Keston News Service Summary: 28 Jan - 1 Feb 2002
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Subject: Keston News Service Summary: 28 Jan - 1 Feb 2002
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
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Keston News Service Summary: 28 Jan - 1 Feb 2002
KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK
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KESTON NEWS SERVICE – SUMMARY 28 Jan - 1 Feb 2002
Summaries of recent reporting on violations of religious liberty and
on religion in communist and post-communist lands.
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KAZAKHSTAN: CONTROVERSIAL RELIGION LAW GOES TO PRESIDENT (1 Feb). On
31 January the upper house of the Kazakh parliament approved without
any changes at all the controversial new draft religion law approved
by the lower house on 17 January. The law now goes within ten days to
Kazakhstan's president Nursultan Nazarbayev for signature. Once
signed, it will allow unregistered religious groups to be banned,
require all missionaries to be registered and deny legal registration
to all Muslim organisations outside the framework of the Spiritual
Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan. In a telephone survey on 31
January of attitudes to the new law among various religious
communities, Keston News Service found that only the Spiritual
Administration offered unequivocal support for the new law. The
Orthodox Church has concerns about the requirements that leaders be
chosen by local religious communities, while other denominations had
even wider concerns, claiming that the new law turned them into
"second-class religions". One group of Baptist churches rejected
entirely the provisions allowing the government to ban unregistered
religious communities.
MOLDOVA/TRANSDNIESTER: NEW DEADLINE FOR BAPTIST CHURCH DEMOLITION (29
Jan). A Baptist church in the town of Tiraspol, the capital of
Moldova's breakaway region of Transdniester, has been given a new
deadline for enforced demolition, on the grounds that it was built
illegally, Keston News Service has learnt. The pastor’s family told
Keston on 28 January that officials from the State Building
Inspectorate visited the church, which stands in the yard of a private
home, on 23 January. They ordered the Baptists to "think again" about
continuing to use it as a church and gave them a new deadline of 15
February to halt such use or face demolition.
MOLDOVA/TRANSDNIESTER: METHODIST PROTESTS AT HARASSMENT (31 Jan).
Moldova's Methodist leader has protested against what he claims is
harassment by the authorities of the breakaway Moldovan region of
Transdniester, including the denial of registration for its two
communities in the unrecognised entity and KGB pressure to cut his
ties with the outside world. "We have requested registration for the
past six years," he told Keston News Service from Bendery/Tighina on
29 January. "They have refused - and more, threatening us. They told
us the state is Orthodox and no sectarians are allowed here,
especially Methodists." An official in the office of the commissioner
of religion and cults dismissed Hantil's claims as "fabricated". (see
full article below)
TURKMENISTAN: FREED BAPTIST "UNDER SURVEILLANCE" (28 Jan). Freed
religious prisoner Shageldy Atakov has been warned not to associate
with his fellow Baptists and remains under close surveillance by the
country's political police, the KNB (former KGB), Keston News Service
has learnt. "Surveillance has been set up around the Atakovs' home," a
25 January statement from local Baptists declared. "Each day an
officer makes a visit allegedly to 'wish him well'." Atakov has still
not received a certificate of release from prison.
FACTFILE: RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS AGENCIES (29 Jan). Directory of government
agencies handling religious affairs in the CIS, Baltic republics,
Eastern Europe and China. The role of such state or government
agencies varies widely from country to country. Compiled by Felix
Corley, the list draws on information provided by a number of
embassies in London, Keston's Moscow and Central Asian correspondents
and contacts in the region.
Thursday 31 January
MOLDOVA/TRANSDNIESTER: METHODIST PROTESTS AT HARASSMENT
by Felix Corley, Keston News Service
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For the full text, see http://www.keston.org/knsframe.htm
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