One of the five law enforcement officers who raided the
Sunday morning service of a Baptist church held in a private flat in the
Caspian port city of Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) on 11 May has insisted
to Forum 18 News Service that he and his colleagues did nothing wrong.
"There were no violations of the law in the actions of the
authorities," Shanazar Kocheev, head of the city administration department
for letters and complaints, told Forum 18 from Turkmenbashi on 15 May.
"This was an illegal meeting and we broke it up." The Baptists reject
accusations that their service broke the law. In a 12 May letter, they called
on the city procuracy to "assist in halting the illegal actions" of
the officials, "as well as to defend our constitutional rights to believe
in God and to confess our religion".
Kocheev told Forum 18 that by participating in an "illegal meeting",
the Baptists broke Article 205 of the Administrative Code, which punishes
"violation of the law on religion". He said the Baptists'
"violations" are now being considered by the administrative
commission of the city khyakimlik (administration), of which he is a member. He
added that he expected them each to be fined 250,000 manats (340 Norwegian
kroner, 43 Euros or 50 US dollars), the average monthly wage, by the end of
today (15 May).
When Forum 18 pointed out that Turkmenistan's laws do not ban meetings by
unregistered religious communities, Kocheev responded: "First of all, the
Baptists make no secret of the fact that they're not prepared to register.
Secondly, they regularly hold such meetings, which is not acceptable."
A 12 May report from church members reaching Forum 18 declared that the church
had gathered for "joint prayer and reading of the Bible" at the flat
of church member M. Sheldkret. At about 10.30 am, the five officials burst in
"under the guise of verifying the passport regulations". In addition
to Kocheev, the Baptists named the other officials as local police officer Esen
Berdyev, Araz Tekaev, who handles religious affairs at the khyakimlik, secret
police officer Dovlat Charyev, and procuracy official Murad Amanov.
"They checked the identity document of the host and then began a search of
the flat: the bathroom, toilet, cupboards, shelves, and other rooms," the
Baptists complained in their 12 May letter to the procuracy. Kocheev then asked
Sheldkret to introduce her guests. "After greeting them, they broke up the
service, very angry at seeing many children. They threatened to deprive the
parents of their parental rights, summon people to an administrative commission
and deprive the owner of her flat." The officials accused the Baptists of
holding an "illegal gathering" and told them they were breaking
article 205 of the administrative code.
They then ordered Sheldkret to send her guests away, although not before asking
who was the leader of the church and writing down personal details of all those
present, including children. They threatened to take one of those present,
Vladimir Lemeshko, to the police station and to take "appropriate
measures" against him if he did not stop serving the church.
While five officials conducted the raid, a further twelve were waiting at the
ground floor entrance to the block. The Baptists reported that they had been
summoned by Amanov of the procuracy "to break up the meeting".
The Turkmenbashi congregation belongs to the International Council of Churches
of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, which rejects registration on principle in
all the former Soviet republics where it operates. Its congregations in
Turkmenistan face constant harassment from the authorities, which regard all
their activities as illegal.
The Baptist church in Balkanabad was raided by the National Security Committee
and the police in March and April and children of church members were
interrogated and threatened in school (see F18News 11 April 2003).
Even had these Baptist congregations wished to register that would have been
impossible: the highly restrictive religion law requires each individual
religious community seeking registration to have 500 adult citizen members who
live in one district of a city or one rural district. In addition, there is an
unpublished ban on registering congregations of any faiths other than Sunni
Muslim and Russian Orthodox.
Some believers have been imprisoned, while others have been forced either to
hide in their own country or leave for exile abroad. Protestant Christians,
Jehovah's Witnesses, Hare Krishna devotees, Baha'is, Jews and even the Armenian
Apostolic Church have been denied any public religious activity.