BEIJING (AFP) — Two Catholic priests have gone missing after being arrested in areas neighbouring Beijing, a religious group said Monday, amid government efforts to curb protests before the Olympics.
Zhang Jianlin and Jia Zhiguo, both priests from Zhangjiakou prefecture near the capital, have not been seen since they were apprehended in late May, the US-based Cardinal Kung Foundation said in a statement.
The priests, leaders of China's "underground" Catholic Church which is not registered with the government, were taken into custody when travelling to Shanghai to attend a service sanctioned by Pope Benedict XVI, the group said.
"Both priests disappeared while they were in the hands of Chinese authorities," the foundation said.
"There has been no news on these two priests since their arrests. We do not know what is happening to them and where they are."
The official religious affairs authorities in Xuanhua district, where the two priests live, said they had no information on their disappearance and added that they would not be arrested if they had done nothing wrong.
"I have not heard any news of these two people recently," said an official at the district religious affairs bureau.
"They are ordinary religious believers, we don't have the right to arrest them, I have not heard of any illegal activities attributed to them."
According to the foundation, surveillance cameras were set up around the homes where the two priests conducted their services, while prayer meetings there were forbidden.
"The persecution of religious believers is very much alive in China and ongoing regardless of the fact that the Olympic Games will be held in China less than a month away," the foundation statement said.
The Vatican estimates that up to 12 million Chinese people worship in the nation's underground Catholic Church, which remains loyal to the Pope.
A further five million are members of the state-sanctioned "patriotic" Catholic Church which is administered by the ruling Communist Party.
Chinese authorities have rounded up numerous political dissidents and rights activists ahead of the August 8-24 Beijing Olympics amid government concerns of social unrest during the event.
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