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

28 July 2005 BELARUS: PROTESTANT PROPERTY OBSTACLES CONTINUE http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=619 The Belarusian religion law's insistence on religious communities being registered at a non-residential address, as well as state approval for religious activities outside purpose-built places of worship, creates obstacles for Protestants in particular, Forum 18 News Service has found. For example, the charismatic New Generation Church's 150-strong congregation in Baranovichi faces long-running problems, caused by the authorities' refusal to allow a warehouse the church owns to be converted into a church. Reasons given vary between multi-storey housing being planned for the site, and that it will be used for a stadium's car park. Another example is the Minsk-based charismatic New Life Church, which faces continuing obstruction in using a cowshed for worship. The latest threat, Forum 18 has learnt, is that the city is considering ending the church's right to the land beneath the cowshed. Officials claim that the cowshed can only be used only for its designated purpose - even though animal husbandry is illegal in Minsk city. Forum 18 has found that other Protestant churches throughout Belarus face similar obstructions from officials.

27 July 2005 MACEDONIA: ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP JAILED - WITHOUT THE GOSPELS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=618 The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia, Archbishop Jovan (Vranisskovski) of Ohrid and Skopje, has now been jailed for 18 months on charges of "inciting national, racial and religious hatred, schism and intolerance". Jovan's colleague, Bishop Marko of Dremvica and Bitola, told Forum 18 News Service that, as well as keeping Jovan under conastant surveillance, police forced him to change out of his cassock and refused to allow him to take anything with him into prison. "The archbishop was not permitted to take his prayer book, the Gospels, an icon or any of the insignia of his rank with him," Bishop Marko told Forum 18. During the first 30 days of his jail term, Jovan is not being allowed visits from anyone, apart from his lawyer and his immediate family, who are only being allowed to visit him once, for five minutes only. After the initial 30 days he will be either be sent to a maximum security prison unit, or to a unit with less strict discipline.

26 July 2005 MOLDOVA: GOVERNMENT "SHOULD REGISTER MUSLIMS", SAYS OSCE http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=616 The State Service for Religious Communities defied the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in refusing to register a Muslim community in the capital Chisinau, despite a letter from OSCE ambassador William Hill to deputy prime minister Andrei Stratan. "Moldova should register the Muslim communities, in the same way as other religious communities are registered," Claus Neukirch of the OSCE mission in Moldova told Forum 18 News Service. Bishop Antoni (Rudei) leads the six parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in Moldova, which has also been refused registration. He told Forum 18 that since the 6 March elections which saw the return to power of the Communist Party, police agents have been sent to his churches to find out what the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad is doing. "This was an excuse to keep us on tenterhooks," the bishop claimed.

25 July 2005 RUSSIA: WHAT SHOULD TUVAN CHILDREN BELIEVE? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=615 The traditionally Buddhist Russian republic of Tuva, bordering north-west Mongolia, closed a Christian children's home, Forum 18 News Service was told by a religious affairs official, as "the children go to church and pray without the permission of their parents or guardians." This is disputed by a former resident, Anna Mongush, who told Forum 18 that the real reason for the closure was that the only non-Christian staff member alleged in court that the home was a "sect," after she was sacked for theft, and the state authorities "thought they could get something from its closure." Highlighting broader confusion over religious education policy, Bible translator Vitali Voinov noted that neither Russia's Constitution, nor the religion law, allow for faith-based orphanages and that much in school religious education depends upon individual teachers. Some tell pupils that they should be Buddhists and visit shamans, while forbidding them from attending Christian churches. Foundations of Orthodox Culture is an optional school subject and this causes controversy, the head of the Volga Region Spiritual Directorate of Muslims told Forum 18.

27 July 2005 RUSSIA: VIOLENCE, ARSON AND RELIGIOUS BELIEVERS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=617 Police in the traditionally Buddhist Russian republic of Tuva seem to be indifferent to violent attacks on Protestants. Pastor Aleksandr Degtyarev of Gospel Light Baptist Church, told Forum 18 News Service that "for them it is minor - they have too many murders to solve." The republic's crime rate is amongst the highest in Russia, with two-and-a-half times more murders than the national average. Physical attacks against religious believers are uncommon elsewhere in Russia, but there has in recent years been an apparent increase in cases of arson attacks on places of worship reported by Orthodox, Lutheran, Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist, Jewish and Muslim communities. In some cases, police investigations have resulted in prosecution, but in others police either fail to investigate or refuse to acknowledge that arson has taken place. The director of the Moscow-based Baptist Association for Spiritual Renewal, Valentin Vasilizhenko, suggested to Forum 18 that arsonists might prefer to attack places of worship, because the repercussions against them would be far less serious than if they attacked a bank or a business.

28 July 2005 SERBIA: EIGHT SENTENCED FOR 2004 MOSQUE BURNING http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=620 The trial of those accused of burning down the southern city of Nis' Islam-aga mosque in 2004 has produced outrage in the Muslim community at the light sentences imposed, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The arson was triggered by Kosovo rioting which left 20 dead and 30 Serbian Orthodox churches burned or badly damaged. The maximum sentence that could have been imposed is 5 years in jail, but one person was sentenced to 5 months in jail, seven others were given 3 months each in jail, whilst two were freed. Three more people are still being tried. "We are not satisfied with the sentences," imam Mustafa Jusuf-Spahic told Forum 18, noting that the case may "unavoidably" have to come before international courts. Several Serbian political parties and NGOs have also condemned the light sentences, Miroslav Jankovic of the Belgrade Youth Initiative for Human Rights, telling Forum 18 that he hopes that the state prosecutor would appeal against the sentences.

29 July 2005 TURKMENISTAN: POLICE BEAT BAPTIST WITH BIBLE AND THREATEN TO HANG HER http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=621 Police raiding a private home in Turkmenabad, where Baptists gather regularly for Bible study and prayer, beat the host, Asiya Zasedatelevaya, with her own Bible and even threatened to hang her, local Baptists told Forum 18 News Service. She has now appealed for the return of Christian literature they confiscated from her. Zasedatelevaya stated that "they started to interrogate me, despite the fact that I'm a third-category invalid unable to hear and speak," and that when she did not reveal where she had got her Christian books, one of the policemen hit her over the head with her Bible, while the second hit her in the face. "The local policeman threatened to hang me," she added. "During all this my four-year-old child was present in the flat." Forum 18 has been unable to reach the police to question them about the raid. There have been reports that, since President Niyazov issued a call for the country to adopt one set of religious rites, pressure on religious minorities has increased. * See full article below. *

29 July 2005 TURKMENISTAN: POLICE BEAT BAPTIST WITH BIBLE AND THREATEN TO HANG HER

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=621 By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service

Police raiding a private home in the eastern city of Turkmenabad (formerly Charjew), where Baptists gather regularly for Bible study and prayer, beat the host, Asiya Zasedatelevaya, with her own Bible and one even threatened to hang her, local Baptists told Forum 18 News Service on 23 July. She has now appealed for all the Christian literature they confiscated from her - "for which we have a great need" - to be returned. Forum 18 was unable to reach the city police chief to ask him why this raid, confiscation and threats were made.

Zasedatelevaya reported that three men burst into her flat at 9 pm on 19 July, two of them in civilian clothes, accompanied by the local police captain in uniform. "Without identifying themselves or showing authorisation for a search they pushed me away from the door and began a search," she stated. She said that the police took away all her religious literature, as well as a Russian dictionary, without giving her a record of the confiscation. "Then they started to interrogate me, despite the fact that I'm a third-category invalid unable to hear and speak." She said that when she failed to reveal where she had got her Christian books, one of the plainclothes men hit her over the head with her Bible, while the second hit her in the face. "The local policeman threatened to hang me," she added. "During all this my four-year-old child was present in the flat."

She was then taken to the police station, where another local policeman, Durliev (first name unknown), claimed to her that neighbours had written a statement reporting that meetings lasting two to three hours were held in her flat before participants dispersed. It remains unclear why this should have concerned the police.

Zasedatelevaya declared that she regularly hosts meetings of between ten and fifteen local Baptists in her flat each week "to study the Word of God". As well as calling for the confiscated literature to be returned, she also demanded an end to official harassment simply for meeting privately to study the Bible. Her Baptist congregation belongs to the Baptist Council of Churches, whose congregations refuse on principle to register with the state authorities in post-Soviet countries

Members of another Baptist congregation in Turkmenabad, who belong to the nationally-registered Baptist Union, were fined in March and two families were evicted from their hostels in punishment for meeting for worship, despite being part of a registered church. The police described the worship as "illegal" and stated that it would be better for the Baptists to follow Islam (see F18News 31 March 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=535 ).

The activity of registered communities remains restricted, with officials insisting that no religious meetings can be held in private homes. Registered congregations are pressured to subscribe to the blasphemous cult of personality around the country's president, Saparmurat Niyazov (see F18News 1 March 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=522 ).

Since President Saparmurat Niyazov issued his 1 July call for the country to adopt one set of religious rites, stating that ""we have one religion and unique traditions and customs, and there is no need for people to look beyond these" (see F18News 22 July 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=614 ), Deutsche Welle has reported increased pressure on religious minorities. The radio station stated that local authorities had warned Hare Krishna devotees in the Mary region not to meet for religious rites in private homes. Officials forced them to sign statements that they would only hold meetings in places specially provided for religious purposes, such as premises rented from state institutions, houses of culture, clubs and cafes. However, local sources told Deutsche Welle that directors of organisations and houses of culture either refuse to rent out their premises or demand such high fees that they are unaffordable.

One director of a government-owned house of culture in the capital Ashgabad told Deutsche Welle that the city authorities had warned him and fellow directors in the city that providing premises for religious minorities is "unacceptable". An official of the Interior Ministry told the radio station that the move was prompted by Niyazov's recent pronouncement on religious issues, which was shown on television.

One Hare Krishna devotee told Deutsche Welle that law-enforcement officers began visiting devotees' homes immediately after the speech. "They took signatures on statements that we would not violate Niyazov's instruction on the ban on holding meetings in homes. And although we are registered with the Justice Ministry, we are banned from meeting even in the place we are registered."

The Hare Krishna devotee noted that Protestants in Mary, Iolotan, Murgab and Turkmenabad had reported similar developments. "All our believers are on file at the State Security Ministry secret police and we are treated as though we have a criminal record," the devotee told Deutsche Welle. "They will not register any business activity in our names, we are banned from explaining our ideas to our fellow citizens, and believers are practically banned from meeting together. It is terrible, but despite this, people don't lose hope and wait for help from God."

Hare Krishna devotees are an officially registered religious community, and other registered communities, such as Baptists, Seventh day Adventists, and Pentecostals, also face strong official pressure and restrictions (see F18News 10 June 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=582 ), as do the unregistered - and de facto illegal - communities.

For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=296

A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme (END)

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