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Central Asia; Russia; 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

18 July 2006 CENTRAL ASIA: RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE IN CENTRAL ASIA http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=815 In June 2006, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) held a "Tolerance Implementation Meeting on Promoting Inter-Cultural, Inter-Religious and Inter-Ethnic Understanding," in Kazakhstan. In a paper for the 11 June NGO Preparatory Conference, Igor Rotar of Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org> looked at the reality of religious intolerance in Central Asia. This vital issue must be considered by examining the concrete reality of state policy that restricts the rights of believers of one or another confession, and religious intolerance in everyday life. It is sadly impossible to avoid the conclusion that many states in Central Asia deliberately pursue a policy which violates international religious freedom standards - despite the many fine-sounding statements made by these same states at OSCE and other conferences.

17 July 2006 RUSSIA: ONE NATION, ONE ORTHODOX CHURCH? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=813 Despite Russia's constitutional guarantee of equality before the law for all religious associations, some regional state officials support the Moscow Patriarchate against other Orthodox organisations, Forum 18 News Service has found. Orthodox groups can experience unfair treatment in seeking state registration or in property disputes. Another example is the description of a Russian Orthodox Church of the New Martyrs priest, Fr Aleksandr Ganzinin, as a "common swindler," in a press release by a regional authority. This was after Fr Ganzinin had given the required notification of the church's intent to preach, distribute icons and candles and collect donations at a town's markets, and the local Moscow Patriarchate diocese's "confirmation" of Fr Ganzinin as an "impostor" not found among its clergy. An example of property problems is the transfer by a local authority of a church, in Zheleznovodsk, from the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (ROAC) to the Moscow Patriarchate. Local officials are often reluctant, in Forum 18's experience, to discuss favouritism of one Orthodox church over another.

17 July 2006 UZBEKISTAN: JUDGE DEFENDS MASSIVE FINES AND JAIL SENTENCE http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=814 Judge Eshemarat Atajanov has vigorously defended to Forum 18 News Service his imposition of massive fines and a seven-day prison term for unregistered religious activity. "The activity of unregistered religious communities is forbidden in Uzbekistan," he told Forum 18. "But Salauat Serikbayev, Jumabai Senetullayev and Lepes Omarov still continued the activity of their illegal community, in spite of countless warnings." Such penalties are barred by the international human rights standards Uzbekistan has acceded to. As well as jailing Lepes Omarov, Judge Atajanov fined the other two Protestant leaders over 50 times the minimum monthly salary each, solely for leading an unregistered church. Muinak, where the three live, is known for its poverty following the ecological disaster around the Aral Sea. An intense crackdown against religious freedom and other human rights in Uzbekistan is in progress. * See full article below. *

20 July 2006 UZBEKISTAN: CRACKDOWN CONTINUES AGAINST MUSLIMS AND CHRISTIANS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=816 Muslims and Christians are both falling foul of Uzbekistan's crackdown on religious freedom, Forum 18 News Service has found. In the capital Tashkent and the surrounding area, the Human Rights Initiative Group of Uzbekistan thinks that there has this year been a sharp increase in the number of arrests and detentions of devout Muslims. Many of those detained have been accused of "Wahhabism," a term often erroneously applied in Central Asia to pious Muslims. The state Religious Affairs Committee has refused to discuss the arrests with Forum 18. Christians also continue to be victimised by the authorities, the latest publicly known incident being a Protestant Pastor being fined and Christian material confiscated from him being ordered to be destroyed - this is normal practice in Uzbekistan. The material included New Testaments which had been legally printed and paid for. Religious censorship against all faiths has recently been tightened, Forum 18 has found.

17 July 2006 UZBEKISTAN: JUDGE DEFENDS MASSIVE FINES AND JAIL SENTENCE

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=814 By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Judge Eshemarat Atajanov has vigorously defended to Forum 18 News Service his imposition of massive fines and a term of seven days' imprisonment for unregistered religious activity - even though the international human rights standards Uzbekistan has acceded to allow unregistered activity. He imposed massive fines on two local Protestant leaders and the prison term on a third in early July, in the town of Muinak in the north-western autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston], solely for running an unregistered church.

"The activity of unregistered religious communities is forbidden in Uzbekistan," he told Forum 18 from Muinak on 14 July. "But Salauat Serikbayev, Jumabai Senetullayev and Lepes Omarov still continued the activity of their illegal community, in spite of countless warnings." Serikbayev and Senetullayev were each given fines of about 552,000 Uzbek Soms [2,840 Norwegian Kroner, 360 Euros, or 450 US Dollars], more than 50 times the minimum monthly wage in a town noted for its poverty. The average monthly salary, for the entire country, was estimated in 2005 to be around 60 US Dollars. Omarov received the seven day prison term.

Judge Atajanov explained the size of the fines and the prison term by saying that the three Protestants had broken Article 240 of the Code of Administrative Offences several times previously.

Fines under Article 240 of the Code of Administrative Offences - which punishes "breaking the Law on Religious Organisations" - were increased tenfold last December as the latest crackdown on religious activity began in earnest. Fines for breaking this article are now 50 to 100 times the minimum monthly wage (see F18News 27 January 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=720>).

Religious activity is particularly difficult in Karakalpakstan. The regional authorities have banned the activity of all non-Muslim and non-Orthodox religious communities by denying them official registration. Under Uzbekistan's harsh laws on religion - and in defiance of the country's international human rights commitments - all unregistered religious activity is illegal and punishable under the Criminal and Administrative Codes. Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishna devotees have faced particular persecution in Karakalpakstan. Protestant students in the regional capital Nukus have long been singled out for pressure (see eg. F18News 5 May 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=774> and 26 January 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=719>).

Protestant sources told Forum 18 that on 3 July, Judge Atajanov found Serikbayev, the unregistered Pentecostal church's 31-year-old pastor, and Senetullayev, a 43-year-old church leader, guilty of breaking Article 240. As well as suffering fines, both had Christian literature confiscated: five Bibles, five New Testaments, 54 Christian books which had been brought into Uzbekistan through official channels, and the "Jesus Film" on video (a dramatisation of St Luke's Gospel).

Religious literature confiscated by the authorities has often been burnt (see F18News 6 September 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=643>) and religious literature censorship has recently been tightened (see F18News 29 June 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=805>).

A criminal case had been brought against Omarov in June under Article 216-2 of the criminal code, which punishes "breaking the law on religious organisations" with up to three years' imprisonment. Christian literature was also seized from his home (see F18News 3 July 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=807>). "In the end the criminal case against Omarov was changed into an administrative prosecution," Judge Atajanov told Forum 18 without giving any explanation. "Serikbayev, Senetullayev and Omarov were all punished under Article 240 of the code of administrative offences." Protestant sources told Forum 18 that the prosecutor's office dropped the criminal case against Omarov on 5 July "in the absence of evidence of a crime" and that he was then accused of violating Part 1 of Article 240 of the code of administrative offences. Judge Atajanov handed down the prison sentence the same day.

It remains unclear how the two Protestants will be able to pay these enormous fines. While Uzbekistan's minimum monthly wage is currently 9,500 Soms (49 Norwegian Kroner, 6 Euros, or 8 US Dollars), few in the town of Muinak earn more than 20 dollars a month. Karakalpakstan is the poorest region in Uzbekistan, while Muinak is in decline following the ecological disaster around the Aral Sea. A former port which is now 100 kilometres (60 miles) away as the sea has receded, the town faces unemployment of 80 per cent.

The Muinak Pentecostal church - like all other Protestant churches in Karakalpakstan - has long faced hostility from local officials, including police raids and torture of individual church members. "In effect we are being forced to live like the early Christians of the catacombs," Pastor Serikbayev told Forum 18 back in 2003. "We have to hold our religious meetings in the desert, several kilometres from the town, for fear of persecution by the authorities." (See F18News 17 March 2003 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=7>).

The government's intensive new crackdown on religious activity has seen registration stripped from an estimated dozen Protestant churches this year, repeated raids on religious communities of many faiths, increased fines for peaceful religious activity, increased penalties for publishing, distributing and importing religious literature the government regards as "illegal", expulsion of foreigners engaged in religious activity, and the closure of charities affiliated with or which the government suspects of being affiliated with religious communities (see F18News 3 July 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=807>). (END)

For a personal commentary by a Muslim scholar, advocating religious freedom for all faiths as the best antidote to Islamic religious extremism in Uzbekistan, see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=338>.

For more background, see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=777>.

For an analysis of whether the May 2005 Andijan events changed state religious policy in the year following, see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=778>. For an outline of what is known about Akramia itself, see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=586>, and for a May 2005 analysis of what happened in Andijan <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=567>.

A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=806> and a paper on religious intolerance in Central Asia is at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=815>.

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

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at http://www.forum18.org/

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