KAZAKHSTAN IMPOSES LARGE FINE ON UNREGISTERED BAPTIST PASTOR
By Jeremy Reynalds (06/12/06)
A Baptist Pastor in Kazakhstan has been fined more than three times the approximate average monthly salary for leading unregistered religious activity.
Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of the Ural River in far eastern Europe.
Pastor Yaroslav Senyushkevich’s fine was imposed on May 18 2006, Forum 18 News Service reported.
Senyushkevich, who leads a Baptist congregation in the capital Astana, was tried by the capital's inter district administrative court, where Judge Lezat Alimzhanova found him guilty of violating Article 374 part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offences, punishing him with a fine
of 856 U.S. dollars. Average monthly salaries have been estimated to be roughly equivalent to 260 U.S. dollars.
Told that this was the highest fine so recorded against a Baptist for leading religious services, Forum 18 reported that Alimzhanova was unmoved. “What do you expect me to do?" Forum 18reported she told the news service. “I gave my clear ruling and he has now appealed to the city court.” She declined further comment on the case.
Following this fine, the highest yet imposed on a Baptist pastor for leading an unregistered religious community, the Council of Baptist Churches again told Forum 18 News Service their objections to official demands that they register their congregations with the government.
Forum 18 reported that the Baptists claim the registration applications in some regions of Kazakhstan require extensive information that includes the ethnicity, family status and religious education of congregational leaders, as well as a breakdown by age and type of work of congregation members and information on “the most acute problems worrying parishioners,” as well as details of members' political affiliation.
"Such registration is a web it's almost impossible to break free of," Forum 18 reported the Council told the news service.
In addition, Forum 18 reported that the Council of Baptist Churches feels the registration questionnaire is extraordinarily invasive. The 16 questions not only cover the name and location of the religious community, as well as where services are held and how often each week, but also include “intrusive questions about the leader and members of the congregation.”
Forum 18 stated that leaders are required to give information that includes their ethnicity, date and place of birth, level of religious education, family situation, place of work and post held and home address and telephone number.
Information about the congregation includes number of members, ethnic composition, age profile, social composition, how many men and women attend, and how many foreigners are present for missionary activity.
Other information required, Forum 18 reported, is “links and contacts” with other congregations, "the most influential and authoritative figures in the congregation," and "the most popular political parties and social organizations in the congregation." The questions conclude with what are "the most acute problems worrying parishioners," and "facts demanding attention on the part of state bodies."
"These are the terms under which a religious congregation or community is registered," Forum 18 reported the Baptists told the news service. "The question arises: who needs this information and what for?" The Baptists said, Forum 18 reported, that their "memories are still vivid" of the trials they faced during the Soviet period for refusing registration under the "anti-Evangelical" laws which governed religion.
"Many were sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment and some even ended their days in prison, but remained faithful to God and free of sinful registration" They are very concerned that once again the pressure to register has recently grown "more and more acute," and fear it could lead to "a widespread attack on communities of our brotherhood."
Forum 18 reported that Aleksandr Klyushev, head of the Association of Religious Organizations of Kazakhstan, said he has seen similar forms handed out by local justice administrations in some parts of the country. "There's no national form, but local Justice Administrations often produce their own," Forum 18 reported he told the news service. "In some cases, local churches have protested against such intrusive demands and officials have then withdrawn them."
Klyushev said that as a rule the Council of Baptist Churches members are the main victims of the government's insistence that unregistered religious activity is illegal. He said other unregistered religious communities tend not to be touched, especially if they do not draw attention to themselves. "Maybe this is because local prosecutors don't know about them," he told Forum
18. "If they did, maybe they would take harsh action."
Fokina of the Helsinki Committee told Forum 18 she had not seen such a form, but believes officials are issuing such requirements to provide detailed information. "Such intrusive demands have no basis in law," she told Forum 18. "Article 19 of our Constitution says you do not have to reveal your ethnic or religious affiliation. This is in clear violation of that "
And as Professor Roman Podoprigora, a Kazakh specialist in religious law, told Forum 18, “Kazakh law contradicts itself over whether or not registration is compulsory” (see F18News www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701).
Forum 18 reported that no one was available at the Ministry of Justice in the capital of Astana on June 9 to explain why pressure is increasing on religious believers who want to practice their faith in line with the rights guaranteed under Kazakhstan's international human rights obligations. However, Forum 18 reported that Daniyar Muratuvi of the Human Rights Ombudsperson's Office told the news service that religious believers have to register in accordance with the law. “Why don't these believers want to register?” the news service reported he asked. He added that he would respond to any further questions in writing.
Muratuvi is not the only Kazakh official to ignore Kazakhstan's international obligations, Forum 18 reported
The head of a regional Justice Department told Forum 18 that “international agreements are nothing to us - we're governed by the laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan” (see F18News www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=793).
In 2005, Kazakhstan adopted a new “Law on International Treaties,” which in Article 20 states that “in the case of conflict of the international treaty provisions with the provisions of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the treaty shall be amended, suspended or terminated." This breaks both the Kazakh Constitution, and also the United Nation “Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties,” which Kazakhstan accepted in 1994.
Ninel Fokina, head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, said she does not understand the new attack on religious minorities. “It's difficult to discover the logic for this new wave of attacks,” she told Forum 18. “On one side the government is hoping to chair the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is holding a conference on tolerance in Almaty this weekend. On the other, local prosecutors offices’ are getting much harsher.”
Fokina linked the harsher measures to the formation at the end of last year of a Council for Religious Affairs within the Justice Ministry, with 102 officials nationwide. “They have to have something to do,” she told Forum 18. “They've been given a long list of tasks and have stepped up control.” She added that it is not just religious communities facing greater restrictions - the media and political parties are also facing tighter controls.
Forum 18 reported that the news service has learned of a number of additional cases concerning Baptists. On May 19 at the specialized administrative court of Temirtau, Forum 18 reported that Judge E. Kirillova fined Dmitri Yantsen 17 U.S. dollars for violating Article 375 part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offences.
“All this was simply because the church is not registered and he serves as presbyter of the congregation,” Forum 18 reported that local Baptists told the news service.
Another case involved an individual who was fined 43 U.S. dollars for violating Article 375 part 1 of the Code of Administrative Offences. Each Monday, Lekomtsev hosts a worship service in his home in the village of Progress in the Algin district. “It's a small group made up of four church members, three people close to the church, as well as the children of the church members,” local Baptists told Forum 18.
These fines in May and June are in addition to a fine of 43 U.S. dollars leveled against Pastor Andrei Grigoryev in Aktobe in April, a subsequent police raid on the congregation's worship service on May 21, and fines imposed on May 22 on ten church members who had preached in the town of Sarkand in the Almaty region.
In these cases, Forum 18 reported, local TV used police video footage to portray the Baptists negatively, as has also been the case with Hare Krishna devotees, who think this has encouraged intolerance against them (see F18News www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=793).
For more background, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701
(Printer friendly version) Email: Jeremy Reynalds
