Keston News Service Summary: Moldova/Transdniester, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
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Subject: Keston News Service Summary: Moldova/Transdniester, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Keston Institute <[email protected]>
Keston News Service Summary: Moldova/Transdniester,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK
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KESTON NEWS SERVICE – SUMMARY 12-16 November 2001
Summaries of recent reporting on violations of religious liberty and
on religion in communist and post-communist lands.
______________________________________
SUMMARIES:
MOLDOVA/TRANSDNIESTER: CHRISTMAS DEMOLITION FOR BAPTIST CHURCH? (22
Nov) A Baptist congregation in the town of Tiraspol has been told that
the authorities will demolish its prayer house if it does not transfer
it to residential use or pull it down by 25 December, local Baptists
complained in a statement received by Keston News Service. The State
Building Inspectorate warning, issued on 8 November, follows
increasing pressure on the church. Local officials have insisted to
Keston that the church is "illegally built" and that they are not
targeting the building because it is used for worship.
MOLDOVA/TRANSDNIESTER: POLICE CLOSE BAPTIST MEETING - WITH ORTHODOX
HELP? (22 Nov) An evangelistic meeting organised by the Tiraspol
Baptist church in a nearby village was closed by police on the evening
of 6 October, local Baptists reported in a statement received by
Keston News Service. Those addressing the meeting were later fined.
The Tiraspol church reported that the police were accompanied by an
Orthodox priest, who appeared to be directing the operation. They
identified the priest as Hieromonk Arseni (Manko), the head of the
Tiraspol diocese's missionary department, but Keston was unable to
contact him to discuss the report.
TAJIKISTAN: CRACKDOWN ON DUSHANBE'S UNREGISTERED MOSQUES (23 Nov). As
Muslims in Tajikistan mark the holy month of Ramadan, the city
authorities in the capital Dushanbe are cracking down on unregistered
mosques in line with a resolution adopted in September, Keston News
Service has learnt. Muslims fear that the authorities will try to
close down unregistered mosques, which far outnumber registered
mosques in Dushanbe. A city official insisted to Keston that mosques
must be registered in order to function and said that it the number of
unregistered mosques increased, it would be “more difficult to control
their activity”. “Then mosques could become centres of extremism and
could destabilise the situation in the republic.”
TURKMENISTAN: THREE DEPORTED AFTER PROTESTANT CHURCH RAID (19 Nov).
Following the police raid on the Protestant Word of Life Church in
Ashgabad on 15 November (see KNS 16 November 2001), three foreign
citizens have been deported from Turkmenistan. Russian pastor Vladmir
Shamrai, who led the meeting, his wife Olga (a Kazakh citizen), and
visiting Russian pastor Leonid Malko were expelled over the weekend,
they told Keston News Service from Moscow on 19 November. Few of the
local people at the meeting have been able to pay the huge fines
imposed on them (correction to KNS 16 November, which reported that
they had already paid). Those who have not have had their identity
papers confiscated by the security police, and all face the threat of
dismissal from work, Malko and Shamrai told Keston.
TURKMENISTAN: FURTHER FALL-OUT FROM PROTESTANT CHURCH RAID (22 Nov).
Following the 15 November raid by police on a Protestant church
meeting in Ashgabad, the Turkmen authorities continue to take action
against those present at the meeting. Yesterday (21 November) those
who invited the two Russian pastors to the country and the owner of
the flat where the meeting took place were summoned for interrogation
at the city administration. Sources in Ashgabad told Keston News
Service that each was asked to write a statement about the church's
activity and given a warning about possible confiscation of their
homes and deportation from Ashgabad to other parts of the country.
Another church member has been summoned for interrogation in the
morning of 23 November, and it is feared she may be sacked from her
job as a music teacher. (see full article below)
UZBEKISTAN: COURT VICTORY, BUT REGISTRATION NO NEARER (20 Nov).
Despite a victory in court last month, the Bethany congregation of
Evangelical Christians/Baptists in Tashkent is still fighting for
registration, the church's pastor told Keston News Service. The
church’s appeal against a decision by the hakimiat (administration) to
refuse it registration was upheld on 15 October. The hakimiat had
refused registration on the basis of a resolution by the mahalla
committee (the authority for the local district) that the activity of
a Christian prayer house on mahalla territory was "inadmissible". A
senior religious affairs official told Keston the court had come to
the wrong decision and said the church should find a new home
elsewhere.
Thursday 22 November
TURKMENISTAN: FURTHER FALL-OUT FROM PROTESTANT
CHURCH RAID
by Felix Corley, Keston News Service
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For the full text, see http://www.keston.org/knsframe.htm
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