FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
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
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15 July 2005
KAZAKHSTAN: UNREGISTERED RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY NOW BANNED, MISSIONARY
ACTIVITY RESTRICTED
New national security amendments signed by President Nursultan Nazarbayev
on 8 July have brought in tight new restrictions on religious activity
that violate Kazakhstan’s international human rights commitments. All
unregistered religious activity is now illegal and those leading or taking
part in unregistered religious meetings can be fined. Missionary activity
by local people and foreigners is illegal unless missionaries are from a
registered religious organisation and have individual registration from
the authorities of the local area where they operate. Literature for use
by missionaries requires prior censorship from local authorities. The OSCE
had urged that the ban on unregistered religious activity should be
excluded from the law. “Unfortunately this was not done,” an official of
the OSCE mission in Almaty told Forum 18 News Service. The OSCE is
preparing a detailed critique of the “overly restrictive” new law.
* See full article below. *
13 July 2005
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR EMBATTLED BAPTIST CONSCRIPT
Embattled Baptist conscript Gagik Mirzoyan received a two-year sentence,
suspended for one year, at his 7 July trial. He had refused to swear the
military oath or serve with weapons since being called up into the army of
the unrecognised republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus. “This
means he won’t have to serve any time in prison – if of course he does
nothing wrong over the next year,” Albert Voskanyan of the local Centre
for Civilian Initiatives told Forum 18 News Service. Beaten twice since
his conscription last December, Mirzoyan spent 10 days in prison for
preaching his faith in his army unit. “After a lot of pressure, Gagik was
finally happy because he could see his brothers and sisters from the
church at his trial,” a Baptist told Forum 18.
11 July 2005
TURKMENISTAN: PRESIDENT ATTEMPTS TO MEDDLE IN ORTHODOX STRUCTURES
Russian Orthodox Patriarch Aleksi II has politely sidelined Turkmen
President Saparmurat Niyazov’s attempt to split the dozen or so Russian
Orthodox parishes in Turkmenistan away from the Central Asian diocese, and
subordinate them directly to the Patriarch. A Moscow-based priest familiar
with the situation, who preferred not to be identified, insisted to Forum
18 News Service that the Church itself has to make such decisions, not the
state. The priest told Forum 18 that he believes President Niyazov “wants
the Orthodox Church to exist, but a Church that is in his hand, just as he
has done with Islam.” Stressing that the Moscow Patriarchate is keen to see
an end to the tensions between the Church and the Turkmen government, the
priest deplored the denial of visas to three or four priests who the
diocese wished to send to serve in Turkmenistan, and the refusal of the
Turkmen government so far to re-register Russian Orthodox parishes.
11 July 2005
UZBEKISTAN: COURT CONFIRMS ALL PROTESTANTS BANNED IN NORTH-WEST
The last legal Protestant church in north-western Uzbekistan has had its
appeal against a regional Justice Ministry ban turned down in court, Forum
18 News Service has learnt. All Protestant activities in north-west
Uzbekistan are now banned after a Nukus court rejected the Emmanuel Full
Gospel Church’s appeal. Separately, another example of official condoning
of kangaroo courts staged by local residents against Muslim-born converts
to other faiths has come to light. An Uzbek Protestant, who preferred to
be anonymous, told Forum 18 of the case of Daniyara Ibaidulayev, a
Protestant convert who was on 29 June beaten up by his brother and another
villager, who cut his lips with a knife, telling him he must return to
Islam. The district public prosecutor’s office told Ibaidulayev that “his
problems would cease as soon as he returned to Islam”. Also, a Hare
Krishna devotee has been threatened with losing her job as a
schoolteacher, if she does not stop sharing her beliefs.
12 July 2005
UZBEKISTAN: POLICE CONTINUE HUNT FOR RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
Police and secret police continue to hunt down religious literature in
Uzbekistan, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Latest seizures include 15
Bibles from the home of Protestant pastor Viktor Klimov in Gulistan on 17
June, 90 Hare Krishna books seized by police and secret police from a
devotee in Bostan on 16 June. Five Protestants in Kungrad were officially
warned on 1 June, after bringing religious literature into the country. An
official of the government~Rs Religious Affairs Committee has defended such
seizures, telling Forum 18 that “the police did have the right to seize
Klimov~Rs Bibles temporarily, but they then had to send the books to us for
analysis, and we of course will conclude that these books (in other words,
the Bibles) are not banned in Uzbekistan,” Begzot Kadyrov stated. Such
censorship of and restrictions on religious literature violate
Uzbekistan~Rs international commitments to freedom of expression and
freedom of religion.
14 July 2005
UZBEKISTAN: NO PROGRESS FOR ARRESTED PENTECOSTAL
Pentecostal Kural Bekjanov is still being held at a police station in the
capital Tashkent with no progress on the investigation into whether he was
connected to the murder of a US citizen in the city. “We are convinced of
his innocence, and our suspicion is that his religious beliefs are the
reason for his ordeal,” Iskander Najafov, a lawyer for the Full Gospel
Church, told Forum 18 News Service. But Shukhrat Ismailov of the
government’s religious affairs committee denied this, telling Forum 18
church members’ claims were “pure speculation”. Since his arrest on 14
June, Bekjanov has been tortured by police and cell mates trying to force
him to abandon his Christian faith. Meanwhile two Jehovah’s Witnesses in
Karshi who have already been fined for “illegal” religious activity now
face criminal charges with penalties of up to three years’ imprisonment.
14 July 2005
VIETNAM: THREE FUNDAMENTAL CAUSES OF PERSECUTION REMAIN
Despite three new legal documents on religion since last November,
government harassment of religious communities has not eased. Prison
sentences on Mennonite pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and a colleague were
confirmed in April, two Hoa Hao Buddhists were given prison sentences and
massive fines the same month for distributing the teachings of their
movement’s founder, while Hmong Protestants in the north-west were beaten
by local officials and had their properties confiscated in May. The
Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and numerous Protestant churches remain
outlawed. A comparison of the situation five years ago and today shows no
change in the fundamental causes of persecution: the restrictions on
unregistered religious activity, the interference in the activity of
registered religious communities and the lack of a transparent line of
command from the central government to local officials which allows local
violations to continue. If religious freedom is to improve, these three
causes of persecution will be crucial benchmarks of change.
15 July 2005
KAZAKHSTAN: UNREGISTERED RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY NOW BANNED, MISSIONARY
ACTIVITY RESTRICTED
By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service
In defiance of its international human rights commitments, Kazakhstan has
banned all unregistered religious activity and introduced fines for
leaders and participants in such activity, Forum 18 News Service reports.
It has also restricted missionary activity to licensed missionaries only
whose literature requires prior censorship, with fines – and, for foreign
nationals, deportation – for those who violate the restrictions. The
controversial changes to the religion law – which echo those taken in
neighbouring Uzbekistan in 1998 – came in the sweeping new law introducing
changes and amendments to legislation relating to the provision of national
security, approved by parliament on 29 June and signed on 8 July by
Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev. The law came into force on
its publication in Kazakh-language newspapers on 13 July and in
Russian-language newspapers on 14 July.
Under scrutiny in both houses of parliament since February, the law has
prompted strong criticism from international and local human rights
organisations, including the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE). Given the widespread criticism, it is possible the Kazakh
authorities timed the announcement that they would not be deporting
high-profile asylum-seeker and eye-witness of the Andijan massacre
Lutfullo Shamsudinov back to his native Uzbekistan as a way to distract
attention from the announcement that the president had signed the law.
An official of the OSCE office in Almaty, who preferred not to be named,
told Forum 18 on 14 July that the organisation’s Office for Democratic
Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw was preparing a detailed critique
of the “overly restrictive nature” of the new law which would shortly be
published.
The adoption of these sweeping restrictions on religious communities,
political parties, the media and non-governmental organisations – which
came as the OSCE was holding a conference in Vienna on how to protect
human rights in the fight against terrorism – will kill off any lingering
hopes Kazakhstan might have had to become OSCE Chairman-in-Office in 2009.
The new law amends a range of other laws and codes, including the Civil
Procedure Code, the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedures code, the Code
of Administrative Offences and the laws on freedom of religion and of
religious associations, operational investigative activity, the media,
non-commercial organisations and political parties.
Although Muslims and the Russian Orthodox have broadly supported the law,
other smaller religious communities have been highly concerned (see
F18News 13 May 2005 ).
Particularly worried have been the Council of Churches Baptists, who
reject registration in principle in all the former Soviet republics where
they operate. One church member told Forum 18 on 13 July that
congregations in Kazakhstan have written numerous appeals to President
Nazarbayev and other officials in recent months calling on them not to
adopt the new law. They point out that even when registration was not
compulsory, their pastors have been fined for leading unregistered
communities.
Article 4 of the amended religion law has a new fourth section that
forbids the activity of unregistered religious organisations. A new
article, 4-1, requires all citizens and foreigners engaged in missionary
activity to register before they conduct such activity. The article
specifically bans all missionary activity by any individual who does not
have such registration.
A new article, 4-2, sets out the way missionaries register with the local
authorities annually: the potential missionary has to present the local
authorities with proof that they represent a registered religious
organisation which has specifically engaged them to do missionary activity
in the local area and all literature, video and other materials that the
missionary intends to use for local officials to censor. Any new materials
to be used after the missionary already has registration also have to be
submitted to the local authorities for censorship.
A new article, 10-1, bans all activity by religious organisations whose
activities have been suspended or banned by a court.
The new law also made corresponding changes to the code of administrative
offences, adding a new article, 374-1, to punish “leadership of and
participation in the activity of public and religious associations that
have not been registered in accordance with the law of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, as well as financing their activity”. Under this article:
– The leadership of the activity of public and religious associations that
have not been registered in the proper manner, and also those organisations
whose activity has been halted or banned will attract a fine amounting to
100 times the minimum monthly wage, currently 971 Tenge [47 Norwegian
Kroner, 6 Euros, or 7 US Dollars].
– Participation in the activity of public and religious associations that
have not been registered in the proper manner and also those organisations
whose activity has been halted or banned will attract a fine amounting to
50 times the minimum monthly wage.
– The financing of the activity of public and religious associations that
have not been registered in the proper manner and also those organisations
whose activity has been halted or banned will attract a fine amounting to
200 times the minimum monthly wage.
Additions have also been adopted to Article 375 of the administrative
code, an article that already punishes violations of the religion law
(including refusal to register a religious organisation). According to the
new addition, “Missionary work carried out by citizens, foreign citizens
and persons who have no citizenship, without the appropriate registration,
will attract a fine of up to 15 times the monthly wage of a citizen, while
foreigners and persons without citizenship will be fined up to 15 times
the monthly wage and will be expelled beyond the borders of the Republic
of Kazakhstan.”
Article 375 also now punishes leaders of religious organisations that
break any law with fines of up to thirty times the minimum monthly wage,
while the organisations themselves can be fined up to 200 times the
minimum monthly wage and banned for up to six months. Religious
organisations that “systematically carry out activity in defiance of their
statute” or refuse to stop activities that led to their being suspended
face fines of up to 300 times the minimum monthly wage and a total ban on
their activities, while leaders of such organisations can be fined up to
40 times the minimum monthly wage.
The OSCE official told Forum 18 that the organisation had recommended that
the religion law amendment banning unregistered religious activity should
be excluded. “Unfortunately this was not done,” the official declared. “We
reckon that the parliamentary deputies only took on board one of our
recommendations, excluding the amendment that would have granted the
prosecutor’s office the right to halt the activity of media outlets,
political parties and religious organisations before a court decision had
been reached.”
One activist who has been involved in lobbying parliament during the
adoption process takes some comfort from the exclusion of a few of the
harshest measures in earlier drafts. Aleksandr Klyushev, head of the
Association of Religious Organisations of Kazakhstan, pointed out that the
definition of missionary activity has been changed. In the initial draft
law, missionary activity was defined as “promoting a faith by means of
religious proselytising activity”.
“Effectively, every individual believer fell into this definition,” he
told Forum 18 on 14 July. “But we have managed to ensure that missionary
activity is defined in the law as teaching and promoting a religion by
means of religious proselytising preaching which is not included in the
statute of a religious organisation that is active in Kazakhstan.”
Klyushev hopes that it will not now be possible to see representatives of
any faith as missionaries, even if they have just one registered group in
Kazakhstan.
Klyushev also voiced some satisfaction that although the initial amendment
to Article 5 of the religion law stated that “the religious education of a
child must not harm his all-round development or physical and moral
health”, pressure from religious believers has ensured that the term
“all-round development” has been omitted. “The phrase ‘all-round
development’ could be applied very widely, even, for example, to an
atheist education, and so we are very pleased we have managed to exclude
it.”
At the same time, Klyushev declared himself extremely dissatisfied at the
introduction of Article 374-1 of the Administrative code and the
amendments to Article 375 of the Administrative code. “Even before
Nursultan Nazarbayev signed this law, local officials started treating it
as already effective and started persecuting Protestants on the basis of
the changes to the Administrative Code,” he told Forum 18 (see F18News 30
May 2005 ).
The authorities have long sought to restrict religious rights by
tightening the 1992 religion law. A harsh new law was adopted by
parliament in 2002 (the eighth such attempt) and approved by President
Nazarbayev. However, under pressure from international and local human
rights organisations, the constitutional council ruled in April 2002 that
the new law contradicted the constitution and it was withdrawn.
For a personal commentary on the legal moves to seriously restrict
religious freedom in Kazakhstan under the guise of “national security”,
see F18News
For more background, see Forum 18’s Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at
A printer-friendly map of Kazakhstan is available at
las/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=kazakh
(END )
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