UZBEKISTAN (ANS) — Uzbekistan’s authorities continue to punish peaceful religious believers with fines, physical abuse and court-ordered destruction of religious literature.

Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south. Prior to 1991, it was part of the Soviet Union.

According to a story by Forum 18′s Mushfig Bayram, police in eastern Fergana Region raided the home of a Protestant couple in late July and are preparing an administrative case against them.

The police inspector who led the raid told Forum 18 that police found and confiscated “banned” religious literature. Asked what literature found in their home was banned, he identified the Bible and the New Testament.

Also in July, courts in the capital of Tashkent and eastern Syrdarya Region have handed down fines of up to one hundred times the minimum monthly wage to ten Protestants to punish them for unregistered activity.

In both cases, Forum 18 said, the courts ordered that confiscated Christian literature – including Bibles and New Testaments – be destroyed. Another court in central Samarkand Region fined a member of an officially registered Baptist Church for “illegal” religious teaching.

Court officials in Fergana and Syrdarya Regions declined to discuss the two cases with Forum 18, while in the Tashkent case the Assistant to the Judge tried to explain away their decision.

Unwilling to talk
Also unwilling to talk to Forum 18 were officials of the state Religious Affairs Committee in Tashkent, whose responsibility is to assist the country’s religious communities to fulfil their religious needs and regulate relations between them and the State.

Forum 18 tried to find out from Committee officials why peaceful religious activity continues to be punished, whether the Bible and New Testament are banned or cannot be stored in private homes, and why Bibles and New Testaments – among other religious literature – are ordered to be destroyed.

The Assistant to Committee Chair Artyk Yusupov (who did not give his name) told Forum 18 that Yusupov was busy in a meeting. Zulhaydar Sultanov, Head of the Committee’s International Relations Department, declined to comment, telling Forum 18, “I am no expert in those matters, and you called the wrong department.”

The official who answered the phone for Sobitjon Sharipov, Head of the Expert Analysis Department, (who did not give his name) said that Sharipov was not available and he could not answer questions over the phone.

“Please, come to our office, and we will give you information,” he said. When Forum 18 continued asking questions, he terminated the conversation.

Forum 18 said religious literature in Uzbekistan of all faiths remains under tight government censorship. Courts frequently order that religious material confiscated during raids – including Bibles – be destroyed

Assault during home raid
Police who raided a Protestant family home in Fergana physically abused the husband and confiscated Christian literature, a local Protestant speaking on condition of anonymity told Forum 18.

On the evening of July 23, 10 officers – three in police uniform and the rest in plain clothes -raided the home of a married couple, Muradiljon Umurzakov and Dilorom Mamasidikova, who were entertaining a friend, Ravshan Muminov.

Forum 18 said the raid was led by Fergana City’s Police Inspector Dilshod Ataugliyev from the Crime Prevention Unit, but other officers are believed to have been from the local National Security Service (NSS) Secret Police.

When Umurzakov asked the officials on what basis they “intruded and violated their privacy, and asked them to show their identification documents,”the police officers “twisted his arms, and threatened that they could continue physically to assault him,” the Protestant told Forum 18.

He continued, “The officers also threatened that they could open a criminal case against him.”

As a result of the shock, Umurzakov developed high blood pressure and an ambulance was called.

Unlawful search and seizure
The source also told Forum 18 that while the doctors were examining Umurzakov, the officers “without the hosts’ permission” unlocked his son’s room in the house. The son is currently working in Russia. The officials “without witnesses” confiscated from the son’s room a Bible, an Uzbek New Testament, a Proverbs of Solomon in Uzbek and a Koran in Russian.

All of these have been “authorised” by the Religious Affairs Committee to be imported into and sold in Uzbekistan, the Protestant said.

“We found out later that – in order to cover up their unlawful acts – the Police took an official letter from Akhat Akhmedaliyev, the chair of the local mahalla (residential district), saying that Umurzakov and his family were involved in illegal missionary activity among local Muslims,” the Protestant also told Forum 18.

Forum 18 said that Mahalla committees, the lowest level of administration in Uzbekistan, are used by the authorities as a key instrument in their attempts to control society, including by trying to prevent religious activity.

Police are preparing to open a case against the couple and Muminov under sections of the Administrative Code.

Forum 18 said police told Umurzakov that the confiscated books will be sent to the Religious Affairs Committee for “expert analysis,” after which a case will be opened against the three.

Are the Bible and Injil banned?
Police Inspector Ataugliyev defended the raid which he had led.

“We knew he (Umurzakov)stored banned religious literature in his home,” he told Forum 18. The inspector declined to tell Forum 18 how the police knew this.

Asked what literature found in Umurzakov’s home the police considered banned, Forum 18 said Ataugliyev said, “The Bible, Injil (Uzbek New Testament), and other books.”

Asked whether the Bible and New Testament are banned in Uzbekistan, Forum 18 reported he refused to say anything other than, “The case is under investigation at the moment.”

Forum 18 said he refused to talk further, and when asked whether he and his colleagues physically abused Umurzakov, he terminated the conversation.

Fined for “illegal” teaching of religion
Forum 18 said a member of an officially registered Baptist Church has been fined in central Samarkand Region for an alleged violation of the procedure for teaching religious doctrines).

Forum 18 said on Aug. 11, Judge Aziz Safarov of Nurabad District Criminal Court fined Shoira Allayarova, member of Nurabad Baptist Church, 57,200 Soms (or 33 US Dollars at the “inflated” official exchange rate), one month’s minimum wage (the presidentially-decreed official minimum monthly wage rose to 57,200 Soms on Aug. 1).

The court decision – viewed by Forum 18 – says that Allayarova “illegally” taught religion to Zamira Yarkulova, a resident of the village of Jom in Nurabad District.

However, Forum 18 reported, local Baptists, who asked not to be named, told the news organization that they believe that the authorities specifically targeted Allayarova, who has hearing deficiency, and was born to parents who cannot hear or talk.

“The authorities punished her because she was also giving material help to Zamina,” they told Forum 18.

Reached on Aug. 25, Judge Safarov took down Forum 18′s name. But when asked why he fined Allayarova, and whether it is illegal in Uzbekistan for individuals to share their beliefs with others, he hung the phone up.

TASHKENT, UZBEKISTAN (ANS) — A respected news service is reporting that in Uzbekistan, Police have assaulted a Baptist women, and have also raided a Baptist church for giving a gift to a children’s home.

In the first case, Forum 18 (www.forum18.org) says that Uzbekistan has levied a large fine on a Baptist in the capital Tashkent – who was allegedly physically assaulted by police – for giving a children’s Bible to a work colleague.

The policeman who was said to have assaulted Galina Shemetova denied to Forum 18, a news service based in Oslo, Norway, that he had done anything wrong.

Forum 18 explained that Galina Shemetova, a female member of an officially registered Baptist Church, gave a children’s Bible in the summer 2010 to one of her work colleagues at the Tashkent Metro. She was subsequently charged under the Code of Administrative Offences’ Article 240 Part 2 (“Attracting believers of one confession to another (proselytism) and other missionary activity”).

“The existence of this ‘offence’ breaks the international human rights standards Uzbekistan has formally committed itself to implement,” said Forum 18.

The news service went on to say that on Friday, April 1, 2011, Shemetova was leaving a Tashkent hospital after medical treatment, for which she had been granted sick leave from her work. Then, in the sight of medical personnel, “police officer Vadim Kim of the Metro Police struck Shemetova on the head, and dragged her by her hair into a police car”, a person who wished to remain anonymous for fear of state reprisals told Forum 18 on 14 April.

Officer Kim categorically denied to Forum 18 on April 14 that he had done anything wrong. “She is a provocateur. In fact, she was yelling and calling for help for nothing”, he claimed. “She was hiding from the police for one week pretending to be ill, and we needed to bring her to the court.” Asked what Shemetova had done wrong, Kim replied that “she is a missionary and violated the law”. He then hung up the phone.

“As is usual in cases of police violence and brutality, no investigation has been launched by the authorities,” said Forum 18. “Violence and torture, or threats of this, is ‘routine’ the UN Committee Against Torture has found. Women in particular are often targeted by such assaults and then fined.”

Gift to children’s home leads to raid and warning
In another case, Forum 18 has reported that in the central Navoi [Nawoiy] Region, an officially registered Baptist church’s gift to an Children’s Home has led to the church being raided and its pastor being given an official warning. Zarafshan Baptist Church decided at its August 15, 2010 general meeting to transfer 400,000 Soms ($235 US Dollars) to the bank account of the local Children’s Home, which is called “Happiness”.

The Church – as it is required to do – sends its quarterly financial statements to the regional Justice Department. This led to a raid on March 12, 2011 and a formal written warning from Khudayberdy Norkobilov, Zarafshan’s Public Prosecutor, and other officials on March 28.

Zarafshan city officials were reluctant to explain the raid and the warning, but Norkobilov and Nizomidding Ergashev, head of the city’s Tax Department, told Forum 18 that the order to do this “came from the Justice Department.”

The written warning, which Forum 18 has seen, tells Pastor Dmitriy Butov that the Church needs to correct “violations” found by the Zarafshan officials on 12 March 12, and that the transfer of funds to the Happiness Children’s Home breaks the Administrative Code’s Article 175 (“Violation of order of cash transactions and financial discipline”). The warning states that “if you violate the same article of the law in future, you may be liable to an administrative punishment”.

No official would tell Forum 18 what will happen to the funds the Church gave the Children’s Home.

The other officials who signed the warning were O. Sultonov and A. Kahromonov (first names not given) of the city Justice Department, Khurshid Normurodov of the city Tax Department, and Kh. Ergashev (first name not given) of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

A source from Zarafshan, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of state reprisals, told Forum 18 that the alleged “violations” were:

• the Church did not have a protocol of the Church’s Board appointing Dmitriy Butov as its pastor;

• the Church did not have written regulations on when, where and what time events will be held;

• there was no notice over a water tap giving the personal data of the person responsible for regulating the Church’s use of water;

• the Church without a decision of its Board, illegally transferred from its bank account 400,000 Soms to the account of the Happiness Children’s Home;

• and that there were no records of the Church’s Audit Committee.

“The source stated that all these claims are without foundation, noting for example that the decision to give money was made by a church general meeting, and stated that “all the other claims by the authorities are based on neither the Charter of the Church nor Uzbekistan’s law,” said the news service.

Forum 18 is aware that Pastor Butov already has written a complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, challenging the lawfulness of the warning.

The Zarafshan Justice Department’s Kahromonov (who refused to give his first name) told Forum 18 on 31 March that he does not understand Forum 18′s question, when asked what is wrong with donating money to an Children’s Home. He hung up the phone when asked questions about the raid.

“There is nothing wrong with giving gifts to the Children’s Home, and you need to pose your questions, to the Justice Department,” head of the Tax Department Ergashev told Forum 18 on March 31. He said that he did not know what decision will be made about the money transferred by the Church. (END)

For more background, see Forum 18′s Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at:
www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1170 .

On 18 January Uzbek police arrested Tohar Haydarov (27), took him to a local police station and allegedly pressured him to renounce his faith. When he refused, they reportedly planted drugs in his pocket. The police took Haydarov’s keys, searched his home and reportedly found more drugs. Haydarov was subsequently detained for three days during which it is believed he was beaten and forced to sign papers. Fellow Baptists were not permitted to testify at Haydarov’s trial on 4 March. On 5 March, Haydarov’s father (who lived with Haydarov) was found dead in their home. According to the official report, he died as a result of accidental electrocution. On 9 March, Guliston City Criminal Court sentenced Haydarov to 10 years in prison on charges of drugs possession and trafficking. Not only are local Baptists adamant that Haydarov is ‘a man with a pure conscience and an honest Christian’, but several of Haydarov’s neighbours have issued written statements testifying to his good character.

Those who have followed religious liberty in Uzbekistan for more than a decade will recognise this scenario with a profound sense of déjà vu. In 1997 after a surge of Wahhabist activity and terrorism in the volatile Fergana Valley, Uzbek authorities instigated a crackdown on ‘non-traditional’ and ‘foreign’ religious movements. In May 1998 the parliament passed a number of repressive laws on religion, complete with harsh penalties. The provision that a group must have 100 adult members before it can be registered (i.e. legalised) put registration out of the reach of most Protestant fellowships. And that was only the start of their problems.

In July1998 Protestant pastor Sergei Brazgin was fined for illegal missionary activity. In February 1999 he was charged with illegal religious activity and sentenced to two years in prison. In March 1999 Uzbek authorities arrested Pastor Rashid Turibayev (22) of the unregistered Karakalpak Full Gospel Christian Church along with two of his associates, Farkhad Yangibayev and Yasif Tarashev. To justify the arrests, the police planted narcotics on them. All three were convicted of drug charges, with Turibayev being sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labour, while his associates were sentenced to 10 years each. In May 1999 Pastor Na’il Asanov (27) was arrested. Like Turibayev, he had been seeking registration for his church. Asanov was beaten and drugs were planted on him. The regional court in Bukhara sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment on charges of possessing drugs and spreading extremist ideas. On 24 June 1999 Pastor Ibrahim Yusupov of an unregistered Tashkent Christian church was sentenced to one year in prison for proselytising.

Then on 20 August 1999 President Karimov pardoned Brazgin, Turibayev, Yangibayev, Tarashev, Asanov and Yusupov and ordered their release. So what changed? The US was about to issue its first International Religious Freedom Report under the US International Freedom from Religious Persecution (IFRP) Act of October 1998 which ties US foreign policy to religious freedom. After talks with US officials, Uzbekistan (which is 83 percent Muslim) released its religious prisoners to avoid US sanctions. Whilst harassment continued, religious liberty did improve. Then in May 2005 the US hastily chastised and sanctioned Uzbekistan after it put down a violent attempted Islamist coup in Andijan in the Fergana Valley. With the US no longer considered an ally, persecution of Protestants (considered to be lackeys of the West) began to escalate. Persecution has escalated further since the global financial crisis of August 2008, an event which has largely stripped the US IFRP Act of its economic leverage.

Endemic systematic corruption threatens the state by fuelling the mass disaffection which is driving impoverished and abused Muslims into the arms of dangerous Islamists. As Uzbekistan struggles against jihadist and revolutionary Islam, it seems to be quite pleased that the global financial collapse of August 2008 has largely destroyed the US economic leverage that powered the IFRP Act, and Muslim-appeasing persecution of ‘provocative’ Protestants can resume with impunity.

‘About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.’ (Acts 12:1-3a ESV)

WE SPECIFICALLY PRAY THAT GOD WILL –

* intervene in Uzbekistan to defend his fledgling harassed, persecuted and besieged Church, frustrating the schemes of the wicked (Psalm 146:9) and building his Church, just as he has promised (Matthew 16:18).

* bless and multiply every ‘provocative’ word and deed of gospel witness so that nothing said or done for the Lord’s glory will have been in vain. ‘Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.’ (1 Corinthians15:58 ESV)

* bless and protect Tohar Haydarov (27), now sentenced to ten years prison for a crime he did not commit; and Pastor Dmitry Shestakov (40) of the Full Gospel Church in Andijan, who was sentenced to four years prison in March 2007 for his religious activity. May they be used for God’s glory, being assured of Christ’s everlasting love and eternal presence (Matthew 28:20) and knowing his sustaining and all-sufficient grace (Isaiah 40:29-31; 2 Corinthians 12:9).

UZBEKISTAN (ANS) — A Protestant from the Karakalpakstan area of north-west Uzbekistan faces criminal trial later in July on charges of teaching religion without official approval, and establishing or participating in a state dubbed “religious extremist” organization.

Uzbekistan is located in Central Asia, north of Afghanistan.

According to a story by Forum 18′s Mushfig Bayram, the news service learned this from the investigator in the case Bahadur Jakbaev.

One of the two charges Aimurat Khayburahmanov faces – establishing or participating in a “religious extremist” organization – carries a penalty of up to 15 years imprisonment. Jakbaev denied reports from local Protestants reaching Forum 18 that Khayburahmanov has been beaten in prison since his June 14 arrest. He claimed his health is “fine.”

According to Forum 18, Karakalpakstan Region operates a very harsh religious policy, with all non state-controlled Muslim and non-Russian Orthodox activity being a criminal offence.

Asked what behavior in Khayburahmanov’s activity characterizes him as an “extremist,” Jakbaev told Forum 18 that he gathered people in his home and read “prohibited” Christian literature, as determined by the Karakalpakstan Religious Affairs Committee.

“The Bible is not prohibited in Uzbekistan, but there are Christian books that are,” Jakbaev told Forum 18.

Asked by Forum18 which “prohibited” books Khayburahmanov had been reading, Jakbaev refused to say. All he would say was that the Religious Affairs Committee expert analysis had found them to be banned. He insisted that imprisonment is not too harsh a punishment for reading “prohibited” Christian books.

Jakbaev told Forum 18 that Khayburahmanov has been charged under two articles of the Criminal Code. The first is Article 229-2, which punishes teaching religion without proper education or permission with a sentence of up to three years imprisonment.

The second was Article 244-2, part 1, which punishes establishing or participating in a “religious extremist” organization with a sentence of between five and 15 years imprisonment.

Local Protestants believe Khayburahmanov is being prosecuted to allow the police later to charge another Nukus-based Protestant, Jandos Kuandikov.

“Actually the police are mainly trying to put Jandos in prison,” one Protestant who knows Khayburahmanov told Forum 18. He added, “Aimurat would then be considered as Jandos’ accomplice.”

The Protestant told Forum 18 that the police did not allow any visits to Khayburahmanov until two days earlier.

“I heard that Aimurat was beaten many times and forced to write a statement implicating Jandos,” he said. Khayburahmanov’s body was “covered with bruises” from beatings, the Protestant said he was told.

Jakbaev, the investigator, denied that the police had not allowed visits to Khayburahmanov in the isolation cell. “His friend and father just came to visit him,” he told Forum 18.

Forum 18 reported that eight police officers raided Kuandikov’s home in Nukus on June 14, claiming to be conducting an identity check. Although Kuandikov was not at home, Khayburahmanov was there, helping the Kuandikov family prepare for a local wedding.

After Kuandikov returned to his house, he asked the police to show documents authorizing the identity check. The house search lasted until 9 p.m. Police confiscated books, notebooks, videocassettes of weddings and a computer. They also took Kuandikov’s passport. Kuandikov, Khayburahmanov and several relatives were then taken to the police station, where they were questioned. Everyone except Khayburahmonov were freed at 1 a.m. the next day.

Forum 18 said the news service tried to find out from Karakalpakstan’s Religious Affairs Committee why some Christian books are prohibited in Uzbekistan, but phone calls to the committee were not answered.

Forum 18 said the man who answered the phone at the government’s Religious Affairs Committee in the capital city Tashkent refused to answer any questions about Khayburahmanov’s arrest and forthcoming trial. He told Forum 18 that they do not give telephone interviews, and hung the phone up.

One Protestant told Forum 18 that Kuandikov’s passport, computer and other confiscated property have still been not returned to him. The passport had been confiscated by a police officer named Fayzulla (last name unknown).

“He asked Fayzulla for his passport back,” the Protestant told Forum 18. “But Fayzulla told him that Bahadur Jakbaev, the investigator in Aimurat’s case, has it.” The Protestant said that Kuandikov feels he is being “kicked around like a football” by the authorities.

Jakbaev claims that he has already given Kuandikov’s passport to the local police. “Kuandikov should contact his local police and talk to them,” he told Forum 18.

Asked by Forum 18 if criminal charges are being brought against Kuandikov as well, Jakbaev said that only administrative charges are being brought against him. He refused to specify exactly what charges.

Meanwhile, Protestants who spoke on condition of anonymity told Forum 18 that several members of a Protestant congregation in the central city of Samarkand have been facing renewed harassment from officials. They said that officials from the Prosecutor’s Office have visited church members homes since early July, threatened them and summoned them for questioning.

“As they never present their summonses in writing the church members refuse to go,” one Protestant told Forum 18. “But there’s no guarantee that they won’t seize people on the street.”

Forum 18 said that the head of Uzbekistan’s Jewish community, Chief Rabbi Abe David Gurevich, finally left Uzbekistan on June 5 after the Justice Ministry refused to renew the accreditation for him and his wife Malka to work in the country. Their visas also expired.

“His return to the country depends on whether or not he will get a visa from the Uzbek authorities,” a Jewish representative told Forum 18.

The news service said that Russian-born Gurevich, who carries a United States and an Israeli passport, had worked in Uzbekistan since 1990. The refusal to allow him to continue working there came despite an appeal to the Justice Ministry signed in April by nearly 90 members of Tashkent’s Jewish community.

For more background, see Forum 18′s Uzbekistan religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=777.

Editor’s note from Dan Wooding, Assist News Serve: By way of clarification, ANS has received written permission from Forum 18 New Service to re-work any of their stories so they may reach an even wider audience.