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http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05070112.htm

ASSIST News Service (ANS) - PO Box 2126, Garden Grove, CA 92842-2126 USA
Visit our web site at: www.assistnews.net -- E-mail: danjuma1@aol.com

Friday, July 29, 2005

TURKMENISTAN POLICE BEAT BAPTIST WITH BIBLE AND THREATEN TO HANG HER

By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

TURKMENISTAN (ANS) -- Police in a Turkmenistan city raided a Bible study taking place in a private home, beat the host with her Bible and even threatened to hang her.

Turkmenistan is located in Central Asia, bordering the Caspian Sea, between Iran and Kazakhstan (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/tx.html).

Local Baptists from the city of Turkmenabad, who meet together regularly at the house for prayer and Bible study, alerted Forum 18 News to the situation on July 23.

Asiya Zasedatelevaya has now appealed for the return of all the Christian literature that authorities confiscated from her, Forum 18 reported. She said there is a great need for it.

Forum 18 reported that the news organization was unable to reach the city police chief to ask him the reason for the raid, confiscation and reported threats.

According to Forum 18, Zasedatelevaya said that three men burst into her apartment on the evening of July 19, two of them in civilian clothes, accompanied by the local police captain in uniform.

“Without identifying themselves or showing authorization for a search they pushed me away from the door and began a search,” Zasedatelevaya told Forum 18. She said that while the police took away all her religious literature and a Russian dictionary, they failed to give her a receipt for the confiscated items.

“Then they started to interrogate me, despite the fact that I’m ... unable to hear and speak,” Forum 18 reported Zasedatelevaya said.

According to Forum 18, Zasedatelevaya said that when she refused to disclose where she had got her Christian books, one of the plain clothes men hit her over the head with her Bible, while the second hit her in the face. “The local policeman threatened to hang me,” she added. “During all this my four-year-old child was present in the flat (apartment).”

Forum 18 reported that Zasedatelevaya was then taken to the police station, where another local policeman, Durliev (first name unknown), claimed neighbors had written a statement reporting that meetings lasting two to three hours were held in her apartment.

Zasedatelevaya told Forum 18 that she regularly hosts meetings of between ten and fifteen local Baptists in her apartment each week “to study the Word of God.”

In addition to asking that her confiscated literature be returned, Zasedatelevaya also demanded that officials stop harassing people wanting to meet privately for Bible study.

According to Forum 18, Zasedatelevaya’s Baptist congregation belongs to the Baptist Council of Churches, whose congregations refuse on principle to register with the state authorities in post-Soviet countries.

Forum 18 reported that members of another Baptist congregation in Turkmenabad, who belong to the nationally-registered Baptist Union, were fined in March and two families were evicted from their hostels in punishment for meeting for worship, despite being part of a registered church. The police described the worship as “illegal,” and stated that it would be better for the Baptists to follow Islam (see www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=535).

The activity of registered communities remains restricted, Forum 18 reported, with officials insisting that no religious meetings can be held in private homes. According to Forum 18, “registered congregations are pressured to subscribe to the blasphemous cult of personality around the country's president, Saparmurat Niyazov” (see www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=522).

Since Niyazov issued his July 1 call for the country to adopt one set of religious rites, stating that “we have one religion and unique traditions and customs, and there is no need for people to look beyond these” (see www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=614), Forum 18 said that Deutsche Welle has reported increased pressure on religious minorities.

According to Forum 18, the radio station said that local authorities had warned Hare Krishna devotees in the Mary region not to meet for religious rites in private homes. Officials reportedly forced them to sign statements that they would only hold meetings in places, specially provided for religious purposes, such as buildings rented from state institutions, houses of culture, clubs and cafes. However, Forum 18 reported local sources told Deutsche Welle that directors of organizations and “houses of culture” either refuse to rent out their premises, or demand such high fees that they are unaffordable.

One director of a government-owned house of culture in the capital city of Ashgabad told radio station Deutsche Welle, Forum 18 reported, that the city authorities had warned him and fellow directors in the city that providing a building for religious minorities is “unacceptable.”

An official of the Interior Ministry also reportedly told the radio station that the move was prompted by Niyazov's recent pronouncement on religious issues, which was shown on television.

One Hare Krishna devotee told Deutsche Welle, Forum 18 reported, that law-enforcement officers began visiting devotees’ homes immediately after the speech. “They took signatures on statements that we would not violate Niyazov's instruction on the ban on holding meetings in homes. And although we are registered with the Justice Ministry, we are banned from meeting even in the place we are registered.”

The Hare Krishna devotee said that Protestants in Mary, Iolotan, Murgab and Turkmenabad had reported similar treatment.

“All our believers are on file at the State Security Ministry secret police and we are treated as though we have a criminal record,” Forum 18 reported the devotee told Deutsche Welle. “They will not register any business activity in our names; we are banned from explaining our ideas to our fellow citizens, and believers are practically banned from meeting together. It is terrible, but despite this, people don't lose hope and wait for help from God.”

Hare Krishna devotees are an officially registered religious community, and other registered communities, such as Baptists, Seventh day Adventists, and Pentecostals, also face strong official pressure and restrictions, Forum 18 reported, as do the unregistered - and de facto illegal - communities.
For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=296
Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and director of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org or http://www.christianity.com/joyjunction. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico and is a candidate for the Ph.D. in intercultural education at Biola University in Los Angeles. He is married with five children and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jgreynalds@aol.com. Tel: (505) 877-6967 or (505) 400-7145. Note: A black and white JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.

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