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NEWS - China and Burma on U.S. List



Subject: NEWS - China and Burma on U.S. List for Religious Persecution

China and Burma on U.S. List for Religious Persecution

(U.S. cites five countries for religious persecution)

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has designated
China, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar and Sudan as countries of particular concern
for violations of religious freedom, spokesman James Rubin said on
Wednesday. 

The designation makes the countries liable for U.S. sanctions. But
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has not yet made any decision on
sanctions and the United States already has limited contacts with
several of the countries, he said. 

14:47 10-06-99  
The State Department also intends to identify Serbia and the Taleban
movement in Afghanistan as ``particularly severe violators of religious
freedom,'' he said. 

The designations are the first of their kind under the Religious Freedom
Act passed by Congress last year. 

The act offers the administration 15 policy responses -- eight
diplomatic and seven prohibitions on U.S. aid or economic sanctions. The
options range from diplomatic protest and cutting diplomatic exchanges
to limits on export licenses and votes against loans by international
institutions. 

Rubin said Robert Seiple, U.S. ambassador-at-large for international
religious freedom, would announce the designations at a congressional
hearing on Wednesday and formal congressional notification would follow
within a few days. 

14:54 10-06-99