MEDIA DOWNLOADS
This is a selection of photos from RI's photographic library. If published, please credit as Photo: Release International, unless otherwise stated.
To download any of the files in this area to your computer, right click 'save target as' or 'save link as' on the links (shown in red) or images below, then choose the location on your computer you wish to save to.
Email RI's Media Officer Andrew Boyd andrewboydconsultant@ntlworld.com
Through our international network of missions, Release International serves persecuted Christians in 30 countries around the world by supporting pastors and Christian prisoners, and their families; supplying Christian literature and Bibles; and working for justice.
CHINA/NORTH KOREA PHOTOS
Flight from North Korea feature in Witness 34
Photo: CHI01018 China
Photo: Release International
Caption: Peter (22): 'I strongly believe that God's plan, which called me to China, is to train me and send me back to North Korea to evangelise my people. Even though I may be put in prison, or killed, I will go. Once I was arrested and sent back to North Korea. I was put in prison. I suffered forced labour for about ten months. As an evangelist when I go back to North Korea it's very dangerous. A Christian woman was executed due to her faith in Jesus so I also may be put in prison, or put in the political prison camp, or killed.'
Photo: CHI01001 China
Photo: Release International
Caption: Tim Peters, Founder of RI partner Helping Hands Korea: 'Religious persecution is absolute inside North Korea. Christians are not allowed to have a Bible, they are not allowed to gather. If it is revealed that a family is Christian, then not only the one who has committed this state crime would be taken off to a political prison camp, but that individual's children, and their parents: three generations. This is possibly the most severe Christian persecution that exists in the world.'
Photo: CHI01216 
China
Photo: Release International
Caption: The Chinese government does not recognise the N Koreans as refugees, but forcibly repatriates around 4,000 a year to North Korea, where they face imprisonment, torture and even death. The Chinese also offer financial rewards to those who turn in N Koreans and 'underground railroad' activists.
Photo: CHI01046 China
Photo: Release International
Caption: Some refugees become Christians through the ministry of Christian activists in China. Some even choose to return to N Korea as Christian missionaries. If they are caught by the authorities, they will be sent to a labour camp, or may even be executed.
Photo: CHI01135 China 
Photo: Release International
Caption: Many refugees cross the Tumen River which forms part of North Korea's northern border with China. Armed border guards hide in secret observation points.
Photo: CHI01051 China
Photo: Release International
Caption: Safe for the moment: a young N Korean refugee, Yehchan ('Jesus praise'), who has become a Christian, prays for her country from the security of a safe house.
ROB FROST
Photo: Release International
Caption: Release International's late President, Revd Dr Rob Frost, recently visited China to meet Christians in both the official (registered) church, and ‘illegal’ unregistered church. He is pictured here standing on the Great Wall.
NIGERIA DOCUMENTARY
The Remains of the Day DVD
Caption: RI's new 60-minute documentary The Remains of the Day tells the stories of five Christians who survived violent attacks in Maiduguri, Borno State in 2006. The DVD can be requested from Release for a suggested donation of £10. Tel 01689 823491.
Photo: CRW_2002.jpgPhoto: Crossfire.
Caption: Rev Augustine Aifuobhokhan surveys the damage to Amazing Grace Chapel, Maiduguri, Nigeria – his life’s work destroyed by rioters in 2006.
Photo: CRW_2005.jpgPhoto: Crossfire.
Caption: Rev Augustine Aifuobhokhan.
'Their leader walked up to me with the dagger hand up to strike -
but the Almighty God intervened'
Photo: CRW_2031.jpgPhoto: Crossfire.
Caption: Hanatu Joseph: five children were burnt to death in her home. Her message to their killers: 'Jesus loves you'.
Photo: CRW_1981.jpgPhoto: Crossfire.
Caption: Pastor Enoch Atiyaye pointing to where the mob murdered a priest with a burning tyre.
PAKISTAN PHOTOS
Militant Muslims attack Christian villagers (October 2007)
Lobhana, Kasur
Photo: Demolishedhouse1.jpg
Photo: Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan
Caption: Three houses belonging to Christians were demolished by Muslim militants
Photo: James&BaghMasih.jpg
Photo: Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan
Caption: James Masih (left) and Bagh Masih (right) lost their homes in the attack
Photo: oldwoman.jpg
Photo: Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan
Caption: Elderly villager 
Photo: Villagers2.jpg
Photo: Sharing Life Ministry Pakistan
Caption: Some of the Christian villagers who were attacked
CHINA PHOTOS
Witness magazine September 2007
Photo: China Aid
Caption: The Chinese authorities bulldoze an ‘illegal’ Christian church
Photo: Release International
Caption: An unregistered ‘illegal’ church meets secretly in a nightclub
Photo: chi02006.jpg
Photo: Release International
Caption: Moore Church, Shanghai: a legally-recognised church that is packed with 1,000 people every Sunday
Photo: Release International
Caption: Release International's President, Revd Dr Rob Frost, recently visited China to meet Christians in both the official (registered) church, and ‘illegal’ unregistered church
Photo: CHI01216 China
Photo: Release International
Caption: A Chinese policeman stands guard in Tiananmen Square – behind him is a huge portrait of Chairman Mao.
BISHOP OF JOS, NIGERIA
Photo: Nig20157.jpg (2.8 mb)
Photo: Release International
Caption: The Bishop of Jos, Rt Rev Dr Benjamin Kwashi, who narrowly escaped death after the second violent attack on his family in 18 months.
BURMA PHOTOS
Burma feature in Witness 36 (March 2007)
Photo: CRW_3933.jpg (700k)Photo: Release International/Crossfire
Caption: Pastor Stephen. Burma's ruling junta forced Pastor Stephen to pull down his orphanage: ‘I know one day the Lord will rebuild everything for his glory.’
Photo: buddhist01.jpg (2.56mb)
Photo: Release International/Crossfire
Caption: The Burmese military regime considers that 'to be Burmese is to be a Buddhist'.
Photo: buddhist02.jpg (1.55mb)Photo: Release International/Crossfire
Caption: Burma is 73% Buddhist, with Christians numbering just 8% of the population.
Photo: Release International/Crossfire
Caption: Buddhist temple, Burma.
Photo: james.jpg (1.15mb)Photo: Release International/Crossfire
Caption: Pastor James looks out of the window of his church. 'Everywhere we go we see people are receptive to the gospel.'
Photo: paul.jpg (3.21 mb)Photo: Release International/Crossfire
Caption: Evangelist Paul, who was tortured by the Burmese authorities after he converted from Buddhism.
'They handcuffed me and hoisted me above the ground by my handcuffs until my feet no longer touched the ground and there they told me to preach.'
VIETNAM PHOTOS
Vietnam feature in Witness 35 (January 2007)
Photo: MennoniteChurchAttacked220506 Vietnam
Caption: Vietnamese secret police attack the Mennonite Church in Ho Chi Minh City on May 22 2006.
Photo: SungSeoPao Vietnam 
Photo: Release International
Caption: Hmong evangelist Sung Seo Pao was imprisoned in Vietnam for 11 years for 'spreading religion'. Held in Hong Ca Prison, he was starved of food, forced to work in the prison brick kiln, and regularly beaten by prison staff. He was released in September 2005.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
'In prison I was not allowed to have any Bible. For eleven years I endured hard labour. If I did not reach the target, I would be beaten until I could not stand. Every day I prayed that God would give me strength.' Sung Seo Pao.
Download the secret training manual from the Vietnamese Central Bureau of Religious Affairs which describes government policy towards protestant Christianity in the northern mountainous region.
Photo: ThanVanTruong
Vietnam
Photo: Release International
Caption: Rev Than Van Truong was declared 'insane' by authorities at the Bien Hoa mental hospital in Dong Nai province, reportedly kept in solitary confinement and injected with mind-altering substances to cure 'his religious problem'. Rev Truong, a former Communist official and officer in the Vietnam People's Army, first drew attention to himself when he sent Bibles to the country's top brass. He was imprisoned for nine months in 2003 and, subsequently, was kept under surveillance until his arrest in June 2004. After an international campaign to secure his freedom, he was released in September 2005.
Photo: VIE10083 Vietnam
Photo: Release International
Caption: Poster of former Communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
Photo: VIE10283 Vietnam
Photo: Release International
Caption: Registered churches enjoy religious freedoms in Vietnam, but unregistered congregations are still repressed by the government.
Photo: VIE10359 Vietnam
Photo: Release International
Caption: A sea of motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh City.
SRI LANKA PHOTOS
Photo: SRI10490 Sri Lanka
Photo: Release International
Caption: Pastor A was attacked and almost raped by a mob stirred up by Buddhist militants in Sri Lanka.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Note: Pastor A's identity has been hidden for her own protection
Attacks against Christians have been growing in recent years. In an earlier incident, Buddhist extremists attempted to forcibly convert Pastor 'A', a woman. They also tried to rape her. 'They forced us to kneel down; ordered us to declare that Buddha is our God and kept beating us. But we refused to say anything. We sat on the ground and kept silent.'
It was 10 o'clock one evening. Pastor 'A' was in her house with three other women, when they heard a loud noise outside. 'We looked out and we saw a lot of men who had come and surrounded us,' she told Release International. 'They were local Buddhist monks who threatened us and told us to stop our [Christian] activities.'
But the threats quickly moved beyond words: 'I was the first person they caught. The men who found me fought with me for a very long time. The man was trying to throw me down on the floor and I knew he was going to rape me. I fought as much as I could, but at one point I lost all strength.
'I cried out to the Lord for him to help me. It was a miracle! He gave me strength and he saved me.'
But the pastor's ordeal continued: 'They forced us to kneel down; ordered us to declare that Buddha is our God and kept beating us. But we refused to say anything. We sat on the ground and kept silent.'
Photo: SRI10397 Sri Lanka
Photo: Release International
Caption: Pastor Lalani leads an Assemblies of God church in southern Sri Lanka, which has been constantly opposed by militant Buddhists.
Photo: SRI10176 Sri Lanka
Photo: Release International
Caption: Pastor Lalani with a photograph of her husband Lionel, who was murdered in 1988.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Download feature on Sri Lanka from Witness 27 (September 2005)
Photo: EASL0104 Sri Lanka
Photo: National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka
Caption: Hundreds of churches have been forced to close in Sri Lanka since 2003, often at the hands of militant Buddhists who feel threatened by the growth of Christianity.
