“Quiero ser un hombre de bien” – una entrevista con David Rosales, hijo del pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo

La CSW habló con David Rosales, hijo del pastor Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo de la iglesia independiente Monte de Sión en Palma Soriano, quien hoy purga una sentencia de 7 años de prisión en la Prisión de Boniato en Santiago de Cuba.

El religioso fue acusado en diciembre de 2021 de desórdenes públicos, instigación a delinquir, desacato y atentado, luego de que él y su hijo David participaran en la protesta nacional el 11 de Julio de 2021. Con información y testigos falsos, el régimen Cubano acusó a Lorenzo y David de ser los causantes de las lesiones de “7 agentes del orden y una funcionaria que custodiaba la institución. A su vez, dañaron un ómnibus del sector estatal estacionado en el lugar de los sucesos”.

El 17 de julio de 2021 se le impuso a David Rosales una medida cautelar de fianza por su participación en los hechos. Esta medida fue modificada y David fue exonerado del proceso penal tras imponérsele una multa que fue abonada el 19 de agosto de 2021.

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强迫失踪受害者国际日:来自中国的故事

自2006年以来,高智晟律师多次遭中共政权绑架、酷刑和拘留。2019年,他的妻子耿和女士告诉国际人权服务社,被强迫失踪“已成为他的生活常态”。

在这次采访中,她还说:“十几年来,我跟孩子从没有享受过普通人家团圆的欢乐……我们只有一个愿望:高智晟活着,活着回家。”

2009年,耿女士被迫带孩子们流亡海外。不久前,她刚刚纪念了又一个悲伤的周年纪念日:她的丈夫最近一次被失踪已满五年。

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International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances – Stories from China

Gao Zhisheng has been kidnapped, tortured and detained on and off by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime since 2006. In 2019, his wife Geng He told the International Service for Human Rights that being disappeared has become “the norm in his life”.

In that same interview, she added, “My children and I have never experienced the common happiness of united families… We only have one wish, which is that Gao Zhisheng is alive and that he can come back home alive.”

Ms Geng, who has been in exile along with her and Gao’s children since 2009, has just marked another sad anniversary: the fifth anniversary of her husband’s most recent disappearance.

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India at 75: A nation under siege

India celebrates its 75th year of independence from the British on 15 August. Every year this day is commemorated by remembering the innumerable sacrifices Indians made in their pursuit of freedom and self-rule. But year after year the question of whether this is the vision of India that the nation’s forefathers and freedom fighters gave their lives for becomes ever more pressing.

Even as there was much to celebrate on 15 August 1947, independence came with a heavy price. Just a day before, on 14 August, India was torn into two; the painful partition of India and Pakistan along the lines of religion has continued to have profound effects on the lives of people on both sides.

If anything, 75 years later, these communal divides seem to be growing bigger. There has been much debate on the partition in the intervening decades – who is to blame, what went wrong and what could have been done. But just as the debates continue, the hatred continues to grow.

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‘I fear they will normalise this’ – Restrictions combine to make life even more difficult for religion and belief groups in China

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on the functions of nearly every religion or belief group in every country in the world over the past two years. While many have now emerged from lockdowns and measures imposed to curb the spread of the virus are being lifted in most countries, arguably some of the strictest restrictions remain in the country where the virus was first detected: China.

Since December 2021, China has been wrestling with the spread of the omicron variant, with many cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Xi’an, having been placed under lockdowns at various points over the past six months. Even as lockdowns have been lifted in some places, they remain in effect in others, and there is no telling from one week to the next whether more severe measures will be enforced in any one place.

Meanwhile, for religious groups in these and other cities remaining restrictions designed to limit the spread of the virus have combined with new regulations on online religious activities to make everything from online meetings to day-to-day communication extremely difficult.

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