Published by: World Tibet Network News 97/05/22 24:00 GMT

China News Agency (CNA) is a Taiwanese based News agency. (wtn)

Washington, May 21 (CNA)-- US Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and

Representative Frank Wolf (R-Va.) introduced legislation

Wednesday calling for an end to religious persecution in foreign

countries including mainland China, Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The new legislation, called the Freedom From Religious Persecution Act,

would create a senior director at the White Hose who would assess

levels of religious persecution in foreign countries in an annual report.

Under the bill, sanctions would be automatically imposed against those

countries that violate the human rights of religious minorities,

including Christians, Jews and Buddhists. The sanctions would

include a ban on all US exports to those countries whose governments directly

carry out acts of religious persecution.

In addition, the United States would cut off all non-humanitarian aid to

the persecuting countries. US representatives would be instructed

to vote against any multilateral development bank loans to the

offending countries and to take all necessary steps to ensure

that such loans are not forthcoming.

In deciding whether to support a country's membership in the World Trade

Organization, the US president would be authorized to consider as

a significant factor whether that country had engaged

in religious persecution. Foreign individuals who carry out, order or

oversee religious persecution would be denied visas to enter the United States.

These sanctions could be waived by the president, subject to a detailed

written explanation to Congress and a 45-day notice of the intent to waive.

The legislation would allow for expedited asylum proceedings for victims

fleeing from religious persecution.

According to Senator Specter, the two companion bills in the Senate and

House of Representatives are a result of several months of

intensive consultations with American religious leaders. He added

that the legislation is intended to put teeth into a long-standing US

effort to stem international religious persecution. (By N.K. Han)