MINELRES: F18News Summary: Azerbaijan; Georgia; Uzbekistan;
Forum 18
[email protected]
Mon May 12 09:55:46 2003
FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
http://www.forum18.org/
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief
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8 May 2003
AZERBAIJAN: NAKHICHEVAN ADVENTIST CHURCH FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=48
Within days of the reopening of the Adventist church in Nakhichevan after a
year when the community was banned from meeting, the local justice ministry
informed the church it was seeking its liquidation through the courts. It
claimed the community was wrong to have given its legal address as the
church in Baku (of which it was a branch) when it registered in March 1996.
One Adventist pastor told Forum 18 News Service he was reluctant to
speculate on why the authorities are again seeking to prevent the church
from functioning "as we don't want to offend the authorities". "But the
justice ministry waited a full seven years before pointing out our mistake
- and they're the people who registered our church." Idris Abbasov, head of
the Nakhichevan branch of the State Committee for Work with Religious
Organisations, denied that the Adventists were being obstructed from
worshipping. "No-one has informed me of any liquidation through the
courts," he claimed to Forum 18. "They're engaged in prayers and services.
No-one is stopping them from doing that."
* See full article below. *
8 May 2003
AZERBAIJAN: NAKHICHEVAN IS RE-REGISTRATION BLACK HOLE
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=49
More than a year after the compulsory re-registration drive was due to have
been completed, the senior religious affairs official in Azerbaijan's
autonomous republic of Nakhichevan has admitted to Forum 18 News Service
that none of Nakhichevan's dozens of religious communities has been
re-registered. "It is still a question whether re-registration should take
place in Baku or in Nakhichevan," Idris Abbasov, head of the Nakhichevan
branch of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations,
declared. "I don't know." He told Forum 18 that only Rafik Aliev, the
chairman of the State Committee, knows the answer. However, no official of
the State Committee in the capital Baku was prepared to talk to Forum 18.
Although Abbasov denied that lack of re-registration prevented the dozens
of religious communities in the autonomous republic from functioning
freely, it leaves them in a legal black hole.
6 May 2003
GEORGIA: NO END TO IMMUNITY DESPITE PRESIDENTIAL PLEDGE
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=46
Nearly two months after President Eduard Shevardnadze made a high-profile
pledge that those who attack religious minorities will be punished,
attackers continue to enjoy state-sanctioned immunity. On 4 May a mob
stopped the Jehovah's Witnesses holding a congress in the village of
Ortasheni near Gori, Genadi Gudadze, the Jehovah's Witness leader in
Georgia, told Forum 18 News Service. The mayor of Gori and the police chief
warned them not to hold the congress. "It is not some bandit taking action
against us but the state. So who can we complain to?" Gudadze declared.
"Progress since the president made his pledge is not very significant,"
Levan Ramishvili of the Liberty Institute told Forum 18. "Perhaps the
'mainstream' religious minorities - like the Baptists, the Catholics and
the Lutherans - have seen some improvement, but the others - including the
non-Patriarchate Orthodox, the Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishna
followers - have seen nothing change."
7 May 2003
GEORGIA: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES CHALLENGE LITERATURE SEIZURES
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=47
First deputy finance minister Lasha Zhvania has pledged that two
consignments of Jehovah's Witness literature seized by customs in the Black
Sea port of Poti in March and April will be released as soon as customs
procedures are complete. He strenuously denied that the shipments had been
seized because they had been sent by the Jehovah's Witnesses. "It is
certainly not my government's policy to obstruct people receiving religious
literature of any kind," Zhvania told Forum 18 News Service. The Jehovah's
Witnesses are challenging the seizures in court. "We have already presented
all the documentation we need to. They should already have released the
books," Jehovah's Witness lawyer Manuchar Tsimintia told Forum 18. The
Jehovah's Witnesses claim that the then customs chief sent a letter to all
local branches in February telling them not to allow Jehovah's Witness
literature into Georgia.
9 May 2003
UZBEKISTAN: NAMANGAN'S MUSLIMS APPEAL IN VAIN FOR MOSQUES
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=50
Muslims from the suburb of Rafik Mumin in the Fergana valley city of
Namangan have complained to Forum 18 News Service that the authorities have
repeatedly refused registration for the Donobad mosque which was closed
down in 1998. Rejecting their latest application, the deputy leader of the
city administration wrote to the Muslims at the end of March that it is
"pointless" to register the mosque, because several mosques nearby are
already functioning. "The authorities routinely give unofficial
instructions to mahalla committee leaders to refuse registration to
mosques," Gulyam Halmatov, chairman of the Namangan branch of the
Independent Human Rights Organisation of Uzbekistan, told Forum 18.
8 May 2003
AZERBAIJAN: NAKHICHEVAN ADVENTIST CHURCH FIGHTS FOR SURVIVAL
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=48
By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service
Within days of the official reopening on 12 April of the Adventist church
in Azerbaijan's autonomous republic of Nakhichevan after a year when the
community was banned from meeting, the local Ministry of Justice wrote to
inform the church that it was seeking its liquidation through the courts.
The justice ministry claimed that the community was wrong to have given its
legal address as the church in the capital Baku (of which it was a branch)
when it registered in March 1996. Asked why the Nakhichevan authorities are
again seeking to prevent the church from functioning, one Adventist pastor,
who preferred not to be named, was reluctant to speculate. "We won't give
our view as we don't want to offend the authorities," he told Forum 18 News
Service on 8 May. "But the justice ministry waited a full seven years
before pointing out our mistake - and they're the people who registered our
church."
The justice ministry lodged the case to liquidate the church on 7 April in
Nakhichevan city court. No date has yet been set for the hearing.
Idris Abbasov, head of the Nakhichevan branch of the State Committee for
Work with Religious Organisations, strongly denied that Nakhichevan's
Adventists were being obstructed from worshipping. "No-one has informed me
of any liquidation through the courts," he claimed to Forum 18 on 8 May.
"They're engaged in prayers and services. No-one is stopping them from
doing that. We have freedom of religion."
At the same time as the justice ministry is seeking to liquidate the old
registration, the community's application for re-registration with the
State Committee has been stalled for more than a year. "We gave in the
documents to the State Committee in Baku, but they always reply that
they're still thinking about it," the Adventist pastor told Forum 18.
Abbasov told Forum 18 that his branch of the State Committee had never
received any registration application from the Adventists - or from any
other religious community - and that all such applications were being
considered in Baku. He said no religious groups have yet been re-registered
in the autonomous republic (see separate F18News article). However, he
pledged that the Adventists would get re-registration with the State
Committee.
No official of the State Committee in Baku was prepared to talk to Forum 18
on 8 May. Zemfira Rzayeva, the head of the registration department, angrily
refused to discuss anything, complaining that Forum 18 publishes "untrue
information" and misquotes State Committee officials after conducting
interviews with them. Committee deputy chairman Namik Allahverdiev simply
put the phone down after hearing that Forum 18 was on the line. Samed
Bairamzade, head of department for relations with religious bodies, refused
to give any information, claiming that he did not know whether it was true
that the person calling him was a journalist or someone pretending to be a
journalist.
The Adventist pastor pointed out that new moves from the Nakhichevan
authorities seem to follow anything the church does. He said that after
eleven church members wrote to the prime minister of Nakhichevan last
December requesting to be allowed to meet for worship, the justice ministry
wrote to warn them of the mistake in the registration document (the church
received the letter only in January).
In February the community restored the Nakhichevan church and in March a
new pastor, Ivan Uklein, arrived to lead the community. It was on 16 April,
four days after the reopening of the church, that the justice ministry
wrote to the church to inform it that the ministry had lodged the
liquidation case in court (the church received the letter only on 22
April).
The Nakhichevan Adventist church has faced a long history of harassment.
The previous pastor, Vahid Nagiev, was hounded out of Nakhichevan with his
family in June 2002 (though Abbasov denied to Forum 18 that they had been
driven out of the autonomous republic). Keklik Kerimova, Nagiev's wife,
told Forum 18 from Baku on 8 May that the family is "living like refugees"
in the Azerbaijani capital, wanting and praying to be allowed to return
home. She said they have no work and only one of their four children has
been able to find a school.
The Adventist pastor stressed that the Nakhichevan congregation - which has
eighteen adult members - holds all its services in Russian. "Officials
react very badly when Azerbaijanis convert," he told Forum 18.
Only two Adventist congregations have been allowed to re-register with the
State Committee since the re-registration drive was launched in August
2001, one in Baku and one in Azerbaijan's second city Gyanja. The
re-registration drive saw hundreds of congregations of a variety of faiths
failing to gain the new registered status.
(END)
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