FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sylvia Stannard or Janet Weiland (323) 960-3500 October 22, 1999
SENATE AND HOUSE MEMBERS SIMULTANEOUSLY INTRODUCE RESOLUTIONS CRITICIZING GERMANY
WASHINGTON DC: In an unprecedented, double-barrelled salvo at the German government, a Senate and House Joint Resolution was introduced this week which accuses it of being indifferent to and tolerating massive discrimination against minority religions.
In statements in Washington Thursday, the sponsors of the Resolution pointed out that Germany’s example also persuaded other governments, notably Austria, France and Belgium, to engage in similarly condemnable discrimination.
In the Senate, the Resolution, under the lead of Senator Michael Enzi (R-WY) and with two other sponsors, marks the first time members have formally taken Germany to task for human rights abuses. On the House side, Congressman Matt Salmon (R-AZ) is the principal sponsor of the Resolution, made public at a press conference called by the chairman of the International Relations Committee, Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-NY), who is also one of 27 original sponsors of the Resolution in the House.
Both Senator Enzi and Congressman Salmon have expressed their concern over the severe problems experienced by many U.S. citizens in Germany in seeking to worship according to the dictates of their conscience, without fear of reprisal.
Actresses Anne Archer (star of many movies such as Fatal Attraction and Clear and Present Danger) joined Senator Enzi, Congressman Gilman, Congressman Salmon and others at the press conference today in Washington, D.C. Ms. Archer had just completed a series of briefings to congressional leaders and senators on the extent of government discrimination in Germany. Catherine Bell (of popular CBS television series JAG), also a Scientologist, had planned to attend but had to cancel due to an unexpected change in her filming schedule. Ms. Bell said in a written statement that she was shocked at the high level of intolerance and that performances by some artists have been cancelled in Germany because of their religion.
Said Ms. Archer, “The growing problem of religious discrimination we see in Europe today was factually spawned several years ago in Germany by the Kohl administration. It is up to the government of Chancellor Schroeder to reverse those divisive policies and embrace religious pluralism. If democratic governments do not abide by their human rights commitments, they will be ignored when they try to remedy abuses by totalitarian regimes.”
Ms. Archer has made several visits to Washington D.C. to brief Congressional leaders, addressed the plenary session of the OSCE in Warsaw and discussed the issue in various meetings with Members of the European Parliament.
She said that despite efforts by State Department officials and the Church of Scientology, and in defiance of its own publicly stated aims, German officials have continued to refuse to engage in dialogue with members of minority religions.
Among the religions complaining of a climate of intolerance in Germany are Muslims, charismatic Christians, Orthodox Jews, and Jehovah’s Witnesses, in addition to Scientologists.
The Resolutions set forth a well-documented pattern of religious discrimination which was initiated by the Kohl Administration but which the Schroeder government has so far taken no action to remedy. They cite numerous official findings which have uncovered wanton disregard of basic human rights, including six State Department Human Rights reports, Helsinki Commission investigations and the State Department’s first Annual Report on International Religious Freedom published last month. In that report, the U.S. State Department was particularly critical of the German government for implementing – at both state and federal level – discriminatory “sect filters,” whereby job applicants must declare that they are not members of targeted religions.
The resolutions are being introduced just four days before a thousands-strong, multi-faith religious freedom rally in Hamburg in protest at continued intolerance by the German government. The rally, which Ms. Archer will be attending, marks the conclusion of the “1999 European Marathon for Human Rights”, a 4,500 kilometer run through seven countries from Athens to Hamburg, which was launched in July.
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