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

27 April 2006

BELARUS: PASSOVER CELEBRATION BANNED FOR FEAR CHILDREN MIGHT WATCH

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=770 Minsk city administration refused permission for the local Hassidic Jewish community to hold its 12 April Passover celebration at a state-owned Palace for Children and Youth on the grounds that a religious event could not be permitted at a venue frequented by children, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. A spokeswoman for Minsk's Central District administration told Forum 18 she could not recall the precise details of the 31 March refusal, but surmised that it was probably because "it wouldn't be very good to have a religious event at a children's institution - I'm sure you understand." The Hassidic community then planned to join the celebration at a Jewish veterans' club, but that too was banned. A scaled-down celebration went ahead at a synagogue cafeteria. The community was similarly unable to obtain official permission for its Purim celebrations in March. Belarus' highly restrictive 2002 religion law requires all religious events taking place outside designated places of worship to obtain official permission as stipulated by the 2003 demonstrations law, with fines or imprisonment for those defying the restrictions.

26 April 2006

KAZAKHSTAN: FARM CONFISCATED, DACHAS TO BE BULLDOZED AT KRISHNA COMMUNE

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=769 On 25 April, in the wake of a regional court ruling last year, court executors - backed by the police - arrived to bulldoze five Hare Krishna-owned dachas at their commune on the outskirts of Kazakhstan's commercial capital Almaty. In the end the authorities postponed the demolition because of the presence of many local journalists, but have vowed to return when the "fuss" has died down. Rati Mandzhari (Yekaterina Levitskaya) of the Hare Krishna community complained to Forum 18 News Service that officials gave less than the required five days notice of the proposed demolition. But a court executor defended the planned demolitions to Forum 18, claiming that it is all "perfectly legal". The Hare Krishna community believes the authorities have been trying to destroy the commune since the community bought a farm in 1999 and then bought nearby dachas. Last month a court ordered the farm to be confiscated with no compensation and a district court has ruled that five more Hare Krishna-owned dachas are to be confiscated. Only Hare Krishna-owned dachas have been targeted for confiscation and destruction. * See full article below. *

24 April 2006

RUSSIA: MUSLIM HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST LINKED TO HIZB-UT-TAHRIR?

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=767 Mufti Ismagil Shangareyev, who heads the Central Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Orenburg Region and the Moscow-based Islamic Human Rights Centre, has accused police of planting Hizb-ut-Tahrir documents on him, after a search of his former Al-Furkan madrassah. "There's not even any sense in saying that they were planted - it's as clear as daylight," Shangareyev told Forum 18 News Service. His lawyer is Anatoli Pchelintsev of the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice, which stated that "the situation surrounding Ismagil Shangareyev "is a characteristic example of how the organs of the Interior Ministry and public prosecutors in various Russian regions subject Muslims to humiliation and undermine religious believers' trust in the authorities and the law." No formal charges have been brought against Shangareyev, who maintains that he does not and has never had any prohibited item in his apartment, car or office. He remains a witness in the criminal investigation opened after the discovery of the leaflets.

28 April 2006

SERBIA: PRESIDENT SIGNS CONTROVERSIAL RELIGION LAW

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=771 Despite openly recognising that the controversial new religion law approved by parliament on 20 April violates the European Convention on Human Rights, Serbian president Boris Tadic signed it into law on 27 April. He ordered parliament to amend the law "in an urgent vote" to remove the violations, though Aleksandar Mitrovic of Serbia's Evangelical Alliance told Forum 18 News Service the president "was unable to give me a clear answer as to how he thinks he can achieve this, given his status and authority". Under a last-minute amendment before parliament approved the law, all but the seven recognised "traditional" faiths lose their legal status and will have to reapply, even those present in Serbia for more than a century like the Nazarenes, Baptists and Adventists. They also lose their tax-exempt status. "This law makes some citizens more equal than others," General Secretary of the Baptist Union Zarko Djordjevic complained to Forum 18. Minority faiths also fear they will lose the chance to regain confiscated property in the restitution bill expected to begin its parliamentary process in May.

25 April 2006

UKRAINE: "UNCANONICAL AND DIABOLICAL SCHISMATICS SHOULDN'T EXIST"

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=768 Fr Anatol Curtev, a priest of the Bessarabian Metropolitanate of the Romanian Orthodox Church, is sceptical that the authorities will protect him and his parish in the village of Kamyshovka in the far south-west of Ukraine from violence. He and his parishioners claimed to Forum 18 News Service that the village's Russian Orthodox priest Fr Aleksei Grecu hit him on the head just before they started their separate liturgies on 12 March to mark the Sunday of Orthodoxy, and that Fr Grecu organised a brutal attack on him in the station of the nearby town of Izmail on 12 April. "It's a complete lie - I didn't hit him [Fr Curtev] or organise the attack," Fr Grecu told Forum 18, but admitted he was interviewed by police. "But if he's doing evil, what are we supposed to do? They're uncanonical and diabolical schismatics who shouldn't exist on Ukrainian territory." Fr Grecu dismissed any idea that the Bessarabian parish has any religious freedom rights. "We're not for democracy - we're Orthodox."

26 April 2006 KAZAKHSTAN: FARM CONFISCATED, DACHAS TO BE BULLDOZED AT KRISHNA COMMUNE

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=769 By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

A Kazakh official has defended the planned bulldozing on 25 April of five dachas which make up part of the Hare Krishna commune on the outskirts of the commercial capital Almaty, the only such commune in any former Soviet republic. "It was last year that the regional court took the decision to demolish five dachas which were not the private property of the Krishnaites," the senior executor of the Karasai district court administration, Askat Mirzolaev, told Forum 18 News Service on 25 April. "The Krishnaites were warned several times to move out of the dachas, so today's demolition is perfectly legal." In the end the authorities postponed the demolition because of the presence of many local journalists. The Hare Krishna community complain not only about the planned demolition, but that the court executors gave them only a few hours notice, not the five days required by law. Rati Mandzhari (Yekaterina Levitskaya) of the Kazakhstan Society for Krishna Consciousness told Forum 18 on 25 April that community members are now worried that five more devotees may soon see their dachas confiscated and possibly destroyed. "It looks as if the district authorities are consistently confiscating dachas from members of the Krishna community."

The court in Keskelen district has also ruled that other Hare Krishna devotees are to have their dachas confiscated. The devotees have appealed against the decision to the regional court, but hold out little hope. "Bearing in mind that the regional court backed the decision of the district court about the previous five dachas, there is a real danger that soon five more of our members are going to lose their dachas too," Levitskaya warned.

In the wake of the 2005 Almaty regional court decision, court executors in Karasai district, a suburb of Almaty, arrived to start demolishing the five Hare Krishna-owned dachas on 25 April. Members of the community had barred access to the dachas, so the court executors had to call in the assistance of the police. "It was only on 24 April that we received written notification that the dachas were to be demolished, but the law says they have to give us written notification five days in advance," Levitskaya told Forum 18.

Although the authorities backed off from demolishing the five dachas out of apparent concern about wide media coverage, the Hare Krishna community fears they could resume demolition at any moment. One devotee, who preferred not to be named, told Forum 18 that one National Security Service officer present during the operation told devotees: "You won't be able to invite so many journalists every day, so we'll wait till the fuss dies down and will quietly pull down your dachas then."

Levitskaya complained to Forum 18 of the authorities' arbitrary decision to target the devotees. She pointed out that the five dachas were confiscated allegedly because the devotees were not the private owners of the land while only about a dozen out of the 120 members of this horticultural collective own their own land. None of the non-Hare Krishna residents has been affected. "It's specifically members of the Krishna community who are having their dachas confiscated." She said that the devotees have tried to privatise their dachas, but that the district authorities "simply won't allow them to".

Hare Krishna devotees formed the commune after buying a 47.7-hectare [118 acre] piece of land with a farm in 1999 and started buying up dachas in the Ptitsevod horticultural collective near the farm. Trouble with the authorities started more or less as soon as the commune was set up.

As well as challenging devotees' ownership of their dachas, officials have also challenged the community's ownership of the farm, claiming that its previous owners had unlawfully changed the land's registered use. On 29 March Almaty regional court decided to confiscate the farm without compensation, a decision the Hare Krishna community says was taken long after the expiry period for challenges to lawful ownership can be taken.

Levitskaya insists that the state is "trying to reduce the whole action to a mundane economic dispute" and notes that all the court documents stressed the religious affiliation of the owners. She believes the local authorities are annoyed that there is a Hare Krishna commune in Kazakhstan and also that material gain may be motivating officials (see F18News 19 April 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=764>). (END)

For a personal commentary on how attacking religious freedom damages national security in Kazakhstan, see F18News <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=564>

For more background, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701>

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

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