whereabouts of a visiting pastor from neighboring Kazakhstan who has not been seen since his arrest last week, representatives said.
Pastor Rishat Garifulin was reportedly detained February 8 on the streets of the city of Samarkand where the church is based, after police discovered Christian booklets in his bag.
Garifulin, who is one of the pastors of the Greater Grace congregation in Kazakhstan’s commercial capital Almaty, planned to visit fellow believers in Uzbekistan, local Christians said.
"We were expecting Rishat to be released after three days as they are accustomed to do," Greater Grace sources were quoted as saying by Forum 18 News Service. "Now it’s almost a week later and we haven’t heard anything about him or his whereabouts."
NO CONFIRMATION
Local officials have refused to confirm or deny his arrest.
The Samarkand Greater Grace church received permission to worship in a registered Korean Protestant in Samarkand, but local authorities have refused to grant it separate registration.
Without such registration the church cannot use its own building for meetings. The tensions came as Pentecostal Pastor Dmitry Shestakov, 37, was awaiting trial in solitary confinement on charges of "incitement to hatred on national, racial or religious grounds."
SECRET POLICE
Shestakov was captured Sunday, January 21, by secret police who visited him in his Full Gospel Church in the tense town of Andijan, fellow Christians said. He could face five years imprisonment, experts said.
His supporters have linked the detention to his involvement in distributing Christian literature and concerns among authorities about the "many people" who become Christians in his Adijan church.
There have been reports that Muslim leaders in Andijan expressed concerns over what they see as a rising numbers of converts to Christianity and have welcomed moves against Pentecostal Christians. Shestakov’s wife and three daughters have reportedly fled their home and are in hiding.
"NOT OBJECTIVE"
Uzbekistan’s Religious Affairs Committee’s press service has reportedly described international coverage of Shestakov’s case as "not objective and inaccurate". The Committee questioned Shestakov’s position as a pastor saying he, "Earlier abused alcohol and was dependent on drugs and now he presents himself as pastor David."
Human rights group Forum 18 said that the state-run media’s "encouragement of intolerance against religious minorities" has recently been stepped up. Authorities say the pastor belongs to a network of illegal religious organization of "charismatic Pentecostals" in Andijan, carrying out missionary and proselytizing activities.
Pavel Abramov, another pastor of the church in Andijan where Shestakov has been serving, said his church is praying for Shestakov. "Dmitry’s only crime is believing in God," he reportedly added. "We are praying that our brother will be set free."
COMPLETE ISOLATION
Abramov complained that Shestakov is being held in complete isolation. "The only person he’s been allowed to see is his lawyer. We’re glad that the authorities agreed that Shestakov’s case will be handled by a lawyer he chose himself." He said the church still does not know the date of the trial.
The Uzbek authorities have also taken steps to isolate other local religious groups and faith-based charities, and have refused visas to foreigners attempting to visit them. Christian charity World Vision, which works on HIV/AIDS projects in Uzbekistan, has reportedly been under pressure from authorities. It has received 14 days to start working with the Justice Ministry and provide information about its spending, news reports said.
Christians are seen as a threat to the power base of the government. Adijan was the scene of heavy fighting in May 2005 when Uzbek troops fired into a crowd of protesters in an attempt to quell anti-government protests in the eastern city. At least hundreds and possibly up to 1,000 people were killed, human rights groups estimate. Government officials have denied these figures. (With reports from Uzbekistan).
