UZBEKISTAN: Where is Kazakh visiting Pastor being held?

Concern is mounting about where Uzbekistan is holding a visiting Kazakh pastor, Rishat Garifulin, who has not been seen since his arrest by police in Samarkand on 8 February, after Christian literature was found on him. "Now it's almost a week later and we haven't heard anything about him or his whereabouts," Greater Grace sources told Forum 18 News Service. Samarkand police, who arrested Pastor Garifulin, have refused to confirm the arrest to Forum 18. His arrest comes as Pentecostal Pastor Dmitry Shestakov, who is awaiting trial in solitary confinement, is facing increasing attacks in the state-run media. Uzbek authorities are taking greater steps to isolate local religious communities from foreign contacts and have refused visas to and deported foreigners suspected of contacts with local religious communities. Uzbekistan is also continuing to crackdown on foreign religious charities. Christian charity World Vision, which works on HIV/AIDS projects, is the latest target for potential closure.

13 February 2007

CHINA: "Religious Communists" and religious freedom

Numbers of religious believers in China are, recent surveys indicate, much greater than previously thought, and a growing percentage of these believers are also Communist Party members, Forum 18 News Service notes. Many Chinese citizens Forum 18 has spoken to – including "religious Communists" - see Party membership just as a matter of gaining material advantages, and religious belief as a "private" matter. This "privatisation" is encouraged by the state's attempts to stop religious communities becoming a force that can challenge the party-state. Yet freedom to believe is only one part of religious freedom; the freedom to practice religion is also vital. "Privatised" religious belief, operating within state-prescribed legal and administrative boundaries, is highly unlikely to produce the two things the state ostensibly most wants from religious communities - contributions to social welfare reforms and social progress. If China had true religious freedom, religious communities would be able to organise themselves independently, and more able to help with social welfare - and China would definitely be on the path to democracy.

8 February 2007

UZBEKISTAN: Trial imminent for Andijan Pentecostal Pastor

The trial of Uzbek Pentecostal pastor Dmitry Shestakov may be imminent, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. He faces up to twenty years jail, if he is found guilty and receives maximum consecutive sentences for the charges of stirring up inter-religious hatred, leading an "illegal" religious organisation and distributing religious extremist recordings. Prosecutors in Andijan have completed their case against Pastor Shestakov, but have refused to answer questions from Forum 18. Much of the indictment – which Forum 18 has seen - is a defence of Uzbek government policy, and attacks "religious/political extremist organisations which under the guise of meeting religious needs began to strive to seize power", naming Islamic groups and "Charismatics/Pentecostals". These are alleged to want to promote "true Islam" and to turn individuals into zombies. The authorities' harassment of Pastor Shestakov appears to have begun as a reaction to some ethnic Uzbeks becoming Christians.

8 February 2007

RUSSIA: Will church and mosque demolition threats be carried out?

Local authorities in widely separated parts of Russia are demanding the demolition of several Protestant churches and mosques, Forum 18 News Service has noted. This follows an apparently unusual level of interest in their buildings' fire safety and other technical factors in recent months. In one example, Glorification Pentecostal Church – which is threatened with demolition - in the central Siberian city of Abakan questions the validity of numerous claimed violations, such as a failure to keep the storage area under the staircase clear, as "the only thing present under the stairs during the fire safety inspection was a jar of gherkins," Forum 18 was told. Amongst Muslim communities facing problems is Mosque No. 34 in the southern city of Astrakhan. This has been claimed to be "unauthorised construction" and so should be demolished. The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has decided to hear the case, after an unannounced hearing in Russia's Supreme Court upheld a demolition order. But in a positive development in Samara, a pre-1917 Belokrinitsa Old Believer Church has been regained by the corresponding local parish.

1 February 2007

UZBEKISTAN: Prosecutors refuse to say why Protestant pastor faces trial

Andijan city Prosecutor's Office has refused to tell Forum 18 News Service why local Protestant pastor Dmitry Shestakov is due to face trial or when. But the Prosecutor's aide, as well as independent sources, confirmed to Forum 18 on 1 February that the Pastor is still in investigation prison. Shestakov was arrested on 21 January during his Full Gospel Pentecostal congregation's Sunday service and is said to be accused of stirring up religious hatred and illegally producing literature spreading dissension. "Prosecutors and the police are accusing Dmitry of stirring up aggression against other religions, but he was not aggressive at all," one source told Forum 18. Another Andijan Protestant pastor was fined in late December 2006 for his religious activity.

31 January 2007

KAZAKHSTAN: Do-it-yourself demolition for embattled Hare Krishna commune?

As official pressure on the Hare Krishna commune near the commercial capital Almaty mounts, three more home owners have been served demolition notices, Hare Krishna sources told Forum 18 News Service. If they fail to demolish their own homes by 2 February, the authorities will do so and charge them for the cost. Thirteen Hare Krishna-owned homes were bulldozed last November, though other homes in the village owned by non-Hare Krishna residents have not been touched. Other court cases are pending. The Kazakh authorities have failed to respond to a November 2006 offer to help from the OSCE Advisory Council on Freedom of Religion, but Gauhar Beyeseyeva of the Kazakh Foreign Ministry claimed to the head of the Hare Krishna commune: "We were denied the OSCE chairmanship specifically because of you people." Despite denying any religious motives to the moves against the commune, Amanbek Mukhashev defended the inclusion of Muslim and Orthodox clergy in the official Commission charged with examining the dispute: "The population of Karasai district is basically Orthodox and Muslim and it follows that we should have regard for the views of the representatives of these faiths."

30 January 2007

KAZAKHSTAN: President too busy with "important affairs" to meet Baptists

Amanbek Mukhashev, head of Kazakhstan's Religious Affairs Committee, has petulantly complained to Forum 18 News Service about a request from a group of Baptist churches to meet President Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss state harassment of their congregations. "Instead of tearing the President away from important affairs the Baptists would do better to register their churches and not violate the law," he told Forum 18. The Council of Churches Baptists, who have over 100 congregations in Kazakhstan, estimate that more than 40 of their members have been fined for their role in worship services since legal restrictions on religious freedom were made harsher in July 2005. "It is perfectly natural that the President will not meet the Baptists," a Presidential Administration official stated. Pastor Yaroslav Senyushkevich commented to Forum 18 that "we regret that officials have such an attitude towards us."

26 January 2007

MOLDOVA: New Religion Law to be passed in early February?

Moldova's long-promised new Religion Law may be passed by Parliament on 9 February, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. However, the draft Law has provisions which cause concern to religious minorities, including a lack of clarity about how many members will be needed to get legal status, and what the definitions of "abusive proselytism" - which is to be forbidden - and "religious hatred" - which registered religious communities are to be protected from - are. Amongst other provisions causing concern is that registered religious communities are to have the "exclusive right" to publish or import religious literature. Serghei Ostaf of the Resource Centre for Human Rights has complained to Forum 18 of the "closed, non-transparent process" of adopting the Law. The Moldovan government has refused to allow a Council of Europe assessment of the Law to be made public, and has not told the Council of Europe whether its comments have been incorporated into the draft Law.

24 January 2007

MOLDOVA: Arbitrary legal status denials continue

In Moldova, all Muslim organisations, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) which is not part of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Ukrainian Orthodox Kiev Patriarchate and a variety of Protestant congregations, have complained to Forum 18 News Service about arbitrary state denials of their right to legal status. The State Service for Religious Communities has even defied court orders to register specific denominations. The only religious community known to have gained registration in recent years is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (commonly known as the Mormons), who only received legal status after five US Senators wrote to Moldova's President. "Many things in Moldova happen only because of foreign pressure," Serghei Ostaf of the Chisinau-based Resource Centre for Human Rights told Forum 18. "It is bad if those without important voices abroad can't get justice." Without legal status, religious communities are denied the legal possibility of a wide variety of normal activities.

18 January 2007

TURKEY: Religious freedom via Strasbourg, not Ankara or Brussels?

There are now two major questions in the struggle for full religious freedom in Turkey, Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio notes. Firstly, will the controversial Foundations Law be adopted, and if so in what form? Secondly, will the Turkish authorities move towards full religious freedom after a recent momentous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg? The ECtHR did not accept the Turkish state's argumentation over the seizure of non-Muslim minorities' property, and even the Turkish judge at the Court had no objections to the ruling. In this personal commentary for Forum 18, Dr Oehring suggests that, as Turkish accession negotiations with the European Union have gone quiet, the ECtHR may now be the best route for Turkey's religious minorities to assert their rights.

17 January 2007

RUSSIA: Jehovah's Witnesses "very glad" about ECtHR victory

Russian Jehovah's Witnesses are "very glad" about a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) that Russian authorities unlawfully interrupted the worship of 103 predominately deaf Jehovah's Witnesses in Chelyabinsk. Spokesperson Yaroslav Sivulsky told Forum 18 News Service that the ruling is also important because "deaf people in Russia often feel that they are of inferior worth, outside society, but this has made them feel rehabilitated and aware that their rights are respected." He regretted that the case had not been resolved within Russia. Both parties in the case have three months in which to appeal against the ECtHR decision. The community currently rents premises for worship without obstruction. Following another ECtHR ruling that Russia had violated the rights of the Salvation Army's Moscow branch by refusing to give it legal status and by branding it a "militarised organisation", the judgement became final on 5 January 2007 and so Russia must make its compensation payment to the Salvation Army by 5 April. There is also a pending ECtHR case about a ban on the Jehovah's Witness organisation in Moscow.

12 January 2007

BELARUS: Why were Catholic priests and nuns expelled?

Seven Polish Catholic priests and five nuns were forced out of Belarus at the end of 2006, Forum 18 News Service notes. Fr Mariusz Iliaszewicz told Forum 18 that his high level of activity, including youth and alcohol rehabilitation meetings open to all, was responsible for the expulsion decision. Another expelled priest, Fr Jaroslaw Hrynaszkiewicz, expressed similar thoughts to Forum 18. Fr Mariusz commented that "They don't want priests who work and try to develop their faith. Anything a priest says is considered political – if he talks about the lack of truth or freedom in Belarus he is immediately considered an opponent of the system. But there are grave violations of human rights in Belarus." Speaking of a protest hunger strike – which has now stopped - Fr Mariusz noted that he was astonished by the parishioners' own initiative. "They overcame fear - solidarity is beginning even in these little villages." A parishioner told Forum 18 that a Belarusian parish priest was now in the parish and that local Catholics have been given "no reasons, no answers," for the expulsion. However, Forum 18 was told "we all support" their expelled priest. The Belarusian Consulate in Warsaw has warned priests on short visits "not to engage in any religious activity."