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Source: www.forum18.org Date: January 31, 2008
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>
Concern is mounting among many of Kyrgyzstan's smaller religious
communities about a proposed new presidential decree that could ban many of
the country's small religious communities, Forum 18 has learnt. Regulations
attached to the new Decree - if adopted in current form - continue to
insist that religious communities must gain registration with the State
Agency for Religious Affairs but require that each one has 200 adult
citizen members. Another Regulation requires all religious educational
establishments - "universities, institutes, madrassas, seminaries, parish
and Sunday schools etc." - to gain official registration.
Some religious minorities fear that if the Decree is adopted, all
registered religious communities will be required to re-register, as
happened when the current Decree was adopted in November 1996. "Those with
fewer than 200 members will be denied re-registration and will become
illegal," Aleksandr Shumilin, head of the Baptist Union, told Forum 18 from
the capital Bishkek on 31 January. "We've told the authorities though that
our congregations will continue to meet for worship regardless."
Asked by Forum 18 on 31 January about the proposed new restrictions, Kanat
Murzakhalilov, Deputy Head of the State Agency, responded: "You're
panicking. International norms will be respected."
He said the draft Decree on the Rights of Citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic
to Freedom of Conscience and Religious Confession (which has four attached
Regulations) - which was drawn up under the supervision of his Agency, and
of which Forum 18 has a Russian-language text - is with the Presidential
Administration. "It still needs an opinion from several departments there,"
he told Forum 18 from Bishkek. "If they're positive the President will
sign." He declined to speculate how long he believed this might take.
Bishkek sources who preferred not to be identified told Forum 18 on 31
January that the Ministry of Justice has already approved the draft decree
and that the only departments in the Presidential Administration still to
give their approval are the Legal and Financial departments.
Reached on 31 January, the deputy head of the Press Office at the
Presidential Administration, Dosali Esenaliev, told Forum 18 that he had
never heard of the draft Decree. "I would know about it if it was there."
Admitting that the draft Decree exists but downplaying its importance was
Tursunbek Akun, who heads the presidential Human Rights Commission. "The
Decree is being discussed, but it's not yet come to me even though I head
the Human Rights Commission," he told Forum 18 from Bishkek on 31 January.
He dismissed the concerns of religious minorities over the restrictions in
draft texts that are available.
Members of various religious communities complained of endemic secrecy
over the way the Decree has been drawn up. "The first anyone knew about it
outside a narrow circle was when it was mentioned at a roundtable held by
the State Agency for Religious Affairs on 11 January," one told Forum 18.
"And it could be adopted very quickly."
The new Decree, which would replace the 1996 Decree, elaborates on
provisions in the 1991 Religion Law as amended in November 1997. The four
Regulations cover: the registration of religious organisations; the
registration of foreign citizens coming to Kyrgyzstan to conduct religious
activity; the registration of missions set up by foreign religious
organisations; and registration of religious education.
The Regulation covering the registration of religious organisations
requires all to be registered with the State Agency, whether individual
places of worship, unions or associations. "The activity of religious
organisations and their associations and the functioning of religious
entities without registration in accordance with the present Regulation is
banned," it adds. Associations can be formed by three registered
communities.
As at present, registration with the State Agency would not confer legal
status. Organisations wishing to receive legal status also have to present
their documents - together with the State Agency certificate - to the
Justice Ministry. Only registration with the State Agency would be
compulsory.
Religious organisations require 200 adult citizen founders who live in one
region of the country before they can apply for registration. Founders have
to be recorded on a notarised list which includes their full name, full
date of birth, home address, place of work and job title and passport
number. The application needs to include information about the
organisation's religious faith, form of rites, history in Kyrgyzstan,
attitude to marriage and the family, attitude to education, and attitude to
military service. The application needs to be accompanied by written
permission from the local authorities for use of premises where it meets.
Religious organisations need permission to build or take over buildings
for religious purposes not only from the local authorities but also from
the State Agency. Religious events outside a community's own premises
require similar permission from the local authorities and the State Agency.
The State Agency has to approve the publication, import or distribution of
all religious literature.
The State Agency has the right to suspend for between one and six months
the activity of religious organisations that break the law. This means that
any activity they conduct in this time would be illegal.
The Regulation on religious education declares: "Religious educational
institutions (universities, institutes, madrassas, seminaries, parish and
Sunday schools etc.) are subject to compulsory registration in the Agency
for Religious Affairs. Religious education on the territory of the Kyrgyz
Republic without undergoing registration in the prescribed manner is
banned." The Regulation also requires anyone travelling abroad for
religious education to have approval from the State Agency.
All resources - including books and videos - used in teaching must have
permission from the State Agency, including a copy of its written
assessment of each item.
The application form for those wishing to travel abroad for religious
education asks applicants to list full personal details, as well as where
they have worked in the past five years, their knowledge of languages,
whether and if so where they conducted military service, whether they are
married and their attitude to military service. They are also required to
list by name their parents, and any spouse, brothers or sisters or
children. Their addresses, dates and places of birth and places of work are
also required.
The Regulation on the registration of foreign citizens bans any foreigners
from conducting religious activity without approval from the State Agency.
It also requires missionaries to respect "the traditional moral foundations
and customs of the people".
Concerns have mainly focused on the proposed requirement for each
religious organisation to have 200 adult citizen founders. "I have not seen
the text of this proposed decree, but if it includes a provision for 200
founders this would be bad, even for the Orthodox and the Muslims," Fr Igor
Dronov, secretary of the Russian Orthodox diocese for Kyrgyzstan, told
Forum 18 from Bishkek on 31 January.
His view was echoed by Catholic representatives. "This worries not just
us, but others as well, including the Orthodox and Lutherans," a local
Catholic who preferred not to be named told Forum 18 from Bishkek the same
day. "We're a minority here. We have three full parishes and about 20
smaller groups which our priests visit regularly." The Catholic said his
Church had already asked the authorities to reduce this high threshold.
A coalition of Protestant Churches - which includes the Baptist and the
Pentecostal Unions, as well as the Lutherans and the Seventh-day Adventists
- also complain of the high threshold. "This in effect represents
discrimination against small religious communities," they declare, "which
should have equal conditions for realising their rights to freedom of
conscience established in Article 14 of Kyrgyzstan's Constitution." They
point out that the current law requires just ten adult citizens.
The Protestant coalition insists that the requirement for the State Agency
to approve the building for or transfer of a building to religious use
should be removed from the draft. It also objects that the Regulation on
foreign citizens in effect bans all religious activity by all foreigners
and does not distinguish between those working for religious organisations
and those specifically conducting missionary activity to non-members, those
working in secular jobs who want to take part in a religious community as
an ordinary member.
The Protestant coalition calls for the requirement that even "parish and
Sunday schools" must register to be removed. This concern is also shared by
Fr Dronov of the Orthodox Church. "A Sunday school is not an educational
establishment - we simply teach the Catechism," he told Forum 18. "We can't
understand why this might be included." The Protestants also complain about
the approval needed for all course materials and question the competence of
the State Agency to undertake this.
No-one was available at the Muftiate, the state-backed Muslim Board, to
comment on the proposed Decree when Forum 18 called on 31 January.
The Protestant coalition has organised a roundtable on 1 February to take
place in a Bishkek hotel, where the proposed new Decree will be discussed.
Murzakhalilov of the State Agency told Forum 18 he planned to attend.
Catholics told Forum 18 the local bishop, Nikolaus Messmer, also plans to
attend. Fr Dronov of the Orthodox Church said he is waiting to discuss the
issue with his bishop. The Bishkek office of the Organisation for Security
and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said it also plans to attend.
Successive governments and parliamentary deputies have long proposed
amending the 1991 Religion Law also. A recent draft text - of which Forum
18 has seen a copy - is also in circulation. However, it has not yet
reached parliament, as Murzakhalilov confirmed. "The new Law and the Decree
are separate," he told Forum 18. "But the Law still needs discussion in
parliamentary committees and will need three readings of the full
parliament."
Religious minorities dislike many provisions in the draft Religion Law,
but believe the Decree is likely to be adopted much sooner. "Changing the
Religion Law didn't work, so they began working intensively on the Decree
instead," one Protestant told Forum 18. "That's why it's our main focus of
concern at present."
Asked why Kyrgyzstan needs to amend the Religion Law or the 1996 Decree at
all, Murzakhalilov was vague. "The Decree was adopted eleven years ago," he
told Forum 18. "Some points are not in accord with today's conditions. The
religious picture has changed so much - globalisation has affected us and
there are now destructive sects and religious extremist organisations." He
could not specify which provisions of the 1991 Law or 1996 Decree were
outdated.
Others are more sceptical. "The earlier Law was and is fine," the Catholic
told Forum 18. "We don't want the Decree or the new Law to be adopted in
their current form," the Protestant told Forum 18. (END)
For background information see Forum 18's Kyrgyzstan religious freedom
survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=222>.
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kyrgyzstan
can be found at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=30>.
A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=806>, and of religious
intolerance in Central Asia is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=815>.
A printer-friendly map of Kyrgyzstan is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=kyrgyz>.
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