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Double fine for Baptist pastor
Keston Institute (10.12.2002)/ HRWF Int. (10.12.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The leader of the Baptist church in Gulistan was brought before the Gulistan town court on 2 December charged under Article 240 (breaking the law on religious organisations) of the administrative code. Boris Akrachkov was found guilty and fined 6,000 soms (7 US dollars, 7 Euros or 4 British pounds), local Baptists told Keston. The trial followed an investigative raid on 3 November on the church's prayer house by the local law enforcement agencies together with representatives of the local authority and the regional department of justice. It was in the wake of the raid that the administrative case was brought against Akrachkov, at the same time as a much heavier fine was imposed on him in a separate case for showing "unlicensed" religious videos in a private home. "We are being blamed for the fact that the church in Gulistan is unregistered," the press- officer of the Baptist Union, Dmitri Pitirimov, told Keston. "But this is absurd; we have to start operations first, in order to gain enough supporters for the church. The authorities' advice recalls a joke in which a physical education teacher makes children learn to swim in an empty swimming pool, explaining that they will only put water in when the children have become good swimmers."
Source: http://www.keston.org
Jehovah's Witness faces trial, despite investigator's promises
Keston News Service (22.11.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (26.11.2002) Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Despite categorical guarantees from the investigator in his case that if he returned home he would not be punished (see KNS 9 September 2002), Jehovah's Witness Mars Munasypov was arrested by police in mid-November. At the end of September Munasypov decided to return to Navoi, although he said on the eve of his departure that he had "bad vibes", fearing he might still be punished for his religious activity.The investigator stated that "I did indeed guarantee that Munasypov would remain free and now I feel uncomfortable about that. But I believe that Munasypov virtually chose to put himself in prison, after refusing the services of a lawyer on the basis of principles that I do not understand." His lawyer told Keston that "it is simply absurd to suggest that the man went to prison voluntarily for the lack of 25,000 soms (29 US dollars, 29 Euros or 19 British pounds). If it had been a bribe, that would have been another matter, because then Munasypov could have refused to give it on grounds of principle".
Source: Keston Institute - www.keston.org
Lawyer fails to gain freedom for Jehovah's Witness
Keston Institute (12.11.2002) ) / HRWF Int. (29.10.2002) Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Keston News Service has learnt that the lawyer for Jehovah's Witness Marat Mudarisov, who is on trial in the Uzbek capital Tashkent on charges of inciting national, racial or religious hatred under Article 156 of the Criminal Code, has failed in his bid to have the case dismissed. The district Interior Ministry investigator, stating the case against Mudarisov, claimed that Jehovah's Witnesses incite national hatred by "preaching only from the Bible and not from the Koran". Mudarisov has now been held in detention for almost four months.
Source: Keston Institute - www.keston.org
Contradictory evidence at Jehovah's Witness trial
Keston Institute (1.11.2002) (04.11.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net -the latest court hearing in the trial of Jehovah's witness Marat Mudarisov the local head of Uzbekistan's secret police gave confusing and contradictory estimony, which some state confirm suspicions that the case had been trumped up by the authorities. Also, in the wake of a police raid on a Jehovah's Witness meeting in a private home in the town of Navoi, the authorities are continuing to pressure those who attended. A student at the Navoi pedagogical institute, Nuriya Fahridinova, was summoned to the dean's office where an official from the city department of internal affairs was present. Fahridinova, who attended the meeting on 29 October, was warned that she would be thrown out of the institute if she did not stop attending Jehovah's Witness meetings.
Source: Keston Institute - www.keston.org
Being protestant a crime?
Keston Institute (29.10.2002)/ HRWF Int. (29.10.2002) Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Leaders of a Protestant church in north west Uzbekistan have been charged with "participation in the activity of illegal religious organisations" and face a maximum sentence of three years in prison. This follows a police raid on the Mir (Peace) church in the town of Nukus that targeted only those of traditionally Muslim ethnic background. Police have also accused church leaders of luring minors into their activities. As the parents of all children who attend the church have signed declarations that they do not object to the religious education of their children, the law has not been broken. Entry to the church office is now forbidden by the police, who have also confiscated a computer and religious literature. Some suspect that the crackdown on the church may be linked with it being in the final stage of gaining official registration under Uzbek law.
Source: Keston Institute - www.keston.org
Baptist meeting raided
Keston Institute (26.09.2002)/ HRWF (30.09.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Local Baptists in the Uzbek town of Chirchik have filed a formal complaint after four police officers raided a religious meeting in a private apartment on 8 September, Protestant sources have told Keston News Service. The Baptists were warned that as an unregistered religious community they would face administrative and possibly criminal punishment if they continued to hold meetings. An official from the town's internal affairs department told Keston that the Baptists' complaint was being handled by the local procuracy, but the procuracy refused to comment. Under current Uzbek law, no religious organisation with fewer than 100 members is allowed to register.
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Political police follow Pentecostal church members
Keston News Service (15.07.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (15.07.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - A pastor of the Christian Full Gospel Church in the town of Andijan in the Fergana valley of Uzbekistan near the border with Kyrgyzstan has complained that members of his church are being openly subjected to pressure by the authorities.
Bakhtierjon Tuichiev told Keston News Service that he and other leading church members have been followed by the political police, the SNB (formerly the KGB), since they lodged a registration application which was blocked by the town administration. The local SNB declined to discuss this surveillance with Keston.
Source : http://www.keston.org/
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Jehovahs Witnesses fined for ?illegal? teaching
Keston News Service (19.06.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (20.06.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - An Uzbek court has found a Jehovah's Witness guilty of "illegal" religious teaching after he attended a wake for a dead friend last February, and fined him 19,725 Uzbek Som (27 US Dollars, 18 British Pounds or 28 Euros). The court declared that he "was engaged in teaching religious beliefs in a private capacity, without holding the corresponding authorisation from the relevant agency."
The head of the department for liaison with non-Muslim confessions at the Committee for Religious Affairs, Kamol Kamilov, stated that "Naturally, three believers can meet together - that is not against the law. It's another matter if a community is unregistered, because then they are not allowed to preach. There is a very fine line between preaching and simple friendly conversation, and we have to look at each such case individually."
Source: http://www.keston.org/
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KGB vetoes Jehovahs Witness services
Keston News Service (19.06.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (20.06.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - An unregistered Jehovah's Witness community has been refused permission to use a local home for religious meetings after the former KGB vetoed the proposal, Keston News Service has learned.
A similar attempt two years ago led to the local mahalla committee threatening the householder concerned. A number of mahallas, one of which refused permission on instructions from the KGB, have refused permission for religious communities to operate on the orders of city authorities.
Source: http://www.keston.org/
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Churches told to stop preaching in Uzbek
Barnabas Fund News Service (11.06.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (13.06.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Barnabas Fund News Service (BFS) reports that a senior religious affairs official in Uzbekistan has demanded that churches stop preaching in Uzbek, the country's first language. In another incident, 18 Christians were detained after an investigation into the sources of Christian literature in Central Asian languages. These and other incidents have led Christians to issue an open letter in which they state, "Actions have recently been resumed in Uzbekistan which could soon lead to a significant restriction on religious freedom in our country."
According to BFS, the chairman of the Bible Society of Uzbekistan is quoted as saying that it was, "impossible to rule out the possibility that the authorities are beginning a campaign against Protestant communities in the republic." The situation of churches is particularly difficult in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan in the northwest of Uzbekistan, where the authorities appear to be trying to halt the spread of Christianity among the local people.
On 13 May, six policemen appeared at a meeting of the New Life Church in Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan. They searched all 17 people present, including two foreigners, and then took them to the city's Administration of Internal Affairs. Four of the local Christians were later fined for organizing an illegal meeting. A spokesman for the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Karakalpakstan stated that the church had not been registered and therefore had no right to hold religious meetings. In the whole of Karakalpakstan only one Christian community has been able to obtain registration.
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Trial to follow raid on Protestant Church
Keston News Service (30.05.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (30.05.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - A court hearing against members of a Protestant church in the western Uzbek town of Nukus, due to have begun yesterday afternoon (29 May), was postponed, Keston News Service learnt in the town.
It is not yet known when the case against members of the "Mir" ("Peace") church, which followed a police raid on a service on 25 May, will reach court. However, it seems inevitable that those who attended the service will be fined. The authorities argue that since the church was deprived of registration in 2000, all its services are illegal.
The church's pastor told Keston that his community was trying for the third time to register, so far without success.
Source: http://www.keston.org/
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Minority faiths barred from preaching in Uzbek
by Igor Rotar
Keston News Service (27.05.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (27.05.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - "Actions have recently been resumed in Uzbekistan which could soon lead to a significant restriction on religious freedom in our country," complained an open letter from the press-officer of the Evangelical Christians/Baptists of Uzbekistan Dmitri Pitirimov, received by Keston News Service on 22 May.
It cited a number of events in recent weeks: the Tashkent-based head of the Full Gospel church, Bishop Sergei Nechitailo, was summoned to the Committee for Religious Affairs, where the deputy chairman of the committee, Shoazim Minovarov, demanded that his denomination's churches stop preaching in Uzbek (the country's state language). Eighteen Christians, including two foreigners, were detained in the western Uzbek city of Nukus following an investigation into the sources of Christian literature in Central Asian languages. They were accused of holding a seminar unlawfully. Pravda Vostoka, an official state newspaper, published an article on 8 May based on an interview with Metropolitan Vladimir (Ikim), head of the Orthodox Church in Central Asia, who spoke out strongly against the spread of Protestantism in Uzbekistan.
"The substance of this article demonstrates clearly that a course of action has been taken to toughen religious policy on the rapidly-growing Evangelical Christian movements," the Baptist press officer's letter declared. "Please give maximum publicity to these documents."
Source: http://www.keston.org/
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Five-day prison terms for Jehovah's Witness
by Igor Rotar, Keston News Service
Keston News Service (25.04.2002)/ HRWF International Secretariat (25.04.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - Police conducted raids on three Jehovah's Witness meetings held in private flats in two Uzbek towns on 28 March, the day the Jehovah's Witnesses mark their only annual feast commemorating Christ's death. Jehovah's Witness sources have told Keston News Service in the Uzbek capital Tashkent that a number of those attending the meetings were fined and three were sentenced to five days' imprisonment. "The reason they gave for the harsh action was that these communities were not registered," a member of the presiding council of Jehovah's Witnesses of neighbouring Kazakhstan, Anatoli Melnik, told Keston in Tashkent on 19 April.
On 28 March police burst into a private flat belonging to Viktor Starodubtsev in the town of Takhiatash, a suburb of the city of Nukus, capital of the Karakalpakstan autonomous region of north-western Uzbekistan. Police searched the flat for religious literature. On 31 March all those who had gathered in Starodubtsev's flat on 28 March were summoned to the Takhiatash town court. The court pronounced the meeting in Starodubtsev's flat an "unlawful religious gathering" and fined its participants between 17,150 and 20,580 sums (12 to 15 US dollars or 8 to 10 British pounds at the street exchange rate).
The police carried out similar raids on 28 March on two Jehovah's Witness meetings in Tashkent. According to a court decision on 13 April, Jehovah's Witnesses who had gathered at Andrei Chebykin's flat were fined between 1,000 and 11,875 sums. Harsher treatment was meted out to those who took part in a separate meeting in the city's Sergalin district. Three participants, Vladimir Ovsyanikov, Irina Ovsyanikova and Shukurullo Nurakhunov, were subsequently sentenced to five days' detention. They had tried in vain to prove to the court that their meeting had been legal.
Melnik pointed out that Uzbekistan's religion law declares that "religious organisations will assume the status of juridical persons and may pursue their activities after being registered with the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan or with its local agencies", but claims that under Uzbekistan's international human rights commitments the state cannot require believers to have registration before being able to meet for worship. "That legal provision is at odds with international standards. But regardless of that, a private meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses is not even against Uzbek law. It is impossible to ban people from praying to God."
However, the deputy chairman of Uzbekistan's Committee for Religious Affairs, Shoazim Minovarov, dismissed the raids and fines. "We have not received any complaint from the Jehovah's Witnesses, and so it is difficult for me to pass comment on the police raids and the subsequent court decisions," he told Keston by telephone on 20 April. "But I am sure that both the police actions and the court decisions were legitimate."
Keston News Service: http://www.keston.org
Plea for visa-free-cross-border Muslim graveyard visits
Keston News Service (18.01.2002)/ HRWF (18.01.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - An Uzbek human rights organisation has appealed to Turkmenistan's president to allow Muslims in the region along Uzbekistan's western border with Turkmenistan to visit graves of relatives in Turkmenistan on two Muslim festivals a year without paying what it believes is an unaffordable visa fee - more than
most Uzbeks earn in a month.
In December a riot was caused when hundreds of Uzbeks forced their way through the border in an attempt to reach a cemetery just inside Turkmenistan on the festival of Ramadan Haita [Eid-al-fitr]. Talib Yakubov, head of the unregistered Society for Human Rights of Uzbekistan, told Keston News Service on 16 January that he was keen to prevent another riot. "People simply do not have six dollars to pay the Turkmen border guards for a visa, and that means that at Kurban-Bairam [Eid-al-Adha, marked this year on 22 February] they will again force their way across the border," he said.
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