UZBEKISTAN: “Sacred primary source of one of world’s major religions” destroyed
ICC Note:
Uzbekistan has very strict controls on all religious material allowed in their country. There are frequent raids on believers homes where their Bibles and other religious materials are confiscated “so that the authorities can make sure they are officially allowed religious books.” Often times these confiscated items, even approved ones, are destroyed and never returned to the owners. This article discusses just such a case in which the Father of a victim of a raid said, “This means that [the government] is destroying Bibles which represent the sacred primary source of one of the world’s major religions,”
By Mushfig Bayram
09/17/2012 Uzbekistan (Forum 18)- A Tashkent-based man, Vladimir Shinkin, has so far failed to get any response to his appeals to find out why his son Vyacheslav and daughter-in-law Snezhana Galiaskarova were fined in April 2011 for religious meetings he says they never held and why religious books seized from them – including Bibles his daughter-in-law inherited in 2003 – were ordered destroyed. Vladimir Shinkin sent complaints to various state agencies in 2011 and 2012, including a renewed complaint sent on 17 September to President Islam Karimov, family members told Forum 18 News Service.
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Many raids and religious literature confiscations have taken place in recent years, often accompanied by media attacks on the victims. Police in August raided the Tashkent home of a Russian Orthodox mother Valentina Pleshakova and her disabled daughter Natalya, seizing their religious literature and beating Natalya. Officers pressured Natalya to adopt Islam. Although their heavy fines were changed into an official warning on appeal, no books were returned (see F18News 11 September 2012 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1740).
Shovkat Hamdamov, press-secretary of the government’s Religious Affairs Committee in Tashkent, told Forum 18 on 17 September that religious books are seized so that the authorities can make sure they are officially allowed religious books, “for example that the Bible is indeed the Bible”. Asked what the Committee does with the books after they give their expert analysis and decision, he claimed that the books are returned to the owners.
When Forum 18 told him that in many cases owners have complained that they were not returned, Hamdamov claimed: “We at least send it back to whoever it was that sent it to us for expertise.” When Forum 18 asked if the books are sent back to the courts or other officials who sent them, he responded “yes”.
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Outraged
In his 18 April 2012 written complaint to Svetlana Artikova, Chair of Parliament’s Senate Committee on Legislative, Judicial and Legal Issues, seen by Forum 18, Vladimir Shinkin states that the whole case against his son and daughter-in-law was “fabricated” by Tashkent’s Mirabad District Police “under the dictation” of the local authorities to silence him and others because they “exposed the corruption” of the local authorities, who “appropriated” state funds.
Shinkin states in his complaint that he is outraged that the police can fabricate a case against his son – who is not even a believer in God – and against his daughter-in-law – who is a believer but is not involved in religious activity – that they organise religious services. He also condemns Judge Begzot Ermatov’s 4 April 2011 order that all the confiscated books be destroyed.
“This means that he is destroying Bibles which represent the sacred primary source of one of the world’s major religions,” Shinkin complained.
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Massive fine
Judge Ermatov of Tashkent’s Mirabad Court on 4 April 2011 found Vyacheslav Shinkin and Galiaskarova guilty of illegally storing religious books and materials, and illegally conducting religious services in their private home, family members told Forum 18. Shinkin was fined 100 times the minimum monthly wage or 4,973,500 Soms (15,860 Norwegian Kroner, 2,030 Euros, or 2,930 US Dollars at the inflated official exchange rate) and Galiaskarova one tenth of that, 497,350 Soms. Tashkent City Court rejected their appeal on 29 April 2011.
Vladimir Shinkin complains that on 3 April 2011, Mirabad District Police officers “under the guise” of passport check-ups in her absence broke into Galiaskarova’s private flat in Mirabad District, which she rented out. Without a warrant from the Prosecutor’s office, officers confiscated the private library of her deceased father, which consisted of Christian and secular fiction books.
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Shinkin also complains that on the same day, police in Tashkent’s Hamza District in cooperation with Tashkent City and Mirabad District Police officials, again without prosecutors’ sanction raided the flat of his son and daughter-in-law. The police again made an “unlawful” search, and confiscated several Christian books, including a Children’s Bible, as well as works of fiction which are sold openly in bookshops.
Shinkin explains that the Christian books belonged to his daughter-in-law, who comes from a Christian background, while his son is an atheist, who respects his wife’s beliefs.
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