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Authorities in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan in northwestern Uzbekistan in reality have been indulgent toward "kangaroo courts" that local residents have initiated against people who have converted from Islam into another faith, an Uzbek protestant, who preferred to remain anonymous, reported on 9 May in an interview with Forum 18 news service.
The protestant described the case of Khaldibek Primbetov, a newly converted Christian, who tried to complain to the local prosecutor against fellow villagers, who regularly beat him up because he became a Christian, insisting that he "return" to Islam or quit the native village.
Primbetov, who lives in the Engoshkala village (aul) of Turtkul district, not far from Nukus, the capital of the republic of Karakalpakstan, submitted a complaint to the prosecutor's office of Karakalpakstan against the residents who beat him. An investigator of the prosecutor's office of Turtkul district went to Engoshkala. However, as the source told Forum 18, it turned out that the investigator had no intention of investigating the incidents of violence against Christians, but instead engaged in an investigation of the activity of the local protestant congregation. In particular, the investigator accused the local protestant Kurbongul Ermanov of incitement. To another protestant woman, Nurumbetova, he declared that reading the New Testament was forbidden and that she "is violating the public," by reading Christian literature. When Nurumbetova tried to dispute with the investigator, he threatened to hit her if she did not calm down. It is interesting that the investigator, who refused to give Nurumbetova his name, tried to force her to write a statement that nobody has put pressure on Christians in the aul.
The investigator also "advised" Primbetov to recall his complaint from the prosecutor's office. When he refused to do this the investigator threatened to put him in jail. The investigator also told Primbetov that he had "betrayed" the faith of his ancestors.
The prosecutor of Turtkul distrinct, Rustam Atadjanov, confirmed that an investigation had been conducted on the basis of Primbetov's complaint, although he denied all of the protestants' accusations. "It is true that we sent an investigator to Engoshkala, but he did not threaten the local Christians; he only conducted an investigation of Primbetov's complaint," Atadjanov told Forum 18 in an interview on 10 May. "The circumstances that Primbetov talked about have not been confirmed. However we have come to the conclusion that the activity of Christians in Engoshkala do not violate the law and we do not intend to prohibit it."
According to the chief specialist of the Committee on Religious Affairs in Tashkent, Begzot Kadyriv, in Uzbekistan "nobody has put any kind of pressure on Christians who have converted to Christianity from another faith." "Our laws indeed do prohibit proselytism, that is actions directed to converting believers from one faith to another," he told Forum 18 by telephone from Tashkent on 10 May. "But if a person in some way changes his faith, this is a private decision and nobody has the right to persecute him." (tr. by PDS, posted 12 May 2005)
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During the holidays Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus met with a number of heads of state who came to Moscow for celebrations devoted to the sixtieth anniversary of victory. The first audience with the head of the Russian Orthodox church (RPTs) was granted to Belorussian President Alexander Lukashenko. At the meeting, which was held on 8 May in the patriarchal residence in Peredelkino, Mr. Lukashenko awarded Alexis II the order of Friendship of the Peoples "for fruitful activity in reconciliation and mutual enrichment of national cultures and for great personal contribution to the development of the spiritual and intellectual potential of the fraternal nations Belarus and Russia." In turn, the patriarch gave greetings to Mr. Lukashenko for Pascha and Victory Day and he awarded the Belorussian president the Order of the Holy Pious Prince Dmitry of the Don, first degree, that was created by RPTs especially for the sixtieth anniversary of victory. He also presented an Easter egg and a collection of memorial medals.
"You can be sure that Belarus is a mighty fortress on the western boundaries of our church and we shall never go against its interests," Mr. Lukashenko declared.
"This high award that I have received obliges me also in the future to firmly and comprehensively strengthen the friendship between our peoples," Alexis II said in his turn. Then the patriarch and the Belorussian president discussed questions pertaining to the prospects for the development of spiritual and cultural ties between the peoples of Russia and Belorussia.
In addition, on 9 May Alexis II conducted brief conversations with the acting president of Kirgizia, Kurmanbek Bakiev, and with the president of the presidium of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Borislav Paravats, in his working residence on Chisty lane. The series of receptions culminated in the meeting of the patriarch and the president of the republic of Cyprus, Tassos Papadopulos, whom Alexis II congratulated for receiving the prize of the International Fund for the Unity of Orthodox Peoples, which he will be awarded in January 2006 in Moscow. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 May 2005)
Posted on website Religiia i SMI, 11 May 2005
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The Federal Registration Service for Moscow has again filed suit in Moscow city court for the liquidation of the parish of the church of St. Nicholas in Bersenevka. That was reported on 6 May in the course of a meeting of an attorney for the Union of Orthodox Brotherhoods, V.I. Solomonova and an aide to the church warden of the church of the holy prelate Nicholas in Beresenevka, A.I. Naumov, with the director of the Chief Administration of the Federal Registration Service for Moscow, A.E. Buksman. "You have no chance of existing without a number," Buksman declared to his audience.
On 7 May believers conducted a procession of the cross in defense of the church building. Participants in the procession were members of the parish and representatives of Orthodox patriotic organizations. After this a meeting was held where the parish's wish not to accept an identification number was confirmed. During the meeting appeals were adopted to heads of governments who were present in Moscow for celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of victory. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 May 2005)
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The Supreme Ecclesiastical Council of the Armenian Apostolic church expressed concern with regard to the situation in Georgia as to the status of the Armenian diocese and instances of encroachments upon Armenian churches and buildings. In the course of a regular meeting of the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council under the presidency of Catholicos of all Armenians Garegin II in the Holy See of Echmiadzin the decision was made to pursue a favorable resolution of the problems that were noted, on an ecclesiastical and governmental level.
As reported to IA REGNUM at the press service of the Chancellery of the Holy See of Echmiadzin, during the meeting the Catholicos of All Armenians made a report accounting for the activity of the Holy See of Echmiadzin in 2004, presenting the achievements of programs in the ecclesiastical, spiritual, cultural, social, and evangelistic spheres, and their results. Participants in the session discussed problems of the legal status of Armenian dioceses both in Armenia and in other countries. The necessity was stressed of the existence of identical charters for all dioceses, which would facilitate better organization of the national church life. They also dealt with the question of participation of the Armenian church in a conference of the World Council of Churches to be held in Brazil in 2006. (tr. by PDS, posted 12 May 2005)
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More than ten Orthodox public organizations of Ukraine have sent an open letter to Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus complaining about the oppression of canonical Orthodox in this country.
"We humbly request your prayers for overcoming the disorders in our church and for getting the new authorities, heretics, and schismatics to listen to reason, as well as an appeal to international bodies for the defense of believers' rights," the appeal said, a text of which was delivered on Thursday to Interfax.
The occasion for the appeal, its authors write, is the occurrence of incidents of infringement of the rights of parishioners of UPTsMP by representatives of the government and by adherents of UPTsKP.
The worst incident in recent times was the seizure by supporters of Metropolitan Filaret Denisenko of the church of the Resurrection in Tarashche in Belotserkov diocese of UPTsMP, which, the authors of the appeal allege, was conducted with the help of local police.
This was an incident that happened in the night of 24 April, when the rector of the church, Fr Georgy Cherniakinsky, was attacked violently by unknown persons in civilian clothing, in the presence of law enforcement officials.
"The priest's arms were twisted and he was thrown out of the church. The church's door was sealed and placed under police guard," the appeal says. (tr by PDS, posted 12 May 2005)
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Destructive sects that profess neopentecostal doctrine are conducting aggressive expansion on Russian territory and are inciting religious and political extremism and creating a threat to the family, society, and the state.
Such a statement was issued by participants in a two-day international scholarly conference "Neopentecostal sects in Russia: the threat of religious extremism," that closed on Wednesday in Saratov.
"We, conference participants, testify to the extreme danger of neopentecostal destructive sects that use in their activity methods that violate the principles of individual freedom," the final document of the forum says.
In the opinion of the conference participants, by their activity neopentecostal sects inflict harm to the physical and spiritual health of people, by manipulating consciousness and actively affecting their psyches, which has led to instances of mass suicide.
In particular, the leadership of the Saratov diocese is alarmed by the activation of the "Word of Life" organization and other neopentecostals, which these sects have manifested in the region in the past two years. The number of adherents of this teaching in the country has reached around 250,000-300,000, including about 1,500 in Saratov province.
Conference participants expressed concern not only with the dynamics of the spread of the sects of this type but also "with the penetration of adherents of this teaching into agencies of the government, the power structures, and penal system." In particular, delegates expressed alarm over the inclusion in the membership of the Council for Relations with Religious Associations of the Russian presidential administration of Sergei Riakhovsky, the head of the Russian Associated Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals), who is also a member of the Commission for Spiritual Security, which was formed within the structure of the Expert Council on National and Migration Policy and Relations with Religious Organizations within the apparatus of the presidential envoy in the Central Federal District.
"We suggest that the integration of representatives of neopentecostals into the government is being carried out intentionally," the final document of the conference says.
Delegates called representatives of state authority, the power structures, and offices of local administration "not only to give no support to destructive sects but also to remember the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens from any infringement of any kind upon their persons, health, property, and freedom."
"Neopentecostals are one of the most dynamically developing sects in Russia. The task of the conference is to call attention of all of society, governmental structures, and organs of justice and order to the problem of the spread of this religious movement," the head of the Center of Religious Studies Research, Professor Alexander Dvorkin, emphasized at a press conference on Wednesday.
The initiative for the conference, which had more than 230 delegates, came from the Saratov diocesan administration of the Russian Orthodox church. The participants of the conference included leaders of various religious confessions; the invited speakers at the conference were well known specialists in the area of the study of totalitarian sects, including scholars from Germany, Switzerland, St. Petersburg, Tula, Novosibirsk, Yaroslavl, and other Russian cities.
Greetings to the conference participants were sent by Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus, Archbishop of Ekaterinburg and Verkhotursk Vikenty, the chief rabbi of Russia, Adolf Shaevich, and Cardinal Walter Kasper. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 May 2005)
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