) — (Compass) — Persecution of Christians continues in Laos, with several church closures and arrests in recent months. On March 30, officials raided a church meeting in Nong Ing, in southern Savannakhet province. Church leaders persuaded them to let ....
July 20 (CDN) — (Compass) - A May round-up of 11 Christians brought the current number of Christians in jail to 33 in this Southeast Asian country where the Protestant church numbers barely 70,000. The total number of Christians in Laos has doubled since 1997 and ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass) - Authorities have reportedly closed two churches, one of them founded in 1902, in the southern part of the country. The number of families affected by this closure earlier in the year is between 50 and 100. Lao authorities are also ....
September 22 (CDN) — (Compass) - Reports from Laos say the number of Christians held by the government has dropped in recent months, following the release of several Christians in June. Although the Lao Constitution provides for freedom of religion, the government ....
June 23 (CDN) — (Compass) - Christians in Laos continue to suffer persecution from a government crackdown on believers, and they cannot visit friends or travel freely because the secret police follow them everywhere. Some have been forced to recant their faith. ....
