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
6 September 2006
UZBEKISTAN: Protestants face guns, beatings, fines and deportation
After a massive armed police and secret police raid on a Protestant summer camp near the southern town of Termez on 24 August, some 20 church members were detained and many of them systematically beaten, Protestant sources who preferred not to be identified for fear of reprisals told Forum 18 News Service. Most were freed within 24 hours but five were held until 4 September and one, Husan Primbetov, remains in detention. Some of those held were fined, while one – a Ukrainian visitor Yuri Stefanko – is being prepared for deportation. Deported on 5 September in a separate case was Viktoria Khripunova of Tashkent's embattled Bethany Baptist church. Protestants told Forum 18 they believe the move was targeted at her husband, the church's pastor and an Uzbek citizen, who left voluntarily with his wife. Stefanko's deportation will bring to seven the number of deportations from Uzbekistan known to Forum 18 in retaliation for religious activity this year.
5 September 2006
UZBEKISTAN: Then there was one
The regional Justice Department's stripping of registration in late August from the Fergana Jehovah's Witness community has left only one registered Jehovah's Witness community in the whole of Uzbekistan. "Under Uzbek law unregistered religious communities are not allowed to function and now our brothers in Fergana will not be free to preach their religious beliefs in peace," one Jehovah's Witness complained to Forum 18 News Service. The source added that were it not for official discrimination, the Jehovah's Witnesses could have registered "dozens" of congregations. Any activity by Jehovah's Witnesses outside the remaining congregation in Chirchik will be subject to harsh penalties under the country's repressive Religion Law. Forum 18 was unable to find out the reason for the clampdown on the Jehovah's Witnesses from the government's Religious Affairs Committee, but its spokesperson Aziz Abidov has criticised Forum 18's coverage of the current severe crackdown on religious activity affecting many faiths.
24 August 2006
KYRGYZSTAN: Imam's killing seen as attack on independent Islam
Muslims in both Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan see the killing of an imam, by the Kyrgyz NSS secret police, as an attack on Islam that is independent of the state, Forum 18 News Service has been told. Mohammadrafiq Kamalov was imam of one of the largest mosques in south Kyrgyzstan, and was killed by the NSS in circumstances that remain unclear. "My brother was certainly not a terrorist," Sadykjan Kamalov, former mufti of Kyrgyzstan, told Forum 18. "He was a very influential theologian and had enormous authority among the people of south Kyrgyzstan. I can't yet say exactly what happened. People say that officials from Uzbekistan's National Security Service secret police were taking part in an operation led by Kyrgyzstan's NSS secret police when the tragedy occurred. But so far at least there is no clear proof of this." Mohammadrafiq Kamalov had been accused of membership of Hizb ut-Tahrir, but he had denied this.
21 August 2006
UZBEKISTAN: Massive fines and jail proposed for sharing beliefs
Uzbekistan intends to impose massive fines and jail people – and the leaders of their religious communities – for sharing their beliefs outside places of worship, Forum 18 News Service has been told. The proposals were made to a meeting of leaders of registered religious communities, in the capital Tashkent, by the state Religious Affairs Committee. For a first "offence," Forum 18 was told, it is intended to impose a fine of between 200 and 600 times the minimum monthly salary. The second time this "offence" is committed, it is intended to jail the offender and the leader of their religious community for between 3 and 8 years. These proposals are the latest harshening of penalties for peaceful religious activity and, like for example the ban on unregistered religious activity, directly break the international human rights standards Uzbekistan is formally committed to. The country has also – in the latest use of deportation against religious believers – deported to Russia a Baptist who grew up in Tashkent, Forum 18 has learnt.
15 August 2006
CHINA: Xinjiang - Strict control of China's Uighur Muslims continues
In China's north-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, control over Islam continues to be much stricter than over other religions, Forum 18 News Service has found. However, the authorities' control over mosques used by Dungans – a Chinese Muslim people - is less strict than over mosques used by Uighurs. Many Uighurs are Muslims, and their religiosity is often closely connected with separatism. Pressure – for example on the texts of Friday sermons, and attempts to force schoolchildren and state employees such as teachers to abjure Islam – is applied more strictly in the north of the region. There is also a ban in Xinjiang on the private Islamic religious education of children. In response, Forum 18 has noted that Uighur parents often take their children to other parts of China, where they can study freely at a medresseh. Islamic movements such as Sufism and Wahhabism are repressed, and the authorities are attempting to assimilate Uighurs through economic inducements. This policy, Forum 18 has found, has made some impact amongst Uighur Muslims.
20 July 2006
UZBEKISTAN: Crackdown continues against Muslims and Christians
Muslims and Christians are both falling foul of Uzbekistan's crackdown on religious freedom, Forum 18 News Service has found. In the capital Tashkent and the surrounding area, the Human Rights Initiative Group of Uzbekistan thinks that there has this year been a sharp increase in the number of arrests and detentions of devout Muslims. Many of those detained have been accused of "Wahhabism," a term often erroneously applied in Central Asia to pious Muslims. The state Religious Affairs Committee has refused to discuss the arrests with Forum 18. Christians also continue to be victimised by the authorities, the latest publicly known incident being a Protestant Pastor being fined and Christian material confiscated from him being ordered to be destroyed – this is normal practice in Uzbekistan. The material included New Testaments which had been legally printed and paid for. Religious censorship against all faiths has recently been tightened, Forum 18 has found.
18 July 2006
CENTRAL ASIA: Religious intolerance in Central Asia
In June 2006, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) held a "Tolerance Implementation Meeting on Promoting Inter-Cultural, Inter-Religious and Inter-Ethnic Understanding," in Kazakhstan. In a paper for the 11 June NGO Preparatory Conference, Igor Rotar of Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org looked at the reality of religious intolerance in Central Asia. This vital issue must be considered by examining the concrete reality of state policy that restricts the rights of believers of one or another confession, and religious intolerance in everyday life. It is sadly impossible to avoid the conclusion that many states in Central Asia deliberately pursue a policy which violates international religious freedom standards - despite the many fine-sounding statements made by these same states at OSCE and other conferences.
17 July 2006
UZBEKISTAN: Judge defends massive fines and jail sentence
Judge Eshemarat Atajanov has vigorously defended to Forum 18 News Service his imposition of massive fines and a seven-day prison term for unregistered religious activity. "The activity of unregistered religious communities is forbidden in Uzbekistan," he told Forum 18. "But Salavat Serikbayev, Jumabai Senetullayev and Lepes Omarov still continued the activity of their illegal community, in spite of countless warnings." Such penalties are barred by the international human rights standards Uzbekistan has acceded to. As well as jailing Lepes Omarov, Judge Atajanov fined the other two Protestant leaders over 50 times the minimum monthly salary each, solely for leading an unregistered church. Muynak, where the three live, is known for its poverty following the ecological disaster around the Aral Sea. An intense crackdown against religious freedom and other human rights in Uzbekistan is in progress.
12 July 2006
KYRGYZSTAN: New law to restrict religious freedom?
An official of Kyrgyzstan's state Religious Affairs Committee has told Forum 18 News Service that the Religion Law could soon be amended to restrict evangelism or proselytism. "I hope that the new draft of the Law will be as close as possible to international standards," But, "we have to take local reality as our starting point," Shamsybek Zakirov told Forum 18. He expressed concern about anger from local Muslims in southern Kyrgyzstan, directed at the Religious Affairs Committee and local Protestants at Protestant evangelism. Zakirov confirmed statements made by Pentecostal Pastor Dzhanybek Zhakipov to Forum 18 that pressure by the authorities on local Protestants has increased. Government minister Adakhan Madumarov today (12 July) was reported as also indicating that the Religion Law may be tightened. The problem of intolerance of Christians and other religious minorities – leading to violent attacks and even murders – is widespread in Central Asia.
3 July 2006
UZBEKISTAN: Another Protestant faces criminal charges
In Muynak in Karakalpakstan region – where all Protestant activity is banned – local Protestant Lepes Omarov faces up to three years' imprisonment on criminal charges for "breaking the law on religious organisations". The duty officer at the police station told Forum 18 News Service that Omarov was released by the police after several hours' detention in late June after signing "an undertaking not to leave the country". Forum 18 has also learnt that Pentecostal pastor Dmitry Shestakov from Andijan has fled Uzbekistan to escape criminal charges also lodged in June in retaliation for his church work. In Kuvasai in Fergana region, the NSS secret police have questioned the 11-year-old son of the Vitkovsky couple in whose home a Baptist church meets. The Church's services have repeatedly been raided in recent months and a judge threatened Viktor Vitkovsky with imprisonment on 27 June. He and his wife were due in court on 3 July.
29 June 2006
OSCE COMMITMENTS: CENTRAL ASIA: Implementation the issue for OSCE – a survey
All Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) states are committed to "respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief," recognising that this is a litmus test of the state of human rights. OSCE commitments to human rights have been reiterated and enhanced. Yet some OSCE states, especially in the eastern part of the OSCE region where Forum 18 News Service works, repeatedly break their commitments and attack religious freedom. Examples include Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which commit persistent and even worsening religious freedom and other human rights violations. Forum 18 here surveys the situation. The question facing the OSCE is: How, concretely, are its repeated commitments to free, democratic, tolerant societies which respect human rights to be implemented, faced with states whose concrete actions directly contradict their commitments?
29 June 2006
UZBEKISTAN: Religious literature censorship tightened
Uzbekistan has introduced new penalties for the "illegal" production, storage, import and distribution of all forms of religious literature. One Protestant told Forum 18 News Service that "all religious communities already need permission from the government's Religious Affairs Committee for each publication or import." Some Muslims stressed to Forum 18 that the changes merely gave a "legal" basis to what was already going on, one Muslim noting – as the authorities confirmed to Forum 18 – that since the crushing of the Andijan uprising, all imports of Muslim literature have halted. The chair of the state Religious Affairs Committee, Shoazim Minovarov, told Forum 18 that the "illegal" production and distribution of religious literature are "home-produced materials. In any state a publisher must receive a licence to conduct publishing activity and pay taxes." The changes are the latest in a series cracking down on activities the government does not totally control.