A senior pastor of the Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ
has accused the authorities of launching a campaign against it in recent
months, using any excuses to close down the Church and its affiliates in
various parts of Kyrgyzstan. Vasili Kuzin, pastor of the church in the capital
Bishkek, told Forum 18 News Service on 13 June that congregations in Karakol
and Osh have been ordered closed after registration was denied on various
pretexts, while his Bishkek church is under threat. "We have not managed
to register our affiliates in the provinces and the authorities are taking
active advantage of that," he complained.
In Bishkek, the authorities have threatened to cut off electricity and water to
the church because the buildings in which the church is based supposedly fail
to meet building standards. "But our church in Bishkek is registered with
the government's Committee for Religious Affairs and so the authorities are
hard-pressed to find genuine reasons to put pressure on us here," Pastor
Kuzin told Forum 18.
On 4 June two officials of the religious affairs committee visited the church
in Karakol, a town on the shores of Lake Isyk-kul in north-west Kyrgyzstan.
They had given no prior notification of their visit. They told Alima Shvidko,
who pastors the congregation with her husband Dennis, that the church should be
closed from that day because it was not registered. According to Shvidko, the
church had submitted its registration application to the religious affairs
committee in 1998, but officials had never processed it. "They keep saying
there is something wrong with the papers, but won't say what needs to be done
to put them right," she told Forum 18 from Karakol on 5 June.
At the beginning of this year, the church re-submitted its papers. However,
when they submitted the registration application, the chief specialist at the
committee told them the Church of Jesus Christ was a "monster" which
they would deal with very shortly. Soon afterwards the committee responded that
the registration papers had not been drawn up correctly, although the church
maintains it had rectified all the previous errors.
The Church of Jesus Christ in Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan, which has existed for
seven years and now has some 400 members, is experiencing similar problems. The
church was closed down by the authorities in April for operating without
registration. The church's pastor Sergei Makarov had submitted all the
documents required for registration to the Committee for Religious Affairs two
years ago. One year ago Makarov was told to amend the papers, which he did.
Four months ago, the pastor had a meeting with religious affairs official
Botoev, who said the committee was satisfied with the papers and had decided to
reregister the church. He said it was sending all the papers to the Osh
religious affairs committee and that in two months Makarov's church would be
registered. Now that same committee has closed down the church because the
church does not have the right papers. Officials gave no written notification
of the closure.
After the Osh church's closure its members began to meet in private apartments.
However, according to Kuzin, he received a telephone call from the religious
affairs committee warning him that such meetings were inadmissible and
threatening that the Bishkek church would lose its registered status if church
members in Osh did not stop meeting in apartments.
Besides refusing registration, the authorities are trying to put pressure on
their churches in other ways, Pastor Shvidko told Forum 18. For example, the
authorities claim the building in which the Karakol church is based does not
conform to building standards, while the pastor of the Osh church is being told
to pay 20,000 US dollars for the land on which the church is situated.
Kyrgyzstan's religion law does not make registration compulsory. However,
registration of a religious association is required under a presidential decree
dated 14 November 1996 "On measures relating to the religious rights of
citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic". According to this decree "Religious
organisations and their associations are required to undergo registration at
the state commission for religious affairs, under the auspices of the
government of the Kyrgyz Republic. The activity of religious organisations that
are not registered is forbidden."
Under Kyrgyz law, the presidential decree holds "more weight" than
the law. However in practice the authorities have almost never obstructed the
activity of unregistered religious associations. For example, in the south of
the country only around half the functioning mosques are registered with the
religious affairs committee. Nor do Baptists who refuse to register on
principle experience any difficulties. Unlike other Central Asian republics, no
members of unregistered religious communities are known to have been prosecuted
under the code of administrative offences.
"I am aware of the problem of the affiliates of the Church of Jesus Christ
in Osh and Karakol," the chairman of the Committee for Religious Affairs
Murmurzak Mamayusupov, told Forum 18 from Bishkek on 13 June. "No-one is
putting obstacles in the way of their registration. Moreover, as a rule we try
not to confront religious organisations that are operating without
registration." He maintained that his committee has to take account of the
"complexity of the situation" in the south of the country, where
"Islamic fundamentalist groups" are active. "If we close our
eyes to unregistered Christian associations, then we will have to pursue the
same policy towards Islamic radicals."
Pastor Kuzin claims the Church of Jesus Christ is one of the fastest growing
Protestant Churches in Kyrgyzstan, with around 9,500 members and some 20
affiliate churches in various parts of the country. He maintains that the main
reason that the authorities feel no love for the church is its popularity with
the native, historically Muslim population. He says around 30 per cent of the
church's members are ethnic Kyrgyz.