Source:  www.assistnews.net

Date:  2008-04-26

By Jeremy Reynalds
Correspondent for ASSIST News Service

KAZAKHSTAN (ANS) -- A building used for worship by the Protestant New Life Church in Alga, north-west Kazakhstan, may be confiscated by authorities.

Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, northwest of China; a small portion west of the Ural River in eastern-most Europe.

According to a story by Mushfig Bayram of the Forum 18 News Service, a local official said that authorities are again suing to have the church evicted.

"If a miracle does not happen the authorities will confiscate the building," a church member told Forum 18. He added that the pastor of the church, Zholaman Nurmanov, was ordered by the local police to produce evidence showing under which organizational authority he has been ministering.

"He was ordered to do this very quickly," the church member told Forum 18.

Members of religious communities expressed fear to Forum 18 that the move against New Life Church is part of a wider state campaign to seize back property acquired by religious organizations during the last 15 years.

Forum 18 said authorities have been orchestrating a long campaign to seize the property of the Hare Krishna commune near the southern city of Almaty. In addition, a Muslim community lost its building in the western city of Atyrau in summer 2007.

Aleksandr Klyushev of the Association of Religious Organizations of Kazakhstan told Forum 18 while he is unsure whether there is a targeted state campaign to confiscate property from religious communities, he believes there is a definite tightening of state control.

"The authorities are scrutinizing all the details, including over the property of religious organizations," he told Forum 18.

Klyushev admitted that the New Life Church and Hare Krishna commune may not have followed all the legal procedures correctly while legalizing ownership of their property. However, he said, the Salem Protestant Church of Almaty is facing official questioning of its property ownership even though its documents are in order.

"Even in the case of New Life and Hare Krishna, the state should still make a step towards its citizens," Klyushev told Forum 18. "The authorities do make steps towards former officials, their colleagues in regards to property."

New Life's Nurmanov minimized the police inquiry to Forum 18, saying that the police usually check on organizations, and it was not serious. But he said his major concern is the church building. "We are pressured by the local Akimat (Executive Authority) to give up the building," he said, "but we are not being offered a new place."

Vasili Kim, the lawyer retained by the church, said the church has invested in the renovation of the whole building and put in a heating system.

"If calculated in today's prices the money spent improving the building would come up to ( 9,960 US dollars)," he told Forum 18.

The church has attracted many attendees from the area, and it would be difficult for the members if the church was moved away, he said.

"Three years ago the Akimat offered a new place to the church, but wanted the church to buy the new building," Kim told Forum 18. "But the church could not afford buying a new building then, let alone now."

If the church loses its current building, it will be left with no legal address, Kim told Forum 18. Without a legal address they could lose state registration, as Kazakhstan's Religion Law demands that organizations function at the legal address indicated in the registration. Once the legal address is lost, organizations are required to re-register at the new address if they have one, Kim said.

"The major concern now is that without a building, the church activity would be considered as unregistered, which is punishable by law," he told Forum 18.

Kazakhstan continues to punish unregistered religious activity in defiance of international human rights norms and standards, Forum 18 said. Members of religious communities have been placed under administrative arrest and fined. Recently a court in East Kazakhstan region suspended the activity of a Baptist congregation for six months.

Nurkhan Agniyazov, the deputy Head of Executive Authority of the Aktobe region, defended the state moves to reclaim the building from New Life Church.

He told Forum 18 because the building was vacant, that authorities gave it to the church in 1998. "It had earlier been a kindergarten, and the kindergarten system lost a lot of buildings because of poor management," said Agniyazov.

He reported that three years ago a court overruled the decision of the authorities and made a new decision to restore the kindergarten. Asked why the church or the kindergarten was not offered a new place, Agniyazov said they tried to find solutions but were unable to do so. He referred Forum 18 to Sangazy Kurmanalin, the Deputy Head of the local state Economic Department.

Kurmanalin told Forum 18 that recovering the former kindergarten was in line with a 2000 decree from President Nursultan Nazarbaev.

"By that decree the President demanded regional governments to restore the old kindergarten system," he told Forum 18. "One of the issues in front of us is the buildings that used to belong to that system."

Kurmanalin added, "The decision to give the building away was made by the incumbent Akim back in 1998, but overruled by the court three years ago. The church officially does not own the building now, so they must vacate it."

Kurmanalin told Forum 18 he was not aware whether the Akimat was taking back other former kindergarten buildings from the new owners. Asked why no charges were brought against the Akim if his decision was illegal, Kurmanalin said he couldn't say.

"I cannot answer your detailed questions right now, and we have brought the case to court already a second time," he said. Kurmanalin told Forum 18 to wait until after the court decides the matter.

Hare Krishna devotees in Kazakhstan are also suffering. Forum 18 said that in an attempt to intimidate Hare Krishnas to give up the land, local authorities have in the past demolished some of the houses on the land where they used to live.

Maxim Varfolomeev of the Hare Krishna Community told Forum 18 that regional authorities have given them an ultimatum to vacate the place as soon as possible.

"Otherwise the authorities pledge to pull down our temple and other buildings including living residences in our presence," Varfolomeev said.

Serik Umbetov, the Akim of the region, gathered officials of Akimats of local districts around Karasai region, and the leaders of the Hare Krishna commune on 25 March to offer an alternative site for the commune.

"The authorities through the court stripped our property rights to 49 hectares of fertile lands next to a beautiful lake which is also within an hour of Almaty city," Varfolomeev told Forum 18. "But now they won't give us a minimum of two hectares needed for building of the temple, the housing of the devotees and the shed for the cows."

At the meeting the Hare Krishna community was offered four places in different districts but found none of them appropriate, Varfolomeev reported.

"One site is next to a rubbish dump, another is next to a cemetery, and the best is on a hill that would need to be leveled out," he told Forum 18. All these sites are too remote and cannot be reached by public transport, which would make it very difficult for members to attend the meetings, he said.

The new head of the Justice Ministry's Religious Affairs Committee, Ardak Doszhan, met with the leaders of the Hare Krishna commune at his office in Astana on March 28, and promised to give his support to the commune, Varfolomeev told Forum 18. The authorities have not taken steps to demolish the buildings yet.

"This shows us that the Akimat is trying to talk us into signing papers that we agree to the plans to move us out of the current location, so they can have a legal basis for the demolition," he told Forum 18.

The Commune is resolute in its decision not to give in to pressure and sign any papers, he said.

"We just want two hectares of land on even ground in an appropriate surrounding not far from the city,"Varfolomeev told Forum 18.

Gazizat Shtabaeva of Karasai Akimat, who now oversees the land dispute, was reached by Forum 18, but she declined to talk about the issue.

"Ryskul Zhunisbaeva who used to oversee this dispute has now resigned from her position, and I have just taken over this issue," she said. "I don't know much about it at the moment."

Ardak Zholtaev, the Assistant to the Akim, declined to talk about the issue over the phone to Forum 18. Calls to the deputy Akim, Edil Kaliev, were unanswered. Kayrat Tulesov, the deputy chairman of the Religious Affairs Committee, also declined to discuss the case with Forum 18 by telephone..

Forum 18 said that among other religious communities, Jehovah's Witnesses, independent Muslims and Protestant churches continue to suffer in Kazakhstan.

According to Forum 18, a group of 15 independent Muslims were recently given long prison sentences for belonging to a terrorist organization. Fourteen of the 15 Muslims were given prison sentences of between 14 and 19-and-a- half years at a closed trial. The fifteenth received a three-year corrective labor sentence.

Forum 18 reported that the terrorist allegations by the authorities were not proven, according to independent legal experts in Kazakhstan.

For more background, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701.