MINELREL-L Archive (12132001-21:15:56-17371)

Keston News Service Summary: Kyrgyzstan, Moldova/Transdniester, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan


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Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 21:15:55 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Keston News Service Summary: Kyrgyzstan, Moldova/Transdniester, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan


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Keston News Service Summary: Kyrgyzstan,
Moldova/Transdniester, Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

 
KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK
______________________________________

KESTON NEWS SERVICE – SUMMARY  3-7 December 2001

Summaries of recent reporting on violations of religious liberty and
on religion in communist and post-communist lands.
______________________________________


KYRGYZSTAN: "UNLAWFUL" BAN ON AMPLIFIED CALL TO PRAYER (6 Dec). The
authorities in Kyrgyzstan's southern Jalal-abad region have banned the
reading of the call to prayer via loudspeakers, the local Muslim
leader, Dilmurat Haji Orozov, told Keston News Service on 28 November.
A phone call to the government’s commission for religious affairs
established that the ban was unlawful, but the authorities are still
enforcing it, Orozov complained. The local religious affairs official
told Keston that the ban was imposed to protect the rights of
non-Muslims, pointing out that people of all faiths had been woken up
early in the morning by the amplified calls to prayer. An expert on
religious issues at a Jalal-abad human rights organisation believes
that the ban is symptomatic of a new policy adopted by the
authorities: "Repression of Muslims who refuse to follow the
instructions of the secular authorities has increased."

MOLDOVA/TRANSDNIESTER: SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH THREATENED WITH
DEMOLITION (4 Dec). Just three weeks before a Baptist church in the
town of Tiraspol, the capital of Moldova's breakaway region of
Transdniester, is scheduled for enforced demolition, Keston News
Service has learnt that a second Baptist church affiliated with the
Tiraspol church has also been threatened with demolition. The pastor
of the Tiraspol church told Keston on 3 December that the head of the
local administration in the village of Krasnoe issued the verbal
threat "because the congregation is not registered as a religious
organisation". The two congregations, like all those belonging to the
Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists in any of the
former Soviet republics, refuse to register, arguing that registration
would lay them open to state meddling.

RUSSIA: 300 AMENDMENTS TO RELIGION LAW UNDER CONSIDERATION (4 Dec).
Over the coming months some 300 amendments to Russia's religion law
are to be considered by a working group attached to the government's
Commission for Religious Associations, the group’s chairman Andrei
Sebentsov told Keston News Service on 28 November. The group is
comprised of representatives of various faith communities and
religious affairs officials from different government departments.
Once they have drafted some proposed amendments (a process which will
take some time, Sebentsov told Keston) these must gain the approval of
the Duma religion committee before consideration by parliament itself.

RUSSIA: MAJORITY OF PROPOSED AMENDMENTS "AGAINST CONSTITUTION" (4
Dec). The majority of the hundreds of proposed amendments to Russia's
1997 law on religion - including the introduction of the term
"traditional religion" - cannot be adopted because they contradict the
country's constitution, Andrei Sebentsov, vice-chairman of the
government's Commission for Religious Associations and chairman of the
working group currently considering them, told Keston News Service on
28 November. Amendments have been suggested by subjects of the Russian
Federation, as well as by the Commission for Religious Affairs and
members of the working group.

RUSSIA: MINISTER FOR RELIGION? (5 Dec) A new post of Russian
Federation minister whose brief will include religious and social
organisations was announced, among other government restructuring
decisions, by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on 16 October, according
to the Russian daily newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta. The new minister
will also be responsible for nationalities and regional affairs.
Speaking to Keston News Service in recent days, however, government
officials expressed doubt that the post would do more than touch upon
religious issues, let alone prove to be in place of the much
called-for state committee for religious affairs.

RUSSIA: CHALLENGE TO REGIONAL MISSIONARY LAW FAILS (6 Dec). Despite
strong criticism from religious minorities, a law which controls
missionary activity, adopted in Russia's southern Belgorod region in
January (see KNS 31 May 2001) remains all but unchanged after a legal
challenge failed. Belgorod's public prosecutor had protested against
the failure by the region's court to overturn parts of the local law,
but on 3 December the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation rejected
his protest. He was not present at the Supreme Court hearing; in his
place was a justice adviser from the general public prosecutor’
office, who sided with his opponents and declared that the protest
emanated from "incorrect interpretation of federal law."

RUSSIA: SALVATION ARMY MUST CEASE ITS ACTIVITIES IN MOSCOW (6 Dec).
Colonel Kenneth Baillie, commanding officer of the Salvation Army in
Russia, has vowed that the group's Moscow branch will "keep on
working" despite the court ruling today (6 December) that it must
cease all its activities in the Russian capital. Speaking to Keston
News Service outside the courtroom in Moscow immediately after the
verdict was handed down, he said he had been hoping that the municipal
court would at least have delayed a final decision in view of the
pending Constitutional Court case, which will consider the
constitutionality of Article 27, Part 4 of Russia's 1997 law on
religion. The prosecutors claim the Salvation Army's Moscow branch had
violated this article. (see full article below)

RUSSIA: "AMERICAN NEO-PENTECOSTAL SECT" BARRED FROM BUILDING IN MOSCOW
(7 Dec). Despite gaining the approval of all the necessary agencies, a
Pentecostal church in the Russian capital is being forced to renounce
the land it was allocated five years ago on which it had planned to
build a new church centre because of the unwillingness of the
"district community" to be home to a "neo-Pentecostal movement,
brought from the US". A member of the Emmanuel Church told Keston News
Service that if it loses the plot of land allocated by the prefecture
of the Western Okrug (district) of Moscow, it faces losing the
hundreds of thousands of dollars that have already been invested in
the project. The church is now considering whether to appeal to a
court of arbitration.

TURKMENISTAN: REPRISALS RESTART AGAINST PROTESTANTS (5 Dec). After a
week when the authorities were easing their punitive measures against
those who took part in a service of the Protestant Word of Life church
raided by police and the security police in the Turkmen capital
Ashgabad on 15 November, Keston News Service has learnt that the
authorities in a small village have taken revenge on three villagers
who had travelled to Ashgabad for the service. Sources in Turkmenistan
told Keston on 5 December that one of those summoned by the local
police was sentenced to 15 days in prison, while the other two were
threatened and then released. They added that the Ashgabad authorities
probably telephoned the authorities in the village of Deinau 35
kilometres (20 miles) north west of the town of Turkmenabad (formerly
Charjou) to inform them that the three had participated in an
"illegal" religious meeting.

TURKMENISTAN: ADVENTISTS DETAINED AT PRAYER MEETING (7 Dec). Three
weeks after an Adventist meeting in a private flat in Turkmenabad
(formerly Charjou) was raided by the authorities, identity documents
taken from those present have still not been returned, in effect
confining them to the city, Adventist sources told Keston News Service
on 7 December. Following the 16 November raid, six people were
detained for several hours and all their religious books, audio and
video materials were seized. Church members fear the flat’s owner may
lose her home, following confiscation by police of her legal ownership
documents. The raid came one day after a meeting of the Pentecostal
Word of Life Church was raided in the Turkmen capital Ashgabad.

UZBEKISTAN: RAMADAN APPEAL FOR MOSQUE REOPENING REJECTED (6 Dec). A
mosque opened in the Uzbek town of Namangan in the 1980s when
religious freedom began to arrive in the Soviet Union, but closed five
years ago by the regional authorities, is still closed to worshippers,
despite repeated attempts by local Muslims to reopen it and register
it officially. Speaking to Keston News Service, the head of the local
mahalla (a small district within a town), who has blocked the
application, dismissed the complaint that the nearest mosque is four
kilometres [two and a half miles] away: "According to Islam, the more
difficulties a person overcomes on their way to God, the better." A
human rights activist told Keston that the refusal to allow the mosque
to reopen is typical. "The authorities are giving the mahalla
committees secret instructions to 'hold back' believers’ attempts to
register a local mosque," he said.

Thursday 6 December
RUSSIA: SALVATION ARMY MUST CEASE ITS ACTIVITIES IN MOSCOW

by Geraldine Fagan, Keston News Service


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