Call for action against Uzbekistan persecution

Call for action against Uzbekistan persecution

The New Zealand member of the World Evangelical Alliance is calling on the government to make representation to the authorities in the central Asian country of Uzbekistan, asking them to honour their commitment to the United Nations declaration on religious freedom and desist from religious persecution.

NZ Christian Network (visionnetwork) National Director Glyn Carpenter says regular reports of harassment of Christians have been coming out of Uzbekistan over the past six years, but persecution is now being stepped up. He has written to the Foreign Minister, Mr Murray McCulley, asking for intervention.

A human rights activist, who now lives in New Zealand and is a member of WEA Religious Liberty Commission, receives almost daily reports from Uzbekistan.

She says that though officially a democratic secular state, the government supports Islam. It is almost impossible for a church to be registered, without which any religious activities are considered illegal.

Uzbek converts to Christianity suffer severe hardship with opposition from their families, society and even state officials. Police raids are common and often lead to Christians being arrested, beaten and even tortured, and their literature and other Christian material destroyed.

The presence of the country’s secret service agents at the services as well as videotaping and listening bugs are common phenomena inherited from the Soviet era. “The officials want Christians to live in constant fear and avoid sharing their faith with others,” the WEA RLC member says.

A Pentecostal pastor, Dmitry Shestakov, has been in prison for three years for 'religious extremism' and 'forming an illegal religious organisation'. Others have been imprisoned for varying lengths of time.

In the most recent incident, on May 16, a registered church in Tashkent, the capital city of Uzbekistan, was raided without a warrant by police, secret police, Tax Inspectorate, Fire Inspectorate and Sanitary-Epidemiological Service during the Sunday service attended by over 500 adult members.

The police videotaped the people in the church, including the children at Sunday school, and searched the church building for five hours. They detained eight church members including Assistant Pastor Artur Avanesyan, a Sunday school leader, church accountant, church cashier and three lay people. The pastor of the church was at a Christian conference in another city on that day.

The police also confiscated six church computers, Christian literature, offertory money and church documentation, including 392 written permissions from the parents allowing their children to attend Sunday school. The detained were held at the police station for 24 hours without food and water, and not allowed to see or phone their families.

On Monday May 17 there was initial hearing at the district court, and on Tuesday May 18 three church members were given 15 days jail terms, two were fined five times the minimum monthly salary (about NZ$163) and three 80 times the minimum monthly salary each.

“Everyone was shocked at the verdict because the accused proved their innocence in the court and that there were many violations of the legal procedure. The church leaders express their concern that what has happened is on obvious sign that the authorities are trying to find an excuse for closing the church,” says the human rights activist.

NZ Christian Network’s Glyn Carpenter says he would welcome New Zealand MPs and government ministers who respect the idea of religious freedom expressing their concerns to the Uzbekistan authorities.

He joins the WEA RLC member in calling for Christians here to pray about the situation, and to start writing letters of support for those being persecuted.

Letters can be sent to: His Excellency President Islam Abduganievch Karimov, Rezidentsiya Prezidenta, Tashkent 70000, Republic of Uzbekistan, Fax: ++998 71 139 5625, and to Otabek Akbarov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Uzbekistan to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Embassy of Uzbekistan in Great Britain, London 41, Holland Park W11 2RP, Fax: (++44-20-7) 72-297029.

New Zealand Christian Network, visionnetwork, is a broad-spectrum network of churches and Christian leaders, with a Board of Reference which includes leaders from all the main denominations. It seeks to present a biblically orthodox position on issues, reflecting the views of the majority of Christians in New Zealand.

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