JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES—TURKMENISTAN

July 1, 2003, to June 30, 2004

Legal Status

In November 2003, Turkmenistan adopted a new religion law, which outlaws any religious activity without registration. Amendments to the Administrative and Criminal Codes enable the authorities to prosecute any violations of the religion law and to issue fines and prison sentences. The impact of the new law is yet to be seen.

Abuses of Religious Freedom

Interference with Peaceful Assembly

Jehovah's Witnesses have been subjected to severe persecution and discrimination at the hands of the authorities, and the situation has not improved during the past year. Jehovah's Witnesses are completely deprived of freedom of association and peaceful assembly, even in their own homes. Police and national security officers have appeared at private homes when small religious gatherings were being conducted there, and detaining all in attendance, threatening and verbally abusing them. Afterward those present would be given heavy fines, with the owner of the home usually being subjected to an even heavier fine.

During 2003 there were at least ten known instances in which Jehovah's Witnesses were taken to police stations, kept in detention for long hours, threatened, brutally beaten, and verbally abused. After that, they were usually fined and their passports were confiscated as a deposit until the fines were paid. This is a harsh punishment because without a passport, life in Turkmenistan is very restricted. At least one pregnant woman reported harsh treatment by the police. Children and non-Witness family members were also taken to police stations and subjected to verbal abuse and interrogations. Some Witnesses were dismissed from their employment after their religious affiliation became known. Witness children were publicly humiliated in schools. According to one school director, the state agencies demand that the teachers carry out these orders—otherwise they may lose their jobs.
From May to September 2003, up to 40 of Jehovah's Witnesses, male and female, were taken to the 6^th Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This department is responsible for the fight against organized crime and terrorism. The treatment the Witnesses received was brutal. Males were beaten. All were required to renounce their faith in writing. Even Russian nationals were required to accept Islam. Passports were confiscated until fines were paid. Individual cases continue to date (see below).
In August 2003, there were 48 Jehovah's Witnesses who were denied exit visas when they tried to attend a religious convention in Tajikistan. Five other Witnesses who were able to obtain exit visas were groundlessly stopped after crossing the border and were forced to return.
On September 30, 2003, at 4.30 p.m. Farkhad Seidov, one of Jehovah's Witnesses in Turkmenabat (formerly Chärjew), was arrested by a police lieutenant and immediately taken to the 2^nd Police Department where he was badly beaten and kept in custody for 20 hours. The next day, after his release, he went to a first-aid station where his injuries were treated. However, using pressure and threats three police officers from the 2^nd Police Department later forced him to withdraw his complaint on the beating.
On March 9, 2004, Olga Vladislavovna Fedorina, one of Jehovah's Witnesses in Ashgabat, was assaulted by police. At 12.30 p.m. one policeman in uniform and two policemen in civilian clothes knocked at her door. Her husband refused to open, but the police kept knocking for 20 minutes, demanding that the door be opened for the district police officer. At 1:00 p.m. Fedorina went out in order to pick up her youngest daughter from kindergarten, but outside a civilian-clothed policeman stopped her, demanded her passport, and called the other policemen by radio. Then the police burst into the apartment and confiscated all her religious literature: one Bible, six books, and a few magazines. Fedorina was taken to the police station and forced to write an explanatory statement dictated by the police. Additionally, the district police officer sexually harassed her. Afterward, Fedorina filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office, providing the OSCE office in Ashgabat with a copy.
On March 18, 2004, Suren Gasparyan, one of Jehovah's Witnesses in Ashgabat, was also harassed by the authorities. At 5.30 p.m. two persons came to his apartment representing themselves as coming from the Niyazovsk District Court of Ashgabat. They required that Gasparyan immediately pay a fine of 250,000 manats (about $50 U.S.) that he had allegedly left unpaid in 2001. Gasparyan explained that he had paid all fines as required. From 2000 to 2004, he had been arrested some 10 times and paid a total of approximately $200 (US) in fines imposed simply because he engaged in religious activity. Nevertheless, the representatives of the court swore at him and said that they had an order from the city administration stating that Gasparyan must pay this fine. They said that if he did not pay it, his property would be confiscated. Gasparyan had no choice but to borrow money to pay the fine to the court representatives.

Employment Discrimination

On March 10, 2004, Aleksandr Anatolyevich Zorin, one of Jehovah's Witnesses in Ashgabat, was called to the Council for Religious Affairs and was interviewed by seven persons, one of them a mullah. During a heated discussion, Zorin was pressured to abandon his "disgraceful religion," otherwise the Council would contact his workplace and get him dismissed. This actually took place the following day.

In the evening of March 12, Zorin was informed about his dismissal from work. He learned that there had been a letter from the Council to his workplace, stating that Zorin was a terrible man and a sectarian. Because of Zorin the whole team that he was working with faced dismissal. Therefore, Zorin had no choice but to agree to his dismissal. Although being an exemplary worker, Zorin is now unemployed and his wife and six-month-old baby are left without a breadwinner. It will be very difficult for him to find another job.

Conscientious Objection to Military Service

Currently there are two of Jehovah's Witnesses imprisoned in Turkmenistan because of their conscientious objection to military service for religious reasons. Six others were released in June 2004 apparently because of a general amnesty for conscientious objectors. The conditions and treatment of Jehovah's Witnesses in the labor colonies are inhuman.

Despite the televised announcement by President Saparmurat Niyazov that all imprisoned conscientious objectors should be released, Mansur Masharipov (born in 1984) and Vepa Tuvakov (born in 1986) were sentenced respectively on May 28 and June 3, 2004, to 18 months in prison because of their conscientious objection to military service. They are both baptized Jehovah's Witnesses. They had been invited for only an interview by the authorities but were immediately taken into custody and put into pretrial detention. After the trials, they were transferred to the Seydi colony.

Jehovah's Witnesses in the Seydi colony, who have been imprisoned as conscientious objectors, regularly receive severe beatings by the prison guards. The usual reason is that Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to pronounce the oath of allegiance on the Koran to the President and the State. Witness prisoners are threatened with transfer to the maximum-security prison in Turkmenbashi, where the conditions are even worse and where many prisoners die. Usually the beatings follow a pattern. The prison guards first knock the prisoner down and then beat him all over the body—in the head, face, stomach, back, and kidneys. After the beating, the prisoner is usually put into an isolation cell, which is a plain concrete room without a bed. There is neither ventilation nor heating. In the wintertime the cell is freezing, and in the summertime it is extremely hot.

The authorities of the Seydi colony cooperate with the Ministry of National Security (MNB) and its 6^th Department (the department that is responsible for the fight against organized crime and terrorism) who try to destroy the will of prisoners and to break the integrity of Jehovah's Witnesses. Therefore, the treatment in the colony has become extremely cruel. Witness prisoners are separated from each other, and no meetings are allowed. They are said to be under a "special note," and no visitors or parcels are allowed. They lack sufficient food and proper clothing They suffer anemia and malnutrition, and their health deteriorates.

Prisoners Released

Kurban Bagdatovich Zakirov was imprisoned on April 23, 1999, and was sentenced to one year in a minimum-security corrective labor colony (ITKOR) on May 25, 1999, for conscientious objection to military service. In December 1999, Zakirov was granted a pardon but was not released because he refused to give the required oath of allegiance on the Koran. In the spring of 2000, when he had completed his sentence, he was still not released but was transferred to another unit because once again he could not violate his conscience by giving the required oath of allegiance, on the Koran, to the President and the State. When it was time for Zakirov's release, one officer, in the presence of others, ripped off his own shoulder straps and said that Zakirov had attacked him. Immediately charges were drawn up against Zakirov, and he was sentenced again on the charge of assaulting the security service. The court sentenced him to eight years in a high-security corrective labor colony (ITKSR) in the city of Chärjew.

Afterward, Zakirov was transferred to the maximum-security prison in Turkmenbashi, where his health deteriorated. Conditions in the maximum-security prison in Turkmenbashi are horrible. It is known as a place from which prisoners rarely are released in good health. Many die. The cells are plain concrete rooms with one window—without glass or any cover—that is open all year long. In the wintertime the cells are freezing, and in summertime they are extremely hot. The food consists of some kind of slime made of sprat (herring) and macaroni.

The prisoners in this particular institution are normally allowed one visitor every six months. Zakirov was denied this fundamental right. Even his legal guardian was denied entry. She was told that Zakirov was under a "special note" and that no visitors were allowed. She was sent from one officer to another and finally sent away without having seen Zakirov or receiving any information about him.

In January 2003, Zakirov was badly beaten by the prison guards and then confined with known homosexual rapists (in the prison-language called harem). Once a prisoner is confined there and labeled as belonging to the harem, it is impossible to change his status in the prison community. Those labeled this way are regarded as the very lowest class among the prisoners and are commonly treated like animals and as having a loathsome disease. Those who knew Zakirov before prison say that this, together with other "treatment," has had a tremendous impact, ruining his mental and emotional well-being.

Zakirov was released on June 12, 2004. Although he survived physically, his mental and emotional well-being has been ruined and his personality has been distorted. There are valid reasons for believing that while in prison he was forcibly administered some sort of psychotropic drugs. His arms are covered all over by needle marks from injections, and his behavior has become odd. After his release he was placed in a mental hospital, but currently he is at home. The doctors examining him after his release confirmed that he had been injected, and this was obviously not done for therapeutic reasons. At one time Zakirov was classified as an "enemy of the People" and his portrait was publicly displayed in the prison as if he were an especially dangerous person, as though the authorities decided to do away with him in another way. This is a well-known practice in Turkmenistan prisons.

Rinat Babadzhanov, Shohrat Mitogorov, Ruslan Nasyrov, and Rozymamed Satlykov (all Jehovah's Witnesses) were imprisoned in May 2003 for conscientious objection to military service. They were serving their year-and-a-half- prison sentences in the minimum-security corrective labor colony in Seydi.

On December 4, 2003, conscientious objector Aleksandr Matveyev (one of Jehovah's Witnesses) was sentenced to two years in prison at the Seydi colony.
These five young men, some of them not yet baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses, were kept under constant pressure to renounce their faith and to give the oath of allegiance on the Koran to the President and State.
On April 14, 2004, they were again pressured to give the oath and, after their refusal, Nasyrov and Matveyev were seriously beaten.Then Satlykov was returned to isolation, and Matveyev was confined to isolation. During their imprisonment, beatings were regularly administered. Nasyrov and Matveyev were often in very bad shape after the beatings and the conditions in isolation. Because of the lack of sufficient food and proper clothing, their health deteriorated; they suffered from anemia and malnutrition. At the end they were also separated from each other.
On June 11, 2004, Babadzhanov, Mitogorov, Nasyrov, Satlykov, and Matveyev were released because of a general amnesty for conscientious objectors, which was announced on national television by President Niyazov of Turkmenistan. They are now at home and are recovering well.

Nikolai Shelekhov was sentenced on July 2, 2002, by the District Court of Ashgabat to a year and a half in prison for conscientious objection to military service. This took place only six months after his release from a prison colony where he had spent one year for the same "offense" of conscientious objection.

Nikolai Shelekhov was released on January 2, 2004, after completing his second prison sentence for conscientious objection to military service.

Mrs. Oguldzhan Yangibayevna Dzhumanazarova, a mother of one daughter, is from the city of Seydi. She worked as a lawyer in her hometown and defended other Jehovah's Witnesses when charges were brought against them by the authorities. As a result, the authorities attempted to have her forcibly sent to a psychiatric hospital. She was able to avoid this by leaving her hometown for a while. The authorities falsely accused her of fraud and sentenced her to four years of incarceration, which she began to serve in July 2001. While she was in a labor camp in Seydi, her relatives cared for her young daughter.

Mrs. Dzhumanazarova was released on September 20, 2003, after serving half of her prison sentence. She is suffering from bronchial and kidney problems because of the harsh conditions she suffered in prison. She is also under surveillance by the security agencies.