Sunday, June 12, in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan was cancelled after authorities refused to grant a visa to the main speaker and pastor, a religious rights group said Wednesday, June 8. The news agency of well-informed Forum 18 said the Latvia-based chief pastor of the New Generation Pentecostal Church, Aleksei Ledyayev, was told by the Kazakh consulate that a visit to his homeland was "not desirable."
"We’re asking the authorities for an explanation – and we’ll lodge a fresh application for Pastor Aleksei to get a visa," Viktor Ovsyannikov, pastor of the Almaty church, told Forum 18 News Service (F18News).
Ledyayev was reportedly blacklisted by Russia in 2002 and is also barred from Belarus, where human rights groups have expressed concern about what they see as increased religious persecution.
VISA REFUSED
Viktor Ovsyannikov, pastor of the Almaty New Generation Pentecostal Church, which had invited Ledyayev, said authorities refuse to say why the visa was refused, though he links the refusal "to the collective security agreement" between mainly Islamic Kazakhstan, Russia and other former Soviet states. "We’re asking the authorities for an explanation – and we’ll lodge a fresh application for Pastor Aleksei to get a visa," Ovsyannikov was quoted as saying.
Kazakhstan authorities were not available for comment, F18News said. Ledyayev was due to have been the featured speaker at the conference, which was to have include church members from at least six of the 14 countries where the New Generation Church has congregations.
"Our church in Almaty had booked one of the biggest halls in the city and had sent out invitations to Pastor Aleksei and many church representatives," associate pastor Vadim Privedenyuk told F18News. "Only Pastor Aleksei was denied a visa."
Analysts have said there has been concern about the growing evangelical churches among the more established Orthodox dominations and authorities. Ovsyannikov said no date has been set for a rescheduled conference. "The conference won’t take place without Pastor Aleksei. It would be a great blessing for the church and the city," he was quoted as saying.
"DOUBLE-DENIAL"
Ledyayev told F18News that the ban on entry to Kazakhstan is a double-denial of his human rights, because he was born in the country and lived there for 25 years before moving to Latvia. "My parents are buried in Kazakhstan and I can’t now visit their grave." He said he was last in Kazakhstan in the late 1990s and this is the first time since then he has applied for readmission.
Several other Christians, including a Swedish were refused entry while others, including two Spanish missionaries were also recently expelled from the country, news reports said.
However, in one recent case Lutheran bishop Siegfried Springer was given a visa to Kazakhstan and is due to visit from 12 to 20 June. Bishop Springer’s valid Russian visa was cancelled by the Russian border guards in Moscow in April, though he was allowed a brief return to his diocese in Russia in May, F18News reported. (With Stefan J. Bos and reports from Russia and Kazakhstan)
