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

24 May 2006 BELARUS: CASE AGAINST MINSK CHURCH STALLED http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=788 The court case brought by Belarusian authorities to force the sale of the charismatic New Life church's worship building - a disused cowshed - has been halted, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Judge Aleksandr Karamyshev "promised to investigate our situation after he saw that the city authorities' arguments just don't stand up," New Life church administrator Vasily Yurevich told Forum 18. "We feel that people's prayers are making a difference - we have reached a turning-point." During the court hearing, Aleksei Vaga of Minsk's Architecture Committee insisted under oath that city religious affairs officials have no influence over his committee. But in a letter which Forum 18 has a copy of, the Architecture Committee withdraws permission for the church to change the designated usage of its building, "taking into account a 24 November 2003 written conclusion from the Religious Affairs Department." In a separate development, New Life is also "very pleased" about the acceptance of their appeal against a refusal to review a decision upholding curtailment of the church's land rights. No date has yet been set for this hearing.

26 May 2006 BELARUS: "DIVINE FREEDOM IS GIVEN BY GOD, BUT STATE FREEDOM YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR" http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=789 In what seems to be an increasing trend, a Belarusian Pentecostal pastor has been fined for leading worship without state sanction. "Divine freedom is given to us by God," Pastor Ilya Radkevich remarked to Forum 18 News Service, "but state freedom you have to pay for." Natalya Lutsenko, head of the administrative commission which fined Pastor Radkevich, totally refused to say why an individual had been punished for holding a peaceful religious service. Radkevich's fine is the latest to be imposed on some Baptist, Pentecostal and independent Orthodox groups, under a legal provision punishing violation of legislation on religion or the foundation and leadership of an unregistered religious congregation. The 2002 Religion Law bans unregistered religious activity, thus violating Belarus' international human rights commitments. A regional assistant bishop of a separate registered Pentecostal Union has told Forum 18 that the number of fines for worship by groups in private homes - which is illegal without state sanction even for registered communities - would be much greater if such worship did not take place discreetly.

23 May 2006 SERBIA: NO CHANGES TO CONTROVERSIAL RELIGION LAW http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=785 Despite Serbian President Boris Tadic requesting amendments to the new Religion Law as it breaks the European Convention on Human Rights, and strong criticism from the OSCE and Council of Europe, the Religion Ministry "is not preparing any amendments and no-one has sent any amendments to the Ministry," it told Forum 18 News Service. Religion Minister Milan Radulovic refused to comment on either the President's request, or the strong criticism of the Law. Sonja Biserko of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights told Forum 18 that "I believe that the pressure of international organisations - including the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the US Congress - is needed." Vidan Hadzi-Vidanovic of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights states that they will challenge the Law in the Constitutional Court. But, "we will need help to ensure that an appeal to the Constitutional Court does not end up in some file," Zarko Djordjevic of the Serbian Baptist Union told Forum 18.

23 May 2006 TURKMENISTAN: DEMOLITION OF PLACES OF WORSHIP CONTINUES http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=786 In large-scale demolition projects in Turkmenistan, those expelled from their home get no compensation and often nowhere to live. Amongst the buildings demolished are religious communities' places of worship. The last surviving pre-revolutionary Armenian Apostolic church and a family-owned Sunni mosque in the Caspian port of Turkmenbashi have been destroyed, Forum 18 News Service has been told. Exiled human rights activist Vyacheslav Mamedov told Forum 18 that the mosque "was used on Muslim festivals and for family events like weddings, funerals and sadakas [commemorations of the dead]." The former Armenian church "was a very beautiful building," Mamedov recalled. He told Forum 18 that there is widespread anger and fear over the destruction of the town's historic centre. Amongst places of worship in Turkmenistan, known to Forum 18 to have been demolished in the past, are mosques, an Adventist church, and a Hare Krishna temple.

24 May 2006 TURKMENISTAN: "WHAT WILL REGISTRATION GIVE US?" http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=787 Despite making several registration applications, the Armenian Apostolic Church community in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabad has still not been given state registration, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Some religious communities have considered registration - including Protestants, Catholics and the Jehovah's Witnesses - but have not yet applied. Protestant congregations are sceptical about their chances of gaining registration. Forum 18 has been told that during interrogations of ethnic Turkmen Protestants, they are told to report everything that happens in their churches to the authorities. "You have to do this if you're registered," they are told. A Catholic parish has not applied for registration, as they are not allowed to have a foreign priest leading the parish. Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 that "there's still the very important question: what will registration give us? Others have got registration and it hasn't helped them." * See full article below. *

24 May 2006 TURKMENISTAN: "WHAT WILL REGISTRATION GIVE US?"

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=787 By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Back in February, the Armenian Apostolic Church community in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat] lodged an application for state registration. "Although three months have gone by the Justice Ministry has made no response," an Armenian who preferred not to be identified told Forum 18 News Service from Ashgabad on 22 May. "This is the third or fourth application the community has lodged."

No-one at the Registration Department of the Adalat (Fairness or Justice) Ministry was available to explain to Forum 18 why the application by Ashgabad's Armenian community has not been processed. Reached on 22 May, Maysa Sariyeva, who is head of the International Legal Affairs and Registration of Public and Religious Organisations Department, put the phone down as soon as Forum 18 explained who was calling. Subsequent calls went unanswered. Also not answering his telephone on 22 and 23 May was Serdar Valiev, who reports to Sariyeva and has responsibility for registering religious communities.

The Armenian ambassador, Aram Grigoryan, was out of the country on 22 May and no-one at the Embassy was able to comment on the stalled registration application from the Ashgabad Armenian community. Nor was anyone available for comment at the Armenian Foreign Ministry in Yerevan on 22 May, or at the headquarters of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Echmiadzin near the Armenian capital.

The registration application was lodged exactly one year after the authorities destroyed the last surviving pre-revolutionary Armenian Apostolic church in the country, in the Caspian port town of Turkmenbashi [Türkmenbashy, formerly Krasnovodsk], on the orders of President Saparmurat Niyazov. The authorities had previously refused to hand it back to the local Armenian community for worship (see F18News 23 May 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=786>).

In the absence of any Armenian Apostolic church in Turkmenistan, Armenian Christians who wished to worship have had to attend Russian Orthodox churches (although the Armenian Church is of the Oriental, not the Orthodox family of Churches). An estimated one sixth of parishioners at Turkmenistan's Russian Orthodox churches are ethnic Armenians.

Meanwhile, other religious communities which have been considering lodging registration applications - including Protestant Christians, the Catholic parish in Ashgabad and the Jehovah's Witnesses - have not yet done so.

Forum 18 has learnt that several Protestant congregations are preparing registration applications, but many are sceptical that the Adalat Ministry will grant it. "All the churches wanting to get registration are made up of ethnic Turkmens and it is not so easy," one Protestant told Forum 18 on 22 May. "The authorities don't like this." The Protestant said that the Protestant congregations the Adalat Ministry was forced to register under international pressure from 2004 - including the Adventists, Baptists, Pentecostals, Greater Grace, Light of the East and the Church of Christ - were all made up of ethnic Russians. "When the persecution was at its worst five or six years ago, ethnic Russian churches suffered, but Turkmen believers suffered the worst."

Even today, the Protestant added, every time officials interrogate any ethnic Turkmen Protestants they tell them they should report everything that happens in their churches to the authorities. "You have to do this if you're registered."

The Jehovah's Witnesses remain cautious. "Nothing has moved on the registration issue," one Jehovah's Witness told Forum 18 on 22 May. "The authorities show no real desire to register us. There's still the very important question: what will registration give us? Others have got registration and it hasn't helped them." Contacts in 2005 with the Adalat Ministry were "not very encouraging", the source added. However, the Jehovah's Witnesses have not ruled out trying to get registration and are still working on preparing the necessary documentation.

Ashgabad's Catholic parish has not yet applied for registration, as it remains unhappy with the terms of the Religion Law and has not been able to meet Adalat Ministry officials to discuss the wording of the statute. "We want to explain to the Ministry the absolute impossibility for the parish to be led by a local citizen," one Catholic familiar with the process told Forum 18 on 23 May. "The authorities have to allow us to build up a community and only with time will there perhaps be a local priest who could lead the community. We want to discuss this point with the Ministry and we hope they'll understand it."

The Catholic said the community is grateful that the Turkmen authorities have allowed two Polish priests to serve the community. Mass is currently held on Vatican diplomatic territory in the Nunciature in Ashgabad. Eventually the Catholics would like to build a church to replace the one destroyed by an earthquake in Soviet times. "But the church is the community, not the building," the Catholic stressed to Forum 18.

Other religious communities registered since May 2004 are the Baha'is, the Hare Krishna community and the New Apostolic Church. Already registered were about a hundred Sunni Muslim mosques. Shia Muslim mosques are unofficially barred from registering. Most of the country's 12 Russian Orthodox churches were finally re-registered in November 2005, though the Dashoguz [Dashhowuz] parish was stripped of registration in 2003 and has been unable to regain it. The parish has also been prevented from completing building work on its church (see F18News 3 April 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=754>).

Conditions that have been imposed on registered communities are highly restrictive, including bans on meeting for worship, including in private homes, and on printing and importing religious literature (see F18News 28 February 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=521>), tight financial restrictions and a ban on foreign citizens leading religious communities (see F18News 13 May 2004 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=320>). Many religious believers in Turkmenistan strongly object to these conditions, describing religious freedom in the country as "fictitious" (see F18News 16 February 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=728>).

Among the problems communities have experienced since registering are that nationally registered communities have had their regional communities' registration denied by officials in police raids (see F18News 19 December 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=707>); and unwritten extra-legal obstacles have been placed in the way of unregistered communities registering, or registered communities meeting (see F18 News 9 December 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=702>). Registered congregations are also pressured to subscribe to the cult of personality around President Niyazov, and the Ruhnama, his alleged "spiritual writings" (see F18News 1 March 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=522>).

Unregistered religious activity remains illegal (see F18Nerws 24 May 2004 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=326>).

Although extreme harassment of religious communities has eased off recently, official intimidation still occurs. This was described to Forum 18 by one Protestant as officials "inciting interreligious hatred" (see eg. F18News 19 January 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=717>).

Among recent incidents, two teachers of the Koran in the village of Kongur near the south-eastern town of Mary were summoned by the Ministry of State Security (MSS) secret police early in the year and banned from teaching the Koran, Jumadurdy Ovezov, a correspondent for Radio Free Europe's Turkmen Service told Forum 18 from Mary on 15 May.

Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 that in March, one of their members was detained in Ashgabad while he was on his way to visit a fellow-believer. A police officer hit him on the head several times, forced him to get into a car and took him to the police station. There he was interrogated and had his Bible and other religious books confiscated, but was released later that day. In April, two female Jehovah's Witnesses were coming out of a block of flats in Turkmenbashi when they were detained by police. They were taken by car to the local police station where they were searched and interrogated. "Officers used the usual crude words during the interrogation," one Jehovah's Witness told Forum 18. The two were forced to write statements before being freed.

Protestants have complained that some are still being prevented from travelling abroad for religious purposes, including a group who had visas but were not handed their pre-paid tickets ahead of their planned departure from Ashgabad airport in April. "We don't know why this happened," one Protestant told Forum 18. "The travel company and all the other people at the airport kept putting the blame on each other."

Hare Krishna devotee Cheper Annaniyazova is still in jail, on a seven year jail term believed within Turkmenistan to have been inspired by the MSS secret police to intimidate the Hare Krishna community (see F18News 3 April 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=754>). (END)

For a personal commentary by a Protestant within Turkmenistan, on the fiction - despite government claims - of religious freedom in the country, and how religious communities and the international community should respond to this, see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=728>

For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=672>

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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