Back in the 'stans ...

(With thanks to Forum 18 - Keep up the good work, guys)

16 November 2005
AZERBAIJAN: DISTURBING NUMBERS OF POLICE RAIDS ON RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=689

Police raids on religious communities have continued to take place at a disturbing rate, Forum 18 News Service has found, especially on summer camps and open air preaching outside the confines of state-registered religious buildings. Baptists [...] are amongst those who have been attacked by the authorities. Nakhichevan, an exclave wedged between Turkey, Armenia and Iran, is the "worst region in the country" for religious freedom, a Hare Krishna devotee told Forum 18. This is an observation that people of several faiths have frequently made to Forum 18. One of the most serious attacks was a raid on a Baptist children's summer camp, in which ordinary police and NSM secret police officers arrived "in many cars, shouting and swearing, even at the women," a church member who was handcuffed and beaten up in front of children told Forum 18.

15 November 2005

BELARUS: "RELIGIOUS EVENTS SHOULD BE IN A HOUSE OF WORSHIP, NOT ON THE STREET"
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=688

State authorities have insisted to Forum 18 News Service that religious literature was lawfully confiscated from a street library in eastern Belarus. Bobruisk City Executive Committee vice-chairman Mikhail Kovalevich told Forum 18 that the Baptists had both "ignored" and "violated" the legal procedure for holding religious events by acting without state approval. "Religious events should be in a house of worship, not on the street," he stated about the street evangelism. The Baptists have been told by the head of the local state Ideology Department that the confiscated literature - including copies of the New Testament - would be sent for expert analysis and might not be returned at all, and that a court will soon resolve the issue. In another recent case, a Baptist in Brest has been fined for leading an unregistered religious organisation.

Local Baptists have protested against this, pointing out that, under Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights,"everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religionÂ…everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association."

18 November 2005
BELARUS: STATE LOSING ITS BATTLE WITH RELIGIOUS BELIEVERS?http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=691

A state report seen by Forum 18 News Service gives a rare insight into state attempts to contain religious activity, and official gloom at the state's failure. Vasili Marchenko, top religious affairs official in Brest region, is very upset that officials are not active enough in breaking up worshipp services and harassing, fining and controlling religious activity, writing of "an even more depressing situation." The report aims at "repairing defects" in controlling religious activity by 1 December 2005.

Marchenko gloomily writes of the state's failure to return an alternative Orthodox community to the Moscow Patriarchate, failure to stop Baptists conducting two or three services a week, "freely and systematically distributing Â… religious literature," and conducting "an illegal water baptism" lasting over four hours with over 300 participants. Local authorities are also castigated by Marchenko for failing to stop Eastern-rite Catholic, Jehovah's Witness, Adventist and Pentecostal activity. Forum 18 has found an apparent link between Marchenko's report and subsequent increased action against religious communities.