Islamic oriented ex-Soviet Republic are trying to prevent Christianity from spreading in the post-Communist era, BosNewsLife monitored Thursday July 8.
Hardest hit is an active Baptist church in Urgench, the central city in Khorezm region of north-western Uzbekistan, which was stripped of its registered status and became "illegal", said Forum 18 News (F18News), of the Norway based religious rights watchdog Forum 18.
F18News said secret police, known as the NSS, questioned at least two Baptists, beating one up, and threatened both Christians with imprisonment "for years" to come.
One of them, Baptist Sharovat Allamova was summoned to the Khorezm region at the NSS headquarters on June 25, where the officer who interviewed her, Alisher Khasanov, jeered at her for maintaining her Christian faith, said F18News, which investigated the situation of churches in Uzbekistan.
WESTERN MONEY
"You Protestants rely on Western money," he allegedly told her. "The humanitarian western missions who support you are basically espionage organizations. So you yourselves are agents for foreign intelligence services." He ordered Allamova to say which foreign organizations were in contact with local Baptists, threatening that if she refused he would imprison her under the article of the criminal code that forbids knowingly giving false evidence.
On June 26, officer Khasanov called in another Baptist, Dilshod Dilbaev, for questioning about the Baptists’ links with foreigners and the humanitarian aid they received from abroad. "Forum 18 has learned that this time Khasanov was more brutal, hitting Dilbaev several times and threatening that if he did not give the required information straightaway they would plant drugs on him. "We will put you away for years," F18News said in a statement seen by BosNewsLife.
Secret service officials have denied force was used to obtain information. One secret police officer – who gave his name only as Alisher – reportedly "admitted" to F18News that Baptists "had been summoned to the NSS", but categorically denied they were beaten or had psychological pressure put on them. A journalist investigating the plight of persecuted Christians was also summoned to NSS headquarters earlier this year, F18News claimed.
MORE DIFFICULTIES
Baptists in Urgench reportedly began to experience difficulties in February this year, when the justice administration for Khorezm region removed their church’s registered status for "the enticement of underage children into religious organizations, and also their religious instruction against their or their parents’ will"
Oleg Bader, pastor of the Urgench Baptist church, told F18News in February that "work with children was included in the church’s statute, which had been registered with the same regional justice administration on 30 December 1999." Uzbekistan’s religion law bans the activity of unregistered religious communities and authorities apparently judge a discussion between several people about religion to constitute "activity" of a religious community.
Baptists in the Uzbek capital Tashkent, who preferred not to be named, believe that the real reason for the closure of the Urgench church was that the authorities simply do not want Christianity to become widespread in Khorezm region. Currently, there is only one registered Christian community left in Khorezm region – the Korean Protestant church, F18News said.
INTERNATIONAL CONCERN
There has been international concern about human rights violations in Uzbekistan since it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
While the country seeks to gradually lessen its dependence on agriculture while developing its mineral and petroleum reserves, concerns about religious persecution and activities by Islamic militants combined with a nonconvertible currency have slowed down economic and democratic developments, analysts say.
Persecution of Christians is also wide spread in other former Soviet republics in Central Asia and elsewhere in the region, human rights watchdogs claim.
