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
========================================== ======
Wednesday 27 December 2006
AZERBAIJAN: RAID ON JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DELIBERATELY TIMED?
Azerbaijan's latest manifestation of hostility to Protestant Christian and
other religious minorities, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, is a 24 December
raid on the Kingdom Hall in the capital, Baku, Forum 18 News Service has
learnt. "We suspect that the police and prosecutor used the holiday season
- when foreign representations obviously have only minimum staff - to make
this attack," Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. Property was confiscated,
money was apparently stolen by police, congregation members were detained
and at least two were beaten up. In a repeated pattern during police raids
on religious minorities, a local TV station which encourages religious
intolerance was present. Six foreign attendees - three of whom grew up in
Azerbaijan - may be deported. Forum 18 was able to speak to the Migration
Police, but not Idayat Orujev, chair of the State Committee for Work with
Religious Organisations, or other officials there, for comment.
AZERBAIJAN: RAID ON JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DELIBERATELY TIMED?
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>
Azerbaijan's Jehovah's Witness community remains deeply sceptical over the
timing of a major raid on a convention at their Kingdom Hall in the capital
Baku on 24 December that saw property confiscated and many of those present
detained at the police station for several hours. "We suspect that the
police and prosecutor used the holiday season - when foreign
representations obviously have only minimum staff - to make this attack,"
Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18 News Service on 26 December.
Six foreigners present at the convention are now threatened with
deportation for conducting "religious propaganda" which - in defiance of
the country's international human rights commitments - is illegal in
Azerbaijan. Many religious minorities would like this and other bars to
religious freedom in the country to be removed (see F18News 14 August 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=828>). However, instead, the
authorities seem to be planning further restrictions on their citizens'
religious freedom (see F18News 14 August 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=827>).
Police and local administration officials arrived at the convention at
about 10.30 am on 24 December, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. As has
been the repeated pattern in recent years when religious minority
communities are raided, the police were accompanied by cameras from a
local television station (see eg. F18News 16 November 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=689>).
Although police did not produce a search warrant, they broke down the door
to the third-floor room where some 200 Jehovah's Witnesses had assembled
for the convention. Many of those present - including the six foreigners -
were put on buses and taken to police station No. 34 in the city's Khatai
district, where they were questioned for many hours. "At least two men
were beaten up by police officers," the Jehovah's Witnesses report.
Despite apparently not having a search warrant, the remaining police
officers then forced their way into other rooms in the building and
conducted a search, refusing to allow the local Jehovah's Witnesses to
accompany them. The search continued until 7.00 pm, and the police
confiscated the contribution box with all of the contents, congregation
record cards, and several computers that were being used for translation
of the Bible and Biblical literature into Azerbaijani. The police issued a
record of confiscation only for the computers and some smaller items. The
Jehovah's Witnesses also discovered later that some 300 Manats (about
2,200 Norwegian Kroner, 270 Euros, or 350 US Dollars) of congregation
funds had gone missing without any notification of this by the police. The
police also confiscated a large amount of literature, piling it into a
minibus.
The Khatai district police freed the detained local Jehovah's Witnesses at
5 pm, while the six foreigners - three of whom had grown up in Azerbaijan -
were transferred to the Migration Police.
"Don't worry about the six," Senior Inspector Elchin Mamedov of the
Migration Police, within the Interior Ministry, who is handling their
cases, told Forum 18 from Baku on 27 December. "We will take a fair and
just decision." However, he insisted that under Article 300 of the Code of
Administrative Offences - which punishes those conducting "religious
propaganda" with fines of between 20 and 25 times the minimum monthly
wage, or deportation for foreigners or those without citizenship - the six
had violated the law. He admitted that this article restricts the rights of
individuals to religious freedom, but said that as this is the law it has
to be applied. "It was the local police who raided the meeting and
detained the six, not us," he insisted.
Senior Inspector Mamedov said he was talking to a lawyer the Jehovah's
Witnesses had sent from Russia, and expected the six to be freed by the
Migration Police today (27 December). But Mamedove would not tell Forum 18
if this meant they could remain in Azerbaijan. The Jehovah's Witnesses say
the Khatai district Public Prosecutor appeared to be in charge of the
operation. Also present was an official of the State Committee for Work
with Religious Organisations, which apparently thinks - without any legal
justification whatsoever - that religious meetings need its approval.
The duty officer at police station No. 34 - where many of the participants
were taken for questioning - told Forum 18 on 27 December that he knew
nothing of the raid or interrogation of Jehovah's Witnesses at the police
station. "We have many police officers working here," he told Forum 18. He
referred all enquiries to his chief, Rustam Ismailov, who he said was in a
meeting.
Forum 18 was unable to reach Idayat Orujev, chair of the State Committee
for Work with Religious Organisations, or other officials there on 27
December. However, the Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 that on 25
December they were able to talk to Orujev's assistant on 25 December. "At
first he claimed ignorance as to what took place, but then said he had
seen something on television about the raid. We informed him that we are
very concerned about the welfare of those who are still in custody and
request their release as soon as possible, and we told him that we are
putting together a complete list of all the property that was taken and
damage that was done to the building. We asked him to pass this
information to his superiors, since we consider this to be an egregious
abuse of the rights of our fellow worshippers. He said he would inform
them."
This is not the first time the Baku Kingdom Hall has been raided. A
similar raid was staged on 12 June 2005 (see F18News 21 June 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=590>).
Reports of the raid in the local media - such as on the Day.az website and
the Russian-language Zerkalo newspaper - claimed the Jehovah's Witness
convention had been raided because it was illegal and held without
permission from the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations.
The media - apparently well-supplied with information from officials - also
accused the Jehovah's Witness of being a dangerous "sect" conducting
"subversive" activity. Several newspapers claimed - wrongly - that the
Jehovah's Witnesses have been banned in Europe and Russia since the 1980s.
(However, the Moscow city branch only, has been legally banned from working
in the city - see F18News 17 May 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=781>).
In an apparent attempt to stir up popular hostility to the Jehovah's
Witnesses, given the unresolved conflict with Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh, the media also claimed that the group's leaders in the
Caucasus - based in neighbouring Georgia - have Armenian surnames. There
are almost 50 Jehovah's Witness - and one Baptist - religious prisoners of
conscience in Armenia, imprisoned for their refusal to perform military
service (see F18News 22 February 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=732>).
Vilification of religious minorities in the media has been commonplace in
recent years, with Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses the main victims.
Police raids on such communities are - as in the 24 December raid - often
accompanied by sympathetic journalists from government-loyal media
outlets.
Ilya Zenchenko, head of Azerbaijan's Baptist Union, told Forum 18 that the
last such raid on a Baptist church was in Azerbaijan's second-largest city,
Gyanja [Gäncä], in May 2006. "In the wake of the raid we complained to the
authorities," he told Forum 18 on 27 December from Baku. "But after they
intervened such raids came to a stop." However, Gyanja's Sunni mosque is
unable to invite its own imam back after his arrest on apparently
fabricated charges (see F18News 10 March 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=741>).
National and local officials often arbitrarily interpret laws in ways that
restrict religious freedom, or invent restrictions which have no foundation
in law. Among such inventions are the restriction of religious communities
that function without registration and restriction of the functioning of a
religious community to the city or town where it is registered (see eg.
F18News 3 November 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=681>). "We can only get
registration in Baku," Aja-Das of the Hare Krishna community told Forum
18. "We want to work in the whole country, not just in Baku." He cited
continuing restrictions on Hare Krishna work outside the capital. "In some
places we have been stopped from distributing literature. It wouldn't be
bad if this was changed so that religious communities can work across the
country."
Protestants and members of other faiths have encountered frequent similar
bans in small towns and villages (see eg. F18News 16 November 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=689>). (END)
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the
international community can help establish religious freedom in
Azerbaijan, see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 482>
For more background information see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious
freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id' >
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
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/
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
========================================== ======
Wednesday 27 December 2006
AZERBAIJAN: RAID ON JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DELIBERATELY TIMED?
Azerbaijan's latest manifestation of hostility to Protestant Christian and
other religious minorities, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, is a 24 December
raid on the Kingdom Hall in the capital, Baku, Forum 18 News Service has
learnt. "We suspect that the police and prosecutor used the holiday season
- when foreign representations obviously have only minimum staff - to make
this attack," Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. Property was confiscated,
money was apparently stolen by police, congregation members were detained
and at least two were beaten up. In a repeated pattern during police raids
on religious minorities, a local TV station which encourages religious
intolerance was present. Six foreign attendees - three of whom grew up in
Azerbaijan - may be deported. Forum 18 was able to speak to the Migration
Police, but not Idayat Orujev, chair of the State Committee for Work with
Religious Organisations, or other officials there, for comment.
AZERBAIJAN: RAID ON JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES DELIBERATELY TIMED?
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>
Azerbaijan's Jehovah's Witness community remains deeply sceptical over the
timing of a major raid on a convention at their Kingdom Hall in the capital
Baku on 24 December that saw property confiscated and many of those present
detained at the police station for several hours. "We suspect that the
police and prosecutor used the holiday season - when foreign
representations obviously have only minimum staff - to make this attack,"
Jehovah's Witness sources told Forum 18 News Service on 26 December.
Six foreigners present at the convention are now threatened with
deportation for conducting "religious propaganda" which - in defiance of
the country's international human rights commitments - is illegal in
Azerbaijan. Many religious minorities would like this and other bars to
religious freedom in the country to be removed (see F18News 14 August 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=828>). However, instead, the
authorities seem to be planning further restrictions on their citizens'
religious freedom (see F18News 14 August 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=827>).
Police and local administration officials arrived at the convention at
about 10.30 am on 24 December, Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18. As has
been the repeated pattern in recent years when religious minority
communities are raided, the police were accompanied by cameras from a
local television station (see eg. F18News 16 November 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=689>).
Although police did not produce a search warrant, they broke down the door
to the third-floor room where some 200 Jehovah's Witnesses had assembled
for the convention. Many of those present - including the six foreigners -
were put on buses and taken to police station No. 34 in the city's Khatai
district, where they were questioned for many hours. "At least two men
were beaten up by police officers," the Jehovah's Witnesses report.
Despite apparently not having a search warrant, the remaining police
officers then forced their way into other rooms in the building and
conducted a search, refusing to allow the local Jehovah's Witnesses to
accompany them. The search continued until 7.00 pm, and the police
confiscated the contribution box with all of the contents, congregation
record cards, and several computers that were being used for translation
of the Bible and Biblical literature into Azerbaijani. The police issued a
record of confiscation only for the computers and some smaller items. The
Jehovah's Witnesses also discovered later that some 300 Manats (about
2,200 Norwegian Kroner, 270 Euros, or 350 US Dollars) of congregation
funds had gone missing without any notification of this by the police. The
police also confiscated a large amount of literature, piling it into a
minibus.
The Khatai district police freed the detained local Jehovah's Witnesses at
5 pm, while the six foreigners - three of whom had grown up in Azerbaijan -
were transferred to the Migration Police.
"Don't worry about the six," Senior Inspector Elchin Mamedov of the
Migration Police, within the Interior Ministry, who is handling their
cases, told Forum 18 from Baku on 27 December. "We will take a fair and
just decision." However, he insisted that under Article 300 of the Code of
Administrative Offences - which punishes those conducting "religious
propaganda" with fines of between 20 and 25 times the minimum monthly
wage, or deportation for foreigners or those without citizenship - the six
had violated the law. He admitted that this article restricts the rights of
individuals to religious freedom, but said that as this is the law it has
to be applied. "It was the local police who raided the meeting and
detained the six, not us," he insisted.
Senior Inspector Mamedov said he was talking to a lawyer the Jehovah's
Witnesses had sent from Russia, and expected the six to be freed by the
Migration Police today (27 December). But Mamedove would not tell Forum 18
if this meant they could remain in Azerbaijan. The Jehovah's Witnesses say
the Khatai district Public Prosecutor appeared to be in charge of the
operation. Also present was an official of the State Committee for Work
with Religious Organisations, which apparently thinks - without any legal
justification whatsoever - that religious meetings need its approval.
The duty officer at police station No. 34 - where many of the participants
were taken for questioning - told Forum 18 on 27 December that he knew
nothing of the raid or interrogation of Jehovah's Witnesses at the police
station. "We have many police officers working here," he told Forum 18. He
referred all enquiries to his chief, Rustam Ismailov, who he said was in a
meeting.
Forum 18 was unable to reach Idayat Orujev, chair of the State Committee
for Work with Religious Organisations, or other officials there on 27
December. However, the Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18 that on 25
December they were able to talk to Orujev's assistant on 25 December. "At
first he claimed ignorance as to what took place, but then said he had
seen something on television about the raid. We informed him that we are
very concerned about the welfare of those who are still in custody and
request their release as soon as possible, and we told him that we are
putting together a complete list of all the property that was taken and
damage that was done to the building. We asked him to pass this
information to his superiors, since we consider this to be an egregious
abuse of the rights of our fellow worshippers. He said he would inform
them."
This is not the first time the Baku Kingdom Hall has been raided. A
similar raid was staged on 12 June 2005 (see F18News 21 June 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=590>).
Reports of the raid in the local media - such as on the Day.az website and
the Russian-language Zerkalo newspaper - claimed the Jehovah's Witness
convention had been raided because it was illegal and held without
permission from the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations.
The media - apparently well-supplied with information from officials - also
accused the Jehovah's Witness of being a dangerous "sect" conducting
"subversive" activity. Several newspapers claimed - wrongly - that the
Jehovah's Witnesses have been banned in Europe and Russia since the 1980s.
(However, the Moscow city branch only, has been legally banned from working
in the city - see F18News 17 May 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=781>).
In an apparent attempt to stir up popular hostility to the Jehovah's
Witnesses, given the unresolved conflict with Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh, the media also claimed that the group's leaders in the
Caucasus - based in neighbouring Georgia - have Armenian surnames. There
are almost 50 Jehovah's Witness - and one Baptist - religious prisoners of
conscience in Armenia, imprisoned for their refusal to perform military
service (see F18News 22 February 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=732>).
Vilification of religious minorities in the media has been commonplace in
recent years, with Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses the main victims.
Police raids on such communities are - as in the 24 December raid - often
accompanied by sympathetic journalists from government-loyal media
outlets.
Ilya Zenchenko, head of Azerbaijan's Baptist Union, told Forum 18 that the
last such raid on a Baptist church was in Azerbaijan's second-largest city,
Gyanja [Gäncä], in May 2006. "In the wake of the raid we complained to the
authorities," he told Forum 18 on 27 December from Baku. "But after they
intervened such raids came to a stop." However, Gyanja's Sunni mosque is
unable to invite its own imam back after his arrest on apparently
fabricated charges (see F18News 10 March 2006
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=741>).
National and local officials often arbitrarily interpret laws in ways that
restrict religious freedom, or invent restrictions which have no foundation
in law. Among such inventions are the restriction of religious communities
that function without registration and restriction of the functioning of a
religious community to the city or town where it is registered (see eg.
F18News 3 November 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=681>). "We can only get
registration in Baku," Aja-Das of the Hare Krishna community told Forum
18. "We want to work in the whole country, not just in Baku." He cited
continuing restrictions on Hare Krishna work outside the capital. "In some
places we have been stopped from distributing literature. It wouldn't be
bad if this was changed so that religious communities can work across the
country."
Protestants and members of other faiths have encountered frequent similar
bans in small towns and villages (see eg. F18News 16 November 2005
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=689>). (END)
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the
international community can help establish religious freedom in
Azerbaijan, see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 482>
For more background information see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious
freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id' >
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;
(END)
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
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/