KYRGYZSTAN: Legal status applications almost impossible

---Forum 18 News, Norway

13 November 2009

KYRGYZSTAN: Legal status applications almost impossible

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service

Although unregistered religious activity in Kyrgyzstan is now banned, against international human rights standards, religious communities also cannot gain legal status, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. However, two mosques do appear to have been registered. The State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA) says that religious communities must wait for the Regulations to apply a restrictive new Religion Law, which came into force in January 2009. SCRA officials told Forum 18 that “the Regulations have been prepared but not signed into force.” Meanwhile, SCRA officials have contradicted themselves on whether or not existing registered communities need to be re-registered. Officials claim to have made the text of the Regulations available for public discussion, although no-one who Forum 18 has spoken to – apart from officials – has seen the text. For the proposed controversial new Religious Education Law, officials claimed to have invited some named religious communities to a roundtable discussion, although the same religious communities told Forum 18 they were unaware of any invitation. Some Protestant churches have decided to protest at the restrictions in the Religion Law by refusing to apply for registration.

Although unregistered religious activity is now banned under the restrictive new Religion Law which came into force in January 2009, religious communities still cannot gain legal status, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA) says that religious communities must wait until the Regulations to apply the New Law are in place. SCRA officials told Forum 18 that “the Regulations have been prepared but not signed into force.” Meanwhile, SCRA officials have given Forum 18 contradictory information on whether or not existing officially registered communities will need to be re-registered.

Although the officials said that the text of the Regulations enacting the Law has been made available in gov.kg, Kyrgyzstan’s state web portal, for public discussions for “more than a month,” Forum 18 could not find the text of the Regulations in the web portal. SCRA officials failed to respond to Forum 18’s request to receive the text of the Regulations.

Despite widespread protests by religious communities and human rights defenders, the controversial new Religion Law came into force on its official publication on 16 January. Officials have claimed that some provisions will be amended, but this has not happened (see F18News 27 May 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1301).

For several years before the new Law was adopted, registration applications were rejected as officials insisted communities wait for the new Law (see F18News 28 May 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1302). Religious communities have also complained that the authorities are using extra-legal property Regulations as an excuse to avoid registering them (see F18News 21 August 2009).

A group of local Protestant churches have made a joint decision not to apply for re-registration even if they are required to do so, several Protestant leaders told Forum 18 in early November.

What will happen if communities won’t register or re-register?

Lack of registration now potentially has serious consequences. The Law’s Article 8 bans all unregistered activity and subjects it to prosecution (see F18News 5 November 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1213).

Communities of Protestant Christians, Hare Krishna devotees and Ahmadiya Muslims have all been ordered by the authorities to stop meeting for worship (see F18News 13 August 2009).

Asked what will happen to religious communities which are unable or do not want to register or re-register, Kumar Dushenbaev, the SCRA official in charge of registering religious communities, told Forum 18 on 28 October from Bishkek: “We will deal with them in accordance with the Law of Kyrgyzstan.” He would not specify what actions the state authorities would take.

Almost no religious organisations registered since Law’s adoption

Dushenbaev of the SCRA told Forum 18 that as of late October no new religious communities had been registered since the adoption of the new Religion Law. “We have not been registering new communities, because the Regulations to apply the law have not been signed into force,” he explained.

Even if religious communities could now submit applications, groups without registration face much tougher conditions which few can meet. For instance, Jehovah’s Witnesses and many Protestant churches complained to Forum 18 that they cannot gather the 200 adult citizen founding members now required before each congregation can apply for registration.

Hare Krishna devotees had told Forum 18 earlier in August that they are not even intending to “bother the authorities on anything soon in the near future” since they were “summoned and pressured” by the National Security Service (NSS) secret police when they applied for registration in earlier years (see F18News 13 August 2009).

However, Kubat Imarov, Assistant to Rahmatulla Egemberdiyev, Deputy Head of Kyrgyzstan’s State-backed Muslim Board, told Forum 18 on 13 November that two new mosques – Ismet-Kagyr and Agturpak – in Batken region’s Kadamjay district were registered by the SCRA two days earlier. He could not explain to Forum 18 how it was possible to register the mosques while non-Muslim communities have been told to wait until after the Regulations were enacted. Asked if the mosques had collected 200 signatures, he claimed: “This rule applies only to medreses not mosques.”

Is re-registration necessary?

Unlike in other countries of the region, Kyrgyzstan’s new Religion Law does not specifically demand re-registration for all religious communities. However, Article 30 point 3 of the new Law points out that “charters and other founding documents of religious organisations and missions are effective only in that part, which is not in contradiction to this Law.” Article 9 point 3 declares that “there shall be no norms in the charter of a religious organisation or mission contravening Kyrgyzstan’s Constitution or Law.” Officials had apparently hoped that this de facto re-registration demand would not be noticed (see F18News 5 November 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1213).

Kanybek Osmonaliev, Head of the SCRA, and his Deputy Kanatbek Murzakhalilov have given Forum 18 contradictory information on whether religious communities registered under the old Religion Law will need to re-register. In late October Osmonaliev assured Forum 18 that “there will be no re-registration since the law is not retroactive”.

However Murzakhalilov, giving his opinion of the Religion Law, told Forum 18 that religious communities which need to make changes to their charters in order to bring them into harmony with the Law will need to be re-registered. Murzakhalilov did not say whether all the registered communities will need to re-register.

Zainiddin Kurmanov, a Parliamentary Deputy who was one of the initiators of the new Religion Law, told Forum 18 on 13 November that religious communities whose charters are not in accordance with the Law “must necessarily” amend their charters, which, in its turn, “definitely” entails re-registration.

Forum 18 notes that Article 12 Part 1 of the Law on State Registration of Legal Persons and Branches (Representations), which came into force on 1 April 2009, specifies that religious organisations are among those that require re-registration if their statute is amended.

The authorities have in the past required registered religious communities to make changes to their charters to bring them in harmony with the Religion Law (see eg. F18News 13 August 2009). This in turn, in the opinion of many religious communities, will require re-registering the amended charters.

Commenting on the contradictory remarks from SCRA officials on whether or not re-registration will be necessary, Father Igor Dronov of the Russian Orthodox Church in Bishkek told Forum 18 on 11 November: “I tend to believe Osmonaliev since he is the Head of the State Commission.” He added that he believed that the Orthodox will not need to re-register as the law is not retroactive.

His view was echoed by Imarov of the Muslim Board, who told Forum 18 that already registered mosques will not need re-registration.

Jehovah’s Witnesses lawyer Mikhail Kokhanovsky told Forum 18 from Bishkek that his organisation will not need to re-register since “their charter is in harmony with the New Law”.

One Protestant leader from Bishkek, who asked not to be identified, explained to Forum 18 that “in fact all the communities will need to re-register since they will all need to make changes to their charters.” He gave the example that under the old Law 10 founding members were needed but the new Law requires having 200 founding members.

Murzakhalilov said that there will be no deadline for re-registration process. “It will not be a hassle though, we will re-register them no problem,” he claimed.

Decision to protest by not registering

Aleksandr Shumilin of the Baptist Union told Forum 18 on 4 November that “all the evangelical churches [of Kyrgyzstan] have made a unanimous decision not to apply for re-registration or register their new congregations.”

“First of all the Bible tells us to share the good news with all people,” Shumilin said giving the reasons for the decision. “Why should we agree with the new Law, which does not allow us to freely share the good news?” he asked. “Second of all to register our many un-registered congregations we need to give the names and personal data of 200 members as founders, which we will not do.”

Several Protestant leaders, including Bishop Alfred Eicholz of the Lutheran Church, confirmed the joint decision to Forum 18.

A Protestant leader from Bishkek told Forum 18 that the agreement between the group of Protestant churches was “achieved orally but if it is necessary all the churches will sign a written paper” of refusal to register or re-register.

“If the requirements of the New Law were feasible we should have no problems re-registering,” Bishop Eicholz told Forum 18. “But for instance notarising 200 signatures of church members and giving their personal data to the State Commission is not feasible.”

Have Regulations enacting Law been published?

Murzakhalilov, Deputy Head of the SCRA said that based on the new Law on By-Laws adopted in August, any Regulations to apply new Laws must be publicly discussed for a month before being signed. “So we prepared the Regulations to the new Religion Law and they were published in the state web portal for public comments,” he told Forum 18 on 11 November from Bishkek.

Asked if he could provide Forum 18 with the link to the text of the Regulations in the web portal or the text itself, Murzakhalilov responded: “It is there in the portal. I don’t understand how you cannot find it while everybody else can easily do so.” Despite a repeated request to the SCRA, Forum 18 has received no response.

Father Dronov of the Russian Orthodox Church, Bishop Eicholz of the Lutheran Church, and several other Protestant Church leaders have told Forum 18 that they have not seen the Regulations published nor have they received the text of the Regulations to make comments.

Bishop Eicholz told Forum 18 that he believes the Regulations are not even ready. “Although we have tried but have not been able to obtain the text of the Regulations from the State Commission so far,” he told Forum 18 on 12 November.

“The State Commission promised to publish the Regulations but until recently they had not done so,” Father Dronov told Forum 18.

“We have not seen those Regulations,” the leader of a Protestant Church in Bishkek, who wished to remain unnamed for fear of reprisals from the authorities, told Forum 18 on 11 November. “Even if they were published somewhere, it would be a formal step of the State Commission. Our voices will not be heard anyway.”

Told that many religious communities were not aware of the publication, Sharsheke Usenov, Head of the Legal Support Department of the SCRA, told Forum 18 on 11 November: “We have announced about it in the media and at press conferences.” Asked if he could even say when this was announced, he said, “I don’t remember now.”

This lack of openness mirrors a similar official attitude over the controversial proposed new Religious Education Law. Only some religious communities have been invited to discuss the draft text and religious communities were only given one week to submit comments. The SCRA has so far refused to allow the legal review it requested from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to be published (see F18News 6 November 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1373).

When will Regulations be signed?

None of the several SCRA officials Forum 18 talked to could say when the Regulations will be signed. “The State Commission itself is going through structural changes so I cannot tell you when it will happen,” Murzakhalilov explained.

However, Usenov said that the signing should take place soon. “I can’t say how soon it will happen though,” he told Forum 18. “The religious communities have had more than a month to respond, and it cannot be put on the back burner for long.” (END)

URL: www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1375

KYRGYZSTAN: Property obstacles used to stop registrations

--- Forum 18 News, Oslo, Norway

21 August 2009

KYRGYZSTAN: Property obstacles used to stop registrations

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service

Some religious communities in Kyrgyzstan are facing problems in registering as they cannot get a certificate from the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings, Forum 18 News Service has been told. In some cases religious communities are told that, on the instructions of the State Agency for Religious Affairs, their building must be 1,000 metres [1,090 yards] away from any school building, and 10,000 metres [10,900 yards] away from any mosque. In another case, an organisation was asked to to build an electricity substation to obtain a certificate. Officials have evaded answering Forum 18’s questions about these problems. Problems in registering are also facing religious organisations which are not communities. An example of this is the Bible Society, which is facing demands that it must register as a religious organisation. The Religion Law requires all religious organisations to have no less than 200 members, yet as Valentina An, Chair of the Bible Society, explained to Forum 18 “we have only 3 employees.”

Some religious communities are facing problems in gaining legal registration as they cannot get a required certificate from the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings, Forum 18 News Service has found. Also, religious societies such as the Bible Society, which does not fit the Religion Laws definitions, face problems in registering.

Unregistered religious organisations and communities in Kyrgyzstan are banned under the restrictive new Religion Law. The restrictive Religion Law demands in Article 10.2 that registration applications must include a: “Document confirming the location (legal address) of the religious organisation to be established at the geographic place (a sales-purchase agreement for the premises, a lease agreement, an agreement on providing premises free of charge, an official letter, etc.)” However, several religious communities — who do not wish to be named — have told Forum 18 News Service that they are having problems in establishing that they use a building in order to apply for registration.

Some religious communities are having no problems in establishing that they use a building. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, own the buildings they use for worship. However, Vladimir Gavrilovski told Forum 18 on 21 August that “we used to have problems when we were refused permission to rent public buildings.” Similarly, the Bahai Community “at the moment has no problem” with using their own building, they told Forum 18 on 21 August.

State Agency for Architecture and Buildings certificate needed

However, this is not the case for some other communities. A particular problem is Article 16 of the Religion Law, which states that buildings can be used “in the order established in Kyrgyz law”. This is taken by the State Agency for Religious Affairs (SARA) to mean that the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings must issue a certificate permitting usage of a building.

The SARA and the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings “play mutual protection,” a lawyer from the capital Bishkek, who is helping some religious organisations to register and wishes to remain anonymous, told Forum 18 on 21 August. In a recent case known to the lawyer, when the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings was asked for a certificate establishing that a religious community used a building, the State Agency replied with a letter from the SARA demanding that the building be 1,000 metres [1,090 yards] away from any school building, and 10,000 metres [10,900 yards] away from any mosque. The lawyer claimed that “SARA requires organisations to produce a certificate from the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings, and then asks the same Agency to obstruct the granting of this certificate.”

The lawyer also stated that the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings also asks religious communities and organisations to produce certificates itself from the Water, Natural Gas and Power Supply Administrations, as well as the the Fire Brigade,” the lawyer explained. The Power Supply Administration in one case asked an organisation to build a power substation, the lawyer said. “It’s exceedingly expensive for any organisation to build it, and the officials are trying to use religious organisations to do work for them.”

Forum 18 has been told by several Kyrgyz sources of these demands being made by the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings. Some sources have pointed out that the large number of mosques makes this condition very difficult or impossible to fulfil.

The lawyer from Bishkek said the Religion Law does not regulate whether or not state-owned buildings may be used for religious purposes, but he said that “there is an official instruction to public institutions not to rent their premises for religious purposes.” Private owners, who in the past have rented premises to religious organisations, are “now afraid” to rent them out. “Officials from the SARA and Prosecutor’s Office demand that they have permission from the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings, which in most cases they do not have.”

Officials evade answering questions

Nurlan (who did not give his last name), assistant to Onushbek Tursunbayev, Head of the State Agency for Architecture and Buildings, said that religious organisations only need supplementary documentation from municipal administrations only if they are building a new building. “For buildings which are already in use, we give permission without any supplementary documents,” he told Forum 18 on 21 August. Asked what Law regulated whether or not state-owned buildings may be used for religious purposes, he said he did not know. “For renting privately-owned halls, no permission from us is necessary unless it is a new building,” he said.

Asked if the Power Supply Administration’s demand to build a power substation was lawful, Nurlan replied that “I am a new person in this job, and I do not know.” Similarly he evaded answering if it was lawful for SARA to demand that a religious building be a long distance from a school or mosque.

Yusupjan Kadyrhojayev of the State Agency for Religious Affairs told Forum 18 on 21 August that “we only ask for two documents from religious organisations — one is the contract of purchase or of rent, and the other is permission from the State Agency for Architecture and Buildingss,” Kadyrhojayev of SARA told Forum 18. When Forum 18 started asking about property problems faced by religious communities, he put the phone down.

Unregistered communities of Protestant Christians, Hare Krishna devotees and Ahmadiya Muslims in many parts of Kyrgyzstan have been ordered by the authorities to stop meeting for worship (see F18News 13 August 2009).

Religious societies which are not communities

Problems in registering are also facing religious organisations which are not communities. An example of this is the Bible Society. The Religion Law requires all religious organisations to have no less than 200 members (see F18News 27 May 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1301). Yet as Valentina An, the Chair of Kyrgyzstan’s Bible Society, explained to Forum 18 on 19 August: “we have only 3 employees. We don’t understand why we have to register as a religious organisation, as we do not fit the Law’s definition of involving ourselves in religious worship, propagation or education. We only translate and produce Bibles.”

The Bible Society was registered as a branch of the Kazakhstan Bible Society, and previously had to re-register it every year as a foreign mission in Kyrgyzstan.

“The Bible Society is involved in religious activity, because they produce and distribute religious literature. Therefore they must also be registered as religious organisation,” Kadyrhojayev of the State Agency for Religious Affairs told Forum 18. He maintained that “they are not a printing-press, they are religious believers, and are a type of religious organisation. The law is the same for everybody. There are Muslim religious societies too, which face the same requirement,” told Forum 18 on 19 August. He refused to discuss the issue further, or name the Muslim organisations he had in mind.

The Law also imposes severe restrictions on religious literature distribution (see F18News 27 May 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1301). It also imposes censorship, stating that “Religious organisations and missions can import religious literature and other printed, audio, and video materials into the Kyrgyz Republic only after passing examination by a state religious expert.”

“At the moment we are continuing our activity, but have been asked by the State Agency for Religious Affairs to bring our activity in compliance with the Law,” An of the Bible Society told Forum 18. “We are uncertain of our future,” she said. (END)

URL: www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1338

KYRGYZSTAN: What will new “Coordinating Council on the Struggle Against Religious Extremism” do?

---Forum 18 News, Oslo, Norway

19 August 2009

KYRGYZSTAN: What will new “Coordinating Council on the Struggle Against Religious Extremism” do?

By Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18 News Service

Kyrgyzstan has established a state Coordinating Council on the Struggle against Religious Extremism, Forum 18 News Service notes. The execution of Council decisions will be obligatory for the different parts of the government, but officials are unclear when asked by Forum 18 what they mean by religious extremism and what the Council will do. It will be led by the State Agency for Religious Affairs, the Interior Ministry and the NSS secret police, and will have members from other parts of the government, the Muslim Board, and the Russian Orthodox Church. Civil society and religious organisations have reacted with concern, Raya Kadyrova of the Foundation for Tolerance International pointing out that “unfortunately our laws give a very wide definition of religious radicalism and extremism.” She suggested that the Collective Security Treaty Organisation might be a reason for the Council. The Jehovah’s Witnesses said they needed to wait and see what it would do. They noted that some officials have previously described them as “a destructive movement,” but “hoped” the Council would not listen to such opinions. One Protestant asked why there was a need for the Council, given the other responsible state organisations.

Kyrgyzstan has recently transformed its state Interagency Council on Religious Affairs into a state Coordinating Council on the Struggle against Religious Extremism, Forum 18 News Service has learned. However, although the Council will apparently be powerful, uncertainty surrounds what it will do.

The Decree establishing the Council — signed by Prime Minister Igor Chudinov on 5 August — states that it was established “for the purpose of ensuring concerted action and coordination of activity of State agencies and local governments of Kyrgyzstan in prevention of the spread of and resistance to religious extremism, fundamentalism and conflicts on religious grounds”. The Decree goes on to state that: “Constructive and effective mutual relations between State agencies and religious organisations aimed at efficient solutions of issues related to prevention of the spread of religious extremism, fundamentalism, and conflicts on religious grounds, will allow suppressing the ideas of various extremist and destructive groups.”

Kanybek Osmanaliev, Head of the State Agency for Religious Affairs, told Forum 18 on 18 August that the Secretariat of the Council will be led by himself, the Deputy Interior Minister, and the Deputy Head of the National Security Service (NSS) secret police. The members of the Council will be representatives of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defence, Health, Culture, and Finance, heads of Regional Administrations, as well as representatives from the state-favoured Muslim Board and the Russian Orthodox Church.

It appears that much power will be given to the Council, as the Decree states that Council decisions must be executed by “Ministries, State Committees, administrative units, and other executive authorities, as well as local state administrations and local self-government”.

What issues will the Council address?

“The reason for the decision was to turn the Interagency Council, which was more of an amorphous structure to a more effective one to fight religious extremism,” Osmanaliev of the State Agency for Religious Affairs told Forum 18. “We will meet no less than twice a year and report to the Vice-Prime Minister,” he said. The State Agency will be responsible for preparing the agenda for each meeting. However, Osmanaliev said that he “cannot say what exact issues we will discuss, as we are only in the phase of formulating our policy.” He also did not say what principles would serve as the basis of the Council’s policy.

Father Igor Dronov of the Russian Orthodox Church in Bishkek told Forum 18 on 19 August that he is aware of the new Council, but has not yet accepted the invitation to it. “I cannot say at the moment what issues the Council will be occupied with,” he stated. Reminded that he’d told Forum 18 on 7 August that some Protestant Churches are “aggressive,” Father Dronov said “that’s not religious extremism but aggressive proselytism.” The new Religion Law bans — without defining — “aggressive action aimed at proselytism” (see F18News 13 January 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1240). Asked if he would bring these type of issues at the Council, Fr Dronov repeated his previous answer that he did not know what the Council would be doing.

The Muslim Board and Osmanaliev of the State Agency have, along with Fr Dromov, welcomed the restrictive new Religion Law. In a written explanation of the “need” for a new Law — placed on the parliamentary website — Osmanaliev expressed concern about what he described as the “abnormality” of a rising number of people changing faith, especially young ethnic Kyrgyz joining Christian churches. He also complained of “illegal” activity by “various destructive, totalitarian groups and reactionary sects”, among whom he included the Hare Krishna and Mormon communities, and “uncontrolled” building and opening of mosques, churches and other places of worship (see F18News 2 October 2008 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1197).

Who decided what the Council’s membership is?

Asked why representatives of other religious organisations were not invited as members to the Council, Osmanaliev of the State Agency said the question should be put to the government.

Suyun Musaliyev, who works for the department overseeing religious issues in the Cabinet of Ministers, said that the members from the religious organisations were proposed by the State Agency for Religious Affairs. “If they [the State Agency] would like to propose a representative of Protestants, for instance, they could,” he told Forum 18 on 18 August. “We will make a decision on their proposal.”

What is religious extremism?

Officials were unspecific when asked what they meant by religious extremism, and how the struggle against it would be carried out. “It is the Coordinating Council’s duty to expose destructive and extremist religious movements in the territory of Kyrgyzstan,” Musaliyev of the Cabinet of Ministers responded. Osmanaliev of the State Agency said that “only courts” in Kyrgyzstan can decide which religious movements are extremist. “So far, such decisions have been made on organisations like Hizb-ut-Tahrir” (see http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=170 for an outline of this group’s views), he stated. “None of the existing and registered organisations are considered as extremists here,” Osmanaliev assured Forum 18. He did not discuss the situation of unregistered organisations, or those whose registration the new Law threatens.

Asked what would happen if names of existing organisations were claimed in Council meetings to have negative effects, Osmanaliev would only said that the Council “would need to make a collective decision” on cases of extremism.

Reactions from civil society and religious communities

Raya Kadyrova, President of the Foundation for Tolerance International in Bishkek, pointed to one possible problem in the Council’s work. She told Forum 18 on 19 August that “unfortunately our laws give a very wide definition of religious radicalism and extremism. For instance, any criticism by independent Muslim organisations of the work of the Muslim Board can easily be interpreted as radicalism and extremism.” She also said that she “hoped the Council will also listen to the opinion of Kyrgyzstan’s so-called minority faiths before making any decisions affecting their activity”

Various religious organisations expressed their concerns to Forum 18 about the Council. A Protestant Pastor, who wanted to remain unnamed, said he does not understand why there needs to be such a Council. “We already have law-enforcement agencies in the country to detect who breaks the laws,” he told Forum 18 on 18 August from Bishkek. The Protestant added that the State Agency is also supposed to work with religious organisations. “I am afraid they are trying to tighten the noose around our necks,” he complained. He said he believed that the Council was created to “make life hard” for the Protestant churches in the country.

Vladimir Gavrilovski of Jehovah’s Witnesses said they needed to wait and see what the Council would do. “It has been re-organised very recently, so we have to wait to see,” he told Forum 18 on 18 August. “Some officials have spoken about us as being a destructive movement in the past,” he noted. “When we explained our position on different issues, they told us that they were given wrong information on us.” He said he “hoped” that the Council would not listen to such opinions.

Synarkul Muraliyeva (Chandra Mukkhi) of the Hare Krishna community said she did not know what the position of the Council on their community would be. “The NSS secret police has told us that we are a totalitarian sect, and are in a list with the banned terrorist organisations.”

Why is the Council being established?

Kadyrova of the Foundation for Tolerance International told Forum 18 that the establishment of the Council was “official recognition that the country’s security is under threat from religious extremism.” She thought that a reason for it’s establishment may be that the authorities “need to determine” what the security threats are. She added that the Council may also have been established “to integrate into national policy a policy adopted at a recent meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).” She noted that “the policy of the CSTO is that special attention needs to be given to religious radicalism and new religious movements, as a threat to security in the region.”

The CSTO, consisting of of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, added some Muslim movements to its list of terrorist and extremist organisations in May 2009. These included Tabligh Jamaat and Salafism (see F18News 15 May 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1297), as well as “Nurdzhular” - as it calls followers of the Turkish theologian Said Nursi. Muslims who follow Nursi’s approach to Islam have been attracting increasing state hostility in the former Soviet Union. Increasing numbers of Muslims following his approach have been jailed in Uzbekistan (see eg. 31 July 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1333). Translations of many of his writings are banned in Russia, and those thought to possess them have been raided (see F18News 16 July 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1328).

The Kyrgyz legal background

Since a repressive new Religion Law came into force in January, religious communities of all faiths have experienced increased official hostility. One example of this has been that unregistered communities of Protestant Christians, Hare Krishna devotees and Ahmadiya Muslims in many parts of Kyrgyzstan have been ordered by the authorities to stop meeting for worship (see F18News 13 August 2009).

Officials have claimed to Forum 18 that they have formed a Commission to resolve three controversial provisions of the Religion Law: restrictions on sharing faith and distributing religious literature, and the high threshold of members required before religious communities can register. Separately, a legal challenge to the Law was mounted by Protestants (see F18News 27 May 2009 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1301). The Constitutional Court on 24 July dismissed the complaint, in a ruling signed by Judge Chinara Musabekova. She stated that the “concrete constitutional rights of the applicants have not been violated.” (END)

URL: www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1337