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Import of Christian literature and private religious meetings are forbidden
HRWF Int. (22.12.2003) / Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - On 6 September 2003, the border check point officers of Kuwasai confiscated 16 hymn books and 1300 leaflets in Uzbek from the Evangelical Christian N. Savin. They also confiscated his passport, his car, some personal books and some audio-cassettes.
The prohibition of importation, use and distribution of Christian literature has led to a number of arrests and sentences these last few years. T. Akhmadijeva and R. Atshilov, both from Tshirtshik, are still being prosecuted for having attempted to introduce 73 books and brochures, 433 leaflets and cards in Uzbekistan in 2002.
On 15 August 2003, eight Evangelical Baptist Christians were arrested during a religious service of their unregistered congregation which was being held in the house of A. Osnovina, in the village of Khalkabad. Three women had to pay a fine of 5.5 dollars while five men were sentenced to ten days in prison and had to pay 8 dollars each for their subsistence. Such amounts are exorbitant for those people.
Human Rights Without Frontiers Int. urges the Uzbek authorities
- to make sure the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights regarding freedom of religion and belief are respected all over their territory and to prosecute those who advocate or commit acts of violence against the legitimate and legal exercise of religious freedom by minority groups;
- to allow the import of religious books, brochures, audio-cassettes insofar as they do not incite to violence;
- to authorize peaceful religious meetings, whether the religious group is registered or not.
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Illegal secret police raid is "legal"
By Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (27.11.2003)/ HRWF Int. (28.11.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - One of the officials who took part in a raid on a Jehovah's Witness meeting last September in the town of Chirchik (Chirchiq) on the outskirts of the capital Tashkent has strongly defended the authorities' action. The officials demanded that those present should halt the service on the grounds that the house where they were meeting was not registered as a church building. The Jehovah's Witnesses have been banned from meeting there since the raid. Reached on 18 November, Velorom Kasymova, deputy administrator of Chirchik, categorically assured Forum 18 News Service that members of a religious organisation could meet only at the juridical address where the community was registered. "Otherwise, how can we control the activity of a religious organisation?" she asked. Yet despite Forum 18's repeated requests, Kasymova could not cite a law banning a registered community from holding services away from the prayer house given as the juridical address when the community was registered.
Some 40 Jehovah's Witnesses were present when representatives of the town administration, the police and the secret police raided the Jehovah's Witness prayer house on 18 September. Andrei Agafonov, secretary of the Jehovah's Witness community, told Forum 18 on 18 November that the officials, citing the fact that the house was not registered as a church, told the Jehovah's Witnesses that they had violated articles 240 and 241 of the code of administrative offences. They also ordered those present to provide written statements, but they refused to do so.
Article 240 specifies a fine for unlawful juridical activity, refusal on the part of the leaders of religious meetings to register their statute, the organisation and running by "cult members" of special children's and young people's clubs, as well as labour, literary and other clubs that do not bear any relation to the "performance of the cult". Article 241 specifies a fine for giving religious instruction without specialist religious training and without the permission of the central administration office of the religious organisation, as well as for giving religious instruction in a private capacity.
Neither of these articles - whose wording dates back to the Soviet period - is applicable to the Jehovah's Witnesses, given that their organisation is registered in Chirchik. Agafonov told Forum 18 that the house raided by officials is registered in the name not of a private individual, but of the organisation. "The problem is basically that our former prayer house is too small and we bought another one with the specific aim of holding religious gatherings," he explained. "The authorities were perfectly well aware of why we bought the house. Now we cannot be found guilty under articles 240 and 241 of the administrative code, but we are still being forbidden from meeting in the new building, because the house is situated in a residential area." Agafonov insisted that there is no law forbidding meetings in a private home.
Article 14 of Uzbekistan's law on religion states clearly that "services, religious rituals and ceremonies may be held in cult buildings and prayer houses at the place where religious organisations are situated and on land owned by them, at places of pilgrimage, at cemeteries and if the ritual demands, services may be held in the homes of citizens if that is their wish." Given that the house under dispute was bought not by a private individual but by the Jehovah's Witness organisation, it appears the community was acting within the law by meeting there.
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
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Baptist "mob" banned from worshipping
By Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (06.10.2003)/HRWF Int. (07.10.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - In the latest incident in a spate of moves against unregistered Protestant churches across Uzbekistan, police lieutenant Alisher Kurbanov banned members of an unregistered Baptist church in the town of Navoi in north-western Uzbekistan from meeting for worship, reported a 28 September statement from local Baptists received by Forum 18 News Service. The ban came after Kurbanov confiscated religious books being distributed by church member Nikolai Nikulin at a mobile street library in the town on 27 September. Kurbanov - an officer of the anti-terrorism department of the Internal Affairs administration - failed to draw up any record of the confiscation of the books, the Baptists complained. He also threatened to bring a criminal prosecution against Nikulin.
Kurbanov said the Baptists' account was "only partly" true. "This is not a church at all, just a religious mob," he told Forum 18 from Navoi on 3 October. "Under Uzbek laws a church is not allowed to operate without registration, but the Baptists refuse to register." The Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, to which the Navoi congregation belongs, believes that registration is unacceptable because it leads to unwarranted state interference in the life of the church.
Nikulin had been sentenced before to 10 days' imprisonment under the Code of Administrative Offences for "unlawful religious activity", Kurbanov added. "So because Nikulin has already received an administrative sentence, we can bring a criminal case against him under Article 216, part 2 of the Criminal Code (breaking the law on religious organisations)," Kurbanov told Forum 18.
When Forum 18 pointed out that Uzbekistan is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to meet freely for religious worship, and that according to Article 2 of the country's law on religion "if different rules are set out in an international agreement signed by the Republic of Uzbekistan from those contained in the Republic of Uzbekistan's law on freedom of conscience and religious organisations, then the rules of the international agreement will take precedence," Kurbanov responded that "this was a problem for the Internal Affairs Ministry, not for rank-and-file officers".
He said there were "appropriate articles" both in the Administrative Code and in the Criminal Code and it was on these that they based their actions.
"You will agree that it would be simply ridiculous for police officials to start checking whether articles of the criminal and administrative codes contradicted international agreements to which Uzbekistan is a signatory," Kurbanov told Forum 18.
He also denied that he had confiscated the books from Nikulin. "He says he was giving them away for free, so I simply took them away to read them," Kurbanov claimed. "I'm very interested in these books."
Congregations of the Council of Churches (or unregistered Baptists) split from the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians/Baptists in 1961, when further state-sponsored controls were introduced by the then Baptist leadership. It has refused state registration ever since. According to one of its pastors in Moscow, it has 3,705 congregations throughout the former Soviet Union.
Uzbekistan has recently seen a spate of attempts to close down unregistered Protestant churches, including one in the village of Ahmad Yassavy on the outskirts of Tashkent (see F18News 2 October 2003) and another in Nukus in Karakalpakstan (see F18News 3 October 2003). In his latest report the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Abdelfattah Amor, condemned the growing use of laws in Central Asia making registration compulsory to restrict the right of believers to meet freely for worship.
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
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Baptist "mob" banned from worshipping
By Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (06.10.2003)/HRWF Int. (07.10.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - In the latest incident in a spate of moves against unregistered Protestant churches across Uzbekistan, police lieutenant Alisher Kurbanov banned members of an unregistered Baptist church in the town of Navoi in north-western Uzbekistan from meeting for worship, reported a 28 September statement from local Baptists received by Forum 18 News Service. The ban came after Kurbanov confiscated religious books being distributed by church member Nikolai Nikulin at a mobile street library in the town on 27 September. Kurbanov - an officer of the anti-terrorism department of the Internal Affairs administration - failed to draw up any record of the confiscation of the books, the Baptists complained. He also threatened to bring a criminal prosecution against Nikulin.
Kurbanov said the Baptists' account was "only partly" true. "This is not a church at all, just a religious mob," he told Forum 18 from Navoi on 3 October. "Under Uzbek laws a church is not allowed to operate without registration, but the Baptists refuse to register." The Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, to which the Navoi congregation belongs, believes that registration is unacceptable because it leads to unwarranted state interference in the life of the church.
Nikulin had been sentenced before to 10 days' imprisonment under the Code of Administrative Offences for "unlawful religious activity", Kurbanov added. "So because Nikulin has already received an administrative sentence, we can bring a criminal case against him under Article 216, part 2 of the Criminal Code (breaking the law on religious organisations)," Kurbanov told Forum 18.
When Forum 18 pointed out that Uzbekistan is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to meet freely for religious worship, and that according to Article 2 of the country's law on religion "if different rules are set out in an international agreement signed by the Republic of Uzbekistan from those contained in the Republic of Uzbekistan's law on freedom of conscience and religious organisations, then the rules of the international agreement will take precedence," Kurbanov responded that "this was a problem for the Internal Affairs Ministry, not for rank-and-file officers".
He said there were "appropriate articles" both in the Administrative Code and in the Criminal Code and it was on these that they based their actions.
"You will agree that it would be simply ridiculous for police officials to start checking whether articles of the criminal and administrative codes contradicted international agreements to which Uzbekistan is a signatory," Kurbanov told Forum 18.
He also denied that he had confiscated the books from Nikulin. "He says he was giving them away for free, so I simply took them away to read them," Kurbanov claimed. "I'm very interested in these books."
Congregations of the Council of Churches (or unregistered Baptists) split from the All-Union Council of Evangelical Christians/Baptists in 1961, when further state-sponsored controls were introduced by the then Baptist leadership. It has refused state registration ever since. According to one of its pastors in Moscow, it has 3,705 congregations throughout the former Soviet Union.
Uzbekistan has recently seen a spate of attempts to close down unregistered Protestant churches, including one in the village of Ahmad Yassavy on the outskirts of Tashkent (see F18News 2 October 2003) and another in Nukus in Karakalpakstan (see F18News 3 October 2003). In his latest report the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Abdelfattah Amor, condemned the growing use of laws in Central Asia making registration compulsory to restrict the right of believers to meet freely for worship.
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
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"Protestants cannot work as teachers," ideology official declares
By Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (30.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (02.10.2003) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - An ideology official in the town administration of Muinak in the autonomous Karakalpakstan republic in north-western Uzbekistan, on the now dry shore of the Aral Sea, has made no attempt to deny to Forum 18 News Service that a school teacher removed from his job in July was sacked because of his relig ious beliefs.
Jalgas Saidmuratov, deputy head of the ideological department, had repeatedly summoned Lepesbai Omarov and ordered him to renounce his beliefs as a Protestant. "I did indeed have conversations with Omarov," Saidmuratov told Forum 18 from Muinak on 29 September. "I do not know the precise reason for his dismissal, but I am convinced that a Protestant may not work as a school teacher in Uzbekistan. Our state is moving towards Islam."
Omarov had been working as a sports teacher in a local school. Although summoned by Saidmuratov, an official, Omarov was marked down without his knowledge as having been absent from work on these days. On 15 July he received a reprimand for his absence, but was not even made aware of it. On 22 July Omarov was dismissed because of his absence from work.
Despite Saidmuratov's assertions, there is nothing in Uzbek law about any restrictions to the choice of profession according to religious affiliation. The constitution declares Uzbekistan a secular state, while Article 4 of the law on religion declares that "citizens of Uzbekistan are equal in law regardless of their religious affiliation".
The Karakalpakstan Cabinet of Ministers' representative for religious affairs, Nurula Jamolov, said he knew nothing about a Protestant being sacked because of his religious beliefs. "Of course a Protestant has the right to work as a school teacher and no one has the right to sack him for that," he told Forum 18 from the regional capital Nukus on 29 September. "Separate from that is the fact that he has no right to preach to his pupils. I must establish whether Omarov was preaching and then I can raise the question of his reinstatement at work."
Of all Uzbekistan's regions, Karakalpakstan republic has seen the greatest number of recorded incidents of state pressure on religious minorities. Throughout the autonomous republic only one non-Islamic religious community has been registered - the Emmanuel Pentecostal church.
Within Karakalpakstan, Muinak has the worst record over infringements of the rights of believers. The hakim (administration chief) of Muinak district, Jarylkan Tursynbekov, has declared an outright war against the local Protestant community. Speaking to Forum 18 in Muinak at the end of last year, Tursynbekov said he "would not tolerate the activity of Protestants" on the territory over which he had authority.
The police periodically enter the homes of local Protestants, take them to the police station and subject them to beatings. For example, on 17 December last year the police raided the home of local Protestant Kuralbai Asanbayev, who was being visited at the time by fellow-believer Rashid Keulimjayev. They were both detained at the police station where they were beaten and tortured, with police officers putting gas masks on them and closing off the air supply. The hakim said that even if the Protestants did manage to collect the 100 signatures required for registration, they would still not be allowed to establish a Protestant church in Muinak (see F18News 17 March 2003).
Source: F18: http://www.forum18.org/
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Hare Krishna's the latest target of anti-religious minorities campaign
by Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (25.07.2003)/ HRWF Int. (07.08.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - On 10 July, police confiscated around 15 leaflets expounding Hare Krishna beliefs from local Hare Krishna believer Nurali Kurbanov., Forum 18 News Service has learnt. An unknown man in civilian clothes came up to him while he was selling Hare Krishna literature at the town market and asked to buy several leaflets from him on the spot. The man told Kurbanov that he would have to come to his house to get the money, and Kurbanov agreed. But the "customer" led him to an official of the Internal Affairs Administration for Navoi region, Shukhrat Khabiyev Khabiyev confiscated the literature and said it would be sent off for expert analysis.
On 24 July, Khabiyev confirmed these events to Forum 18. "We sent off the literature confiscated from Kurbanov for expert analysis at Uzbekistan's Committee for Religious Affairs, and the response from there was that Hare Krishnas are only allowed to distribute literature in the Russian language, not in Uzbek. Kurbanov will shortly be punished under the administrative code, and will be given a fine for his unlawful activities."
Nowhere in Uzbek law is there a ban on religious minorities preaching in the Uzbek language. However, according to Article 5 of Uzbekistan's law on religion, "actions that aim to convert believers from one confession to another (proselytism), and also any other missionary activity, are forbidden". This article contradicts the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) ratified by Uzbekistan in 1999.
However, the authorities are conducting a particularly harsh campaign against religious minorities that they regard as trying to convert Muslims to their own faith. There is an unspoken directive: "If you are an Uzbek, then you must be Muslims, if you are Russian, you must be Orthodox." The most striking example is the case of a Jehovah's Witness, Marat Mudarisov. A Tatar by birth and a Tashkent resident, he actively preached Jehovah's Witness doctrines. In July 2002 he was arrested by the National Security Service (formerly the KGB), and shortly afterwards a criminal case was brought against him under Article 156 of the criminal code (incitement of national, racial or religious hatred).
Mudarisov's case is disturbing primarily because he was sentenced under the criminal code. However, there have been dozens of cases where pressure has been applied to members of religious minorities simply because they are Muslims by birth. In January 2003 the police burst into a private home in the town of Muinak in Karakalpakstan where two ethnic Kazakhs were reading the Bible. These Protestants were taken to the police station where they were tortured using gas masks, which were put on their heads and their air supply cut off. Officers demanded that they write a confession that they had been preaching the Gospel to each other.
In private conversations with Forum 18, Uzbek officials justify the harsh campaign against proselytism by claiming that, given the difficult economic situation, the conversion of Muslims to Christianity or other faiths could provoke riots.
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Fined Nukus Adventists again in court
By Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (10.07.2003)/ HRWF Int. (10.07.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Five months after a raid on their small congregation in Nukus, the capital of Karakalpakstan autonomous republic in north-western Uzbekistan, and more than two months after they were fined, a group of Adventists have received another summons to appear at the city court in Nukus on 20 July, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Forum 18 tried to find out from the city procuracy why the Adventists were again being brought to court but, reached on 9 July, Nukus deputy procurator Sultan Ibragimov categorically refused to give Forum 18 any information by telephone.
The February raid on the unregistered Adventist congregation came during a series of raids on other Protestant churches in Karakalpakstan (see F18News 26 March 2003). Only one Protestant church has been able to gain registration in the autonomous republic.
On 8 February - a Saturday, the day Adventists mark their Sabbath - 12 officers of the National Security Service (the former KGB) burst into a private apartment in Nukus where 12 Adventists were meeting and began to search the premises without producing a search warrant. The officials confiscated several hundred leaflets setting out Adventist doctrines, as well as eight Bibles. The officials wrote down the names of all the Adventists present and told them they would shortly be summoned to the city procuracy.
On 15 March the Adventists were called in for questioning at the procuracy. At the same time, the procuracy sent the confiscated literature for "expert analysis" by Nurula Jamalov, religious specialist at Karakalpakstan's cabinet of ministers. According to Forum 18's sources, Jamalov replied to the procuracy that the literature confiscated from the Adventists should not be distributed in Uzbekistan, and that the Bible was also banned.
At the end of April, Nukus city court retrospectively fined each of the Adventists 22,660 sums (171 Norwegian kroner, 20 Euros or 23 US dollars) - four times the minimum monthly wage - under Article 240 of the code of administrative offences, which punishes violation of the law on religious organisations. Although the fines were handed down at the end of April, the court minutes were dated 9 April.
Forum 18's sources believe it is no coincidence that the sentence was drawn up retrospectively because, under Article 271 of the administrative code, any administrative case not considered within two months is automatically closed.
Jamalov, the expert on religious affairs for the Karakalpakstan government, categorically denied that the Bible had been included in the list of banned literature in the report he had compiled. "I did indeed write that the Kazakh-language brochures confiscated from the Adventists, which were published in Turkey, should not be distributed in Uzbekistan," he told Forum 18 from Nukus on 9 July, "but I did not write that the Adventists may not use the Bible. I can show you the expert report." He said he had returned to the police all the literature that had been sent for expert analysis. "I do not know what happened to it then." However, Forum 18 has established that the Bibles have still not been returned to the Adventists.
That Jamalov wrote in the conclusion to his report that Christian literature in the Kazakh language should not be distributed in Uzbekistan is hardly a coincidence. Kazakhs make up around 30 per cent of the population of Karakalpakstan, making them as numerous as the Uzbeks and Karakalpaks. In Uzbekistan there is an unwritten directive: "If you are Uzbek, you must be Muslim; if you are Russian, you must be Orthodox." The authorities are conducting a particularly harsh campaign against religious minorities which they regard as trying to convert Muslims to their faith.
In the Adventist community raided by the law enforcement agencies in Nukus, the overwhelming majority of the congregation are of indigenous ethnicities, who are of Muslim background
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Increase in the number of victims of religious persecution
IGIHRAU Press Centre (17.06.2003) The number of appeals to the IGIHRAU by relatives of repressed people convicted for their religious beliefs is increasing. Those arrested are exposed to torture, harsh treatment and persecution.
According to reliable sources, messages on the toughening of the government on arrested religious people, who are unduly sent to the Investigation-Isolation Center- 1 of Tash-Turma for their consequent sending to the sheltered settlements, situated in Korovulbozor town, Bahara district and Andijan district, has been continually coming to the office of IGNPU.
For the last two years more than 80 accused religious people from various CPE (colonies of punishment execution) were sent to sheltered settlements.
Below is the list of people who have been sent to sheltered settlements since the beginning of June 2003.
Aripov Kobil - born in 1965, was accused by Tashkent district court on the criminal cases in 1999 and was convicted to 14 years. He was sent from CPE 64/46 in IIC-1 of Tash-Turma on June 3 2003. While in the Center he was exposed to tortures, and was beaten to his kidney. On June 5 he was sent to Adijan sheltered settlement.
Ergashev Kudratilla- born in 1980 was accused by the verdict of A.Ikramov on the criminal cases of Tashkent in 2001 and was convicted to 10 years. He was sent from CPE-64/46 to IIC-1 of Tash-Turma on June 3 2003. On June 5 he was sent to Adijan sheltered settlement.
Mametov Ismoil, born in 1976, was accused by the verdict of Ikramov A. on the criminal cases of Tashkent in 2001 and was convicted to 17 years. He was sent from CPE-64/46 to IIC-1 of Tash-Turma on June 3 2003. On June 5 he was sent to Adijan sheltered settlement.
Rahimov Abduhamid C born in 1966, was accused by the verdict of Ikramov on the criminal cases ofTashkent and was convicted to 17 years. He was sent from CPE-64/46 to IIC-1 of Tash-Turma on June 3 2003. On June 5 he was sent to Adijan sheltered settlement.
Karimov Jamolitdin C born in 1977, was accused by the verdict of Shaihontohurskii court on the criminal cases of Tashkent City and was convicted to 18 years. On May 27 he was sent from CPE-64/18 (Sangorodok) Tashkent City. While in the Center he was sick and his left clavicle was broken. On June 5 he was sent to CPE 64/65 Korovulbozor, Buhara Districts sheltered settlement.
There is also little information on the sending of arrested people: Zokr (Tashkent district) and Bahrom (Namangan district) from CPE 64/71 Jaslyk Village to the sheltered settlement 64/25 Korovulbozor, Buhara District (exact names of the arrested people are under specification).
Court proceedings on arrested people in IIC-1 of Tash-Turma are conducted without the presence of arrested people.
Meanwhile, Yakubov Bahtier Hajiakbarovich, 20,arrested on April 13 2003 is currently exposed to torture and harsh treatment in CAIA investigation, which is conducted by Muhiddinov Zainiddin.
In 2000, under aged Yakubv B.H. was accused to 4 years by the verdict of Gulistan court on the criminal cases of Syr-darya oblast under the articles 159 Encroachment to the constitutional regime of the Republic of Uzbekistan, 244 Production and distribution of materials, containing the threat to the public security and public order, 244 Establishment, administration and participation in religious extremist, separatist, fundamentalist and other prohibited organizations. In December 2002 he was amnestied. Similar to the first conviction he is accused of membership to Hizbut-Tahrir
IGIHRAU - Initiative Group of Independent Human Rights Activists of Uzbekistan
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New controls on access to religious websites
By Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (19.06.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.06.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Forum 18 News Service has discovered while using the Internet through various Internet service providers that access to a US-based Islamic radical site, www.muslimuzbekistan.com, is now barred in Uzbekistan. Describing itself as "the site of the Muslims of Uzbekistan" and published in four languages, Uzbek, Arabic, Russian and English, the site contains Muslim and general news. "This website informs about the true situation of Muslims of this region, on the many thousands of tortures which they undergo for their steadfast faithfulness to their religion," the site's owners declare. It includes information for example on "Campaign launch: Uzbekistan - the west's murderous ally against Islam". Also now barred is access to a Russian-based news site that often reports on religious issues in the region, www.centrasia.ru.
The apparently new bar on access to these sites is in addition to the long-standing bar on the hizb-ut-tahrir.org website, the British-based site of the radical Islamist party, which is banned in Uzbekistan, which was in place at the time of Forum 18's April investigation into censorship of the Internet in Central Asia (see F18News 22 April 2003).
In its earlier investigation, Forum 18 concluded that despite authoritarian rule, high levels of censorship of the local media and periodic barring of access to foreign-based political opposition websites, Central Asia's governments had so far only enacted limited censorship over access to religious websites based outside the region. Despite Uzbekistan's permanent bar on access to the London-based Hizb-ut-Tahrir website, the party's Pakistan-related site is not barred. In several Uzbek Internet cafes, Forum 18 even came across the notice: "Viewing of religious and pornographic sites is forbidden". But with low Internet use in Central Asia and a population too poor to be able to afford access, Central Asia's governments - which to a greater or lesser extent try to control all religious activity - may believe they do not need to impose religious censorship on the Internet.
However, wholly unexpectedly Forum 18 gained new insight into the behind-the-scenes controls. On 13 June, Forum 18's correspondent visited an Internet cafe in the Uzbek capital Tashkent to print out articles from Forum 18's website. The owner of the Internet cafe asked whether the correspondent was printing out "banned literature". When Forum 18 asked what he classified as "banned literature", the owner explained that this included documents critical of the Uzbek president and also "religious literature with extremist content".
The talkative Internet cafe owner explained that he himself did not know which Internet sites were banned, but that he was obliged to check that his customers did not look at "forbidden" information, in accordance with instructions from the National Security Service (NSS, the former KGB). Moreover, if he told the NSS about a customer who was looking at clearly forbidden websites - for example, the Hizb-ut-Tahrir website - NSS officers would arrest the customer and fine him 45,000 soms (320 Norwegian kroner, 39 Euros or 46 US dollars).
The Internet cafe owner told Forum 18 that sometimes NSS officers posed as customers and looked at "untrustworthy" documents. If the Internet cafe staff did not react to this they could expect serious consequences, possibly even imprisonment. "If a suspicious customer comes who seems likely to be a Muslim fundamentalist, then in order to secure my own future I need not only to see what documents he is looking at, but also to monitor his emails," the cafe owner complained.
The authorities have also intensified their battle against Internet cafe owners who illegally use satellite connections to access Chinese and Kazakh providers, because they are much cheaper than Uzbek providers. The authorities are worried that websites that are banned in Uzbekistan are accessible on these countries' providers. However, in practice these attempts at blocking access have only limited success, as it is possible to open banned websites using other countries' search engines.
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Authorities drag feet over Pentecostal registration
by Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (30.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (02.06.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - For the past four months, the administration in Andijan, a city in the Uzbek section of the Fergana valley near the border with Kyrgyzstan, has failed to give Pentecostal pastor Bakhtier Tuichiev the letter of recommendation required for the regional justice department to consider registering the church. "Officially, no-one has refused me," Tuichiev told Forum 18 News Service from Andijan on 28 May. "It is simply that every day I am told to come back tomorrow. I am sure the authorities are quite deliberately dragging their feet."
However, an official of the Andijan city hakimiat (administration) denied that there was any deliberate obstruction. "We are certainly not trying to drag out the registration of the church that Tuichiev leads," Izatullo Khojayev, a specialist for work with public organisations, told Forum 18 from Andijan on 29 May. "We have been holding a sports competition, and have not had the time to devote to this issue. I have already told Tuichiev that we will deal with his application very soon."
Tuichiev told Forum 18 he had been summoned by the regional police in January and April this year and warned that if the church continued to operate without registration, he would be brought to court under the code of administrative offences. He maintains that police officers keep watch on the church entrance at each service.
Pastor Tuichiev, whose congregation belongs to the Full Gospel Church, has been trying to gain registration for the past few years (see F18News 14 March 2003). In February 2002 he received the authorisation required for the church to operate from the mahalla committee (the mahalla is a district of a city), and submitted registration documents to the city hakimiat. However, the hakimiat did not want to register the church. In March 2002 a meeting of mahalla residents established that it was "inexpedient for a Christian church to operate".
Last September, a group of people who claimed to be BBC and CNN journalists visited Tuichiev, but the pastor believes they were in fact officers of the National Security Service (the former KGB).
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Jehovah's Witnesses face trial and expulsion
by Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (29.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (02.06.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Two Jehovah's Witnesses are facing prosecution under the code of administrative offences after police raided the home of one of them and confiscated religious literature. Shukhrat Ashurov and Alisher Argeliyev from the village of Yubileiny in Gazalkent district, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north-east of the capital Tashkent, appeared at an initial hearing on 28 May at Gazalkent town court. But judge Rovshan Khaidarov decided that additional witnesses should be summoned to court and adjourned the case until 3 June. "According to my sources, at the next legal hearing Ashurov and Argeliyev will be charged with preaching to children," the two men's lawyer Rustam Satdanov told Forum 18 News Service in Tashkent on 28 May.
Three officers of the Gazalkent police, together with two witnesses, came with a search warrant to Ashurov's home in Yubileiny on 18 May, Ashurov told Forum 18 in the village on 25 May. The officers told him that villagers had collectively complained that he and fellow resident Argeliyev were "spreading propaganda about Christianity and Wahhabism" (a term widely but largely inaccurately used in Central Asia to denote Islamic fundamentalism).
The police searched Ashurov's home and confiscated around 40 Jehovah's Witness leaflets, as well as two Korans, two New Testaments and one Bible. The officers warned that a case against the two would soon be brought to court.
Ashurov insists he and his colleague have done nothing wrong. "The leaflets were brought to Uzbekistan legally and I took delivery of them at the Jehovah's Witness centre in Chirchik, which is registered with the authorities," Ashurov told Forum 18. "As far as I know, there is no ban on the Bible, New Testament and Koran in Uzbekistan."
On 20 May the villagers held a meeting at Yubileiny's school at which those present demanded that Ashurov and Argeliyev stop preaching the Jehovah's Witness faith and "return to the faith of their forefathers", a reference to Islam. Several villagers also threatened the two, saying that if they failed to do as they had been asked they would be thrown out of the village (under Uzbek law, villagers may turn individuals out of the village if their behaviour appears unacceptable to local residents).
"I only found out recently that Ashurov and Argeliyev had become followers of Yoga," the head of the village administration, Riskali Nadyrov, told Forum 18 on 25 May in Yubileiny, apparently confusing the Jehovah's Witnesses with adherents of Yoga. "No one intends to turn them out of the village but of course they, like all of us, ought to be Muslims."
An official of the department for combating terrorism at the Internal Affairs administration for Gazalkent district, Khusan Imanaliyev, reported that his office had received information that Wahhabis were operating in Yubileiny. "The area around the Charvak reservoir, which includes the village of Yubileiny, is a distinctive area: fighters for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan operated here in 1999," he told Forum 18 in Gazalkent on 26 May. "Naturally, we had to provide an efficient response to that information."
In Imanaliyev's view, "of course Ashurov and Argeliyev are not terrorists, but they have broken Uzbek law by engaging in proselytism". He therefore believed the administrative case against them was justified. He said the books were confiscated from Ashirov as "material evidence", but insisted that those not banned in Uzbekistan will be returned to their owner.
"The authorities simply weren't expecting this case to receive publicity," Satdanov maintained, adding that Forum 18's visit to the area as well as his own visit had put extra pressure on them. "This means they must prepare more carefully for the legal case."
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Five-year registration denial for Namangan mosque
by Igor Rotar
Forum 18 News Service (08.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (15.04.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Five years after it was closed by the authorities, Muslims in the Fergana valley city of Namangan have told Forum 18 News Service that their repeated attempts to register the Panjera mosque C where up to 500 people used to worship - have come to nothing. The day after a visit by OSCE officials in February, local officials warned the Muslims that "they could only meet with foreigners in the presence of the authorities". Local officials denied to Forum 18 that they knew anything about the repeated registration applications.
Muslims in the city of Namangan in the Uzbek section of the Fergana valley, who preferred not to be named, told Forum 18 News Service at the end of March that they had been trying for the past five years to register the Panjera mosque in the Alisher Navoi mahalla (sub-district) of the city, which was closed by the authorities in 1998. Local Muslims reported that up to 500 people used to meet for prayer at the mosque on feast days. According to Uzbekistan's law on religion, believers are not allowed to meet in an unregistered mosque. Because of the closure of the Panjera mosque, the old people of the Alisher Navoi mahalla have been deprived of the opportunity to attend prayers. It is hard for them to get to the nearest mosque, which is two kilometres (a mile and a quarter) away.
Local Muslims told Forum 18 that at the end of February believers from the Panjera mosque met representatives of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), who were visiting from Tashkent. They claim that the following day, the chairman of the Alisher Navoi mahalla committee, Mushin Khajabayev, and a member of the secret police, the National Security Service, visited them and warned that "they could only meet with foreigners in the presence of the authorities".
Per Normark, human rights officer at the OSCE office in Tashkent, confirmed that at the end of February staff from the OSCE office made an unofficial fact-finding trip to Uzbekistan's section of the Fergana valley and met a number of believers. "If it is true that believers have since encountered problems with the authorities, then that makes us puzzled," he told Forum 18 on 30 March in Tashkent.
Khajabayev admitted to Forum 18 that he had spoken to the Muslims in the wake of the OSCE visit but denied that there was anything sinister. "Currently, springtime in the city creates a dangerous fire risk," he told Forum 18 on 26 March. "I did indeed meet believers at the Panjera mosque along with one other person - I believe he was from the fire service. We made inquiries about the fire safety of the mosque and at the same time we asked the believers what they had been talking about with the foreigners."
According to believers at the Panjera mosque, they submit registration documents with the local authorities each year, but receive no reply. Attempts by Forum 18 to clarify with officials why the mosque has been unable to gain registration proved fruitless. "We have not heard anything about the Panjera mosque," the head of the department for social relations at the Namangan city administration, Akmal Atakhanov, told Forum 18 on 27 March. "Probably the believers sent the necessary documents for registration straight to the regional justice committee."
Under Uzbek law, believers seeking registration for their community must initially submit the necessary documents to the city administration. The city administration then writes a covering letter and sends the documents to the regional justice department. "What you say is the first I have heard about believers' problems at the Panjera mosque," the deputy chief of the justice department for Namangan region, Kamaluddin Ergashev, told Forum 18. "Probably their documents are with the city administration. At least, no documents have reached us."
Uzbek city gets its first church with help of Muslims
Signatures Helped Land Urganch a Catholic Parish Facility
ZENIT.org-Fides (02.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (03.04.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - After years of attending Mass in private homes, the 35 Catholics of a remote area of Uzbekistan are preparing to celebrate this Easter Vigil in a real church.
Father Stanislaw Rochowiak, 35, a Conventual Franciscan of Polish nationality, confirmed that very soon a building will be turned into the parish church of Our Lady of Charity.
The premises will include a chapel, rooms for pastoral endeavors and catechesis, and the parish priest's residence.
This will be the first and only Christian church in the city of Urganch, in the region of Khorezm, 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) west of the capital, Tashkent.
According to Uzbek law, the recognition of a sacred building requires at least 100 signatures of adult citizens. Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic, became independent in 1991.
The success of this initiative is due to a Catholic laywoman named Lydia, 50, who carried out a door-to-door campaign to collect the necessary signatures. Eventually, she obtained 150, including the names of many Muslims, who agreed that Christian should have a place of worship.
Lydia traveled from Urganch to Tashkent to request Father Krzystof Kukulca, superior of Uzbekistan's mission "sui iuris" (of its own right), to send a priest to the Khorezm region.
Uzbekistan is a country of about 25 million. Muslims make up 76.5% of the population, Christians 1.7%. There are 40,000 Catholics. The Catholic Church recently established three parishes and three mission stations.
Andijan Pentecostal pastor threatened |
By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent |
Forum 18 News Service (14.03.2003)/HRWF Int. (20.03.2003)/ Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net C Bakhtier Tuichiev, pastor of the Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in the city of Andijan in the Uzbek part of the Fergana valley, was summoned to the regional internal affairs administration on 10 January and warned that if the church did not halt its activity in the absence of registration, then "serious trouble" was in store for him. On 11 January the deputy head of the city department of internal affairs, Major Sumanov, came to a church service and asked why the church was operating without registration. The church has been trying to register for more than a year C so far in vain. "Of course, I have submitted the registration documents, but I am sure we will be refused," Tuichiev told Forum 18 News Service back in January. As of mid-March, the church had not been registered. Tuichiev reports that he is under National Security Service surveillance. |
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The pastor of a Full Gospel Pentecostal Church which has been denied registration has been threatened because the church is not registered. Pastor Bakhtier Tuichiev, who is based in the city of Andijan in the Fergana valley of Uzbekistan, near the border with Kyrgyzstan, told Forum 18 News Service that he was summoned to the internal affairs administration of Andijan region on 10 January and warned that if the church did not halt its activity in the absence of registration, then "serious trouble" was in store for him. On 11 January the deputy head of the city department of internal affairs, Major Sumanov, came to a church service and asked why the church was operating without registration (Uzbek law bans unregistered religious activity). "Of course, I have submitted the registration documents, but I am sure we will be refused," Tuichiev told Forum 18 back in January. As of mid-March, the church had not been registered.
The pastor bases his pessimism on the fact that he has already been trying in vain to register his church for more than a year. Tuichiev told Forum 18 that in February 2002 he received the authorisation required for the church to operate from the mahalla committee (the mahalla is a district of a city), and submitted registration documents to the city hakimiat (administration). However, a short time later the chairman of the mahalla committee came to Tuichiev and asked him to return the authorisation, because the city hakimiat did not want to register the church. Tuichiev replied that he could not return the authorisation, however much he might want to, because it was already with the city hakimiat. Nevertheless, in March 2002 a meeting of residents in the mahalla established that it was "inexpedient for a Christian church to operate". Tuichiev is convinced that the second meeting was initiated by the department for ideology at the city hakimiat.
Today, Tuichiev told Forum 18, it is very difficult to register a church, because the city hakimiat refers to the fact that under the registration rules, the mahalla committee must give permission before a religious community can gain registration. Tuichiev believes that the authorities are conducting a targeted campaign to close the church. He maintains that the National Security Service (the former KGB) has placed him under surveillance, along with other active members of the Protestant community. Tuichiev claims that NSS officers are trying to stir up the mahalla residents against him.
Tuichiev told Forum 18 that on 20 September a group of people who claimed to be BBC and CNN journalists visited him from Tashkent, but the pastor believes that in fact these were NSS officers. "The journalists were not at all interested in church issues, they just constantly asked me what my attitude was to the president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov," he reported. "They were simply collecting incriminating material against me." He said he had telephoned the BBC and CNN, and both organisations told him that none of their employees had been sent to visit him. "It seems to me that the campaign against the church has entered a new phase. The interest shown in me by the internal affairs administration is no coincidence, and if we do not halt our activity, then serious trouble is in store for us."
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Uzbek court convicts two men in religious-related trial without prosecutor
by Burt Herman
AP (17.03.2003)/ HRWF Int. (20.03.2003)/ Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net C An Uzbek court on Monday convicted two men accused of membership in extremist groups in a trial where no prosecutor was present and no witnesses testified, according to human rights activists who say the case was motivated because of the defendants' religious beliefs.
Furkat Yuldashev, 29, and Mirzarakhmat Aminov, 24, were each sentenced at a Tashkent district court to eight years in prison, said human rights activist Surat Ikramov. The absent prosecutor had phoned in a sentence recommendation of seven years, Ikramov said.
The two were arrested Jan. 14 in Tashkent and also charged with anti-constitutional activity. Yuldashev's mother, Latofat Nabiyeva, had insisted they were just observant Muslims and not members of any banned group.
Uzbekistan has drawn strong international criticism for its campaign against extremist Islam that has led to a widespread crackdown on independent Muslims who choose to practice their faith outside state-run mosques. Lack of due process is a regular feature at trials, where the judiciary fails to operate independently.
The two men convicted weren't allowed to see their lawyers for two weeks after their arrest, but during that time authorities had already forced them to sign confessions.
The trial had been postponed a couple of times previously, with Judge Azamat Ibragimov refusing to admit human rights activists or journalists. Ibragimov had also said the delays were caused because of arrangements to hear testimony from witnesses who were already imprisoned. But no witnesses testified Monday at the verdict and sentencing, Ikramov said.
The group most targeted by the Uzbek crackdown is Hizb ut-Tahrir, a banned Islamic organization that calls for the establishment of a Muslim state across Central Asia but hasn't been linked to violence.
Earlier Monday, more than 25 women with sons imprisoned on Hizb ut-Tahrir-related charges gathered at the headquarters of the prison administration in Tashkent. They included Hadicha Khudayberdeyeva, whose brother Istam Khudayberdeyev was sentenced last year to 16 years in prison and who has acknowledged being a Hizb ut-Tahrir member.
Khudayberdeyev is being held in the infamous Zhaslyk prison in northwest Uzbekistan, and Khudayberdeyeva said she had received information that he had died in custody in what would be the first death there since two inmates died in August, including one whose body was returned to relatives with burns and with a broken skull.
Khudayberdeyeva said prison officials told her Monday that he was alive but refused to call to confirm the fact in her presence.
Police also tried to prevent reporters from The Associated Press and Voice of America from speaking with the women, accusing the journalists of having organized the protest and causing disorder, and saying that coverage of their complaints would give Uzbekistan a bad image. "They are criminals and they should sit in jail," a police colonel, who refused to give his name, shouted about the women's relatives.
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