Five members of a non-denominational Protestant church in
the town of Abadan (formerly Bezmein) near the capital Ashgabad have been fined
for meeting as an unregistered religious community, Forum 18 News Service has
learnt from sources in Turkmenistan. The fines were handed down on 4 June, four
days after a private flat where Protestants were meeting was raided by the
authorities. One church member has written an open letter to President
Saparmurat Niyazov, calling for sweeping changes to Turkmenistan's religious
policy, an end to the repression of believers and an end to the system whereby
an Orthodox clergyman can restrict the rights of other faiths and
denominations.
The administrative commission of Abadan hyakimlik (administration) handed down
the fines of 250,000 manats (328 Norwegian kroner, 40 Euros or 47 US dollars)
each on Nuri Berdiev and his wife Nabat Niyazova, the owners of the flat raided
by the authorities, as well as on Guzelya Syraeva, Lyudmila Galkina and Akgulya
Niyazova. "Nuri complained that the fines on himself and on his wife are a
heavy burden for the family to bear," a church member told Forum 18.
"They may try to make it lower." Threats by the police and National
Security Committee (KNB, former KGB) to confiscate Berdiev's flat, deport
Syraeva from the country and deprive the others of the means of earning a
living seem not to have been carried through.
Berdiev and Niyazova's flat was raided on 31 May, Christian books were
confiscated and all the adults present were forced to go to the police station
(see F18News 3 June 2003). The fines followed five days of long interrogations
at the police and the hyakimlik which involved the hyakim of Abadan, the local
police chief Gigeldi Annamukhamedov, the local KNB chief, the senior local
Muslim cleric and other officials. During the interrogations, the five local
Protestants were joined voluntarily by Radik Zakirov, a fellow Protestant from
Ashgabad.
Despite the fines, the Protestants vow they will not give up practising their
faith. "The authorities found us guilty of meeting without permission, but
we are still going to meet, and they know this," one church member told
Forum 18.
In view of what he described as "lawless and arbitrary action"
against the Protestants in Abadan as the KNB "tried to remove from us our
legal right to meet together simply because we are Evangelical
Christians", Zakirov wrote to President Niyazov on 4 June. "The
discrediting of the legal bases of Turkmenistan's society which has taken place
in recent days leaves us with no hope that the situation will change for the
better without special intervention from you as head of state."
Zakirov, who is a Turkmen citizen, quoted one police officer, Dortguly, as
telling him: "In 1991 we gained independence, but until now you try to
force your religion on us together with foreigners and spread your beliefs. Go
back and meet together with your God there, at home. Here it is a Muslim
country and a Muslim people and if you want to, go to the mosque and adopt
Islam as your faith!"
He quoted one KNB officer, Batyr, as having told the Protestants: "We are
banning you from meeting and we're doing this on a legal basis." The
officer described Article 205 of the administrative code, which punishes
religious activity by unregistered groups, as "the foundation of our
actions".
Batyr then added: "In taking religious literature from those who consider
themselves as Christians we rely on the written instructions of Father Andrei
Sapunov, representative of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Gengeshi
[Committee] for religious affairs under the president of Turkmenistan. Here is
his testimony about the Bibles we're confiscating from you." He then
showed them a document signed by Father Andrei which included the phrase:
"If there is no Orthodox cross on the Bible, it is a false Bible."
Zakirov called for the abolition of Article 205 of the administrative code, as
well as for the religion law to be amended. "As the law on freedom of
conscience and religious belief violates Articles 6 and 7 of the [1981] United
Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of
Discrimination based on Religion or Belief, I ask you to initiate a proposal to
Turkmenistan's legislative body to amend it in favour of the right to freedom
of religious belief which Turkmenistan recognises."
He also called for a review of the activity of the Gengeshi for Religious
Affairs, recalling that he had personally spoken to Father Sapunov in his
office there in 1996 about the possibility of opening a Christian bookshop.
"During the talk Andrei Sapunov personally threatened me and fellow
Evangelical Christian believers that he would set the National Security
Committee [KNB] onto us if we did anything in any way in public." He
called for changes to prevent "a representative of one denomination or
confession from being able to pressure other denominations or confessions that
oppose him, or to play a role as informer to the KNB or other state
bodies".
In view of the denial of registration to Protestant congregations, Zakirov
asked for clarification from President Niyazov over whether Protestant
Christian activity violates the constitution and laws or not.
Zakirov said he had sent his open letter to various government institutions
with the hope that they would pass it on to the president, as well as to the
Ashgabad office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE). However, he said he and his fellow-Protestants had not yet been able to
meet OSCE officials. "They are always busy, and finally they told me I may
call next Tuesday and ask again if they will meet us," he told Forum 18.
Neither Dieter Matthei, political officer at the OSCE office, nor Marioe-Jose
van Rie, human dimension officer, have been prepared to talk to Forum 18 about
the repression of religious believers.
The raid on the Abadan church came amid mounting pressure on Protestant
congregations in Turkmenistan, with at least seven Protestant congregations
raided in May. No Protestant churches have been allowed to register with the
government, which treats all Protestant activity as illegal.