Tweet
FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
http://www.forum18.org/
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief
=================================================
Thursday 17 February 2005
TURKMENISTAN: MORE RELIGIOUS PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE JAILED
Turkmenistan has increased the number of religious prisoners of conscience
it has jailed, Forum 18 News Service has learnt, by imprisoning two further
Jehovah's Witnesses, Atamurat Suvkhanov and Begench Shakhmuradov, for
refusing on religious grounds to serve in the armed forces. There are now
five known religious prisoners of conscience in Turkmenistan, four of them
Jehovah's Witnesses and one Muslim, the former chief mufti. In addition,
some imams are believed to be in internal exile. Religious prisoners of
conscience in Turkmenistan have been harshly treated, being regularly
beaten, threatened with homosexual rape, and in one case apparently treated
with psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs. Suvkhanov, who is now 18, is
currently being held in the women's labour camp in the eastern town of
Seydi, and the whereabouts of Shakhmuradov, who is 26, are unknown.
Commenting on the fact that Shakhmuradov is older than most military
conscripts, Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18 that "we still
don't know why someone that age was called up."
TURKMENISTAN: MORE RELIGIOUS PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE JAILED
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Two further Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned for refusing
compulsory military service on religious grounds while others continue to
be threatened and fined for their religious activity, Jehovah's Witness
sources have told Forum 18 News Service. Atamurat Suvkhanov was sentenced
to 18 months' imprisonment in the north-eastern town of Dashoguz
[Dashhowuz] on 17 December 2004, while Begench Shakhmuradov was sentenced
in the Azatlyk district of the capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat] to one year's
imprisonment on about 10 February. "Shakhmuradov is 26 years old
- we still don't know why someone that age was called up,"
Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18. The new sentences bring to five
the number of known religious prisoners of conscience in Turkmenistan, four
of them Jehovah's Witnesses and one Muslim. In addition, some imams are
believed to be in internal exile.
Both Suvkhanov and Shakhmuradov were sentenced under Article 219 of the
Criminal Code, which punishes refusal to serve in the armed forces.
Turkmenistan offers no non-combat alternative to those who cannot serve in
the military on grounds of conscience.
Suvkhanov, who was baptised as a Jehovah's Witness in December 2002 and is
now 18, is currently being held in the women's labour camp in the eastern
town of Seydi, although Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18 they
believe this might be a temporary measure. The whereabouts of Shakhmuradov,
who was baptised in August 2003, are unknown.
The two other Jehovah's Witness prisoners, Mansur Masharipov and Vepa
Tuvakov who were both from Dashoguz, were sentenced on 28 May and 3 June
2004 on the same grounds and are being held in the Seydi men's labour camp
(see F18News 25 October 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=438). All these sentences
were issued after the televised announcement by President Saparmurat
Niyazov earlier in 2004 that all imprisoned conscientious objectors should
be released.
Six Jehovah's Witness prisoners were freed last June in the wake of the
president's announcement which followed international pressure on the
Turkmen government. Many of them had been harshly treated, being regularly
beaten and in one case apparently treated with psychotropic (mind-altering)
drugs (see F18News 25 October 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=438). One earlier Jehovah's
Witness prisoner had been the victim of homosexual rape and others were
threatened with the same fate (see F18News 24 November 2003
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=194). However, Jehovah's
Witness sources have told Forum 18 that conditions for their
fellow-believers still being held have improved since last summer. "We
have had no recent reports of beatings or threats against them."
Also still imprisoned is the 57-year-old former chief mufti, Nasrullah ibn
Ibadullah, who was arrested after falling out with President Niyazov and is
now serving a 22-year sentence on charges the Turkmen government refuses to
make public. He has not been freed despite recent prisoner amnesties (see
F18News 25 October 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=438).
Meanwhile, the Jehovah's Witnesses report other recent harassment of their
members in Turkmenistan. On 2 November 2004, the police seized Amangozel
Atageldiyeva, Gulshirin Atageldiyeva, Ayjemal Khummedova and Maysa
Annagylyjova in the town of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi, one of many towns
renamed after the president, in the Mary region of south-eastern
Turkmenistan. The four women were taken to the local administration,
threatened and mocked "with the aim of forcing them to abandon their
religious views", Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18. They were
then freed. Two further Jehovah's Witnesses, Guncha Atageldiyeva and Bakhar
Sapayeva, were summoned for similar threats in the following days.
On 16 November 2004, a district police officer detained Maksat Khalyshev
while he was in the street in an outlying suburb of Ashgabad. After finding
a Bible and other religious literature on him and in the absence of a
permit to live in the capital, Khalyshev was taken to the police station.
After "verbal insults and humiliation" he was taken to a holding
centre where he was kept for 24 hours in the open air on a cold concrete
floor without any covering. The following afternoon he was driven 50
kilometres (30 miles) outside the city, made to get out of the vehicle and
told to continue to the town of Dashoguz on his own, a distance of 450
kilometres (280 miles) in a straight line. He returned to his home in
Ashgabad only at 11 pm.
On 26 November 2004, Murat Saryyev - who was originally from Dashoguz
- was summoned to the administration of Ashgabad's Kopetdag district. He
was met by a commission of nine persons in the room dedicated to the
Ruhnama, a book of President Niyazov's "spiritual" writings which
has taken the place of the works of Lenin as an object of official
veneration. "The members of the commission humiliated him morally and
threatened to confiscate his apartment and evict him to the city of
Dashoguz to his relatives if he continued conducting meetings with his
fellow believers in his apartment and speaking about the gospel to
others," Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18.
On 10 December 2004 Darya Meshcherina, a 20-year old Jehovah's Witness in
Ashgabad was detained by the police when she gave a friend she met on the
street a book, My Book of Bible Stories. "At this moment two police
officers took hold of her, twisted her arms and pushed her into a car and
drove to the police station," Forum 18 was told. "There the
content of her bag was inspected and the following items were confiscated:
The Watchtower magazine, brochures, audiocassettes, photocopied sheets of
paper and a medical identification document. She was forced to make a
written statement."
On 20 December Ashgabad's Azatlyk district court fined Meshcherina
2,500,000 manats (3,077 Norwegian kroner, 368 Euros or 480 US dollars at
the highly inflated official exchange rate) under Article 205 of the Code
of Administrative Offences, which punishes any religious activity the
government has not authorised. The fine represents about 1.5 times the
average monthly salary.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are among a whole range of religious communities
that have failed to get registration with the government and therefore the
right to conduct any religious activity. Other such faiths effectively
banned include all Protestant denominations apart from the Adventists and
possibly the Baptists (their registration has not yet been completed eight
months after they were given their registration certificate), Shia Muslims,
the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Catholics (except on Vatican diplomatic
territory), the Lutherans, the Jews, the Yezidis (followers of an ancient
Kurdish faith) and the New Apostolic Church. Even for registered faiths
(the Muslims, the Russian Orthodox, the Adventists, possibly the Baptists,
the Hare Krishna community and the Baha'is), religious activity is legal
only in the few authorised places of worship.
For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey
at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=296
A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atla s/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News http://www.forum18.org/
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/
--Boundary_(ID_KdGvouFTIODkBUsgExNuMw)--
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
http://www.forum18.org/
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one's belief or religion
The right to join together and express one's belief
=================================================
Thursday 17 February 2005
TURKMENISTAN: MORE RELIGIOUS PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE JAILED
Turkmenistan has increased the number of religious prisoners of conscience
it has jailed, Forum 18 News Service has learnt, by imprisoning two further
Jehovah's Witnesses, Atamurat Suvkhanov and Begench Shakhmuradov, for
refusing on religious grounds to serve in the armed forces. There are now
five known religious prisoners of conscience in Turkmenistan, four of them
Jehovah's Witnesses and one Muslim, the former chief mufti. In addition,
some imams are believed to be in internal exile. Religious prisoners of
conscience in Turkmenistan have been harshly treated, being regularly
beaten, threatened with homosexual rape, and in one case apparently treated
with psychotropic (mind-altering) drugs. Suvkhanov, who is now 18, is
currently being held in the women's labour camp in the eastern town of
Seydi, and the whereabouts of Shakhmuradov, who is 26, are unknown.
Commenting on the fact that Shakhmuradov is older than most military
conscripts, Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18 that "we still
don't know why someone that age was called up."
TURKMENISTAN: MORE RELIGIOUS PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE JAILED
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Two further Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned for refusing
compulsory military service on religious grounds while others continue to
be threatened and fined for their religious activity, Jehovah's Witness
sources have told Forum 18 News Service. Atamurat Suvkhanov was sentenced
to 18 months' imprisonment in the north-eastern town of Dashoguz
[Dashhowuz] on 17 December 2004, while Begench Shakhmuradov was sentenced
in the Azatlyk district of the capital Ashgabad [Ashgabat] to one year's
imprisonment on about 10 February. "Shakhmuradov is 26 years old
- we still don't know why someone that age was called up,"
Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18. The new sentences bring to five
the number of known religious prisoners of conscience in Turkmenistan, four
of them Jehovah's Witnesses and one Muslim. In addition, some imams are
believed to be in internal exile.
Both Suvkhanov and Shakhmuradov were sentenced under Article 219 of the
Criminal Code, which punishes refusal to serve in the armed forces.
Turkmenistan offers no non-combat alternative to those who cannot serve in
the military on grounds of conscience.
Suvkhanov, who was baptised as a Jehovah's Witness in December 2002 and is
now 18, is currently being held in the women's labour camp in the eastern
town of Seydi, although Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18 they
believe this might be a temporary measure. The whereabouts of Shakhmuradov,
who was baptised in August 2003, are unknown.
The two other Jehovah's Witness prisoners, Mansur Masharipov and Vepa
Tuvakov who were both from Dashoguz, were sentenced on 28 May and 3 June
2004 on the same grounds and are being held in the Seydi men's labour camp
(see F18News 25 October 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=438). All these sentences
were issued after the televised announcement by President Saparmurat
Niyazov earlier in 2004 that all imprisoned conscientious objectors should
be released.
Six Jehovah's Witness prisoners were freed last June in the wake of the
president's announcement which followed international pressure on the
Turkmen government. Many of them had been harshly treated, being regularly
beaten and in one case apparently treated with psychotropic (mind-altering)
drugs (see F18News 25 October 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=438). One earlier Jehovah's
Witness prisoner had been the victim of homosexual rape and others were
threatened with the same fate (see F18News 24 November 2003
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=194). However, Jehovah's
Witness sources have told Forum 18 that conditions for their
fellow-believers still being held have improved since last summer. "We
have had no recent reports of beatings or threats against them."
Also still imprisoned is the 57-year-old former chief mufti, Nasrullah ibn
Ibadullah, who was arrested after falling out with President Niyazov and is
now serving a 22-year sentence on charges the Turkmen government refuses to
make public. He has not been freed despite recent prisoner amnesties (see
F18News 25 October 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=438).
Meanwhile, the Jehovah's Witnesses report other recent harassment of their
members in Turkmenistan. On 2 November 2004, the police seized Amangozel
Atageldiyeva, Gulshirin Atageldiyeva, Ayjemal Khummedova and Maysa
Annagylyjova in the town of Saparmurat Turkmenbashi, one of many towns
renamed after the president, in the Mary region of south-eastern
Turkmenistan. The four women were taken to the local administration,
threatened and mocked "with the aim of forcing them to abandon their
religious views", Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18. They were
then freed. Two further Jehovah's Witnesses, Guncha Atageldiyeva and Bakhar
Sapayeva, were summoned for similar threats in the following days.
On 16 November 2004, a district police officer detained Maksat Khalyshev
while he was in the street in an outlying suburb of Ashgabad. After finding
a Bible and other religious literature on him and in the absence of a
permit to live in the capital, Khalyshev was taken to the police station.
After "verbal insults and humiliation" he was taken to a holding
centre where he was kept for 24 hours in the open air on a cold concrete
floor without any covering. The following afternoon he was driven 50
kilometres (30 miles) outside the city, made to get out of the vehicle and
told to continue to the town of Dashoguz on his own, a distance of 450
kilometres (280 miles) in a straight line. He returned to his home in
Ashgabad only at 11 pm.
On 26 November 2004, Murat Saryyev - who was originally from Dashoguz
- was summoned to the administration of Ashgabad's Kopetdag district. He
was met by a commission of nine persons in the room dedicated to the
Ruhnama, a book of President Niyazov's "spiritual" writings which
has taken the place of the works of Lenin as an object of official
veneration. "The members of the commission humiliated him morally and
threatened to confiscate his apartment and evict him to the city of
Dashoguz to his relatives if he continued conducting meetings with his
fellow believers in his apartment and speaking about the gospel to
others," Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18.
On 10 December 2004 Darya Meshcherina, a 20-year old Jehovah's Witness in
Ashgabad was detained by the police when she gave a friend she met on the
street a book, My Book of Bible Stories. "At this moment two police
officers took hold of her, twisted her arms and pushed her into a car and
drove to the police station," Forum 18 was told. "There the
content of her bag was inspected and the following items were confiscated:
The Watchtower magazine, brochures, audiocassettes, photocopied sheets of
paper and a medical identification document. She was forced to make a
written statement."
On 20 December Ashgabad's Azatlyk district court fined Meshcherina
2,500,000 manats (3,077 Norwegian kroner, 368 Euros or 480 US dollars at
the highly inflated official exchange rate) under Article 205 of the Code
of Administrative Offences, which punishes any religious activity the
government has not authorised. The fine represents about 1.5 times the
average monthly salary.
The Jehovah's Witnesses are among a whole range of religious communities
that have failed to get registration with the government and therefore the
right to conduct any religious activity. Other such faiths effectively
banned include all Protestant denominations apart from the Adventists and
possibly the Baptists (their registration has not yet been completed eight
months after they were given their registration certificate), Shia Muslims,
the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Catholics (except on Vatican diplomatic
territory), the Lutherans, the Jews, the Yezidis (followers of an ancient
Kurdish faith) and the New Apostolic Church. Even for registered faiths
(the Muslims, the Russian Orthodox, the Adventists, possibly the Baptists,
the Hare Krishna community and the Baha'is), religious activity is legal
only in the few authorised places of worship.
For more background, see Forum 18's Turkmenistan religious freedom survey
at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=296
A printer-friendly map of Turkmenistan is available at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atla s/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=turkme
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
F18News http://www.forum18.org/
Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
http://www.forum18.org/
--Boundary_(ID_KdGvouFTIODkBUsgExNuMw)--
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress