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Kyrgyzstan

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ January 6, 2003 ⋅ Post a comment

SOURCE: KESTON INSTITUTE http://www.keston.org

KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK ______________________________________

KESTON NEWS SERVICE: 20.00, 26 March 2002. Reporting on violations of religious liberty and on religion in communist and post-communist lands. ______________________________________

KYRGYZSTAN: NEW RELIGION LAW TO INCREASE STATE CONTROL? A new draft religion law could be approved by the Kyrgyz parliament as early as May, the chairman of the committee which prepared the draft told Keston News Service on 20 March. The government has consulted widely in producing the draft and the chairman believes it conforms to international standards, but the law would considerably enlarge the state’s opportunities to control the life of believers, for example banning non-registered missionary activity. Already there is evidence of the tightening of control over both Muslim and Christian groups.

KYRGYZSTAN: NEW RELIGION LAW TO INCREASE STATE CONTROL?

by Igor Rotar, Keston News Service

A new draft religion law could be approved by the Kyrgyz parliament as early as May, Alisher Sobirov, chairman of the parliamentary subcommittee on religion which prepared the draft, told Keston News Service in Bishkek on 20 March. The law would considerably enlarge the state’s opportunities to control the life of believers. Among its provisions are the compulsory registration of religious organisations, the requirement to licence religious educational activity and a ban on missionary activity which is not first registered (the process for registration is not defined in the law).

Similar restrictive provisions are to be found in the new draft religion law in neighbouring Kazakhstan, which has been sharply criticised both by international organisations and by believers of several religious minorities (see KNS 1 February 2002). (It is currently being assessed by the Kazakh Constitutional Council, having been passed by both houses of parliament.) In Kazakhstan, neither members of parliament nor representatives of the authorities conceal the fact that the new draft is directed at tightening control over religious movements (primarily Islamic movements) described as “non- traditional”. There is considerable concern over security, in the wake of 11 September (see KNS 23 January 2002).

In contrast Sobirov does not consider that the Kyrgyz draft law tightens state control over believers’ activities. “Our draft is in no way connected with the events of September 11. I consider that we have written a draft which corresponds as fully as possible with international legal norms,” he told Keston on 21 March. The Kyrgyz authorities have consulted widely on the question, since an earlier draft was criticised last year (see KNS 20 February 2001).

Despite this, there is evidence of an overall tendency for the Kyrgyz government to tighten control over believers’ activity. On 14 January it issued a decree “On several issues concerning publishing in the Kyrgyz Republic”. The decree’s preamble states that its aim is “the prevention of subversive ideological and propagandistic work of various extremist religious centres and of the increase of their informational influence”. (see KNS 8 February 2002).

Law-enforcement agencies are treating religious dissidents more harshly. The police, according to Sobirov, have begun finding bullets on detained members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, enabling them to open criminal cases against them for illegal possession of weapons (see forthcoming KNS story). This practice is widespread in Uzbekistan, where law enforcement operatives plant drugs or weapons on dissidents in order to prosecute them. Earlier this year, on 11 January, the chairman of the Islamic Committee, Bahodyr Akhmedov was arrested in Jalal-Abad (southern Kyrgyzstan) on charges of possessing ammunition. Both Akhmedov himself and his family claim that the bullets were planted (see KNS 22 January 2002). This March, as the “Vecherni Bishkek” newspaper reported on 20 March, for the first time in Kyrgyzstan a mullah was arrested on charges of “promoting religious extremism”. Charges were brought because books and leaflets of the Hizb-ut-Tahrir party were found during a search at the home of mullah Hallilo Tishaev from the town of Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan.

At the same time it appears that the authorities are hardening their policy towards Christian associations that refuse to register. In November last year the first instance of difficulties for believers who refuse to swear the military oath was recorded, when Baptist Dmitri Shukhov was sent by the conscription commission for investigation in psychiatric hospital. Previously, Shukhov’s fellow believers told Keston, the authorities “understood their position” and offered the option of alternative service (see KNS 13 February 2002). (END)

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