capital Tashkent and briefly detained six people, including two pastors, a respected religious rights group said Wednesday June 15. Barnabas Fund, which investigates persecution worldwide, said plain clothes police stormed the building of the Bethany Church, which is linked to the Baptist domination but has been prevented from registration by Uzbekistan’s authorities.
The June 12-raid came amid concern among human rights watchers about alleged persecution of religious groups following a major anti-government demonstration in which by some accounts up to one-thousand people were killed.
Barnabas Fund said undercover police also "searched for a collection box and literature, while continuing to threaten and intimidate the church members, taking the names and addresses of all present. The police were also looking for children, as they claimed that it was illegal for [them] to be present at church services."
CHILDREN UNHURT
It said it had learned that "thankfully the children were in a separate group meeting at the time, apparently disappointing the police and making them increasingly angry with the church members."
Barnabas Fund reported that Pastors Nikolai Shevchenko and Sergei Khripunov were taken for
interrogation, along with four church members. The police allegedly demanded they write "explanatory notes about the church meetings," but Shevchenko and Khripunov refused and
asked for assistance from a lawyer, the group reported.
"The police continued to threaten the pastors, telling them the church would be closed and they themselves imprisoned. They also threatened that they would be beaten up so hard that they would forget where they live," Barnabas Fund said. Police officials have not commented on the case, and it was unclear how Barnabas Fund had obtained the information.
SIX LATER RELEASED
But the group is known to have close contacts with persecuted Christians in the area. Barnabas Fund noted that although "police said they would detain the men until they signed papers" all six were released the same evening after "they refused to sign" the documents.
The pastors have reportedly gone into hiding until a court hearing scheduled for Friday June 17, to avoid being arrested again. Under Uzbek law anyone arrested three times
for the same offence, faces a prison sentence, not merely a fine, experts said.
Reports from Forum 18, another human rights organization, suggested Sunday’s raid is part of a government-led campaign against religious groups, protest against autocratic president Islam Karimov.
RELIGIOUS GROUPS PERSECUTED
Forum 18 News Service said it had learned from church sources in the uprising’s centre in Fergana Valley, that "harsh government repression will worsen the situation for all faiths." Muslims as well as Protestants, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Hare Krishna devotees are among those targeted, news reports said.
Last month the increasingly isolated President Karimov traveled to China where he was described as "an old friend of the Chinese people" by Chinese President Hu Jintao, despite mounting international pressure for the Uzbek leader to step down.
Karimov, who has been accused of ruling the former Soviet state for 15 years with an iron fist, has made clear he will not allow revolutions like those in neighboring Kyrgyzstan and earlier in Georgia and Ukraine, and Protestants say his tactics include pressure on religious groups deemed dangerous to the regime. (With BosNewsLife Research and reports from Uzbekistan)
