Serbia;Uzbekistan;

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway http://www.forum18.org/

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

21 February 2005 BELARUS: CHARISMATIC PASTOR CHARGED WITH ORGANISING "ILLEGAL" WORSHIP http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=516 Pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko of the Minsk-based charismatic New Life Church is again facing prosecution for organising worship without state permission, he has told Forum 18 News Service. The 600-strong congregation of New Life Church has been worshipping at a disused cowshed ever since being barred from public facilities. The head of Minsk city administration religious affairs department, Alla Ryabitseva, challenged by Forum 18 why it was impossible to change the use of a cowshed, Ryabitseva replied, "read our laws". Asked which particular law forbade the conversion of cowsheds, she claimed only to deal with the religion law. "Read Article 25 - that says exactly where you can pray and where you can't." Told that it did not mention cowsheds, she retorted: "It doesn't say you can't pray in casinos either, but people don't pray in casinos!" Questioned about a disused railway carriage close to New Life used by an Orthodox community, Ryabitseva maintained that the parish was not worshipping in the carriage but had four years earlier acquired land at the site "in the proper manner."

25 February 2005 KAZAKHSTAN: NEW EXTREMISM LAW "SERIOUS DANGER" TO RELIGIOUS BELIEVERS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=520 A controversial new extremism law, actively promoted by the KNB secret police, has now been signed by the Kazakh President. As well as being criticised by some religious believers, the law has been criticised by a wide range of local and international organisations, including the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. But Almaty city's official chief specialist on religious affairs, Vladimir Ivanov, told Forum 18 News Service that "I do not understand this concern. The law on extremism and also the amendments to other laws have no relation to religion and consequently do not represent a threat to believers." Strongly disagreeing was Ninel Fokina of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, who told Forum 18 that "the term 'religious' occurs ten times (…). The new law can be used by the state to combat religious organisations it does not like." Religious law specialist Roman Podoprigora pointed out to Forum 18 that, under amendments to other laws brought in with the extremism law, Kazakhstan can now decide "to close religious communities on the basis of information from the relevant organs of odious regimes," such as North Korea.

22 February 2005 NAGORNO-KARABAKH: "INHUMAN" SENTENCE ON RELIGIOUS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=517 Jehovah's Witness Areg Hovhanesyan has been jailed for four years, by a court in the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh republic, for refusing to do military service - even though he stated that he would do alternative, non-military, service. Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanyan, the Defence Minister, insisted to Forum 18 News Service that "it doesn't depend on me - according to our law of Nagorno-Karabakh there is no alternative service, so they are sentenced in line with the law." But General Ohanyan noted that, in individual cases, provision has been made for religious conscientious objectors to do military service in non-combat roles. He quoted the case of a Baptist, Gagik Mirzoyan, who refused to fight in the army despite pressure from the Armenian Apostolic Church's military chaplain. "He is now serving (…) without arms and without swearing the military oath. Otherwise he's doing everything the other conscripts do. He's now content." Baptist sources, who preferred not to be identified, confirmed to Forum 18 that Mirzoyan was happy with his terms of service. * See full article below. *

22 February 2005 SERBIA: NO RELIGION LAW MEANS A "DANGEROUS LEGAL VOID"? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=518 The latest, fourth, draft of a proposed religion law is an "improvement," Baptist and Seventh-day Adventist leaders have told Forum 18 News Service. However, religious minorities are worried that the latest draft, like previous drafts, divides religious communities into "traditional" faiths and other faiths with lesser rights. Baptist Pastor Dane Vidovic told Forum 18 that this division "is critical, because it will affect other laws and areas of life, including rights to religious education in public schools, taxes and property, social security and pension funds." Religion Minister Milan Radovic has recently wrongly claimed that Serbia is the "only country in Europe without a law regulating relations between the state and religious communities", claiming that this is a "dangerous legal void". Some European countries, such as Ireland, have never had a religion law and have no plans to introduce such a law.

21 February 2005 UZBEKISTAN: ILLEGALLY KIDNAPPED MUSLIM JAILED http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=515 An Uzbek former teacher of Arabic in a Russian mosque, kidnapped in 2004 and illegally taken to Uzbekistan without the consent of the Russian authorities, has been given a lengthy prison sentence on a wide range of terrorist-related charges, which his lawyer told Forum 18 News Service are "absurd". Mannobjon Rahmatullaev was sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment on 20 January, his lawyer telling Forum 18 that only one offence, under article 223 (illegal exit abroad or illegal entry), when he travelled on the haj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1992. The imam-hatyb of the Saratov central mosque, Mukadas Bibarsov, where Rahmatullev worked, said he had been "shocked" by his colleague's abduction. "If Rahmatullaev had really been involved in politics then I would have been in favour of his deportation from Russia," Bibarsov told Forum 18 from Saratov on 17 February. "I knew this man well and I can testify that he was an honest faithful Muslim who never committed any crime."

25 February 2005 UZBEKISTAN: INCREASED JAILING OF MUSLIMS FOR BEING MUSLIM http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=519 There has recently been an increase in trials in which Muslim religious convictions form part of the case against devout Muslims, Forum 18 News Service has noted. Thus, unusually, Uzbekistan has this month jailed two followers (adepts) of Sufi Islam, a movement which was supported by the authorities but which they now view with great suspicion. Also jailed were eight Muslims whose only crime seems to have been forming a kind of "club" of like-minded people, who discussed religion and read the Koran, as well as Mannobjon Rahmatullaev, who was kidnapped from Russia and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment. The trial of 23 Muslim businessmen, who are accused of belonging to an Islamic charitable organisation continues. Before now, devout Muslims put on trial by the authorities were usually only accused of terrorist activity without any convincing evidence. Protestant Christians, the relics of Russian Orthodox saints and martyrs, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses, have all also recently been targeted by the authorities.

22 February 2005 NAGORNO-KARABAKH: "INHUMAN" SENTENCE ON RELIGIOUS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=517 By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service

Rustam Khachatryan, the lawyer for Jehovah's Witness Areg Hovhanesyan, has condemned as "inhuman" the four year sentence handed down on his client on 16 February by a court in Stepanakert, the capital of the unrecognised Nagorno-Karabakh republic, for refusing military service on grounds of his religious faith. "Areg's family lives very modestly and to lose their eldest surviving son to prison for such a long time is very harsh," Khachatryan told Forum 18 News Service from the Armenian capital Yerevan on 21 February. "Areg was one of five children, but one sister and brother were killed during the war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 1992 when a bomb landed on them as they played in the street." He said he and Hovhanesyan have not yet decided whether to lodge an appeal.

Hovhanesyan, who is 18 and from a Jehovah's Witness family in Stepanakert, told the court he was prepared to do an alternative, non-military service. But, in the absence of such alternative service in Nagorno-Karabakh, he was sentenced on 16 February under Article 327 Part 3 of the Nagorno-Karabakh Criminal Code, which punishes evasion of military service "in conditions of martial law, in war conditions or during military actions" with a sentence of between four and eight years. (Nagorno-Karabakh has adopted the criminal code introduced in Armenia in 2003.) Hovhanesyan was detained after the verdict was announced.

Khachatryan described Judge Stepanyan, who heard the case, as a "good man". "He said during the trial that he didn't want to sentence Hovhanesyan but had to because of the law." He also praised the prosecutor. But Khachatryan insists his client "should never have been tried on the basis of his faith". He blames the recent presidential decree extending the military state in Karabakh until 1 January 2006 which allowed the heavy sentence to be imposed. Although a ceasefire with Azerbaijan has been in place since 1994, the conflict over the territory remains unresolved.

Lieutenant-General Seyran Ohanyan, Defence Minister of the unrecognised republic, insisted that those who cannot serve in the armed forces on grounds of conscience have to be dealt with under the law. "It doesn't depend on me - according to our law of Nagorno-Karabakh there is no alternative service, so they are sentenced in line with the law," he told Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 21 February. "Those who refuse to serve in the defence of our homeland are putting our republic at risk."

Asked why - given that Nagorno-Karabakh claims to abide by international human rights norms - Jehovah's Witnesses and others who cannot serve in the armed forces could not do alternative civilian service, for example in hospitals, he responded: "According to international norms, citizens should have this right, but we're in a military situation so we can't afford to do this. Besides, hospitals here are also considered military."

General Ohanyan said that, were Nagorno-Karabakh to allow an alternative non-military service, the numbers of those wanting to do it would rise. But he promised to consider the possibility.

He noted that in individual cases, his armed forces have made provision for believers who cannot fight on grounds of conscience to work within the military in non-combat roles. He pointed to the case of the young Baptist Gagik Mirzoyan, who refused to fight after conscription into the army despite pressure from his commander and the Armenian Apostolic Church's military chaplain (see F18News 6 January 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=483). "He is now serving in Hadrut region without arms and without swearing the military oath," Ohanyan told Forum 18. "Otherwise he's doing everything the other conscripts do. He's now content."

General Ohanyan's assertion that Mirzoyan was happy with his terms of service was confirmed by Baptist sources. "He's serving without weapons and without the oath - that's how a Christian should serve," one Baptist who preferred not to be identified told Forum 18 on 21 February.

Ohanyan insisted that Mirzoyan - who was called up on 6 December 2004 - had never been beaten while in the hands of the army, despite Baptist insistence that his unit commander and the chaplain, Fr Petros Yezegyan, had beaten him on separate occasions in December. "We conducted an investigation into these allegations and I want to assure you he was never beaten," Ohanyan told Forum 18.

Although in earlier years the terms of martial law - renewed annually since 1992 - included the banning of the activity of "religious sects and unregistered organisations", Khachatryan told Forum 18 that the current martial law decree contains no such ban. Although in recent years activity by Protestant Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses has on occasion been obstructed (see eg. F18News 27 September 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=420), both the Baptists and the Jehovah's Witnesses say they can currently meet for worship without obstruction. "The authorities keep a watch on our activity, but that's OK - let them know what we're up to," Khachatryan told Forum 18.

A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is available at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba within the map titled 'Azerbaijan'. (END)

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