WASHINGTON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- A U.S. commission on religious freedom has called for sanctions against Saudi Arabia, a position rebuffed two years previously by the State Department.
The independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedoms this month cited 11 countries for "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious" freedom" and called for them to be labeled as "Countries of Particular Concern" by the State Department that would allow sanctions to be imposed.
The commission noted that six of the countries -- Eritrea, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Vietnam -- currently do not have the CPC designation by the State Department. The Middle East Newsline Web site reported this is the third straight year the commission made its recommendation on Saudi Arabia, but Secretary of State Colin Powell had rejected the commission's position in the two previous years.
Other countries on the list are Burma, North Korea, Iran, China, Sudan.
In a letter to Secretary Colin Powell, commission chairman Michael Young
wrote: "For every country named a CPC to date, the only official actions taken have been to invoke already existing sanctions rather than take additional action to advance religious freedom pursuant to IRFA (International Religious Freedoms Act)."
