[CivilSoc] Uzbek Authorities Refuse Registration to Evangelical Christians

[Center for Civil Society International]

The following item's source is the Keston Institute
<http://www.keston.org>.
UZBEKISTAN: 'THE FEWER CHURCHES WE HAVE, THE FEWER THE PROBLEMS'?
by Igor Rotar, Keston News Service
For almost two years the authorities of the Mirza-Ulugbeksky district
of Tashkent in Uzbekistan have refused to register the Bethany
Evangelical Christian-Baptist congregation. As Keston News Service
has reported (see KNS 27 September 2000, 26 March, 9 April, 27 June &
29 June 2001), members of the congregation have been penalised for
conducting worship in an unregistered church building and the pastor
faced criminal charges. 'Thanks to the support of international
organizations, primarily Keston, the criminal case against me was
dropped, but our situation remains uncertain. For example, our church
has still not been registered' Bethany church Pastor Nikolai
Shevchenko told Keston on 21 August.
The background to the conflict is that according to the Uzbek law on
religion 'religious organisations acquire legal status and may carry
on their activity after registration with the Ministry of Justice or
with the local authorities following the procedures laid down by the
legislation.' Since members of the Bethany church were meeting in an
unregistered prayer house, the Mirzo-Ulugbeksky district authorities
considered that the Baptists' activities were illegal.
Such an interpretation of the Law is debatable. 'Believers have the
right to assemble in unregistered prayer houses. The registration of
a religious congregation is necessary only for it to be able to act
as a public organisation. However, unfortunately, local officials
lacking in competence sometimes interpret the law to the effect that
if a prayer house is unregistered then the believers have no right to
gather there,' Keston was told on 22 August by Shoazim Minovarov, the
first deputy chairman of the state Committee for Religious Affairs
(CRA). A slightly different interpretation of the law is held by
Begzot Kadyrov, the chief specialist of the department for
non-Islamic confessions of the CRA, who told Keston on 23 August: 'We
indeed cannot ban believers from meeting for prayer in an
unregistered church. But, if such a group of people has a leader and
he preaches in an unregistered church building, then in this instance
we can speak of a violation of the law.  Otherwise a dangerous
precedent is set: the representatives of some confessions do not want
to register and if the authorities do not react to their meetings at
all, then the number of religious associations whose members consider
that they don't need to register will grow considerably.'
Regardless of the interpretation of Uzbekistan's religion law, it
should be noted that it states: 'A religious organisation may be
refused registration if the provisions of its statutes and other
documents contradict the requirements of the present Law and other
legislative acts of the republic of Uzbekistan.' The khakimiat (local
authority) of the Mirzo-Ulugbeksky district refused Bethany church
registration on the grounds of a resolution of the committee of the
makhalla (the sub-district authority) on the inadmissibility of a
Christian prayer house functioning on the territory of the makhalla.
However, according to the law the consent of the makhalla committee
is not required for the registration of a prayer house. 'It is
noteworthy that on 9 December 1999 the makhalla committee voted for
the activity of our church. However, under pressure from the district
authorities on 9 January this year it unexpectedly voted against the
functioning of our prayer house on the territory of the makhalla. I
believe that such an attitude to Baptists is not the policy of the
authorities of our republic. This is the arbitrary action of local
officials lacking in competence. We have lodged a declaration with
the civil court of the Mirzo-Ulugbeksky district of Tashkent
demanding that the resolution of the makhalla committee should be
appealed against. Our case should be heard on 5 September,' Nikolai
Shevchenko told Keston on 21 August.
On 22 August the president of the Union of Evangelical Christians-
Baptists, Pavel Peychev, told Keston that this is not an isolated
incident. 'The authorities have refused registration to five of our
churches.  Over the last year we have not managed to register a
single one of our churches. Officially it is considered that the
local (district)  authorities are refusing registration, but in
reality it is happening on instructions from above. The pressure on
Baptists in Uzbekistan is growing. I believe that the authorities at
republic level have no interest at all in religious associations
being refused registration,' Begzot Kadyrov of the CRA told Keston on
23 August. 'It's another matter if local officials really do
sometimes think 'the fewer churches we have, the fewer the
problems'.' (END).
Copyright (c) 2001 Keston Institute. All rights reserved.