http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s04090150.htm
ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com, Web Site: www.assistnews.net
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
SUN AND SAND PLUS TORTURE AND PERSECUTION
Human Rights Violations in Holidaymakers’ Hot Spots
By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News Service
FRANKFURT (ANS) -- Sun and sand are any holidaymaker’s dream. The flip side is torture and persecution in some hot spots.
The International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) in Frankfurt, Germany, is calling for an informed and responsible tourism. Travelers could contribute to an improvement in the human rights situation by exposing violators like Cuba, China, Turkey and the Maldives islands.
As the human rights organization points out, tourism accounts for a large part of the financing of the repressive system in Cuba. The Communist regime welcomes especially sex tourists: “They pay well and are on the whole uncritical of the political system”.
The People’s Republic of China presents itself as a destination for cultural tourism and the venue of the Olympic Games in 2008. Tourists should be aware, however, that China is a world leader in torture and capital punishment, says ISHR. Hundreds of thousands are being persecuted for religious, ethnic and political reasons.
In Turkey, a favorite holiday area for Europeans, Christians are being discriminated and pushed aside, according to ISHR. The Christian percentage in the population has dropped in the last century from 20 percent to 0.3 percent. Travelers can support churches simply by asking hotel managers for the times and venue of worship services.
Tourists will be looking in vain for churches in the Maldives. All non-Muslims places of worship are prohibited on the “paradise islands” in the Indian Ocean. Freedom of conscience, speech and religion is radically suppressed by the one-party regime in the Maldives, says ISHR.
Wolfgang Polzer (54), is senior news editor of the Evangelical News Agency idea, Wetzlar (Germany), which he joined in 1981. His previous work included four years in the editorial department of the Salvation Army in Germany. In all, he has spent 27 years in Christian media. Wolfgang can be contacted by e-mail at: Wolfgang.Polzer@idea.de.
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