KAZAKHSTAN (ANS) -- Kazakh authorities continue to apply pressure against religious communities across the country.

Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of the Ural River in eastern-most Europe.

Writing for Forum 18 News Service, Mushfig Bayram reported that the most recent example of the authorities’ attempts to take places of worship away from religious minorities is a court case against Grace Protestant Church in Semey, in Eastern Kazakhstan Region.

The case was brought before the regional Economic Court by Semey Fire Department on June 25, Forum 18 was told by church members. The Fire Department claimed that the church's newly constructed place of worship does not meet fire safety requirements.

Forum 18 reported that Semey Fire Department told Grace Church there must be a six-and-a- half yard space between their building and the next building, church members stated. However, they said, “there is a wall two-and-a- half meters from our building, between us and the neighboring plot of land.” And, a church member told the news service, “there is no building on that land; it is an empty plot.”

According to Forum 18, Judge Armana Kuzhambetova decided that until the church has complied with the fire code, it is not allowed to use its building.

Forum 18 reported that a church member said that the church had been under construction for four years, but “when we had just completed it the Fire (Department) suddenly appeared, and told us we could not use the building.”

The church already has all the necessary building permits, including a permit from the Fire Department, “but the court ignored these documents,” Forum 18 was told.

“It looks like they are trying to close down our church with any excuse,” a church member told Forum 18.

Marat Dauletin, Deputy Head of Semey Fire Department, told Forum 18 that Grace Church had violated fire regulations.

“We did not bring them before the court for nothing,” Dauletine stated. Forum 18 said that Dauletine had difficulty in explaining exactly what fire regulations the church had violated.

“I do not remember exactly, because they are just one organization among many who we have brought before the court for violations,” he said. “If they disagree, they can hire a lawyer to defend their interests.”

Judge Armana Kuzhambetova was not available to talk to Forum 18, but an official who answered the phone stated that Grace Church “either needs to pull the building down and move it further away from their neighbor, or install a special fire system around the building.”

Forum 18 reported that the official told the news service it was not possible to explain the “special fire system” over the telephone.

No such explanation of the Court's decision was given at the trial, Marasbek Raisov, the church's lawyer, told Forum 18.

“This is the first time I have heard the reasons the Economic Court gave you,” he told Forum 18. Despite the Fire Department’s claims, the lawyer, like church members, insisted that all the necessary official documents for the building's construction were in order.

Forum 18 said that a highly restrictive draft Religion Law will – among other attacks on freedom of thought, conscience and belief - prohibit all religious communities with less than 50 members from owning property. The Law completed its first reading in the Kazakh parliament on June 11.

Forum 18 said that Kazakh authorities are also carrying out raids and media attacks on religious minorities, as well as attacks on their right to own their own property.

Along with authorities across Kazakhstan, local state authorities have pressured religious minority communities and their leaders into completing what Forum 18 said are highly intrusive questionnaires.

And elsewhere in Kazakhstan, Forum 18 reported, members of the Baptist Council of Churches network continue to be fined.

Zyryanovsk district Criminal Court, in East Kazakhstan Region, under Judge G. Zhumashova fined Yegor Prokopenko, the pastor of the town's unregistered Baptist Church 29,200 Tenge (or 240 U.S. Dollars). He is a Soviet-era dissident who was a prisoner of conscience, and this fine was for unregistered religious activity under part 1, article 362, of the Criminal Code.

Forum 18 said that Baptist Council of Churches congregations refuse on principle to register with the authorities in post-Soviet countries. Their congregation members are regularly prosecuted in Kazakhstan, Belarus and other states where – in breach of international human rights standards - registration is mandatory.

Zyryanovsk Prosecutor Tatyana Semynina told Forum 18 that she could not do anything about the fine given to Prokopenko.

“He has violated the Religion Law,” Forum 18 reported she said. “He must respect the law.” Told by the news service that this is a peaceful group of believers and asked why they should be punished for their faith, Semynina said that “they can believe as much as they want, but should not organize religious meetings.”

When asked by Forum 18 what was wrong when groups of religious believers do not want to register as legal persons but want to worship together, Semynina said the question must be asked to the lawmakers.

“We as State Prosecutors function according to the law,” she told the news service. “There is the Religion Law, and we act based upon that Law.”

Forum 18 said that Professor Roman Podoprigora of the Adilet Law School in Almaty has noted that Kazakh law contradicts itself on whether or not the registration of religious organizations is mandatory.

Prokopenko, born in 1926, was imprisoned several times during the Soviet period for his religious activity. His last Soviet-era jail sentence began in July 1982, when he was given a three year strict regime labor camp term.

Forum 18 said that in June 2006, he was fined 103,000 Tenge (or 870 U.S. Dollars) by Zyryanovsk District Specialized Administrative Court, while congregation member Pyotr Shevel was fined half that amount. Appeals against those fines were rejected.

For more background, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701. 
 

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "The Face of Homelessness." Additional details are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 400-7145. Note: A higher resolution JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.