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"If we suffer tamely an attack on our liberty, We encourage it and involve others in our doom."
~Samuel Adams 1771
 
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International Freedom of Religion Act
 
October, 1998 Copyrighted by the Associated Press
 
WASHINGTON -- (NYT) The Senate Friday unanimously approved a compromise bill that would require the government to deal with countries that persecute citizens for religious beliefs by using measures ranging from the mildest private rebuke to tough economic sanctions. The bill, the International Religious Freedom Act, would not force the president to impose automatic sanctions but would allow him to decide whether and how to act against violators. It would require the State Department to issue annual reports of each country's record on religious freedom, and would require the president to take action based on those reviews. As a check on the administration, the bill would create a 10-member independent commission that would publish its own review of religious liberties country-by-country.
 
"The tragic reality is that literally millions of religious believers elsewhere in the world live under constant, oppressive fear at the prospect of being arrested, imprisoned, tortured or even killed, simply for their religious faith," said Sen. Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the Republican whip. The bill grew from an effort more than a year ago by the Christian Coalition and other conservative religious groups to require the government to step up its fight against religious persecution from Sudan to China. It struck a chord in the corridors of Capitol Hill as well as in churches and synagogues across the country, and was soon embraced by religious organizations including the Episcopal Church and the American Jewish Committee. "No government has the right to tell people how to worship and certainly not the right to discriminate against them or persecute them for the way in which they choose to express their faith in God," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.
 
But it took weeks of closed-door negotiations before the Senate Friday approved a compromise measure, 98-0. The negotiators agreed to give the president greater discretion in determining which penalities to impose on countries. Senate leaders whisked the bill to the House, where speedy approval is expected this weekend. Administration officials said Clinton would sign the bill, reversing earlier threats of a veto. Passage of the legislation would fulfill a promise that House and Senate Republican leaders made earlier this year to conservative religious groups, handing conservatives a rare legislative accomplishment to campaign on with the congressional elections less than a month away.
 
Nickles said the bill's supporters were not "trying to score points" but rather to "change the behavior of countries around the world to allow more religious freedoms." Supporters of the legislation cited a stream of gruesome incidents -- from the killing of Christians in Pakistan and Sudan to the torture of Tibetan Buddhist monks -- as evidence that stricter measures were needed.
 
The overwhelming support for the legislation masked differences among Republicans over the bill. Social conservatives like the Christian Coalition say the measure is essential to protect religious freedom worldwide. But moderates and business groups, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, say the bill's sanctions would alienate important diplomatic and trade partners. "While well-intended, this bill could easily become counterproductive to U.S. interests and foreign policy objectives," said Frank Kittredge, vice chairman of USA Engage, a coalition of 676 small and large business, farm groups and trade organizations. Administration officials took advantage of the Republican divisions, and of the eagerness of Republican leaders to produce a bill before Congress adjourns in the next few days, to wring the last-minute concessions.
 
"The bill advances the cause of religious freedom and gives the president the flexibility he needs without undermining relations with important countries around the world," said Stuart Eizenstat, an undersecretary of state who was the administration's chief negotiator with Congress on the measure. The legislation calls for the State Department to conduct annual reviews of religious freedoms just as the department does now on human rights. The bill would create a new office within the State Department, headed by an official with ambassadorial rank, to monitor religious liberties. Based on those reports and other information, the administration would determine whether a country violated citizens' religious beliefs and should be punished. The toughest economic sanctions, including U.S. opposition to loans by international financial institutions, would be imposed only on countries that engaged in "systematic, on-going and egregious" violations like torture or imprisonment.
 
The president would be allowed to waive sanctions for "national interests" or if the administration deemed that the penalties might provoke a popular backlash against religious minorities. Relief aid would be exempt from sanctions. The independent commission mandated by the bill would publish its own review of religious liberties. "Although I am not eager to enact a new sanctions law, I believe we are setting an important precedent with this bill in terms of what should be contained in any sanctions law," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., D-Del. Administration officials and the bill's two chief sponsors, Nickles and Lieberman, hammered out the final details late on Wednesday, Eizenstat said. In late September, Nickles altered his original bill to win the support of two Republicans, Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Rod Grams of Minnesota, who had bottled up the legislation in committee.
 
"This is a bill that will focus America's attention on the desire to advance religious freedom around the world while doing no harm to America's national security, diplomatic or economic interests abroad," Hagel said. Senate passage of the legislation culminated more than a year of congressional action on the measure, which has been considerably softened over time. In May the House voted, 375-41, to impose automatic sanctions against countries that permit or endorse a pattern of violent attacks or other persecution against religious believers. But the House bill faced immediate and immovable opposition in the Senate because of Republican resistance to automatic economic sanctions. Senators also complained that the original House bill would indiscriminately sanction close allies like Saudi Arabia, Germany, Israel and Greece. Faced with what they considered a weaker bill or no bill at all, House leaders quickly embraced the Senate version.
 
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