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

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20 August 2008

KAZAKHSTAN: NATIONWIDE RELIGIOUS PROPERTY SEIZURES CONTINUE

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1174

Almaty regional Public Prosecutor’s Office seems keen to seize property from religious communities, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Six property cases against Christian and Muslim religious organisations in the region are known to have been initiated since mid-June. Amongst them is Agafe Protestant Church, the regional Economic Court ruling – despite numerous violations of due process – that the Church’s building and land should be confiscated. A defence lawyer has received anonymous death threats, and an appeal will take place on 27 August. The regions’ Hare Krishna commune also continues to struggle to retain its property. Similar attempts to seize religious property continue elsewhere in Kazakhstan. Near the north-western town of Alga, New Life Protestant Church has been evicted from its building. Grace Protestant Church in Semey, eastern Kazakhstan, has been forced to brick up windows, as the Fire Brigade insists on this “in case there is a fire in the neighbouring property.” The Church has also been prohibited from using its own building.

18 August 2008

RUSSIA: DETAINED AND TORTURED FOR FAITH, KABARDINO-BALKARIA MUSLIMS CLAIM

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1171

Some young Muslims facing trial for a militant attack on the state security services in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria three years ago were in fact arrested due to their active faith, Forum 18 News Service has been told. As frequent mosque-goers, they and relatives say they were already blacklisted as Islamic extremists by police, who used torture to extract confessions. These claims are “lies” and “rubbish”, Forum 18 was told at the detention centre in Nalchik where they are currently held by that institution’s assistant head. Unproven suspicions of Islamic militancy resulted in the arrest of one detainee, former Guantanamo Bay inmate Rasul Kudayev, his mother told Forum 18. * See full article below. *

19 August 2008

RUSSIA: STATE PERSECUTION WRECKED RELIGIOUS LIFE, KABARDINO-BALKARIA MUSLIMS CLAIM

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1172

A sustained crackdown on Muslims by the local authorities in the traditionally Muslim North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria preceded the bloody uprising three years ago in the capital, Nalchik, Forum 18 News Service has been told. Local Muslims report mosque closures, arbitrary detentions and police brutality. “The police would keep rounding them up, beating them up, then throwing them out again,” the mother of two young Muslims killed in the 2005 attack told Forum 18. State representatives have denied to Forum 18 that this was the case, while admitting that, “maybe some police spoke roughly, but it was interrogation, and interrogation isn’t dancing.” Contrary to the state’s claims, local Muslims insist that mosques were not centres for extremist activity.

20 August 2008

RUSSIA: KABARDINO-BALKARIA MOSQUE-GOERS BLACKLISTED AS EXTREMIST

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1173 Names of those detained or wanted for Islamic extremism in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria were culled from “Wahhabi lists” – police records of regular mosque-goers, local Muslims have told Forum 18 News Service. The republic’s late President, Valeri Kokov, in 2002 announced the compilation of a list of 400 Islamic extremists and the authorities’ readiness “to take any measures against them, including physical elimination.” At the top of the list were the three leaders of the main rival organisation to Kabardino-Balkaria’s Muslim Spiritual Directorate, all of whom have since gone missing. A state representative denied the existence of the “Wahhabi lists” to Forum 18. The head of the Spiritual Directorate acknowledged to Forum 18 the possibility that some ordinary Muslims may have been targeted by police, but added that, “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs.”

21 August 2008

RUSSIA: ONE MUSLIM’S BLIGHTED LIFE IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1175 Until 2004, Kabardian radio presenter Ali Pshigotyzhev enthusiastically spread Islam with the assistant directors of the Islamic Research Institute, the main rival to Kabardino-Balkaria’s Muslim Spiritual Directorate. Then, at the height of the North Caucasus republic’s crackdown on active Muslims and a few years before his retirement, he was sacked for religious reasons, he told Forum 18 News Service. “But praise be to Allah, now I can devote the rest of my life to studying and writing about Islam.” Ali’s son Zaur was similarly laid off from his police job in 2003, and wrongly convicted of distributing extremist literature and possession of firearms in 2004, his father insists. Zaur Pshigotyzhev was also detained and allegedly tortured following the 2005 uprising in the capital, Nalchik, but released due to numerous witness statements in his defence. Kabardino-Balkaria Public Prosecutor’s Office has refused to comment to Forum 18.

22 August 2008

RUSSIA: KABARDINO-BALKARIA MUSLIMS STILL AFRAID

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1177 Little has changed for practising Muslims in the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria since a state crackdown on alleged Islamic extremists culminated in a failed 2005 uprising, Forum 18 News Service has been told. The capital of what is a traditionally Muslim region still has only two functioning mosques. In violation of Russia’s federal Religion Law, organised Islamic activity is possible only within the republic’s Muslim Spiritual Directorate. Mosque-goers report that they are still watched by the state or turned in to police by older worshippers, forcing many young Muslims to pray at home. “The Soviet times have come back,” the widow of one remarked to Forum 18. Mufti Anas Pshikhachev defended police surveillance of mosques, telling Forum 18, “The state must know everything.” State representatives have rejected allegations of abuse.

21 August 2008

UZBEKISTAN: ATTACKS, INCLUDING VIOLENCE, AGAINST RELIGIOUS MINORITIES CONTINUE

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1176 Uzbekistan is continuing its nationwide attacks on religious minorities, Forum 18 News Service notes. The trial of Aimurat Khayburahmanov, a Protestant detained since 14 June in the north-west of the country, is in progress. He faces a possible sentence of between five and 15 years’ imprisonment, and is being tried for teaching religion without official approval and establishing or participating in a “religious extremist” organisation. In a related case, Jandos Kuandikov, another local Protestant, has been fined for unregistered religious activity. The judge in that case, Bakhtiyor Urumbaev, claimed to Forum 18 that the Immanuel and Full Gospel churches were banned in Uzbekistan. Kuandikov disputes this, pointing out that his church is seeking re-registration. In a separate case, Navoi police in central Uzbekistan have claimed that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are banned in the country. Officials of the state Religious Affairs Committee have neither confirmed nor denied both these claims. Also, Navoi police have denied that they beat up three Jehovah’s Witnesses, the female victim suffering concussion and being denied hospital treatment.

18 August 2008

RUSSIA: DETAINED AND TORTURED FOR FAITH, KABARDINO-BALKARIA MUSLIMS CLAIM

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1171

By Geraldine Fagan, Moscow Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Detained for almost three years, some young Muslims accused of instigating a bloody 2005 uprising in the North Caucasus city of Nalchik were arrested due to their active faith and have undergone gruesome torture to extract confessions, Forum 18 News Service has been told.

In the failed 13-14 October 2005 attack, some 200 militants targeted state security departments in Nalchik, capital of the southern Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria. Subsequent street battles led to the deaths of 95 attackers and 35 government forces. Fourteen civilians were killed and over 100 wounded in the crossfire.

Further to some 2,000 arrests in the wake of the events, 59 suspects are currently detained in Nalchik, their trial adjourned.

“What right do they have to label people terrorists, Wahhabis?” the mother of detainee Rasul Kudayev implored to Forum 18 in Nalchik on 24 July. Fatima Tekayeva insists many of those detained were arrested solely because they follow Islam. Hundreds of pious young Muslims were entered onto police “Wahhabi lists” before the 2005 uprising, she and other relatives of the accused explained to Forum 18 (see F18News 20 August 2007 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1173>).

“Wahhabism” is a loose term for Islamic extremism commonly used in Russia and Central Asia (see F18News 8 August 2007 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1004>).

One detainee, Zaur Tokhov, did not take part in the uprising, he claims in a 17 June 2008 statement passed to Forum 18. Held at Kabardino-Balkaria’s organised crime police department on 14 October 2005, he was beaten and given electric shocks through the back, hands and feet until on the point of losing consciousness, “but when they attached the wires to my ears, that was real torture.” Police then moved to throw him from a balcony – where Tokhov says he saw one detainee lying dead having apparently already been thrown onto the ground below – but instead began shooting close to his head with a pistol. When two officers then began to interrogate him, he at first refused to say what they demanded, but more beat him again and insisted that he say, “kafirs [infidels] should be killed and cops are kafirs.” After several days of this treatment, says Tokhov, “they forced me to say everything.”

Transferred to Nalchik’s Detention Centre 7/1 on 16 October 2005, Tokhov found treatment of detainees by prison staff – including a woman – such that he “began to think they were not people, but satans in uniform.” One, for example, struck him with a broken glass ashtray, laughed that pieces of flesh remained on the ashtray and demanded that he ate them.

Tokhov was then taken to a cell where he was told his cellmates would beat him, as “everyone hates you Wahhabis.” Instead, however, two who were Muslims washed his wounds and prayed with him; “I prayed sitting down, as I couldn’t stand.” Surprised that Tokhov continued praying, one of the guards entered the cell the following morning and beat him, saying, “He’s still daring to pray.” The female prison guard questioned whether Tokhov might also be fasting – it being Ramadan – and forced him to drink water to break the fast. He subsequently had to hide the fact that he was praying by praying lying down, and fasting by pretending to drink.

During further interrogation, Tokhov says he was given prepared answers to questions, beaten when he refused to repeat them and forced to sign statements he had not read. While ill-treatment carries on in different forms, he concludes, it is no longer as severe.

Briefer accounts by detainees Eduard Mironov and Zalim Ulimbashev published by Regnum Information Agency on 23 June 2008 also describe repeated beatings and torture using electric shocks. Rasul Kudayev has similarly been kicked, beaten and given electric shocks until in a semi-conscious state, according to Amnesty International.

Azamat Akhkubekov was also badly beaten and tortured using electric shocks during the initial months of his detention, his wife Alyona told Forum 18 on 24 July. A few weeks ago Akhkubekov’s lungs required drainage, as they were two-thirds full of fluid due to being punctured by ribs broken during beatings, she maintained. Insisting that her husband had not participated in the 2005 uprising, Akhkubekova told Forum 18 he turned to Islam while in prison in 2002, and began to pray five times a day there. “Anyone who does that automatically goes on a Wahhabi list.”

Declining to be named, the camouflage-uniformed assistant head of Detention Centre 7/1 insisted to Forum 18 that reports of torture were “lies” and “rubbish”: “We don’t touch them – that’s the law.” He refused Forum 18’s request to see inside the prison complex on 27 July, however. “I have no right to show you anything,” he remarked. “This is a closed institution.” Asked about conditions for detainees, the assistant prison head described them as “ideal – like this,” and pointed to a whitewashed exterior wall.

Those detained in 2005 intended to stage a coup, Mufti Anas Pshikhachev, who heads Kabardino-Balkaria’s Muslim Spiritual Directorate, maintained to Forum 18 on 25 July. “Some went to mosque, of course (..) but religion doesn’t call on people to take up guns and start shooting. You don’t resolve problems like that in a civilised society.”

A deputy representing the pro-Kremlin United Russia party in the Nalchik suburb of Khasanya was even detained by organised crime police in the wake of the uprising, he told Gazeta national daily newspaper in October 2005. “Masked men flew at me, swearing, as if I were a criminal,” Ramazan Tembotov recalled. “Unlike the others, they didn’t beat me though – they led me through offices and cellars and showed me what they do with other detainees: torture as in the Gestapo.” Tembotov believes a phone call to his contacts in the FSB security service saved him from ill-treatment.

“Thank you, President Bush!” Fatima Tekayeva sighed to Forum 18 with an ironic smile. “America did us such a great favour.” After two years’ incarceration at Guantanamo Bay Detention Centre, the finger of suspicion inevitably pointed at her son following the 2005 Nalchik uprising, even though the United States found no case against him, she explained.

Kabardino-Balkaria’s junior wrestling champion, Rasul Kudayev travelled to Central Asia in 2001 to pursue his sporting career and religious education, according to Tekayeva. Suspected as a Russian spy, he was imprisoned in Afghanistan until the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, when he was handed over to the United States by Northern Alliance forces. In February 2004 the US extradited Kudayev to Russia on assurance that he would not be tortured.

Tekayeva insists that her son was not involved in the Nalchik uprising. On the morning of 13 October 2005 she was due to appear as a witness at a court hearing in central Nalchik, she pointed out to Forum 18. “We discussed this over tea the night before – if Rasul was the leader, as they say, or even a participant, he should have known that something was going to happen and said, ‘Mum, why don’t you stay at home tomorrow?'” Tekayeva also queries why her son was not detained until 23 October. “The federal forces sent for him also wondered about that. ‘Are they idiots,’ they asked, ‘waiting ten days before apprehending an international terrorist?'”

Kudayev denies any link with the 2005 Nalchik uprising instigators to Russian state TV news reporters in an interview recorded shortly after the events and viewed by Forum 18. Asked what he believes Islam to be, he replies, “Not killing people and living in peace.”

Magomed Abubakarov, Kudayev’s lawyer and an ethnic Chechen, believes the authorities’ methods in Kabardino-Balkaria parallel those in his native region, “except in Chechnya a person would never be persecuted for going to mosque frequently.” First, he told Forum 18 on 24 July, “they get a person on whom they don’t actually have anything, he’s just a suspect.” Then, “torture, torture, torture – confession.” (END)

For a personal commentary by Irina Budkina, editor of the <http://www.samstar.ru> Old Believer website, about continuing denial of equality to Russia’s religious minorities, see F18News 26 May 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=570>.

For more background see Forum 18’s Russia religious freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=947>.

Reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Russia can be found at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=10>.

A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html? Parent=europe&Rootmap=russi>. (END)

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