KAZAKHSTAN
RELIGIOUS MINORITIES FACE INCREASING STATE PRESSURE IN KAZAKHSTAN
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
KAZAHKSTAN (ANS) - July 23/05 - Religious minorities, including Protestants and non-state controlled Muslims, are facing increasing pressure in Kazakhstan.
According to a news article by Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service, Baptists, other Protestants, Ahmadiya Muslims, non-state controlled Muslims and Hare Krishna devotees have all come under increasing pressure in the wake of Kazakhstan's breaking of international human rights standards with its harsh new "national security" law.
Baptists, Ahmadiya Muslims, an independent non-state controlled Muslim association and Hare Krishna devotees face the strictures of a new law which severely restricts religious freedom, thus breaking Kazakhstan's international human rights commitments (see F18News 15 July 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=608
).
Among current cases known to Forum 18, a Protestant church has had its rental contact cancelled by a local authority; a Baptist pastor is on trial for refusing to register his church; the head of the minority Ahmadiya Muslim community has fled the country for fear of arrest; attempts are being made to close down the independent non-state controlled Union of Muslims of Kazakhstan (UMK); and a local authority has refused to allow a Hare Krishna festival to be celebrated.
Aleksandr Klyushev, head of the Association of Religious Organizations in Kazakhstan, told Forum 18 that as soon as local Protestants rented a building in the town of Kokchetav [Koschetau] in central Kazakhstan, the town administration telephoned the landlord and told him to tear up the contract. Also, the pastor of a Methodist church in Karaganda has been told by police to "leave immediately or there would be serious trouble" (see F18News 20 July 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=611
)
Rotar reports that the Council of Churches Baptists -- who refuse on principle to register with the state authorities in post-Soviet countries -- have along with other Protestants suffered numerous fines for refusing to register even before the new law made this a legal requirement (see F18News 30 May 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=572
). A Baptist representative told Forum 18 that "We're very distressed that the new
religion law has made registration of religious communities compulsory," Dmitry Yantsen told Forum 18 from Temirtau on 19 July.
Yantsen told Forum 18 that "refusing registration is a question of principle for us" and that Council of Churches Baptists had met parliamentary deputies and tried to convince them that by making registration compulsory, they would be forcing Baptists to violate their religious principles. "Alas, our views were not listened to."
Forum 18 was also told by Yantsen that, in the wake of the adoption of the new law, "persecution" will increase sharply. "Indeed, it's already started." He pointed out that in Stepnogorsk 140 kilometers (87 miles) north of Astana, the trial of
Baptist pastor Fyodor Tkachenko is about to take place for refusing to register his church.
Rotar says the minority Ahmadiya Muslim community is also under pressure. On 6 June in Almaty, officials from the fiscal police and the National Security Service secret police searched the apartment of Ahmed Muzofar, a Pakistan citizen who heads Kazakhstan's Ahmadiya community. The officials did not even allow Muzofar's wife to put on a scarf. On 25 June a criminal case was launched against Muzofar and he left Kazakhstan for fear of arrest.
Nurman Shormanov, an investigator with the fiscal police, insisted that Muzofar was engaged in "illegal financial practices" and this was the sole reason for his difficulties. "For example, he has been lending out money with interest," he told Forum 18 from Almaty on 19 July. "The criminal case against him has nothing to do with his religious beliefs."
However, writes Rotar, Muzofar's lawyer Zhan Kogorkin believes his client's religious activity was the reason for the moves against him. "The fiscal police did not want to bring a criminal case against Muzofar -- the Security Service insisted on it," he told Forum 18 from Almaty on 19 July. "I believe their interest in this case has something to do with Muzofar's religious beliefs. They are simply too eager to uncover a new Al-Qaeda in Kazakhstan."
Rotar says that in January 2005, the authorities in South Kazakhstan region tried to expel from the country, a Pakistani citizen Said Hasan Tahir Bukhari, who headed the Ahmadiya community in South Kazakhstan region (see F18News 10 January 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=486
).
Rotar said: "The independent non-state controlled Union of Muslims of Kazakhstan (UMK) is facing attempts by the state-controlled Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan (the Muftiate) to close the UMK down. A hearing was held in the Almaty inter-district economic court on 19 July, to have the registration of the UMK revoked, the head of the Union Murat Telibekov told Forum 18 on 20 July. The case was brought by the Muftiate and signed by the Chief Mufti, Absattar kazi Derbisali."
He adds: "The Muftiate claimed that Telibekov was involved in opposition political activity and that, as it is illegal under the religion law to create political parties and social organizations defined by religion, the UMK's registration should be revoked.
"The Muftiate also complained that the UMK's title implied that it functioned over the whole of the country, and should therefore have been be registered by the country's Justice Ministry, and not 'in violation of the norms of the law' by the justice administration in Almaty. A further Muftiate claim was that some of the organizations described as the UMK's founders -- including the Rukhaniyat Muslim University, the Ikhlas cultural center for ethnic Russian Muslims and the Abu-Dhabi charitable organization -- 'categorically denied their membership of the UMK. ' "
"It is noteworthy that we heard about the hearing from journalists," Telibekov told Forum 18. "The Muftiate was trying to deprive us of registration without our participation, but when the Muftiate representatives saw us and many journalists at the court building, they preferred to disappear and the hearing was postponed."
Telibekov attributes his Union's problems to the new national security
Amendments, says Rotar.
"The new law strengthens state control over the life of believers," Telibekov told Forum 18. "And the Muftiate, which follows the will of the government, has not missed the opportunity to exploit this." Telibekov maintains that the independence of his UMK has angered the Muftiate, which has been trying to bring all Muslim communities under its control, with the backing of the state (see F18News7 July 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=599
)
Rotar also writes that Valentina Vidiya (Volkovaya), who leads Kazakhstan's Hare Krishna community, told Forum 18 that her fellow-devotees experienced a sharp deterioration in their situation just before the adoption of the new national security law. Before the law was passed, she warned that it posed a "serious danger" (see F18News 25 February 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=520
).
"The authorities have been trying to seize land that belonged to the Krishna commune," Volkovaya told Forum 18 from Almaty on 18 July.
"Luckily, we have managed to insist on our rights in court. But literally days before the president signed the new law we found out about a new problem. For obvious reasons, the authorities in Keskelen district (a suburb of Almaty, where a Krishna farm is situated) refused to allow us to celebrate a religious festival, " Volkovaya said (see F18News 24 January 2005 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=497 and 1 February 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=502
.
Rotar also says that Kazakhstan's human rights ombudsperson, Bolat Baikadamov has criticized the fact that the new national security amendments will violate religious freedom.
"We worked on this issue as an expert institution and we sent our conclusions to parliament," Baikadamov told a press conference. "Unfortunately the view prevailed that questions on missionaries and registration of religious organizations were themes that had to be covered in the draft law."
Rotar states the Interfax news agency quoted Baikadamov on 18 July as saying that he had received "a fairly large number of complaints" about the amendments, not only from the former Soviet republics, but from around the world. Baikadamov said that between 19 April and 10 June, more than 100 appeals came in from members of the Council of Churches Baptists within Kazakhstan and abroad.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For a personal commentary on the legal moves to seriously restrict religious freedom in Kazakhstan under the guise of "national security," see F18News
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=564
Monday, May 30, 2005
Monday, May 30, 2005
OFFICIALS IN KAZAKHSTAN ENFORCING RELIGION LAW BEFORE IT IS PASSED
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
KAZAHKSTAN (ANS) -- Religious communities in Kazakhstan do
not yet need state registration -- a requirement imposed by a proposed new law
-- but a Protestant church in the Caspian Sea port of Aytrau is the latest
religious community to be attacked because it does not have registration.
In an article by Igor Rotar, writing for Forum 18 News Service, obtaned by
ASSIST News Service (ANS),Diyaz Sultanov, the prosecutor's assistant, told Forum
18 that "it is impermissible for a church to operate without
registration."
Another proposal put forward -- but then apparently withdrawn -- allowed
religious communities to be closed without a court hearing. New Life Protestant
Church, close to Almaty, has been "banned" by local administration
chief Raspek Tolbayev, who told Forum 18 that "I will take the decision
whether or not to open the church." Parliamentary deputies Forum 18 has
spoken to described the new law as a weapon against the "ideological
diversity" of the West.
Nurulbek Jagalsbayev, pastor of a Kazakh-language Protestant church in the
Caspian Sea port of Atyrau [Aytraü] in north-western Kazakhstan, is facing
administrative punishment for leading a church without state registration.
Religious communities do not under current legislation need state registration
to be allowed to operate - but the new law if passed would impose this
requirement.
"At the police station, Jagalsbayev admitted in a written statement that he
had engaged in preaching," Diyaz Sultanov, assistant to the town
prosecutor, told Forum 18 from Atyrau on 25 May. "We are only interested in
ensuring that there are as many churches of different traditions in the region
as possible. But first of all, a church must be registered. No-one intends to
punish Jagalsbayev severely, rather the court will limit itself to a verbal
warning, to the effect that it is impermissible for a church to operate without
registration."
"Even if Jagalsbayev is 'let off' with just a warning, we should still not
put up with it," Aleksandr Klyushev, head of the Association of Religious
Organisations, told Forum 18 from the capital Astana on 26 May. "The
central issue is that a person who has not broken the law is being presented as
a law-breaker."
Rotar says that Aytrau police questioned members of Jagalsbayev's church for
several hours on 12 May, taking fingerprints and asking detailed questions about
the church's activity. "Straight after the interrogation, the Atyrau public
prosecutor's office brought an administrative case against me," Pastor
Jagalsbayev told Forum 18 on 25 May from Atyrau. He is charged under Article 375
of the administrative code, which is often used to punish the leaders of
unregistered congregations, as it punishes "refusal to register" a
church. But Kazakh lawyers such as religious law specialist Roman Podoprigora
have told Forum 18 that in law "it is virtually impossible to show that
believers really do refuse to register" (see F18News 20 July 2004
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=365 ).
Rotar writes that Jagalsbayev maintains that the charges under article 375 were
launched after claims that he had preached in one of the region's districts on 4
May. However, Jagalsbayev insists he has never even been to that district.
Jagalsbayev told Forum 18 that the church has prepared all the documents
required for registration and that church members intend to submit them to the
regional justice administration within days. However, he now fears that the
church will be refused registration, as he will be accused of being a
"law-breaker."
Close to the country's commercial capital Almaty, a local administration chief
has "banned" a Protestant church apparently because its leaders failed
to show him what he thought was due respect, Rotar says. On 19 April the akim
(head of administration) of Kamenka region, Raspek Tolbayev, dispersed a meeting
of the New Life Protestant Church in the village of Kamenka on the outskirts of
Almaty, the church's pastor, Pavel Gryaznov, told Forum 18 from the city on 25
May. Tolbayev then ordered the church's closure. Pastor Gryaznov maintains that,
after arriving at the church meeting, Tolbayev started swearing unrestrainedly
and forced parishioners to leave the premises.
According to rotar, Gryaznov pointed out that the church has been working in
Kamenka since 2000 and is registered at the justice ministry, "so we are
operating on a legal basis." One of the changes to the religion law that
was proposed -- but then apparently withdrawn -- was a proposal giving public
prosecutors the right to close down religious organizations before a court
ruling.
Pastor Gryaznov noted that the church had enjoyed an excellent relationship with
the previous akim. "But -- as you can see -- Tolbayev was not pleased that
we did not come and introduce ourselves to him," the pastor told Forum 18.
"Basically he behaves like a medieval khan, displeased because his servants
have not come and bowed to him." He insisted that Tolbayev does not have
the authority to close a church. "So we have ignored his order. But he
behaves like an autocratic landlord in this area and we don't know what will
enter his head next."
Rotar says Tolbayev denied that he had closed the church, maintaining he had
"just put a halt to the church's operations."
"I'm not interested in whether the Protestants have registration or
not," Tolbayev told Forum 18 on 26 May. "I am the district akim, and
they have to come to me and introduce themselves. Various people are telephoning
me about this, but I will take the decision whether or not to open the church
only after I have conducted an investigation." Tolbayev's order to close
the church would not be legal even if the latest draft of the religion law was
passed.
Among other recent moves, Rotar reports, teachers north of the capital Astana
have pressured children and parents who regularly attend Protestant services,
following the national Education Ministry's persistent attempts to stop under-8s
going to church (see F18News 27 May 2005www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=571).
Aleksandr Klyushev, of the Association of Religious Organizations of Kazakhstan,
believes that attacks on Protestants have escalated markedly as the draft
religion law makes its way through the Kazakh Parliament (see F18News 13 May
2005 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=561). "The problem is that
although the draft law has not yet been passed, local authorities regard it as
already being in force," maintains Klyushev.
Klyushev told Forum 18 he expects these "national security" amendments
to be considered by a Senate working group on 2 June, by the Senate legislative
committee the following day, and by the full Parliament on 11 and 16 June.
Rotar says the draft law substantially limits believers' rights. Article 4 of
the draft amended religion law has a new sixth section that forbids the activity
of unregistered religious organizations. Kazakhstan would thus join Uzbekistan,
Turkmenistan and Belarus in banning unregistered religious organizations, in
defiance of international human rights commitments.
The draft law also introduces amendments to both the administrative and the
criminal legal codes. Newly-introduced Article 374-1 of the administrative code
-- "Leadership and participation in the activity of public and religious
associations that have not been registered in accordance with the law, as well
as financing their activity" -- punishes participation in the activity of
an unregistered religious organization with a fine of 50 times the monthly wage
(the monthly wage is equivalent to 47 Norwegian Kroner, 6 Euros or 7 US
dollars), while the fine for leading an unregistered religious community is 100
times the monthly wage.
Article 337 (1) is also added to the criminal code -- "Organizing the
activity of a public or religious association or another organization after a
court has taken a decision to ban their activity or to close them down because
they give rise to extremism." This article punishes participation in the
activity of a religious association that has been banned by a court with a fine
of 200 times the monthly wage, or up to two years' imprisonment.
Rotar says at a round table discussion between parliamentary deputies and human
rights activists on 19 May in Astana, all the deputies who spoke saw the new
laws as a weapon against what they described as the "ideological
diversity" of the West. "We do not want Uncle Sam [a reference to the
United States] throwing his weight around here as if this were his home, and so
we are adopting the appropriate legislation," Mikhail Troshin, a member of
the lower house of parliament and one of those who worked on the new draft law,
told Forum 18 on 19 May in Astana.
The History of the Greek Catholic Church in Kazakhstan
With the liquidation of the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine in 1946 all the bishops and many priests were arrested and sent to concentration camps. After Stalin's death many priests were freed. The majority decided to work in the underground all across the Soviet Union, serving exiled Catholics who had been forbidden to return to Ukraine. This in fact was the beginning of the Greek Catholic Church in Kazakhstan, where thousands of Ukrainians from western Ukraine had been deported since 1939.
In the late 1950s many priests ministered on a regular basis, mostly in Karaganda, which had the largest community of exiled Ukrainians. Among those who served were Bishop Oleksandr Khyra, Fr. Oleksey Zarytskyi, Fr. Nikolay Shaban and Fr. Stepan Pryshliak, to mention but a few. At first they had to meet in huts or at parishioners' homes. This did not, however, prevent the priests from serving mass, hearing confessions, baptizing and performing weddings. In 1979 Catholics in Karaganda received permission to build a church. Therefore from 1979 Greek Catholic priests had the opportunity to conduct masses in the Roman Catholic church.
In the early 1990s priests from Ukraine started to come to Karaganda. In 1996 the German charitable foundation Renovabis erected a little wooden church at the request of the Greek Catholics. At the end of that same year the Pope appointed Bishop Basil Medvit, of the Order of St. Basil the Great [OSBM], the apostolic visitator for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic communities in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. On Christmas Day 1997 Bishop Medvit conducted his first visitation of the Kazakh communities.
In April 1997 Fr. Basil Hovera arrived in Karaganda for religious ministry. In 1997 Bishop Medvit, Archbishop Marian Oles and Jan Pavel Lenga, the local Roman Catholic Bishop, consecrated the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God on Palm Sunday in Karaganda. A few months later at Bishop Medvit's request Fr. Vidal Klymchuk, OSBM, arrived in Karaganda from Brazil to stay for two years.
The congregation in Karaganda has gradually begun to expand. Of great importance is the fact that more middle-aged people as well as youngsters and children began to attend the church. Separate services were now held for the youth. Since Karaganda is a large city, many parishioners were confronted with the problem of commuting to the church. Therefore another church was opened in the district where Greek Catholics reside. The German foundation Aid to the Church in Need donated money to purchase the facility. On June 3, 2001, Bishop Medvit and Bishop Lenga consecrated the new chapel.
After his first visit to Kazakhstan Bishop Medvit requested that nuns be sent to start a mission in the country. For two years three sisters have been coming to Karaganda every month to teach catechism. In June 2000 Sisters Vinkentiya Nazarkevich, Maryana Yakimets and Mikhailina Gornakevich arrived in Karaganda, where they opened the Holy Trinity house and started youth meetings and catechism classes.
Since Bishop Medvit was appointed visitator to Karaganda, he has visited Kazakhstan every year, meeting with parishioners in Karaganda and other cities. In April 1999 Fr. Iriney Babinets and Br. Anatoliy Holovchuk (both OSBM) came to Pavlodar from Ukraine. With the permission of Bishop Lenga services were held on the premises of the cathedral. In June 2000 with the help of the Ukrainian Diaspora in the US and Aid to the Church in Need, Fr. Iriney purchased a large house in Pavlodar, intending to make it into a church. May 20, 2001, Bishop Medvit, Archbishop Marian Oles and Bishop Tomash Peta, the apostolic administrator of Astana, consecrated the church of Sts. Peter and Paul.
During the last year of his religious service in Kazakhstan Fr. Iriney helped to start two other congregations outside Pavlodar, in Shidertakh (180 km from Pavlodar) and Berezovka (190km from Pavlodar) where he regularly comes to serve.
In 1999 Bishop Medvit came to Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan, where he visited the Ukrainian educational complex and met with the Ukrainian community. Since then Fr. Hovera has been coming from Karaganda to Astana every month to hold a service for the local congregation in the capital's Roman Catholic church. On May 27, 2001, Bishop Medvit celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Astana.
Throughout the last four years the amount of Greek Catholic congregations has increased from one to seven (2 in Karaganda, 1 in the Karaganda region, 1 in Astana, 1 in Pavlodar and 2 in the Pavlodar region). There is a possibility to start new congregations, though it is rather difficult now because of the lack of clergy.
The Greek Catholic Church also has three seminary students from Kazakhstan, one of them studying in Ukraine and two in Karaganda. Step by step the Greek Catholic Church is strengthening in this Central Asian country.
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THERE IS NOT ONE CHRISTIAN NATION ON EARTH WHERE MUSLIMS ARE PERSECUTED.
Yet in most nations where the majority of the population are Muslims, there is systematic government persecution of Christians.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."
--Article 18 of the Universal
Declaration of
Human
Rights--
True Christianity is the way of Genuine love and caring for others.
Christian Conversions - According to the Bible - Can NEVER be forced.
Any Conversion to Christianity which would be "Forced" would NOT be recognized by God. It is in
His True and KIND nature, that those who come to Him and choose to believe in Him, must come to Him OF
THEIR OWN FREE WILL.
Don't Let anyone tell you that Christians support Forced Conversions.
That is False. True Christianity is NEVER forced.
Core Universal Rights
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