MINELRES: F18News Summary: Armenia; Russia; Uzbekistan
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Wed Apr 28 16:33:24 2004
Original sender: Forum 18 <[email protected]>
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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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19 April 2004
ARMENIA: COUNCIL OF EUROPE FAILS TO PUNISH COMMITMENT VIOLATIONS OVER
IMPRISONED CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=301
With 24 Jehovah's Witnesses in prison for refusing military service on
grounds of conscience, another fined and a further three awaiting trial,
Council of Europe officials have been unable to explain to Forum 18 News
Service what punishment Armenia faces - if any - for violating its
commitments to the organisation. The commitments required Armenia to
have freed all imprisoned conscientious objectors and introduced
alternative service by January 2004, but it failed on both counts. One
outsider involved in the issue at the Council of Europe, who preferred
not to be identified, told Forum 18 that the Armenian government had
deployed "an especially successful lobbying campaign" to have the issue
buried. The Jehovah's Witnesses, one of Armenia's largest religious
minorities, appear no nearer to receiving state registration.
21 April 2004
RUSSIA: SPRING OFFENSIVE AGAINST THE "VITALIBAN"?
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=302
Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad within Russia less
enthusiastic about a proposed merger with the Moscow Patriarchate have
faced obstruction from the state authorities, Forum 18 News Service has
learnt. When 50 clergy and lay members held a diocesan assembly in Tula
region in February, officers of the police and FSB (former KGB)
questioned their legal right to meet, while elsewhere local authorities
have failed to register parishes, obstruct those that meet in
privately-owned buildings and even threatened to confiscate churches
built with parishioners' funds.
Without state registration, parishes cannot produce publications or
conduct missionary activity, but some clergy argue it is better not to
have registration. "It is easier for state officials to apply pressure
to a community with legal status by finding fault with its
documentation," one priest told Forum 18.
22 April 2004
RUSSIA: METHODISTS MAY HAVE FOUGHT OFF CHURCH STEALING
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=304
A Korean Methodist church in northern Moscow appears to have fought off
an attempt by a commercial firm to steal their church building. A
district court ruled against the Moscow justice department on 26 March
after the church challenged the justice department's acceptance of
fraudulent documents which claimed to have transferred the church to the
company. Galina Skakun of the justice department admitted in court the
Methodists' claim to the building, and tried to defend her department
even though it failed to verify the authenticity of the documents.
Church administrator Svetlana Kim said the Methodists believe that
coverage of their case by both Forum 18 News Service and Russian news
agencies "really helped us".
21 April 2004
UZBEKISTAN: SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE SHOT?
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=303
Amid a major crackdown, eleven Protestants in Nukus were questioned at
the public prosecutor's office and pressured to convert to Islam. They
were also threatened with being shot, though the city prosecutor, M.
Arzymbetov, subsequently denied this to Forum 18 News Service. The
prosecutor also tried to have a Protestant, Iklas Aldungarov, expelled
from his university medical course, but the university rector, Oral
Ataniyazova, has resisted the pressure. "How and what Aldungarov
believes is his own personal business, and we do not have the right to
interfere with it," she told Forum 18. She added that a very large
number of young people in the region are becoming Christians.
"Evidently, the Christian churches have managed to set up a competent,
well conceived operation here. I do not think that is a bad thing. Let's
see the mosques here work as well as the Christian churches." Pressure
on Protestants elsewhere in Uzbekistan is also continuing.
* See full article below. *
21 April 2004
UZBEKISTAN: SHOULD CHRISTIANS BE SHOT?
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=303
By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
Amid a major crackdown on a group of Protestants in Nukus, the capital
of the Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston] autonomous republic in
north-western Uzbekistan, eleven members of a local congregation, the
Church of Christ, have been summoned for questioning at the public
prosecutor's office, where they were pressured to renounce their faith
and convert to Islam. They now face fines in court. "All of them are
members of an unregistered religious organisation," Nukus city
prosecutor M. Arzymbetov told Forum 18 News Service on 19 April. "The
activity of unregistered organisations is forbidden by law." He denied
reports Forum 18 had received that the Protestants had been coarsely
insulted and threatened with being shot. "It wasn't I who spoke to the
Protestants, but my assistant Kasym Davletmuradov. He is a very bright
man and he is not capable of such a thing." Arzymbetov also tried to
have church member Iklas Aldungarov expelled from his university in
retaliation for his participation in the church, though so far
Aldungarov has held onto his place.
The crackdown began on 1 April, when Arzymbetov wrote to the rector of
the Medical University, Oral Ataniyazova, to inform her that Aldungarov,
a final year student, was taking part in "an illegal religious sect",
the Church of Christ. The letter, of which Forum 18 has a copy, told her
that the public prosecutor had evidence that Aldungarov had violated
Article 240 part 1 (breaking the law on religious organisations) and
Article 241 (breaking the law on giving religious instruction) of the
code of administrative offences and that the case had already been
passed to the court. Describing "attracting people to other religious
confessions", distributing religious literature and organising meetings
as "a crude violation of the law" impermissible among students, the
prosecutor called for Aldungarov to be removed from the university and
to confirm that this had been done by 10 April.
Sources told Forum 18 that Aldungarov had never had any problems before,
has never been detained or had literature confiscated.
Arzymbetov confirmed that he had written to the university about
Aldungarov, but denied that he had ordered that he be expelled. "I
simply recommended that the rector should keep an eye on her students,"
he claimed to Forum 18. "The question of Aldungarov's expulsion did not
arise and he remains a student there."
Yet university rector Ataniyazova confirmed that the public prosecutor's
letter had recommended that Aldungarov be excluded but insisted she had
rejected such pressure. "We replied to the prosecutor that Aldungarov's
religious beliefs do not have any bearing on his studies, and therefore
we consider it simply unethical to consider such a letter," she told
Forum 18 from Nukus on 16 April. "How and what Aldungarov believes is
his own personal business, and we do not have the right to interfere
with it." She said that a very large number of young people in
Karakalpakstan are converting to Christianity. "Evidently, the Christian
churches have managed to set up a competent, well conceived operation
here. I do not think that is a bad thing. Let's see the mosques here
work as well as the Christian churches."
At the same time she claimed that Aldungarov was a very poor student.
"Every session he fails two or three exams. But I want to stress that we
are not going to make a connection between Aldungarov's progress and his
religious convictions."
In the wake of the attempt to oust Aldungarov from the university, the
National Security Service (former KGB) secret police and the public
prosecutor's office then widened their crackdown, beginning on 9 March
to summon other church members for questioning.
Protestant sources told Forum 18 that Arzymbetov, his assistant M.
Utemuratov, and investigator Davletmuratov tried to force those summoned
to sign statements admitting that they had participated in "illegal"
religious meetings and training. When one church member Mahset
Jabbabergenov refused to sign the documents, Arzymbetov reportedly began
swearing at him and threatening to imprison if he did not sign. When the
threats had no impact, he reportedly declared: "You Christians should
all be shot!" Officials from the public prosecutor's office also
insisted that Jabbabergenov, Aldungarov and the other Protestants -
Arzubay Abenov, Bahadir Joushimov, Kolbuy Joushimov, Timur Uralbaev,
Miruert Muratova, Abbat Allamuratov, Aygul Allamuratova and Muhamed
Saitov - should give up their Christian faith and become Muslims. Other
local Protestants were later summoned for questioning.
"Although the authorities had no facts to prove the accusation they kept
inviting everybody who had any connection with Christianity and
questioning them," one Protestant source who preferred not to be
identified told Forum 18. "If during the questioning they heard any
names they summoned those people to the office."
Meanwhile, pressure has continued on Protestants in other parts of the
country. On 10 March the criminal court for Yakkasaroy district of the
capital Tashkent fined six Protestants - Salimjon Babakulov, Mardjon
Nurulov, Olim Mamurov, Nadira Tadjikulova, Nargiza Tadjikulova and
Jamilya Makhmudova. They were punished for holding religious meetings in
private apartments under Article 240 and Article 241 of the
administrative code.
In another incident in Tashkent, on 9 March police raided and cut short
a meeting being held by around 10 Protestants on the premises of the
Harvest company. Uzbek citizens present were each fined five times the
minimum wage, or 27,200 soms (183 Norwegian kroner, 22 Euros or 27 US
dollars). The South Korean citizens who were present at the meeting were
"recommended" to leave the country for engaging in "unlawful religious
activity".
Meanwhile on 23 March the deputy head of the justice department for
Tashkent region, Sh. Khaknazarov, ordered a founding group that was
seeking registration for a Protestant church on Friendship collective
farm near Tashkent to revise its registration application, claiming it
contained "grammatical errors". "Every time, the justice administration
deliberately concentrates in its letters only on some inaccuracies, so
that next time they can once again refuse registration supposedly for
objective reasons," one Protestant who preferred not to be named told
Forum 18. "In fact, officials are simply dragging their feet so that the
church cannot function." (See also F18News 18 March 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=281 )
Elsewhere, Baptists of the Council of Churches who refuse on principle
to register with the authorities told Forum 18 on 10 April that Viktor
Otmakhov, whose home in the town of Angren near Tashkent is used for
services, was summoned to the town's public prosecutor's office on 1
April and questioned for five hours. Deputy public prosecutor Nurlan
Bainazarov demanded that he name all those who attend services and give
their home addresses, but Otmakhov refused. Bainazarov then threatened
to start a criminal case against him. He was given a written warning
that if he does not stop services in his home, arrests, fines and other
unspecified punishments will follow.
These incidents are the latest in a continuing series of attacks on
Protestants across Uzbekistan (eg. see F18News 4 March 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=267 ) and take place in
the context of the current post-terrorist bombing crackdown against
people of all faiths (see F18 News 13 April
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=298 ).
For more background, see Forum 18's latest religious freedom survey at
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=105
A printer-friendly map of Uzbekistan is available at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?
Parent=asia&Rootmap=uzbeki
(END)
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