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
29 March 2007
RUSSIA: Will Moscow Salvation Army's rights be restored?
Although the Russian government seems set to pay the Moscow branch of the Salvation Army the compensation due to it by 5 April in the wake of the October 2006 judgment at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the branch's lawyer Anatoli Pchelintsev says "the problem remains". He told Forum 18 News Service that the government has taken no steps to re-register the branch or to renounce official denigration of the group as a "paramilitary organisation". "If they'd wanted to sort this out, they would have done so already. They had five years while our [ECtHR] application was pending." The official in charge of registration of religious organisations within the Federal Registration Service, Viktor Korolev, told Forum 18 he has yet to read the ECtHR's judgment. "I've only seen what's on the Internet, not an official translation". While acknowledging that governments are required to take action to remove the causes of the human rights violations identified by the ECtHR, Korolev said he has received no instructions of what to do from the Russian Council of Ministers.
27 March 2007
UZBEKISTAN: Pastor's verdict documents extensive state controls
The written verdict on Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov, who has been sentenced to four years' imprisonment in an open work camp, gives a snapshot of how state control of Uzbekistan's religious communities operates. The verdict, seen by Forum 18 News Service, indicates how state agencies – hokimat (local administration), the mahalla (town district) committees, the police, public prosecutor's office, courts and expert witnesses - work together to control and suppress religious communities. In the case of Shestakov's Full Gospel congregation, the verdict also reveals official obsession over the ethnic affiliation and social background of those attending the church. One state agency not mentioned is the National Security Service (NSS) secret police, although it was heavily involved in the case from the start. The verdict especially highlights the key role of the committee of the mahalla, the urban district into which towns and cities are divided. Although ostensibly elected and self-governing, mahalla committees are in practice instruments of top-down control.
23 March 2007
UZBEKISTAN: Pastor's re-education "impossible without isolation from society"
Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov has appealed against the four-year sentence in one of Uzbekistan's open work camps imposed for his religious activity, Protestant sources have told Forum 18 News Service. The verdict stated that Pastor Shestakov had to be deprived of his freedom "given the absence of the possibility of re-educating him without isolation from society." No date has yet been set for an appeal hearing and Shestakov remains in Prison No. 1 in Andijan until the hearing. He has been banned from kneeling to pray and had his copy of the New Testament confiscated. He has been offered the Koran to read instead, Forum 18 has learnt. Although the state Religious Affairs Committee has frequently in state-run mass media attacked Pastor Shestakov and Protestants generally, Begzot Kadyrov of the Committee claimed to Forum 18 that "I have no information about the case." The verdict also claims it is "necessary" for 12 videotapes, seven CDs, two audiotapes and one copy of an Uzbek-language translation of a book "Jesus: More than a Prophet" to be destroyed. Two Protestants continue to await trial in north-west Uzbekistan.
20 March 2007
KAZAKHSTAN: Stalled Hare Krishna demolitions to take place "in five days"
Members of Kazakhstan's embattled Hare Krishna commune, where court executors are about to demolish a further five Hare Krishna-owned homes, have told Forum 18 News Service that they vehemently reject court denials that the decision was taken in secret. "The five devotees only found out about the court-ordered demolition yesterday [19 March] although the court says the decision was taken back on 18 January," Maksim Varfolomeyev complained to Forum 18, adding the comment that "the actions of the Karasai District Administration defy due legal process." The demolitions were stopped at the last minute today by a mysterious man in a black Mercedes car, but the Hare Krishna community has heard they will go ahead "in five days". "We don't know who the man was or where he came from," Varfolomeyev explained, "but when he told the men to halt the demolition they did so, making us think he must have been an official." Legal cases have also begun over six more Hare Krishna-owned homes. Officials have refused to discuss the Commune's problems with Forum 18.
20 March 2007
KAZAKHSTAN: Hare Krishna demolition re-started – then halted by "person in a black Mercedes"
Today (20 March), Kazakh authorities resumed the demolition of an embattled Hare Krishna commune, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Demolition re-started this morning, but was suddenly halted on the arrival of "a person in a black Mercedes Benz car," who ordered the demolition to stop. The demolition squad then departed. Official pressure on the Hare Krishna commune has been steadily increasing this year and it remains unclear who stands to benefit from the attacks on the Hare Krishna commune. Some sources have told Forum 18 of "persistent rumours" that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's brother, Bulat Nazarbayev, wants to acquire the Krishna property. Local officials are also suspected of standing to benefit financially. Official hostility to the religious freedom of Hare Krishna devotees, and other religious minorities, is compatible with officials acting from hopes of personally benefiting from the property of the Hare Krishna commune.
15 March 2007
RUSSIA: "Absurd" property regulations extend to Catholics and Orthodox
Catholic and Orthodox communities are reporting the same inordinate level of state interest in the technical aspects of worship buildings which has mainly been experienced up to now by Protestants, Forum 18 News Service has found. For example, claiming that it is an "unlawful construction", the authorities in Kaliningrad are calling for the demolition of a Catholic priest's house – although Fr Anupras Gauronskas has told Forum 18 that "there's nothing to take down!" Russian Orthodox communities also complain of apparently over-zealous authorities. One example is that fire safety officials in Komi have taken issue with a "wooden partition" – the iconostasis - in a village church, and made what the local diocesan secretary Fr Filip (Filippov) calls "absurd demands". These include the installation of a fire alarm system which is activated by candles and incense during services. Such demands are still most commonly reported by Protestants, and if deadlines are given – as in the case of a mosque in Astrakhan - such situations normally drag on beyond deadlines.
13 March 2007
KAZAKHSTAN: Three-day prison term for leading unregistered church
On 7 March an administrative court in the southern city of Shymkent sentenced Pastor Fauzi Gubaidullin to three days in prison for leading an unregistered Baptist church which refuses to abide by a court order banning it for three months. In Aktobe in late February, a washing machine and car were among items confiscated from a Baptist preacher to cover unpaid fines levied in punishment for peaceful religious activity. Shymkent congregation member Yuri Pfafenrot says life for Council of Churches Baptists in Kazakhstan is getting tougher. "First they came and offered us registration, but we refused," he told Forum 18 News Service. "Now they insist that we register, and when we don't they hand down big fines or even launch criminal cases." Backing the Baptists' demands for an end to compulsory registration is the Human Rights Ombudsperson, Bolat Baikadamov, but he insisted to Forum 18 it is up to religious believers to pressure parliamentary deputies to abolish this requirement. However, current plans to amend the Religion Law seek to make it even more restrictive.
12 March 2007
BELARUS: When will legal foot-dragging end for charismatic church?
New Life charismatic church in Belarus is no nearer securing the use of its own building and land for worship, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. This is due to Belarusian state procrastination, even though the church ended a hunger strike in October 2006 after a senior state official strongly indicated that a resolution could be reached through the courts. However, "the judge had all the necessary information to make a decision two months ago," the church's lawyer Sergei Lukanin told Forum 18. "There are no objective reasons for this delay." The Higher Economic Court has postponed its ruling five times since December 2006, with the next hearing being due on 19 March. Lukanin points to two possible reasons for the delays. Firstly, the late 2006 gas price dispute with Russia gives Belarus less reason to support institutions associated with Russia, such as the Belarusian Orthodox Church. Secondly, Lukanin thinks, the government is "hoping that international attention will go away." Tight state controls on property use by religious communities - particularly in the capital, Minsk – have markedly restricted Protestants and Hare Krishna devotees.
9 March 2007
UZBEKISTAN: Internal exile for Protestant pastor
Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov has today (9 March) been sentenced to four years' exile in an open work camp within Uzbekistan for his religious activity, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Shestakov maintained his innocence throughout the trial. During his final speech, Forum 18 learnt, he told the court that despite the tears of his wife and children he forgives those who have taken action against him. Shestakov's friends have stated that there were numerous irregularities in the trial, including: an expert analysis of his sermons being illegally conducted by an Andijan University professor; forgery of documents by the Prosecutor's Office; false prosecution claims of religious services being conducted in a property not belonging to a registered religious organisation; and Pastor Shestakov being illegally charged under a Criminal Code article that was not in force when the criminal case against Shestakov was launched. Before the trial, Uzbek state-run media tried to smear Shestakov and his church.
9 March 2007
KYRGYZSTAN: Officials call for police to close embattled Baptist church
After an arson attack on a Baptist church, more than half a year after a violent mob broke into the church, local Baptists have complained to Forum 18 News Service that no-one has been prosecuted for either attack on the Karakulja church in southern Kyrgyzstan. The Religious Affairs Committee states that, as the church had been carrying on unregistered religious activity for many years, it was breaking the law and should be refused registration. It has also called for police to halt the Baptist's "illegal" activities. Pastor Aleksandr Nikitin told Forum 18 that "nothing in Kyrgyz law" says this. "We intend to go to court," he stated. Shamsybek Zakirov of the Religious Affairs Committee, declined to answer a question on whether the Committee had the right to refuse registration and told Forum 18 that officials treat the registration of religious minority organisations in different ways in different places. "If the activity of Christians seems likely to provoke violence by Muslims, then we are against the registration of a religious minority community in that particular place," he said. The police are reluctant to protect Baptists in Karakulja from violent attacks.
8 March 2007
MOLDOVA: Why does the government violate religious freedom?
Despite the latest judgement by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg against the Moldovan government, for refusing to grant legal status to the True Orthodox Church, Moldovan human rights activists have told Forum 18 News Service that they are sceptical that the situation will improve. Vladislav Gribincea, of Lawyers for Human Rights, told Forum 18 that the State Service for Religious Denominations "doesn't want to" register any other religious communities. "It needs political will to change this, and I don't think it is there." Sergei Ostaf, of the Resource Centre for Human Rights, insisted that "the system needs urgent reform to bring it into line with international standards." The Bessarabian Church – which won an ECtHR judgement in its favour in 2001 – has written to the ECtHR to complain about continued refusal to register individual parishes, as well as lodging two separate ECtHR cases about continued state violations of its right to religious freedom.
8 March 2007
MOLDOVA: Government fined again by ECtHR for legal status denial
Five years after a December 2001 fine by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg, for denying legal status to the Bessarabian Orthodox Church, the Moldovan government has once again been heavily fined for refusing to grant legal status to a religious community – this time the Moldovan True Orthodox Church. The State Service for Religious Denominations repeatedly refused to register the Church, despite repeated Moldovan court orders to do so. No state official – whether at the State Service, the Justice Ministry, the Foreign Ministry or the Moldovan representation to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg - was prepared to discuss with Forum 18 News Service the reasons for the state's refusal to register the True Orthodox Church, the local branch of the Orthodox Kiev Patriarchate, various Muslim communities and numerous Protestant churches. As Moldova persists in refusing to register religious communities, this is unlikely to be the last time that the ECtHR fines the government for this type of religious freedom violation.