ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 2, 2003

ELCA PASTOR NAW-KARL MUA SENTENCED TO 15 YEARS IN LAOS
03-141-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- A Laotian court convicted the Rev. Naw-Karl Mua,
Light of Life Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minn., a pastor of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), of "use of warfare items
or ordnance" and "obstructing an official in the performance of his
duty" in a trial June 30 in Phonesavanh, a town about 70 miles northeast
of the capital, Vientiane.  Mua and two European journalists were
sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined about $1,100 each.
     "I am appalled," said the Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the ELCA
Saint Paul Area Synod, in a June 30 statement.  "Those of us who work
with Pastor Mua know him to be a quiet, religious man who cares deeply
about the dignity of each individual," he said.
     Rogness asked for letters to Laotian officials in Vientiane and
Washington, D.C.  "I urge people to advocate on Pastor Mua's behalf by
appealing to the Lao government to release him for humanitarian reasons
and to allow him to return to his family and congregation," he said.
     Before becoming presiding bishop of the ELCA in 2001, the Rev.
Mark S. Hanson was Mua's bishop in the Saint Paul Area Synod.  "I have
great respect for his leadership, integrity and intellect," Hanson wrote
July 2 in letters to Laos's prime minister and minister of foreign
affairs.
     "I implore your government to show leniency toward Pastor Naw-Karl
Mua," Hanson wrote.  "His imprisonment will have profound impact on his
family and church."
     "Fifteen-year prison terms after a trial lasting two hours defies
belief," said an Amnesty International news release.  The human-rights
organization added that the trial "was inexplicably held in the remote
north of the country despite their pre-trial detention in the capital
Vientiane."
     "The trial was attended by U.S. Ambassador Douglas Hartwick and an
embassy consular officer," said Richard Boucher, U.S. State Department
spokesman, in a June 30 news briefing in Washington.  "We don't believe
that this trial and its outcome have served the cause of justice.  The
trial has fallen well short of international standards of
jurisprudence," he said.
     "We are continuing to convey our concern about the health and
welfare of Reverend Mua to Lao officials, and we will continue to
explore all avenues to seek his return to his family in the United
States as soon as possible," Boucher said.
     "Our Embassy in Vientiane has been in close contact with
diplomatic representatives working on behalf of the two European
nationals.  Department of State and U.S. Embassy officials are also in
frequent touch with Mr. Mua's family in the United States," Boucher
said.
     Soutsakhone Pathammavong, Laos's ambassador to France, indicated
July 2 that diplomatic efforts to free the three men quickly continue.
"This morning we talked with the ambassadors of France, Belgium and the
United States," he told Radio France Internationale in Paris.  "We
talked of liberation, of deportation."
     "I continue to be deeply troubled about the welfare of Pastor Mua
and the others arrested along with him.  The prayers of all of us in the
Saint Paul Area Synod are with Pastor Mua and others detained, his
family, and Light of Life Lutheran Church," Rogness said.
     The government of Laos detained Mua since June 3.  Mua is reported
to have accompanied two European journalists into the Xieng Khouang
province of Laos to help them research a story on human rights
violations and persecution of Hmong people by the Communist government
in Laos.
     Mua went to neighboring Thailand on May 12 for a missionary
project, something he has done frequently in the past because he has
family and a relationship with a Hmong congregation there.  While in
Thailand, he met two journalists -- Thierry Falise of Belgium and
Vincent Reynaud of France -- and entered Laos legally on May 23 as their
translator.
     Mua failed to return to the United States for his son's high
school graduation, and his wife received an unconfirmed report that Lao
military forces had killed her husband.  The U.S. State Department
refuted that report and said the Laotian government detained Mua with
the two journalists, accused of cooperating with "bandits" to kill a
security official in the remote northeastern village of Khai.
     Mua is a native of Laos.  He lived in a refugee camp in Thailand
for one year before moving to France in 1978, where he lived until he
immigrated to the United States in 1985.  He is now a U.S. citizen.
     Educated in the Twin Cities area at National American University
and Bethel Seminary, Mua served as a pastor of Calvary Alliance Church,
St. Paul, 1992-97, and as pastor of Hmong Central Lutheran Church, St.
Paul, 1998-2002.  Hmong Central is a congregation of the ELCA.
     Mua was ordained an ELCA pastor in 2000.  He is developing Light
of Life Lutheran Church, which meets at Beaver Lake Lutheran Church,
Maplewood, Minn., and is vice president of the Association of
Asians/Pacific Islanders -- ELCA.
     Staff of the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod worked through the
Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), Washington, D.C., and
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Geneva, Switzerland, to communicate
with government officials and with other non-governmental agencies for
Mua's release.  LOGA is the ELCA's federal public policy advocacy
office.  The ELCA is one of 136 member churches of the LWF.
     The international press-freedom association Reporters Without
Borders (Reporters sans frontières) also appealed to the Laotian
government to release the three men.
-- -- --
     The home page of the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod is at
http://www.spas-elca.org/ on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news