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

16 August 2005 RUSSIA: POLICE AND FIRE INSPECTOR TRY TO CLOSE JW CONGRESS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=630 Jehovah’s Witnesses have told Forum 18 News Service that they can see a pattern of obstruction to their regional congresses. This month (August 2005), for example, an Arkhangelsk newspaper asked “Is there really anything to stop Jehovists from killing hundreds of people – in Arkhangelsk, for example – in the name of a deity or some crazy idea?” Two attempts to rent buildings for a regional congress in the city were thwarted. At the third venue, police stepped onto the stage demanding that all 714 delegates leave “in view of the threat of terrorist attacks.” Police then began to conduct a search, and a fire department inspector announced that the building was unsafe. When Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to leave, the fire inspector ordered the stage lighting and then the entire electricity supply to be switched off. A Jehovah’s Witness speaker continued by torchlight and the police couldn’t search the building in darkness, so power was switched back on. The fire inspector then ordered the building’s closure. Arkhangelsk regional public prosecutor’s office told Forum 18 that they are investigating the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ complaint.

19 August 2005 RUSSIA: GROWING RESTRICTIONS ON RENTAL BY PROTESTANTS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=633 Russian law does not prevent religious communities from renting premises for worship, but Protestants have told Forum 18 News Service that in recent months they are increasingly barred from doing so. Most Protestant communities in Russia do not have their own church buildings and so have to rent buildings for worship, the majority of which are state-owned. Examples of this problem known to Forum 18 come from many parts of the Russian Federation. Anatoli Pchelintsev and Sergei Sychev, two Moscow-based lawyers specialising in religious believers’ rights, have suggested to Forum 18 that possible reasons include state administrators not informing the federal authorities of official leases, so avoiding the need to give reasons for refusing to lease, and stepped-up pressure by the Moscow Patriarchate on local authorities and cultural institutions not to lease buildings to Protestants.

18 August 2005 TURKMENISTAN: POLICE CLAIM “INDIVIDUALS CAN ONLY BELIEVE ALONE” http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=632 Anti-Terrorist police raided last Sunday’s (14 August) worship service of a registered Baptist church, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. After the service, Forum 18 was told, police questioned church members, confiscating all Turkmen-language Bibles and Hymnbooks. The police took particular interest in children at the service, and were diappointed they were in the service with parental permission. Next day, church leaders were summoned for “more thorough interrogation,” and told that the Baptist Church’s national state registration is “not valid for northern Turkmenistan.” This claim has been made elsewhere in the country, and Baptists strongly dispute it. Police pressured church leaders to sign a declaration that the church will not meet until it had state registration. “We met for worship before ‘your registration’ existed, and will continue to meet now we have registration, even if you did not recognise it. And we will continue to meet in future as our faith does not depend on registration,” church leaders told police.

16 August 2005 UZBEKISTAN: “ENTRY TO THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN CLOSED” http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=631 Forum 18 News Service’s Central Asia Correspondent, Igor Rotar, describes how he was unjustifiably detained and deported from Uzbekistan. He was barred from contacting anyone, threatened with jail for “a very long time” for offences which officials refused to explain, and not given a reason for his deportation. One official asked him if he knew why he was being deported, and when he began to guess at a reason, the official stopped him and said “just say yes or no.” When he explained to officials that detaining and deporting Forum 18’s correspondent would only attract negative attention to Uzbekistan, he was told that the country didn’t have specialists who could think like that. Finally, Igor Rotar expresses his deep gratitude to the very many people and organisations who fought for his release. * See full article below. *

16 August 2005 UZBEKISTAN: “ENTRY TO THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN CLOSED”

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=631 By Igor Rotar, Central Asia Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service

As Forum 18 News Service earlier reported, on 13 August its Central Asia Correspondent, Igor Rotar, was officially – and unjustifiably – deported from Uzbekistan (see F18News 13 August 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=629 ). From 11 August, he had been detained for two days at Tashkent airport by representatives of the Uzbek authorities, who were trying to force him to leave the country “voluntarily” at his own expense, in an attempt to avoid officially deporting him. We publish below a detailed account of our correspondent’s detention, as told by himself:

My problems began on Thursday 11 August, after the computer at the border control post showed my surname on a list of undesirable persons, compiled by the Uzbek National Security Service (NSS) secret police. My name had been put on this list at least three years ago, but, before 11 August, I had always been allowed into Uzbekistan as Forum 18 News Service’s Central Asia Correspondent after a telephone call was made to the NSS. I was last in Uzbekistan at the beginning of June, after the Andijan uprising and subsequent crackdown. But this time I was taken to the hall for transit passengers. Although there was a telephone in the room, which passengers could use, I was forbidden to get in touch with anyone – even the embassy of my own country, Russia. According to Uzbek laws, a detained foreigner has the right to contact his embassy.

The Uzbek authorities tried to keep me completely isolated, so both the airport workers and ordinary airline passengers were forbidden to associate with me. In answer to my requests to be allowed immediately to contact other people at once, and also to be told the reason for my detention, the border guards replied that my case was being decided “at the highest level” and that they could not do anything, explaining that it was “a matter of politics”.

When I objected against being isolated, I was told that, officially, I did not exist. The rather odd reasoning behind this statement was revealed by their words. “You have not crossed the border. Formally, you are not on the territory of Uzbekistan.”

At the same time, the border guards constantly emphasised that “it would be better if you bought a ticket and left the country of your own free will”. I replied that I would leave Uzbekistan only if I were officially deported.

I gained the impression that the border guards were deliberately keeping me in complete isolation in order to break me down psychologically and force me to buy a ticket out of Uzbekistan. Towards evening on the second day of my detention in the airport, I was taken into another building, where I was met by two men, who said they were Immigration Department officials. However, I was quickly convinced that these men were really officers of the NSS secret police, as they were very well acquainted with the details of my personal life in Tashkent, where I had lived for two years. They also let slip that they had been involved in crushing the uprising in Andijan.

My two new acquaintances immediately began to use classic secret police tactics towards me. One of them, who called himself Andrei Andreyevich, played the role of the polite “good cop,” whilst the other, who called himself Alisher, was the “bad cop.” Alisher told me that he would beat me up if I did not buy a ticket and leave Uzbekistan. I told him that he could, of course, do this, but that this behaviour would seriously damage the image of Uzbekistan. He then raised his hand threateningly against me, but then pushed my shoulder in a seemingly friendly way.

His colleague, “good cop” Andrei Andreyevich, tried to put pressure on me psychologically saying that “it’s quite pointless being obstinate, nobody has any interest in you and no one is even trying to help you. So just behave yourself, buy a ticket and depart.” I later discovered that Andreyevich’s statement that no one was trying to help me was a deliberate lie.

Andreyevich then told me that he and his “bad cop” colleague were being humane, and that this was the reason why they had not let me enter Uzbekistan. “If you had ended up on the territory of Uzbekistan, then we would have arrested you and brought a criminal charge against you. Our humane president has abolished the death penalty, so we would not have executed you, but you would have spent a very long time in prison”, he said.

When I asked what I could be put in prison for, as I had not broken any Uzbek laws, my new “immigration official” acquaintance replied that I would find that out if I crossed the border. My new acquaintances tried constantly to persuade me to buy a ticket and leave Uzbekistan, while I continued to insist on official deportation. Andrei Andreyevich stated that they could not do that, as officially I had not crossed the Uzbek border.

Then I told them that I would go on living in the transit hall until I was allowed to enter Uzbekistan. “I am a Russian citizen and our countries have an agreement that visas are not required, consequently you cannot refuse to allow me into Uzbekistan,” I said.

In reply, Andrei Andreyevich stated that they would never allow me into Uzbekistan. “By your libellous articles you have done great harm to Uzbekistan. The Uzbek nation’s patience is exhausted”, Andrei Andreyevich told me. In the end, not having gained my agreement to buying a ticket myself, they took me back to the airport. After about half an hour, they handed me an official deportation order and put me on an aeroplane without payment. The deportation order was formulated in an interesting way:

It’s a pre-printed Certificate of Deportation, filled in with my passport details and stating that I arrived from Bishkek at 9.50 on 11 August. Very interesting is the part of the form which asks the authorities to give a reason why “the holder of the document was refused entry to the Republic of Uzbekistan.” Instead of a reason, there is the bald statement “Entry to the Republic of Uzbekistan closed.” It was signed on 12 August by Sergeant B. F. Isakov.

No official gave me a specific reason why I was being deported. One official asked me if I knew why I was being deported, and when I began to guess at a reason, the official stopped me and said “just say yes or no.”

I was willing to be deported over land to nearby Kazakhkstan, but an official told me that “we’re not deporting you to Norway, or to England, but to Russia.” I explained to officials that detaining and deporting me would only attract negative attention to Uzbekistan, but was told that the country didn’t have specialists who could think like that.

I have once before been deported from Uzbekistan, in 1991, when I was a correspondent for the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta. But on that occasion, I was not handed a deportation order.

In conclusion, I wish to thank all the people who, I can say without any exaggeration, heroically fought for my release. These include Forum 18 News Service, Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Dansk Europamission, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch, the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, the International Helsinki Federation, International Religious Freedom Watch, the International Religious Liberty Association, the Jamestown Foundation, the Norsk Misjon i  ˜st, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Reporters Without Borders, several foreign ministries, and a range of news organisations such as Eurasianet, Ferghana.Ru and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. There are also many others who I am grateful to who I sadly cannot publicly name, as well as a large number of other people who helped me, even if I don’t know their names.

(END)

Igor Rotar’s last article on Uzbekistan before his unjustified detention was F18News 10 August http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=626

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 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=338

For more background, see Forum 18’s Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=546

For an outline of the repression immediately following the Andijan uprising, see F18News 23 May http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=567 and for an outline of what is known about Akramia and the uprising see 16 June http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=586

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

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