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
16 June 2006
RUSSIA: Property struggles of Protestants, Muslims and Hare Krishna devotees
"A negative attitude towards Evangelical churches" is blamed for the Russian city of Krasnodar's demand for the demolition of a private home intended to host worship. Its owner, Aleksei Yeropkin, told Forum 18 News Service that many religious communities, regionally and nationally, meet for worship in the legal residence of a member. No deadline has yet been set for the demolition, as a court appeal is pending. A linked church in Kalmykia complains of slander on local regional state TV, leading to hostility from local people. But a threatened mosque demolition in Astrakhan has not yet been carried out and an appeal has just been lodged with Russia's Supreme Court. In the Russian capital Moscow, there may be progress in a Hare Krishna temple's struggle for land, following an agreement between the city governments of the Indian capital Delhi and Moscow. But there has been no progress in resolving the similar struggle of a Pentecostal congregation to build a church.
14 June 2006
TURKMENISTAN: Religious activity leads to Baptist's deportation
A Baptist who is a Russian citizen, Aleksandr Frolov, was deported from Turkmenistan on 10 June because of his religious activity, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Local Baptists told Forum 18 that Frolov's latest problems began after he visited Russia. After he returned, three officials came to his home and confiscated his Residence Permit. The officials gave their reasons as his attempt to import Christian literature, failure to notify the Migration Service of his exit from the country, and the holding of worship services in his home. Frolov separates him from his wife, a Turkmen citizen, their three year old son, and five month old daughter at their family home. Local Baptists have called for prayers and appeals for Frolov to be allowed back to his home and his family, for local Baptists to be allowed to hold worship services freely, for an end to restrictions on receiving Christian literature and for believers to be able to travel freely to visit other congregations.
13 June 2006
BELARUS: Religious activity in public life attacked
A Jewish kindergarten music teacher in Belarus, who celebrated the traditionally joyful Jewish holiday of Purim with Jewish children, has been threatened with criminal prosecution, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Lyudmila Izakson-Bolotovskaya is accused of "illegal and deliberate dissemination of religious dogma to young children, which could cause considerable harm to their world view, rights and legal interests." Public prosecutor Sergei Kopytov refused to talk to Forum 18 about his threat - one of several recent attempts, known to Forum 18, to restrict all religious activity to existing state approved places of worship. Minsk City Court has liquidated the Christ's Covenant Reformed Baptist Church, thus making it illegal. Earlier, its pastor, Georgi Vyazovsky, was jailed for ten days for leading worship in his home. The charismatic New Life Church in Minsk has been visited again by police, demanding confirmation of state permission to hold worship services. Also, three evangelical Christians were given official warnings for silently reading the Bible on Brest's central square, as an expression of solidarity with those arrested after March's presidential elections.
9 June 2006
KAZAKHSTAN: Intrusive state registration and massive fine
A Baptist Pastor in Kazakhstan has been fined more than three times the estimated average monthly salary, for leading unregistered religious activity, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. In some Kazakh regions, state registration demands information on the ethnicity ("Kazakhs, Russians, Germans, Koreans, Tatars, and Others"), family status, religious education of congregational leaders, their age and type of work and "the most acute problems worrying parishioners", as well as details of members' political affiliation. "Facts demanding attention on the part of state bodies," are also required by the state. "Such registration is a web it's almost impossible to break free of," Baptists complained to Forum 18. Daniyar Muratuvi of the Human Rights Ombudsperson's Office insisted - contrary to international human rights standards – that religious believers had to register. Ninel Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Committee told Forum 18 that the media and political parties are also facing tighter controls, and that intrusive registration requirements "have no basis in law."
8 June 2006
TAJIKISTAN: Council of Ulems – an instrument of state control
Some Muslims have expressed concern to Forum 18 News Service over the role of the Council of Ulems (theologians), a body close to the authorities which is seeking to exert control over all mosques and is pushing to receive 30 per cent of their income. Although in theory mosques choose their imams who are then confirmed by the Council, in practice the Council names them – and removes those the authorities do not like. One Dushanbe imam told Forum 18 that a month ago two imams who failed to attend a meeting between the mayor and the clergy were forced out. The Council works with the government to approve those allowed to go on the haj to Mecca and issued a controversial fatwa in 2004 (enforced by the police) banning women from mosques. "The Council of Ulems is completely dependent on the authorities and so there is no doubt that it was simply doing what it was told by the government," Hikmatullo Saifullozoda of the Islamic Revival Party complained to Forum 18. One Council member rejected all criticisms. "Thanks to our president, Tajik Muslims enjoy full rights," he told Forum 18.
7 June 2006
TAJIKISTAN: Has controversial religion bill been postponed?
After telling an OSCE-organised round table discussion in the capital Dushanbe on 15 May that the highly restrictive draft Religion Law would not be adopted "in the near future", Muradulo Davlatov who heads the government's Religious Affairs Committee has declined to say when the new Law drawn up by his office might be adopted and in what form. "The media has caused a stir about a leaked version of the draft Law on Religions which could remain in its drafting stages for another year or two," he told Forum 18 News Service, but said he and his staff were "too busy" for an interview to explain further. Reliable sources told Forum 18 that adoption of the new Law has been postponed at least until the presidential elections in November. Hikmatullo Saifullozoda of the Islamic Revival Party's analytical centre is highly critical of the draft's restrictions, especially the ban on unregistered religious activity and restrictions on the numbers of mosques, complaining to Forum 18 that the current text is "a clear illustration of the authorities' attitude to believers".
7 June 2006
RUSSIA: Whose side are the police on?
Pentecostals, Catholics and Baptists are among religious communities to complain recently of police failure to protect them from attacks or other unwarranted intrusions during services or of police raids to prevent them conducting religious activity – such as giving out religious literature – which they regard as legitimate, Forum 18 News Service notes. Police failed to respond when 300 Pentecostals in Spassk in Siberia were terrorised by 20 drunken youths who attacked their service in April or when a Catholic service in St Petersburg was disrupted by intruders in late May. Only when church leaders complained did the authorities take belated action. In Ivanovo near Moscow, the FSB security service initiated a raid on a 14 May Baptist evangelisation event at a rented cinema and an investigation is underway over the fact that copies of the New Testament being handed out did not include the name of the publisher. "We are still trying to find out what will happen," Pastor Aleksandr Miskevich told Forum 18. "I can't imagine how they are going to check the authenticity and authorship of the Gospels!"
2 June 2006
KAZAKHSTAN: "International agreements are nothing to us"
In continuing Kazakh state intolerance of religious freedom, two recent attacks on religious minorities have been accompanied by hostile TV coverage, Forum 18 News Service has found. Following police raids on an unregistered Baptist Church in north-west Kazakhstan, local TV has repeatedly shown film of the church shot by the police, with a hostile commentary. Asked why the Baptists were being persecuted merely because they refused to register – as is their right under international human rights agreements Kazakhstan has signed – Serozhatdin Baryshev, head of the regional Justice Department, told Forum 18 that "international agreements are nothing to us – we're governed by the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan," adding the comment that "you're going against the norms of the Kazakh nation." Hare Krishna devotees, struggling against the authorities' attempts to bulldoze houses and seize property of a commune, have also complained about TV broadcasts "full of lies and inaccuracies," attacking the devotees' defence of their religious freedom. They have also told Forum 18 of aggression against devotees, sparked by the broadcasts.
1 June 2006
KAZAKHSTAN: "Why register yet another group of believers?"
Two Protestants in western Kazakhstan are facing prosecution and large fines for belonging to an unregistered religious community, which has tried to register five times in five years, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. This is the latest instance of Kazakh official intolerance of religious freedom, in which new "national security" amendments to the Administrative Code are used against unregistered religious activity. Salobek Sultanov, of the Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations, told Forum 18 that "this small handful of people constantly kicks up a fuss. My personal view is why register yet another group of believers when we already have so many churches here? There's an Orthodox and a Catholic church in Atyrau. We respect believers of all confessions." He was unable to explain to Forum 18 why Jehovah's Witnesses as well as Protestants are repeatedly denied registration. Aleksandr Klyushev, of the Association of Religious Communities of Kazakhstan, told Forum 18 that "the national authorities certainly share responsibility for this. If they didn't like the religious policies of the officials in Atyrau they could easily sack them."
31 May 2006
RUSSIA: Sharing faith in public – a fundamental right
Recently, local officials have given Forum 18 News Service contrasting reactions to public preaching. This appears to indicate growing disagreement over whether or not the "free dissemination of religious convictions" - as upheld by the 1993 Russian Constitution - is a right subject to state permission. Unregistered Baptists have been the group that has encountered most state obstruction to public dissemination of their beliefs. The head of the southern Rodionovo-Nesvetaiskoye District Administration has insisted to Forum 18 that unregistered Baptists do not have the right to preach in public. She also maintained that unregistered religious groups may meet on private premises, "but they don't have the right to go outside." Forum 18 notes that there is no clear legal restriction of the right to conduct public religious events to registered religious organisations. Contrastingly, after a violent attack on unregistered Baptists in north-eastern Russia, the public prosecutor for Ust-Mai District (who is prosecuting the attackers) has confirmed to Forum 18 that there was nothing illegal about the Baptists preaching in public in a village.
31 May 2006
TURKMENISTAN: Official exit ban list confirmed
Former Baptist prisoner of conscience Shageldy Atakov is the latest person, known to Forum 18 News Service, banned from leaving Turkmenistan apparently because of their religious activity. "We blocked him from travelling – he's here on the list," a Migration Service officer told Forum 18. "People are only stopped from leaving if they have problems with the government," he added, without explaining what reasons trigger exit bans. As well as the Migration Service, the MSS secret police can also impose exit bans. "Sometimes we work together with them, sometimes separately," the official said. Forum 18 knows of an increasing number of Turkmen residents banned from leaving the country, because the authorities do not like their religious activity. Protestants are frequent victims of the exit ban policy, but others known to have been banned from exit are Hare Krishna devotees and Jehovah's Witnesses. The number of Muslim haj pilgrims is also severely restricted.
26 May 2006
BELARUS: "Divine freedom is given by God, but state freedom you have to pay for"
In what seems to be an increasing trend, a Belarusian Pentecostal pastor has been fined for leading worship without state permission. "Divine freedom is given to us by God," Pastor Ilya Radkevich remarked to Forum 18 News Service, "but state freedom you have to pay for." Natalya Lutsenko, head of the administrative commission which fined Pastor Radkevich, totally refused to say why an individual had been punished for holding a peaceful religious service. Radkevich's fine is the latest to be imposed on some Baptist, Pentecostal and independent Orthodox groups, under a legal provision punishing violation of legislation on religion or the foundation and leadership of an unregistered religious congregation. The 2002 Religion Law bans unregistered religious activity, thus violating Belarus' international human rights commitments. A regional assistant bishop of a separate registered Pentecostal Union has told Forum 18 that the number of fines for worship by groups in private homes – which is illegal without state permission even for registered communities - would be much greater if such worship did not take place discreetly.