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Christians tortured in China: rights group

Five American church leaders have been arrested in China while Christians seized in a separate raid by Chinese security officials were tortured, a US-based religious rights group said Thursday.

The Americans were seized in the cities of Luoyang and Yichuan in the central province of Henan by public security bureau officers on Monday, the China Aid Association said, citing witnesses.

Four of them, along with 27 Chinese underground church pastors, were detained while celebrating Christian fellowship together near a mall in Luoyang.

The other US citizen was arrested while walking along a street in Yichuan with Chinese pastor Wan Dagan. The names of the Americans were not known, nor was their whereabouts, the group said.

China, which does not recognize the Vatican, allows Christians to worship only in state-approved and strictly monitored churches. Millions however prefer to attend unregistered "underground" or "house" churches, which are regularly shut down.

Meanwhile, many of 43 Chinese Christians arrested in Hubei Province earlier this month were tortured, it said, citing those who had been released.

The torture included burning their arms with cigarettes and needle punctures to their wrists. One woman, Lian Tonggui, was striped naked and beaten until bloody with a specially designed sharp bamboo stick, it said.

At least two of those arrested remain in custody. The rights group cited further arrests in Xiping Xinjian Village in Jiangxi Province, where 35 Christians were taken away on August 11 when a Sunday school teachers training class was raided. It said old women were beaten.

Elsewhere, about 30 Christians were arrested and more than 10 women were stripped and paraded in front of the others on August 7 after a Sunday service at a house church in Hejing County, Xinjiang region.

At least three of the church leaders were still being held, it said.

"China's violations of international religious and diplomatic covenants, to which they are a signatory, must cease," said Christian Aid Association spokesman Bob Fu.
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