Tajikistan;Turkmenistan;

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway http://www.forum18.org/

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

20 May 2004 AZERBAIJAN: NEW CRACKDOWN ON ADVENTISTS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=324 Adventist Pastor Khalid Babaev – forced by death threats out of Nakhichevan in February – was fined on 20 May in Sumgait, an industrial city near the capital Baku, for leading a congregation without registration. “They failed to register their place of worship,” the local police officer told Forum 18 News Service, though he was unable to say which law requires this. A week earlier, two Adventist pastors in Gyanja were fined for failing to register their place of residence in the city. “We don’t agree with these fines,” Adventist leader Pastor Yahya Zavrichko told Forum 18. “All we want is to be able to function freely.” Local officials are also seeking information about the Baku congregation in an apparent bid to step up pressure.

17 May 2004 GREECE: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, THE ACHILLES’ HEEL http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=321 In the run-up to the August 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Dr Altana Filos presents a survey of religious freedom in Greece. This is the only European Union country to ban proselytism in its Constitution, despite condemnation by the European Court of Human Rights in 1993 for this. Dr Filos finds that there have been improvements since 2001, however, religious minorities are still banned from corporately owning places of worship and being represented in court, and the police can still prosecute religious communities who operate or build places of worship without the permission of the government and the Orthodox Church. Religious freedom is the Achilles’ heel in Greece’s human rights record.

17 May 2004 KYRGYZSTAN: WILL THE GOVERNMENT OR WON’T THE GOVERNMENT TARGET AHMADIS? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=322 State officials have told local Ahmadis and Forum 18 News Service that a government resolution against “religious extremism”, which specifically mentioned the Ahmadis, will not lead to a crackdown on their activity, saying that “if the Ahmadiyya community was included in the list of extremist groups, then that was done purely by mistake.” Few in Kyrgyzstan have seen the text, and many are inclined to downplay the significance of it for the Ahmadiyya community. It is believed that the resolution was part of the Kyrgyz reaction to the terrorist attacks in neighbouring Uzbekistan.

21 May 2004 TAJIKISTAN: DUSHANBE JEWS ORDERED TO VACATE SYNAGOGUE BY JULY http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=325 As the city authorities in the capital Dushanbe order the local Jewish community to vacate their century-old synagogue by July to clear the site for a new presidential palace, the synagogue’s rabbi has pleaded to allow it to remain. “The authorities could meet the Jews half-way and not demolish Tajikistan’s only synagogue,” Mikhail Abdurakhmanov told Forum 18 News Service. He stressed that the synagogue had been built by believers and that today’s remaining Jewish community is too small and poor to rent a new building or build another synagogue. The city’s senior religious affairs official told Forum 18 the synagogue is of “no historic value” and that there was no way it could be included in the reconstruction plan “because it would spoil the entire layout of the complex”.

19 May 2004 TURKMENISTAN: JEHOVAH’S WITNESS PRISONERS THREATENED WITH DEATH http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=323 Two of the five Jehovah’s Witnesses imprisoned in labour camp in the town of Seydi have been threatened with death, reportedly in the second half of April, with the full knowledge of the camp administration, Jehovah’s Witnesses report. “We take these threats seriously,” one told Forum 18 News Service. They plead for international attention, fearing for the safety of the five – Aleksandr Matveyev, Rinat Babadjanov, Shohrat Mitogorov, Ruslan Nasyrov and Rozymamed Satlykov. Jehovah’s Witnesses say the five are regularly beaten, pressured to renounce their faith and adopt Islam, take the oath of allegiance to the president and to agree to do compulsory military service. Family and friends have been unable to visit their prisoners since early April. * See full article below. *

19 May 2004 TURKMENISTAN: JEHOVAH’S WITNESS PRISONERS THREATENED WITH DEATH

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=323 By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service

Jehovah’s Witnesses in Turkmenistan have expressed fears for the safety of their five conscientious objectors in labour camp in the eastern town of Seydi after two of them were threatened with death, apparently in the second half of April. “They were threatened with physical elimination,” one Jehovah’s Witness told Forum 18 News Service. “We take these threats seriously.” Although the Jehovah’s Witnesses have been unable to discover if the threats were directly from the prison administration or individual guards, they believe these threats came with the full knowledge of the prison administration. Forum 18 has been unable to reach the labour camp administration to find out why the threats have been issued and why the five prisoners are routinely maltreated.

Fears have increased as, since early April, the prisoners – Aleksandr Matveyev, Rinat Babadjanov, Shohrat Mitogorov, Ruslan Nasyrov and Rozymamed Satlykov – have been isolated from their families and friends. “There has been no possibility to visit them since then,” a Jehovah’s Witness told Forum 18. The Jehovah’s Witnesses do not know which two prisoners have been singled out for death threats.

Local Jehovah’s Witnesses close to the prisoners say that only international attention can protect the five. “In the past it has helped when the names of the prisoners became known around the world.”

They say the five have been regularly beaten in the labour camp (see F18News 10 May 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=315 ). “Sometimes the beatings are daily, other times it eases off,” one Jehovah’s Witness told Forum 18. “The guards conduct the beatings or use other prisoners to do it for them.” The source said pressure is relentless on the prisoners to say the compulsory oath of allegiance to the president, to abandon their faith and convert to Islam and to agree to conduct military service.

The Seydi camp was reportedly built for 400 to 500 prisoners, but often holds several thousand at a time. Sometimes up to 20 prisoners have to share a cell designed for ten. Prisoners are often sent to the punishment isolation cell for periods of five to fifteen days.

In addition to the five imprisoned conscientious objectors, a sixth Jehovah’s Witness – Kurban Zakirov – is serving an eight-year sentence on what his community insists are trumped-up charges. Forum 18 notes that, together with former chief mufti Nasrullah ibn Ibadullah, sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment at a closed trial in the capital Ashgabad on 2 March, these are Turkmenistan’s known religious prisoners. It is believed several muftis have been sent into internal exile without trial.

The address of the Seydi camp is: 746222 Turkmenistan, Lebap velayat Seydi Uchr. LB-K/12

For more background see Forum 18’s latest religious freedom survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=296

A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html? Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme (END)

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