UZBEKISTAN
Harasses & Harms communities of Peace
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Thursday, July 14, 2005
NO PROGRESS FOR ARRESTED PENTECOSTAL IN UZBEKISTAN
19-Year-Old Believer Still Being Held On Murder Charges, Tortured In Prison
To Make Him Deny His Faith
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
UZBEKISTAN (ANS) - July 14, 2005- Nineteen-year-old
Pentecostal believer Kural Bekjanov is still being held at a police station in
the capital Tashkent with no progress on the investigation into whether he was
connected to the murder of a US citizen in the city.
"We are convinced of his innocence, and our suspicion is that his religious
beliefs are the reason for his ordeal," Iskander Najafov, a lawyer for the
Full Gospel Church, told Igor Rotar of Forum 18 News Service.
But Shukhrat Ismailov of the government's religious affairs committee denied
this, telling Forum 18 church members' claims were "pure speculation."
Rotar reports that since Bekjanov's arrest on 14 June, Bekjanov has been
tortured by police and cell mates trying to force him to abandon his Christian
faith. Meanwhile two Jehovah's Witnesses in Karshi who have already been fined
for "illegal" religious activity now face criminal charges with
penalties of up to three years' imprisonment.
One month after his arrest, 19-year-old Bekjanov remains in detention at the
police station in the Mirobad district of the capital Tashkent, Protestant
sources have told Forum 18 News Service. Bekjanov, a member of the Full Gospel
church, was arrested on 14 June on suspicion of connection to the murder of a US
citizen of Korean origin who had links to some Protestant churches.
"The murder charge against Bekjanov still hasn't been lifted,"
Iskander Najafov, a lawyer for the Full Gospel Church, told Forum 18 from
Tashkent on 13 July. He said the Church is awaiting the outcome of an
investigation which should establish whether or not Bekjanov is guilty.
"We are convinced of his innocence, and our suspicion is that his religious
beliefs are the reason for his ordeal," Najafov said. Investigators have
been more interested in Bekjanov's religious faith than in any alleged links to
the murdered woman.
Shukhrat Ismailov, head of the department for non-Muslim faiths at the
government's religious affairs committee, dismissed church members' claims that
Bekjanov is being punished for his religious activity as "pure
speculation."
"We've looked into this case," Ismailov told Forum 18 from Tashkent on
13 July. "The accusation against Bekjanov is not linked with his religious
beliefs in any way. It's interesting that the Pentecostals have trumpeted this
case to the whole world, but haven't found time to appeal to us."
Despite the numerous raids and court cases against religious believers across
Uzbekistan, Ismailov categorically denied that the authorities have launched a
new campaign against religious minorities. "Operations underway are normal
and routine," he told Forum 18.
In hismarticel for Forum 18, Rotar says that since Bekjanov's arrest at his
Tashkent home on 14 June in the wake of the murder of 65-year-old Kim Khen Pen
Khin, Bekjanov has been tortured both by police officers and cell mates in an
attempt to pressure him to abandon his Christian faith.
When his mother Gulya was finally allowed to see him at Tashkent city police
station on 26 June, Bekjanov had lost weight, had difficulty walking and his
fingers and legs were covered in blood. Police summoned nearly 20 other church
members, but were less interested in investigating the murder than in
questioning them about their beliefs and threatening and insulting them (see
F18News 28 June 2005 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=595).
Rotar says that Protestant sources told Forum 18 the torture stopped on 28 June
after Bekjanov was transferred back from the city police station to the Mirobad
district station and was able to speak to a lawyer.
Meanwhile the administrative case continues against Nikolai Shevchenko, pastor
of the embattled Bethany Protestant church in Tashkent, who is accused of
holding services in a church that has not registered with the justice ministry
(see F18 News 17 June 2005 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=588).
The Bethany church has been seeking registration in vain for many years and is
challenging officials' obstruction of the registration application through the
courts. Protestant sources told Forum 18 from Tashkent that the case against
Shevchenko has been adjourned until 28 July.
Ismailov of the government's religious affairs committee also defended the
prosecution of Shevchenko.
"He has continued to hold services at an unregistered church for several
years despite all the legal steps taken against him," Ismailov told Forum
18. "All in all, it's a very old story." Uzbekistan's
insistence that all religious activity by
unregistered religious communities is illegal
violates its international human rights commitments.
Rotar says that Jehovah's Witnesses also continue to face persecution.
In the southern city of Karshi [Qarshi], cases have been instigated against
Bakhrom Pulatov and Feruza Mamatova under Article 216-2 of the Criminal Code,
Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18. Under Article 216-2, repeat offences
for illegal religious activity -- including avoiding state registration and
organizing and conducting special religious meetings for young people -- is
punishable by a fine of between fifty and hundred times the minimum monthly
wage, detention for up to six months or imprisonment for up to three years.
Both Pulatov and Mamatova have already received administrative punishments for
their religious activity. They were among those fined by Karshi city court on 26
March for violating Articles 240(1) and 240(2) of the code of administrative
offences following the 26 January police raid on
the home of Nargiza Buzrukova, where a Jehovah's Witness meeting was taking
place.
Rotar says Pulatov was fined five times the minimum wage, or 32,650 soms (186
Norwegian kroner, 24 Euros or 28 US dollars), while Mamatova and Buzrukova were
each fined three times the minimum wage, or 19,590 soms. The fines came two days
after widespread raids on Jehovah's Witness meetings across Uzbekistan (see
F18News 1 April 2005 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=536 ).
Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18 that it is not yet clear on what basis a
criminal case against Pulatov and Mamatova has now been instigated. Under
Article 216-2, there must be a repeat of an offence for which administrative
sanctions have been imposed before criminal charges can be made. The case papers
compiled by the prosecutor consist of two large volumes of information on
previous incidents involving Jehovah's Witnesses, statements and testimonies
from witnesses, expert conclusions on Jehovah's Witnesses religious literature,
and a statement that such literature may only be distributed in Fergana and
Chirchik where the communities are officially registered.
Ismailov of the government's religious affairs committee pointed out that the
Jehovah's Witnesses in Karshi have already faced administrative penalties
because of their activity as an unregistered religious organization. "What
they have done repeatedly is a legal offence, and so under Uzbek law they have
to be held to criminal account."
UZBEKISTAN: KARIMOV'S WAR FOR THE STATUS QUO
By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service
AUSTRALIA (ANS) - July 19, 2005 - Uzbekistan is poised on the brink of disaster. President Islam Karimov is fighting a war for the status quo. The status quo however, involves government corruption and repression, resulting in poverty and absolutely misery for most of Uzbekistan's 88% Muslim population. Meanwhile, radical Islamic groups, both socialist and jihadist, entice disgruntled, disenfranchised, poverty-stricken Uzbeks with the promise that an Islamic state would provide them with justice. In the absence of any other option – there is no viable secular political opposition – Uzbek citizens are increasingly aligning themselves with radical political and militant Islamic groups which they see as their only hope as they rise up against their government. This is fast becoming a war between Islam and the status quo.
The only path likely to circumvent an Islamic revolution or a drawn-out and bloody civil war, the path of reform, is not on the agenda. While Uzbekistan's Islamic groups have demonstrated that they are prepared to use lethal force to advance their agenda, the Karimov regime has likewise demonstrated that it is prepared to use lethal force to crush dissent. (Link 1)
None of this bodes well for Uzbekistan's Christian minority who are unfortunately caught up on the edge of the whirlwind as Karimov represses all religion indiscriminately.
In 1999, the USA used its Freedom from Religious Persecution Act
(which links religious liberty to trade and aid) to positive effect in Uzbekistan. Today however,
Karimov's regime is finding support for its indiscriminate heavy-handed repression in the
Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO)
which was formed in 2001 to enable Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan to co-ordinate activities, in particular security. The SCO has since extended observer status to India, Pakistan and Iran. So why should Karimov be concerned with Western condemnation of its lack of transparent democracy, openness, free media, human rights and religious liberty? The SCO, which one commentator describes as "a huddling of harried elites", will support Karimov as he represses religion as violently and pervasively as he sees fit.
Christians in Uzbekistan are experiencing escalating persecution due to increasing Islamic zeal and increasing government repression of religion. Forum 18 has extensive coverage of the escalating persecution of the Church in Uzbekistan http://www.forum18.org
As the totalitarian Karimov finds supportive allies in Russia and China, Uzbekistan's Christians may find that their allies, Western advocates of religious liberty, are increasingly without leverage.
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THE POST-SOVIET STATUS QUO
Adolat Najimova, a EurasiaNet partner from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) writes, "The lives of ordinary Uzbeks are extremely difficult, with high unemployment, particularly in rural areas; there are villages in the country that are virtually devoid of males, in part a result of forced migration in pursuit of wages. Local observers cite widespread corruption, accusing government officials of enriching themselves at the expense of the public.
"The majority of Uzbeks try hard to make ends meet despite Uzbekistan's huge potential; it is among the largest producers of cotton and gold in the world. Meanwhile, most sectors of the economy are controlled by a small circle of people who might best be categorized into clan-like structures. The middle class has all but disappeared in Uzbekistan over the course of the past decade."
Najimova writes that human rights abuses are widespread, torture is systematic, and there is "no secular opposition in the country, and international observers have dismissed last December's parliamentary elections as a farce. The country's parliament remains firmly subordinate to the president. There is no truly independent media..." (Link 2)
Uzbekistan has clearly not yet lifted its roots out of the former Communist Soviet system.
UZBEKISTAN'S ISLAMIST THREAT: ISLAM vs STATUS QUO
The two main Islamic movements threatening the status quo in Uzbekistan are the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (which is linked to al-Qaeda and fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001) and Hizb ut-Tahrir (which blends
Islamic Wahhabi theology with Leninist structures and strategy).
The IMU, which has waged considerable terror in Uzbekistan, enacted its first suicide bombings in Uzbekistan, in the capital Tashkent, in March 2004. While Hizb ut-Tahrir claims to be non-violent, its strategy does aim to culminate in Islamic revolution. Some socialist Islamists have grown impatient with Hizb ut-Tahrir and have split to follow jihadist methods.
The finer details of Uzbekistan's Islamist movements are intensely complicated and information is conflicting. But the Islamist threat is not to be underestimated. These groups aim to establish an Islamic state across Central Asia and they thrive on instability and discontent. President Karimov is within reason to fear an Islamic revolution or a IMU coup in Tashkent. However, at the same time he is doing much to accelerate the likelihood of such an event.
President Karimov refuses to acknowledge (or does not care) that his policies are fueling social anger. In the absence of any openness or liberty, there is no opportunity to discuss, let alone vent. The regime's injustices, corruption, elitism, brutality and repression are catalysts for radicalisation within the majority Muslim population.
Reporter Adolat Najimova told EurasiaNet, "Some observers assert that the lack of avenues for grievances or participation in political and social life pushes many young Uzbek men and women to join the ranks of radical Islamic groups; the result can be a vicious circle: increasing numbers of people attracted to such religious groups promising to deliver justice, and increasingly harsh responses by the government." (Link 2)
REFORM IS THE ONLY VIABLE OPTION
Only reform, in particular openness and economic reform that eases social pain, offers any hope that civil war or Islamic revolution can be prevented in Uzbekistan. It is widely believed that that the genuine pro-Western reforms implemented in Kyrgyzstan after the "Tulip Revolution" (24 March 2005) will circumvent the Islamist threat there.
But unlike Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan was ripe for "revolution" (regime change). As Christopher Walker writes in a EurasiaNet Commentary (14 July 2005), "Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan in many ways represent the region's 'low hanging fruit' for political change. Each featured a comparatively open political environment, in which opposition parties could build popular support and agitate against the respective governments. In comparison, other states in the region -- most notably Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which have stifled all forms of domestic dissent -- present far stiffer challenges for those seeking change." (Link 3)
This is why the situation in Uzbekistan is so diabolical. Uzbeks are highly agitated by increasing totalitarianism, repression and entrenched corruption, and by the lack of justice, human rights, freedoms, employment, information and well being. Uzbeks are desperate for change, but there is no viable secular opposition, only radical Islamists who are actively winning hearts and escalating their efforts.
Tanya Malcolm, a Central Asia analyst with the Eurasia Group, and Ganijon Kholmatov, an independent political analyst based in Osh (Kyrgyzstan) both told RFE/RL that escalating authoritarianism is fueling the extremism in Central Asia. Kholmatov believes a lessening of religious restrictions, and an opening up of public debate has lessened the appeal of banned, extremist groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir in Kyrgyzstan. (Link 4)
Unfortunately, while Karimov needs to implement economic reforms in Uzbekistan urgently to circumvent civil war or Islamic revolution, it appears he is determined to wage his war for the status quo. Karimov is bolstered by the fact that he has found Russia's President Vladamir Putin and China's President Hu Jintao (both using similar methods to fight the same war in their own nations) to be strong allies.
And Russia and China are bolstered by having the Karimov regime in Uzbekistan as an ally. As NATO has expanded to incorporate the Baltic states, and as the US has set up bases in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to fight the "War on Terror", Russia has become encircled. Russia and China are both unhappy about Washington's presence in their backyard. There will probably be some quid pro quo here – Russian and Chinese support for Karimov's authoritarian, human rights-abusing regime in exchange for Uzbek pressure to remove US bases and influence from Central Asia. And Uzbekistan does not need to fear that a US withdrawal from the region might leave a power vacuum for Islamists; Uzbekistan will appeal to the Shangai Co-operation Organisation (SCO) for support or assistance in dealing with any problem stemming from religion.
Most analysts believe that Karimov cannot win this war, as the protests will eventually get beyond the scope of government control. Chris Seiple writes for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, "If these demonstrations [as in Andijan, 12-13 May] were coordinated, possibly by extremists, they would be almost impossible for the government to put down. It required the presence of both the president and the interior minister to restore order in Andijan, and they cannot be everywhere at once." (Link 5)
The question is, how far will Russia or China go to preserve the status quo in Uzbekistan?
Uzbekistan is poised on the brink of disaster. A worst case scenario could have the Ferghana Valley looking like Chechnya. The stage is set for Christians in Uzbekistan to be facing an increasingly difficult season. We must pray for the Church, and pray for God to intervene and keep Uzbekistan from going over the edge.
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Links
1) 'I don't know why they opened fire. They killed the unarmed citizens of Andijan'
Rustam Iskhakov in Andijan, Uzbekistan, 16 May 2005
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1484703,00.html
2) UZBEKISTAN: PRESIDENT KARIMOV’S LIMITED OPTIONS
EURASIA INSIGHT. By Adolat Najimova, 21 May 2005 http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp052105.shtml
3) THE FORMER SOVIET UNION’S NEXT WAVE OF DEMOCRATIZATION
Christopher Walker 14 July 2005, A EurasiaNet Commentary
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav071405.shtml
4) Kyrgyzstan: Banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Faces Dwindling Appeal, Internal Divisions
By Gulnoza Saidazimova, Prague, 27 April 2005 (RFE/RL)
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/4/E01B2B2F-007E-4941-A983-404CC2CA3D8D.html
SEE ALSO
Uzbekistan: Is The Country Headed For Regime Change?
By Jeffrey Donovan, RFE/RL, 30 June 2005
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/06/5f2fb89e-7b80-469e-826d-3e6956c475f4.html
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
UZBEKISTAN: CHRISTIANS SUFFER AS RESTRICTIONS TIGHTEN
- a call to pray for Uzbekistan
By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service
AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- Uzbekistan, a Central Asian former Soviet state, is over 90 percent Muslim. It has a significant Islamic history and identity, and its capital, Tashkent, is the Islamic stronghold of Central Asia. After the break up of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) Islamic groups, especially Saudis, poured into the newly independent Central Asian republics to build mosques and madrassas as well as flood them with Qurans and Wahhabi literature.
Today the fertile and well-populated Ferghana Valley is home to a growing number of Wahhabi Islamists and militants. The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) has close ties to al-Qaeda, and its stated aim is to establish an Islamic state across Central Asia. Also Hizb ut-Tahrir, which combines Wahhabi doctrine with Leninist strategy and tactics, threatens to destabilise not only Uzbekistan but all Central Asia.
Whilst Uzbekistan's government is 'democratic', it still uses Soviet-style corruption and repression to shore up elites and keep its grip on power. The government has also adopted harsh measures to counter the Islamist threat. Unfortunately these measures also affect the Protestant Christian minority. Uzbekistan revised its religion laws in 1998 and became one of the world's worst religious liberty abusers. However in August 1999, Uzbekistan released several Christian pastors imprisoned on false charges. This was due to international pressure, in particular from the US through its Freedom from Religious Persecution Act, which links aid and trade to religious liberty. But after IMU insurgency in 2000, the government further tightened the reins on unregistered religious groups. Thousands of Muslims allegedly associated with Wahhabis, IMU or Hizb ut-Tahrir and their off-shoots were subsequently arrested, creating considerable distress, hardship and anger in the community.
Two political ideologies are presently competing for the allegiance of Uzbekistan's poor, struggling, nominal Muslims: (1) the Islamist system; or (2) the current 'democratic' yet repressive, Soviet-style system - the miserable status-quo. The people of Uzbekistan need what the Church offers: the gospel of redemption and the Spirit who transforms. Yet the Church in Uzbekistan is small (1.3%), repressed and persecuted. It is almost impossible for churches to get government registration, even when they meet all the requirements. Unregistered religious activity is illegal and Protestant leaders are regularly harassed and fined by local authorities. Christians who have converted out of Islam face persecution from Muslim society. They are condemned and punished by unofficial community courts, and receive no help or redress from the authorities. All 'missionary work' and Christian witness is illegal.
Islamic terror and insurgency have escalated in Uzbekistan in recent years. The first suicide bombings were in March 2004. As a countermeasure, the government has intensified its repression of religion. A violent religious crackdown started the day after the 12-13 May crisis in Andijan. But as authorities try to rid the land of destabilising, politically activist Islamist literature, they are also confiscating Bibles and other Christian literature.
On 5 July, the last legal Protestant church in the autonomous Karakalpakstan republic in north-western Uzbekistan, the Nukus-based Emmanuel Full Gospel Church, lost its appeal against closure. An official of Karakalpakstan's Religious Affairs Committee told religious liberty monitors Forum 18 ( http://www.forum18.org/ ), 'Cases have come to light where Christians from this church have promoted their views outside the premises occupied by the religious organisation. This is not allowed under Uzbek law.' The Justice Ministry said the closure relates to a general meeting of church members held in a house 200km north of Nukus, which the church claims was legal.
Forum 18 also reports that Pastors Nikolai Shevchenko and Sergei Khripunov of Bethany Protestant Church in Tashkent could face prison after being charged again with illegal teaching of religion. Kural Bekjanov (19) of Tashkent, arrested on 14 June, has been tortured in prison on account of his Christian faith, by police, prison guards and Wahhabis in his cell. His mother, Gulya, on
visiting the prison heard his screams and begged the officials to stop. Her son was thin and frail, with broken ribs and bloodied fingers and legs.
PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR:
Kural Bekjanov (19) being tortured in prison for his faith, that God will intervene and protect him, heal and restore him, strengthen his faith, preserve his heart, comfort his family, and grant him justice.
'The Lord looked and was displeased to find there was no justice. He was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So he himself stepped in to save them with his mighty power and justice.' Isaiah 59:15b,16
the pastors of unregistered (thus illegal) Christian fellowships, that they will have great wisdom and courage as they continue to preach, teach and lead the Church.
Christian converts from Islam, that they will know the personal, sustaining presence of their loving Saviour Redeemer in the midst of rejection and persecution, and will be effective lights of grace, love, peace and salvation to those around them.
President Islam Karimov to pursue the political and economic reforms needed to ease social tensions, increasing liberty, prosperity and justice, and freeing up the Church to go out in the power of the Spirit to be light and salt and yeast for all Uzbekistan.
COURT CONFIRMS PROTESTANTS BANNED IN NORTH-WEST UZBEKISTAN
Kangaroo Courts Against Muslim-Born Converts Also Come To Light; Protestant Convert Beaten
Up
Uzbekistan afraid to let people think for themselves
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
UZBEKISTAN (ANS) - July 12, 2005 - The last legal Protestant church in northwestern Uzbekistan has had its appeal against a regional Justice Ministry ban turned down in court, ASSIST News Service (ANS) has learned.
All Protestant activities in northwest Uzbekistan are now banned after a Nukus court rejected the Emmanuel Full Gospel Church's
appeal.
Separately, another example of official condoning of kangaroo courts staged by local residents against Muslim-born converts to other faiths has come to light.
An Uzbek Protestant, who preferred to be anonymous, told Forum 18 News Service of the case of Daniyara Ibaidulayev, a Protestant convert who was on 29 June beaten up by his brother and another villager, who cut his lips with a knife, telling him he must return to Islam. The district public prosecutor's office told Ibaidulayev that "his problems would cease as soon as he returned to Islam." Also, a Hare Krishna devotee has been threatened with losing her job as a schoolteacher, if she does not stop sharing her beliefs.
A Forum 18 News Service article by Igor Rotar states that members of the last legal Protestant church in the autonomous Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston] republic in northwestern Uzbekistan have failed in their last-ditch attempt to fight off an official ban on their activities, according to Protestant sources.
Rotar writes that on 5 July, the economic court in the regional capital Nukus rejected the Emmanuel Full Gospel Church's appeal against the Karakalpakstan Justice Ministry's decision to close it down. As the Karakalpakstan Justice Ministry closed down several other Protestant organisations
after a revised religion law was adopted in 1998 and it is illegal for unregistered religious communities to hold worship services or other religious activities, all Protestant activities in Karakalpakstan are now banned (see F18News 2 June 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=575
).
Nurula Jamolov, an official of Karakalpakstan's regional state Religious Affairs Committee, insisted that the decision to close down the Nukus-based church was perfectly legal. "Cases have come to light where Christians from this church have promoted their views outside the premises occupied by the religious organization," he told Forum 18 on 7 July. "This is not allowed under Uzbek law."
Rotar says that Protestant sources have insisted to Forum 18 that the Justice Ministry has acted outside Uzbek law. The reason the ministry gave for the Emmanuel Church's closure was a general meeting of church members held in a private house in Kungrad, 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of Nukus.
However, even though church members claim this meeting did not break any law, police suddenly burst into the house and started to photograph the church members, then took everyone present by bus to a police station where they were told to make written statements. The following day a court fined the church members for holding what the court claimed was an illegal religious meeting.
"This is the latest development in a long-running anti-Protestant campaign by the Karakalpakstan authorities, which have also been encouraging kangaroo courts staged by local residents against Muslim-born converts to other faiths," says Forum 18's Rotar.
PROTESTANT CONVERT BEATEN UP
An Uzbek Protestant, who preferred not to be named, told Forum 18 on 5 July of one recent example, the case of Daniyara Ibaidulayev, a Protestant convert from Yanboshkala village in Tartkul district, on the outskirts of Nukus.
Rotar reports that on 29 June Ibaidulayev was beaten up by his brother and another villager, who cut his lips with a knife, telling him he must return to Islam. Additionally, the Yanboshkala village administration cut off Ibaidulayev's gas supply and forbade him to use water for growing food on his own plot of land. Ibaidulayev appealed in vain for help from the authorities, but the public prosecutor's office for Tartkul district told Ibaidulayev that "his problems would cease as soon as he returned to Islam."
Forum 18 says that Christians in Tartkul district have previously come under pressure from such kangaroo courts condoned by the authorities. Another Protestant from Yanboshkala, Khaldibek Primbetov, was beaten up several times by villagers, who told him to return to Islam or leave Yanboshkala. The Karakalpakstan procuracy investigator told Primbetov that he had "betrayed" the faith of his ancestors and threatened to imprison him after he refused to withdraw his complaint (see F18News 11 May 2005
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=557
).
The public prosecutor for Tartkul district, Rustam Atajanov told Forum 18 on 7 July that "we did send an investigator to Yanboshkala, but he did not threaten local Christians. He just investigated Primbetov's complaint. The events cited by Primbetov have not been confirmed. I don't know anything about what happened to Ibaidulayev."
Rotar states the chief specialist at the central state Religious Affairs Committee, Begzot Kadyrov, denied that anyone was putting pressure on Muslims who converted to other faiths.
"Our laws do outlaw proselytism -- actions intended to turn believers from one faith to another," Kadyrov told Forum 18 from Tashkent on 8 July.
"But if a person changes his faith in spite of this, then that is his personal business and no-one has the right to stop him." He said that "unfortunately" his committee knows nothing about the cases of Primbetov or Ibaidulayev as they had not appealed to it. "If they were to write a statement for our committee, we would certainly look into this case and would not permit the persecution of Primbetov or other Christians in the village."
HARE JRISHNA DEVOTEES FACING INCREASING PRESSURE
Meanwhile, Hare Krishna devotees are also facing pressure in Karakalpakstan, Forum 18 says.
Khaitbai Yakubov, a human rights activist from Khiva, told Forum 18 in Tashkent on 5 July that on 16 June, the procuracy, the National Security Service secret police and the ordinary police searched an apartment belonging to a Hare Krishna devotee and local schoolteacher Asa Bekabayeva in Bostan, a town on the outskirts of Nukus. Ninety Hare Krishna books were confiscated from her. Galyb Kadyrov, an assistant to the public prosecutor for Bostan, threatened Bekabayeva that she would be sacked from her school if she did not stop promoting the beliefs of the Hare Krishna movement. Reached by Forum 18 on 7 July, Galyb Kadyrov totally refused to tell Forum 18 why Bekabayeva had been threatened.
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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 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=338
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
PROTESTANT TORTURED BY POLICE TRYING TO FORCE HIM TO RENOUNCE HIS
CHRISTIAN FAITH
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN (ANS) -- A member of a Pentecostal
church in the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent has been tortured in while in
police custody since his June 14 (2005) arrest.
Uzbekistan is in Central Asia, north of Afghanistan.
According to Forum 18 News Service, sources said other church members have been
“summoned and threatened.”
Forum 18 reported those sources told the news service that Kural Bekjanov,19,
has been tortured both by police officers and cell mates in an attempt to
pressure him to abandon his Christian faith. When his mother Gulya was finally
allowed to see him at Tashkent city police station on June 26, he had lost
weight, had difficulty walking and his fingers and legs were covered in blood.
“Yesterday police threatened to put him on a chair wired up to the electricity
- believe me, all this is happening,” a church member told Forum 18.
The news service reported that Protestants have complained of a widespread
crackdown affecting churches across Uzbekistan, except in Andijan, where an
uprising against the government was brutally suppressed in May.
After being arrested at his Tashkent home, Bekjanov was taken to the city's
Mirobad district police station. He was initially accused of involvement in the
murder of a 65-year-old U.S. citizen of Korean origin, Kim Khen Pen Khin, who
had worked with Pentecostal churches in Tashkent.
Her body was found in central Tashkent on June 11, Forum 18 reported. She had
been assaulted and strangled. Although the accusations against Bekjanov of
involvement in the murder were dropped two days after his arrest, church members
told Forum 18 that when the police found out he was a Christian they started to
beat him.
“His mother heard the cries of her own son and begged
them to stop beating him," one church member told Forum 18. “They
told her it wasn't her son's cries, but she said she knew the sound of her own
son's voice.”
Bekjanov was then transferred to the main city police station where “the worst
things of all began,” a church member told Forum 18.
He was put in a cell with alleged Wahhabis and Akramia members, who said they
had been seized by police in Andijan in the wake of the suppression of the
uprising in May (in other cases in Uzbekistan, police have planted informers in
cells who pretend to be prisoners).
“These prisoners asked him if he was a Christian, and when he replied
‘Yes,’ they beat him brutally,” a church member told Forum 18. “Police
officers saw this but made no effort to intervene.”
Sources told Forum 18 that police “brutally tortured” Bekjanov every night
for the next 12 days, inserting needles under his finger nails (a form of
torture reported by other former prisoners in Uzbekistan). His ribs were broken.
“Every Christian in Tashkent was shocked when they found out that the aim of
the torture was to get him to renounce his faith in Christ,” a source told
Forum 18.
Bekjanov was not the only Full Gospel church member interrogated in the wake of
the discovery of Kim Khen Pen Khin’s body, Forum 18 reported. Sources said the
police were less interested in investigating the murder than in questioning
church members about their beliefs.
“In the last two weeks, two church members were brutally beaten - one of them
a pastor who is now recuperating after suffering concussion and seven other
injuries, which were recorded at Tashkent's 16th hospital,” a church member
told Forum 18. “In addition, 17 church members - among them four church
workers - were questioned for maybe eight to 14 hours at a time. They were
insulted, humiliated and threatened - police spoke to them in the way you would
not even speak to animals. Each day it is getting worse and worse.”
Another church member told Forum 18 he had been summoned by an investigator
named Murad in the early morning hours of June 17 to the 27th office of Mirobad
police station. Murad beat him so hard that he fell over and cried out.
“He swore at me using all kinds of terrible expressions,” the church member
told Forum 18. “He then ordered me to go down on my knees and bow down to him.
When I refused, he beat me and kicked me in the stomach.”
The church member told Forum 18 he was finally freed at 7 p.m. He complained to
the Tashkent city prosecutor and other agencies.
“Lieutenant-Colonel Davron from the 34th office of Mirobad police station told
one of our people that all Christians are animals who have sold themselves to
America and should be shot as this is a Muslim state,” another church member
told Forum 18. “The investigator ... told
some of our female church members that he is fed up with these Christians, and
they should all be locked up.”
Other Protestant sources told Forum 18 the widespread crackdown on Protestants
began the day after the Andijan uprising was crushed. Presbyterian churches were
closed down in Yangiyul and Angren, towns near Tashkent, as well as one in the
small town of Farhad in Syrdarya region south of Tashkent, whose pastor spent a
week in prison.
In Termez on the southern border with Afghanistan, police took the pastor to the
police station where he was beaten and held in handcuffs. According to Forum 18,
the entire congregation - including ten children aged six months to 14 years -
were held by police for 24 hours in the place where the church met for services.
“They were given no food or water,” one Protestant told Forum 18. “Police
then took the church members to the police station to see the detained pastor
and warned them they too
would suffer the same treatment.”
Police also raided a Protestant church in the western town of Urgench during the
Sunday worship service on 26 June, Protestant sources told Forum 18.
Some of the 60 church members present were detained briefly for questioning,
while others were questioned in the church. The congregation - whose pastor was
fired from his job in a factory several weeks ago - has been unsuccessfully
attempting to register for the last two years, but local agencies which need to
approve the application have refused to consider it. In the week before the
raid, the pastor had discussed a new registration application with officials.
Protestants in Karakalpakstan (Qoraqalpoghiston), in north-west Uzbekistan, also
reported renewed difficulties meeting. Four members of various churches outside
the regional capital Nukus said they could no longer meet even in small groups
in private homes.
Meanwhile the Emmanuel Protestant church in Nukus - which was stripped of its
registration on June 4 (www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=575)
- is challenging the removal of registration through the courts. A hearing has
been set for July 4. As this was the last registered Protestant church left in
Karakalpakstan, Forum 18 reported that local Protestants believe this will be a
crucial case.
Meanwhile, the trial of leading members of the Bethany Church in Tashkent has
been set for July 7, Protestants told Forum 18.After the church's Sunday service
was raided by police on June 12, six church members - including the pastor
Nikolai Shevchenko - face administrative charges of breaking the country's
religion law by leading an unregistered religious community (see www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=588).
UZBEKISTAN: LATEST STUDENT EXPULSION IN ANTI-CHRISTIAN CAMPAIGN
Monday, December 13, 2004
By Igor Rotar, Forum 18 News Service
Special to ASSIST News Service
UZBEKISTAN (ANS) -- In a continuing anti-Christian campaign in the Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston] autonomous republic in north-western Uzbekistan, a Protestant final year medical student, Ilkas Aldungarov, has been expelled from the Nukus branch of the Tashkent Paediatric Medical Institute, because he belongs to a Protestant church, the Church of Christ, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The expulsion took place at the end of November and a Tashkent Protestant who preferred not to be named stressed to Forum 18 that, although formally Aldungarov was expelled on grounds of academic failure, in reality he was expelled for his religious beliefs.
Iklas Aldungarov and other Protestants have been targeted before by the authorities. In April 2004, Nukus city prosecutor M. Arzymbetov tried to have him expelled as he belonged to what Arzymbetiove called "an illegal religious sect." The Prosecutors Office also summoned 11 members of the same church for questioning, where they were pressured to renounce their faith and convert to Islam, and threatened with being shot (see F18 News 21 April 2004 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=303).
Speaking to Forum 18 on 9 December in Nukus, the dean of the Paediatric Medical Institute, Bekbasyn Absametov, categorically denied that students were persecuted for their religious beliefs. Absametov showed Forum 18 a record of Ilkas Aldungarov's academic achievements between 2000 and 2004, which purported to show very low academic achievement. "We consider only students' knowledge, and not their religious beliefs. For example, as soon as Sherimbetova and Artykbayeva had passed the subjects in which they had unsatisfactory marks, we immediately reinstated them," Absametov told Forum 18. During the same interview with Forum 18, Absametov admitted that the lecturers did take an interest in the students' religious views, but found it hard to explain their curiosity. He also did not explain the other expulsions, or the literature search conducted by his colleague Alima Urazova.
Alima Urazova, a lecturer at the Paediatric Medical Institute, in April 2004 searched an apartment rented by Protestant students, seized religious literature, forced them to leave the flat and tried to stop them reading
Protestant literature, saying that "it would be better for you to work as prostitutes than to read those dreadful
books" (see F18 News 27 May 2004 www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=329
).
Two of the students - Aliya Sherimbetova and Shirin Artykbayeva – were expelled in September for being Christians and were told that they were also expelled because their case had been published "on the internet", possibly a reference to Forum 18's coverage (see F18 News, 16 September 2004
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=412
). However, in November 2004 these two students were reinstated at the institute.
Protestant students have also been persecuted in other Nuku-based higher education institutions. In June, the dean of the Philology Faculty (Roman-German philology) at Berdah Karakalpak State University, Dina Mamyrbayeva, summoned three Protestant students and threatened them with expulsion if they do not stop visiting "sect members" (see F18News 9 July 2004
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=359
). One of the students, Elena Kim, a student of Roman-German philology, told Forum 18 on 8 December in Nukus that Dina Mamyrbayeva had accused her of "belonging to a banned sect, whose activity was of interest to the NSS." The National Security Service (NSS) is the Uzbek secret police, who have
Just as with the cases in the Paediatric Medical Institute, allegedly poor performance is also given as a reason for the Berdah Karakalpak State University expulsions. "It's impossible to prove anything; each time, students are expelled for their supposed failing performance. My daughter used to be a good student, but since the campaign against Protestant students began, she has suddenly become a failing student," said a member of the unregistered Protestant "Mir" (Peace) Church, Vladimir Kim, speaking to Forum 18 on 9 December in Nukus. It is thought that the expulsions of students from both institutions may have been organized by the NSS secret police.
Persecution specifically directed against Protestant students in Uzbekistan has so far only happened in Karakalpakstan, where it is almost impossible for Christian churches to gain official registration and therefore to meet legally for worship. Only one Christian church in the region has been legally registered - the Pentecostal Emmanuel Church – and unregistered religious activity is, against international law, banned in Uzbekistan.
For background information, see Forum 18's Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=105.
UZBEK AUTHORITIES RAID BAPTIST CHURCH DURING SUNDAY SERVICES
Thursday, October 28, 2004
UZBEK AUTHORITIES RAID BAPTIST CHURCH DURING SUNDAY SERVICES
Tashkent Congregation Refused Registration For Eight Years
By Michael Ireland
Chief Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN (ANS) -- Police in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent raided the Bethany Baptist Church during Sunday worship on October 17, declaring the service an “illegal religious meeting” and demanding the pastor promise to stop all the church’s activities, writes Barbara G. Baker of Compass Direct (www.compassdirect.org)
Baker said Pastor Nikolai Shevchenko declined to do so.
After confiscating samples of literature found in the church sanctuary and classrooms, the officers left, telling the pastor and eight members that they would be called to answer in court over the case.
A member of the Baptist Union, Shevchenko’s church has been seeking official registration in vain for the past eight years. Despite a three-year lull in police actions against their activities, the church remains caught in an apparent standoff between local city regulations and the government’s restrictive registration laws instituted in 1998.
About 120 members of the congregation of the Bethany Baptist Church in Tashkent’s Mirzo-Ulugbek district were midway through their Sunday morning service when eight district police officials appeared at the door.
Ringing the bell, the officers demanded to speak with the church’s leader. Pastor Nikolai Shevchenko complied, leaving the platform at the front of the church to walk outside and speak with the officers.
According to Shevchenko, who spoke with Compass Direct two days after the incident, the policemen demanded, “What’s going on here?” When he stated that he and his congregation were singing and worshipping, the officials asked, “Do you have permission to do this? Is your church registered?”
“I told them no, so they asked me, ‘Why not?’” Shevchenko said. “That is also my question,” he told them. “Why is our church not registered?”
When the police insisted that paper be brought so they could write up official documents on the case, the pastor led them back through the church sanctuary to a room off the church’s inner garden. There they demanded that the pastor list the names of everyone present. When he refused to do this, they told him to write and sign a statement, admitting that he was conducting an illegal religious meeting.
“It is not pleasant for me to persecute you while you are praying to God,” one officer reportedly told Shevchenko. “But we have orders, so if you do not comply, we will have to call for trucks and buses so we can arrest everyone and take them to the police station.”
With the officers’ permission, Shevchenko returned to the congregation to ask if any would volunteer to represent the church by writing a personal statement for the police. Eight of the members came forward to write and sign statements declaring they had been present at the church’s morning service.
Although the police demanded that Shevchenko promise not to meet again in the church, he declined to do so. After confiscating samples of literature found in the church sanctuary and classrooms, the officers left, telling the pastor and eight members that they would be called to answer in court over the case.
In repeated attempts to gain legal registration, the Bethany Church congregation has provided the required list of 100 founding members and three pastoral leaders, paid a large registration fee and even secured the written approval of local community leaders and neighbors.
But nevertheless, police have twice before interrupted their worship services, assessing fines against the congregation, arresting the pastor and several members and filing criminal charges against them in May 2000 and again in June 2001.
In a straightforward plea to be heard, the church sent a letter in March 2001 to President Islam Karimov, attaching 18 documents confirming the history of the church’s attempt to register itself legally. Although Shevchenko was told orally that Karimov’s cabinet had seen the letter and would “resolve” the case, there has been no written response.
On October 19, Shevchenko told Compass that he had heard about three other Tashkent churches which had experienced similar interruptions from police officials over the past few days. “The clouds are gathering again over our churches here,” he said.
Shevchenko, 57, started the Bethany Church as an independent congregation in 1996. With Sunday attendance averaging 130 or more, the church has since started two spin-off church groups in nearby districts of northeast Tashkent. The members are an ethnic mix of Germans, Koreans, Uzbeks, Tatars, Kazakhs and Russians, the pastor said.
“We have existed since 1996,” Shevchenko said, “so how can the authorities say we do not exist?”
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--
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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--
XOFC supports Freedom of Conscience for All groups, and the right of a Free and Open Exchange of Ideas.
XOFC is committed to Intellectual & historic Honesty. XOFC is committed to the support of those who seek a discussion of Christianity
in an atmosphere that is free of Violence and Coercion.
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.
XOFC
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