UZBEKISTAN:
By Igor Rotar, Forum 18
News Service — 27 October 2005 |
|
| Members of the Full Gospel
Church in Jizak, at an informal meal to
celebrate the harvest festival
last Tuesday (25 October), had their meal broken up the ordinary
police, the National Security Service (NSS) secret police and officials
from the Public Prosecutor's office, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. "I think the actions of the
law enforcement officers in Jizak were a gross infringement of the
law," Iskander Najafov, the church's lawyer, told Forum 18. "It turns out that believers are not
even allowed to visit each other." Najafov believes that an
anti-Christian campaign is underway, with less violence than in the
past but using other methods to pressure churches and individual
believers. Religious minorities face continuing official pressure,
including the Subbotniki — a
Christian movement founded in the eighteenth century who follow many
Jewish laws and customs, who were forbidden from holding a religious
ritual for one of the community's members who had just died. On Tuesday 25 October, the ordinary police, the National Security Service (NSS) secret police and officials from the Public Prosecutor's office broke up a meeting of members of the Full Gospel Pentecostal Church in the town of Jizak [Jizzakh, Jizzax, Djizakh] 200 kilometres (125 miles) south-west of the capital Tashkent, one of the Church's pastors Aleksandr Kuznetsov told Forum 18 News Service from Tashkent on 26 October. According to Kuznetsov, he and the Full Gospel bishop Sergei Nechitailo were visiting church members in Jizak. The congregation in the town has not been able to obtain state registration. Some 40 people had gathered together for a meal in the house of a local church member. "I would stress that this was not a formal religious service, just an informal gathering of believers to celebrate the harvest festival," Kuznetsov told Forum 18. He reports that around 10 officials from the NSS secret police, the ordinary police and the Public Prosecutor's office suddenly burst into the house. They cordoned off the premises and ordered those present to write statements. Church members complain that the officials made threats during the raid. "Women and children were crying and shouting," one church member told Forum 18. Nechitailo, who identified himself to the officials as the Full Gospel bishop, pointed out that believers were allowed to visit each other and therefore demanded that the law enforcement officials stop their unlawful actions, but they did not respond to Nechitailo's demand. The police recorded the names of all those present and allowed them to go to their homes two hours after the raid began. "I think the actions of the law enforcement officers in Jizak were a gross infringement of the law," Iskander Najafov, a lawyer for the Tashkent Full Gospel church, told Forum 18 on 26 October. "It turns out that believers are not even allowed to visit each other." He also complained that the police briefly detained Nechitailo, "the head of the registered Full Gospel Christian community". Begzot Kadyrov, chief specialist at the government's Committee for Religious Affairs in Tashkent, said he had not heard about the police raid on the Full Gospel meeting in Jizak. But he insisted that "Harvest festival is an official Pentecostal festival — they themselves wrote of this themselves when they lodged their registration application," he told Forum 18 from Tashkent on 27 October. "So you can't regard the meeting in Jizak as simply a gathering of friends — it was a religious meeting. And as the Pentecostals are not registered in Jizak, the meeting was therefore illegal." He said Nechitailo, as the leader of the Full Gospel Church in the country, "knows Uzbek laws very well. That's why I find it strange he allowed such a violation." Najafov, the Church's lawyer, believes that an official anti-Christian campaign is underway, with less violence than in the past but using other methods to pressure churches and individual believers. He said his Church has received reports from various parts of the country that the police are visiting church members' apartments and conducting "so-called preventative discussions in which they question people about their faith". He also told Forum 18 that registration of churches has long since come to a halt, and police are trying to halt all meetings of religious believers in private homes. Uzbek law — in defiance of international human rights standards — bans all unregistered religious activity. Other religious minorities also continue to face official pressure. Najafov told Forum 18 that the authorities are persecuting a community of Subbotniki — a Christian movement dating back to the eighteenth century of non-Jewish Christians who hold services on Saturday, and follow many but not all Jewish laws and customs. (Subbotniki should not be confused with Seventh-day Adventists.) The Subbotniki live in the Kibrai district of Tashkent region, 15 kilometres (10 miles) north-east of the capital, and every week police come to community members and warn them that it is illegal to hold meetings in private apartments. On 9 August the police even forbade the Subbotniki from holding a religious ritual for one of the community's members who had just died. Kadyrov of the state Religious Affairs Committee said that he had not heard of the Subbotniki's problems. However, he insisted to Forum 18 that if police officers had in fact obstructed religious rituals for the deceased that would be a violation of the law. |
In 1993 there
was a Molokan congregation in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. One member now
attends the San
Francisco, Molokan Church, California, USA. In Uzbekistan ... "Unregistered religious activity is illegal and believers are routinely punished even for religious meetings in private homes. Missionary work is banned. Religious literature is censored, while foreign Islamic websites are blocked. Virtually all religious communities are subject to harsh government control, especially Islam. The leadership of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims is virtually an agency of state authority. The government tries to prevent the spread of Protestant, Jehovah's Witness, Hare Krishna and other religions regarded as non-traditional." "Unregistered religious activity is illegal and believers are routinely punished even for religious meetings in private homes. Missionary work is banned, while religious teaching is tightly controlled. Religious literature is censored by the government's religious affairs committee. Virtually all religious communities are subject to harsh government control, especially Islam. The government even controls the numbers of Muslims who can travel on the haj pilgrimage." More about Uzbek religious harassment: 2003 Oct 3 — No peace for Peace Church 2004 Oct 28 — Government defies international human rights pressure 2004 Jan 15 — Authorities trying to close Baptist church 2004 Mar 4 — Authorities close Christian church in Khorezm 2004 Dec 13 — Latest student expulsion in anti-Christian campaign 2005 Feb 16 — Registration denial leads to prosecution risk 2005 Jul 11 — Court confirms all Protestants banned in north-west 2005 Oct 27 — "Believers are not even allowed to visit each other" |
