Asia

Reverend Damanik, a key Christian leader working for an end to the violence in Indonesia, has been poisoned while being detained for the last four months.

An inflammatory pamphlet being distributed in Pakistan by Islamic fundamentalists calls on Muslims to kill Westerners and Christians wherever and whenever they may be found.

Indonesia watchers are saying that the recent violence by Islamic radicals in the 13,000-island nation may actually be driving people from Islam.

t the beginning of the 20th century (1900), Buddhism claimed a following of around 20 percent of the world's population. By the end of the 20th century it was down to 5 percent. This is largely because Buddhists have historically been found primarily in East and South East Asia, a region that has suffered severely from atheist-fundamentalist (Communist) persecution of all religion. Buddhism has not survived and revived as Christianity has.

Hindu radicals attacked missionaries working among the Dhakti Bhils in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan Christmas week.

Hwang Jang-yop was once a spokesman for late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung and his son and successor, Kim Jong Il. He has lived under the protection of South Korean intelligence since becoming the most senior defector from the North in 1997. AFP quotes Hwang as saying, "The suffering and pain of the North Korean people under the current dictatorial regime are much more severe and tragic than what we experienced during the 36 year colonial rule by the Japanese or what we went through during the Korean War."

Lack of religious freedom has always been an issue in Islam; however, the advance of the Islamic renewal movement and Islamic militancy has accentuated this. The rise of Hindutva over the past decade now extends to alleged government complicity in religious violence, and, in parts of India, anti-conversion legislation. Likewise the rise of Buddhist nationalism and militancy, which has lead to increased persecution, may soon extend to anti-conversion legislation being introduced in Sri Lanka.

At least three of the wounded survivors of a deadly Christmas night attack against a village church in Pakistan have sustained permanent eye damage, confirmed doctors from Lahore who operated on two of them.

Police used noxious gas to break up a Christian worship gathering attended by 40 Hmong people in the Dien Bien Dong district of North Vietnam.

CSW conducted interviews with 50 North Koreans in four different countries and heard of human rights abuses such as arbitrary executions and torture for this report which provides a rare insight into conditions in North Korea's secret prison camps.