KATIN, Laos — Officials in the Katin village of southern Laos have ordered six more Christian families to renounce their faith or face expulsion in early January, advocacy group Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom (HRWLRF) reported Nov. 9.
The Katin chief and the village religious affairs officer, along with local security forces, recently approached the six families with the threat after having expelled 11 Christian families, totaling 48 people, at gunpoint last January. The six families had become Christians since the January expulsion.
The eviction last January followed months of threats and harassment, including the confiscation of livestock and other property, the detention of 80 men, women and children in a school compound and the death by asphyxiation of a Christian villager.
Immediately after the expulsion, two more families in Katin village became Christians despite the obvious risk to their personal safety, according to HRWLRF. The village chief allowed them to remain in Katin but warned all villagers their own homes would be “torn down” if they made contact with the expelled Christians.
In July, in spite of talk by higher officials of legal guarantees of the rights of religious minorities, village heads said they would shoot every Christian who returned to Katin. Shortly after this, four more families in Katin became Christians, according to HRWLRF.
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