SOURCE: KESTON INSTITUTE KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK ______________________________________ KESTON NEWS SERVICE, 20.00, 26 November 2002. Reporting on violations of religious liberty and on religion in communist and post-communist lands. ______________________________________ AZERBAIJAN: BAPTIST BOOK IMPORT "VICTORY" Six months after applying for permission to import 3,000 copies of the Book of Proverbs, the Baptist church in Baku managed to retrieve the copies from customs on 26 November. "We got the books an hour ago - we're jumping for joy," Pastor Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union, told Keston. "It is a kind of victory. We have been able to achieve our constitutional rights." The State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations - which is in charge of the compulsory prior censorship of all religious literature published in Azerbaijan or imported into the country - overturned its earlier three refusals and granted permission on 21 November, allowing the Church to receive the books. However, Zenchenko reports continuing obstruction to the registration of Baptist congregations. AZERBAIJAN: BAPTIST BOOK IMPORT "VICTORY" by Felix Corley, Keston News Service Six months after applying for permission to import 3,000 copies of a translation into Azeri of the Book of Proverbs, the Baptist church in the capital Baku has today (26 November) managed to retrieve the copies from customs. "We got the books an hour ago - we're jumping for joy," Pastor Ilya Zenchenko, head of the Baptist Union in Azerbaijan, told Keston News Service from Baku on 26 November. "It is a kind of victory. We have been able to achieve our constitutional rights." The State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations - which is in charge of the compulsory prior censorship of all religious literature published in Azerbaijan or imported into the country - overturned its earlier three refusals and granted permission on 21 November, allowing the Church to receive the books. However, on the orders of the head of the railway station, the church had to pay - in addition to the legal documentation fees - 250,000 manats (51 U.S. dollars, 52 Euros or 33 British pounds) as a "fine" for the delay of two months in retrieving the container. "This was not our fault," Zenchenko insisted. "It was the fault of the State Committee - in fact of its chairman Rafik Aliev personally." But he said he regarded the matter as closed. "We don't think there is any point in pursuing this." The registered Baku Baptist church applied to the State Committee on 23 May to import the copies of the Book of Proverbs, entitled "The Wisdom of Solomon", which had been produced and donated to it by the Bible Society of Kazakhstan. Zenchenko provided with his application a copy of the book for the State Committee to assess in reaching its decision. On 23 July State Committee chairman Aliev wrote back to say the church could import only 500 copies and that the remaining copies should be sent back to Kazakhstan at the church's expense. The Baptist Church persisted, despite receiving its second refusal on 16 September and its third on 30 October (see KNS 12 November 2002). Although Azerbaijan's religion law lays down compulsory prior censorship of all religious literature (in defiance of the country's international human rights obligations), it remains unclear why the State Committee believes it has the power to decide how many copies of any publication an individual religious community needs. Speaking to Keston last September, Jeyhun Mamedov, head of the "expertise" department of the State Committee that assesses all religious literature before it is authorised for publication or import, said his department had examined the Wisdom of Solomon and approved it for import. "There is nothing harmful in it." He said he was unable to say why Aliev had decided that only 500 copies could be imported. Pastor Zenchenko said his Church would continue to import religious literature. "I now know how to defend our rights," he told Keston. "I thank God and Rafik Aliev for teaching me this lesson." Despite this "victory", Baptist churches in Azerbaijan continue to face difficulties in functioning. Only two congregations have so far gained registration with the State Committee, with a further ten facing various levels of obstruction to their registration applications. One congregation - the Azeri-language Love Church in Baku - was liquidated through the courts in April on the orders of the State Committee (see KNS 8 April 2002). The Agape Church - successor to the Love Church - has now applied for registration. Applications from two other churches - those in the towns of Sumgait and Neftchala - are languishing in the legal department of the State Committee. The other congregations are still trying to collect the necessary paperwork. Worst off is the congregation in the town of Aliabad in Azerbaijan's northern Zakataly district, which has for years faced obstruction from local officials in its attempts to gain registration (see KNS 3 October 2000). Zenchenko reports that last spring, the ten founders required in law to register a religious community tried to get their signed application notarised, but the local notary refused to complete the task. "He told them he didn't want there to be a Baptist church in Zakataly district," Zenchenko reported. The Aliabad Baptist church is believed to hold the record for the Azerbaijani religious community that has been refused registration the longest. It has been waiting some seven and three quarter years. (END) Copyright (c) 2002 Keston Institute. All rights reserved. Subscribe to the free weekly KNS Summary, or to the almost daily Keston News Service, through our website http://www.keston.org/. 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