Keston News Service Summary: Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan
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Subject: Keston News Service Summary: Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Keston Institute <[email protected]>
Keston News Service Summary: Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan,
Serbia, Turkmenistan & Uzbekistan
KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK
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KESTON NEWS SERVICE – SUMMARY 24-28 September 2001
Summaries of recent reporting on violations of religious liberty and
on religion in communist and post-communist lands.
______________________________________
SUMMARIES:
ARMENIA: WILL APOSTOLIC CHURCH GET CONCORDAT? (27 Sept) Eighteen
months after representatives of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the
government signed a document preparing for a concordat between Church
and state, Keston News Service has learnt that there has been no
visible progress towards that concordat. The document set up working
groups to hammer out conditions for Church-state collaboration in
several areas, but disagreements have led to delay. Catholic
Archbishop Nerses Der-Nersessian told Keston of his concern about the
proposed concordat: 'The state should give freedom to other
denominations. Armenia is a member of the United Nations, so it cannot
oblige people to be members of the Apostolic Church.'
GEORGIA: REBEL ORTHODOX PRIEST ATTACKS PENTECOSTAL CHOIR PRACTICE (26
Sept). On Sunday evening (23 September), defrocked Orthodox priest
Basil Mkalavishvili and his supporters, wielding truncheons, attacked
a choir practice of a Pentecostal church in the Gldani district of the
Georgian capital Tbilisi, the church's pastor Zaal Tkeshelashvili told
Keston News Service by telephone on 26 September. He said he
personally saw Mkalavishvili instructing his followers what to do and
whom to beat. 'Twelve church members sustained serious injuries.'
GEORGIA: OSCE CONDEMNS ATTACKERS' IMPUNITY (26 Sept). In the wake of
the attack by defrocked Orthodox priest Basil Mkalavishvili and his
supporters on a choir practice of a Pentecostal church in the Georgian
capital Tbilisi on 23 September (see separate KNS article) and a
demonstration the following day in central Tbilisi where he pledged to
begin a new campaign against all non-Orthodox religious groups in
Georgia, the Tbilisi office of the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has condemned the impunity enjoyed by the
perpetrators of such violence. Approximately 100 violent attacks on
religious minority meetings have taken place over the past few years
and human rights activists warn that such attacks might be stepped up.
KYRGYZSTAN: PETITION FOR OUSTED IMAM (24 Sept). More than 200
inhabitants of Bozor-kurgan district of Jalal-abad region of southern
Kyrgyzstan have signed a petition in support of their imam, who, it is
widely believed, was ousted last April at the instigation of the
regional governor, a representative of the human rights organisation
Justice in Jalal-abad region told Keston News Service on 18 September.
The mufti of Jalal-abad region told Keston last month that the
imam-hatyb of the central mosque of Bozor-kurgan district, Tajiddin
Abdumadshidov, was forced to resign under pressure from the regional
governor (see KNS 16 August 2001). The situation in Bozor-kurgan
district remains tense.
KYRGYZSTAN: VARIED MUSLIM RESPONSES TO ATTACKS ON U.S. (26 Sept) Local
inhabitants in the Kyrgyz part of the Fergana valley - one of the most
devoutly Islamic regions in Central Asia - are convinced that, if war
does begin in Afghanistan, Central Asia will inevitably be drawn in,
Keston News Service learnt on a three-day visit to the region. The
Fergana valley is divided between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan, and the situation here determines the social and political
stability of Central Asia. While the overwhelming majority expressed
sympathy for the American victims of the attacks, a section of the
population is clearly ambivalent towards the events in the United
States. Some argue that the attacks were 'God's punishment' on the
United States.
SERBIA: STATE SILENT ABOUT PROTESTANT DIALOGUE OFFER ON NEW LAW (25
Sept). Serbia's ministry of religion has failed to respond to
Protestant demands for a dialogue on the proposed new religion law
that many Protestant Churches fear will infringe religious freedom. No
ministry official has been prepared to discuss with Keston News
Service why it has rejected the offer of dialogue made at a 23 August
ecumenical meeting in Belgrade, or what measures it will take to meet
these concerns. Government representatives have already dismissed
earlier criticism of the proposed new law, claiming it will maintain
the 'highest principles of religious freedom achieved in Europe'.
TURKMENISTAN: CHILD DEATHS TO BE PINNED ON ADVENTISTS? (27 Sept)
Nearly two years after the Adventist church in the Turkmen capital
Ashgabad was bulldozed by the authorities, police have discovered the
bodies of two children in the ruins. Although a senior police official
told Keston News Service from Ashgabad that the Adventists are not
suspects, Adventists are being summoned regularly for questioning, and
the community remains concerned that the investigation appears to be
focusing more on their beliefs than on establishing who was
responsible for the children's deaths. (see full article below)
UZBEKISTAN: STATE SECURITY OFFICER ACCUSES BAPTIST OF FORGERY (24
Sept). An officer of the National Security Service (SNB, the former
KGB) has accused the leader of the Baptist church in the town of
Gazalkent of forging signatures on the church's stalled registration
application. The application was lodged in January of this year, after
an earlier application was refused, but the church is still waiting
for the local administration to respond. Only one of the required 100
church members on the application turned out to be ineligible to sign
as she was not an Uzbek citizen, Keston News Service has learnt, a
fact the Baptist Union does not dispute. 'Why is the country's
security service involved in such an insignificant, formal issue?' the
Baptist Union has asked.
Thursday 27 September 2001
TURKMENISTAN: CHILD DEATHS TO BE PINNED ON ADVENTISTS?
by Igor Rotar, Keston News Service
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For the full text, see http://www.keston.org/knsframe.htm
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