Religious Freedom watchdog cites Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Washington File May 3 A U.S. commission charged with monitoring international religious freedom released its annual reportMay 3, offering recommendations on U.S. policy for the president, secretary of state, and Congress that spotlight the deteriorating climate for religious freedom in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Belarus and Russia. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) again is calling for the Central Asian nations of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to be ranked among the worst offenders against religious freedom in the world when the State Department releases its next annual report on religious freedom. The commission also is placing Belarus on a special watch list and planning to do additional monitoring of the situation in Russia. USCIRF Chair Michael Cromartie wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice May 3 summarizing the commission s recommendations. Regarding Turkmenistan, he said, President Saparmurat Niyazov s monopoly of power and absolute control over Turkmen society render any independent religious activity impossible in Turkmenistan. The president is also imposing an increasingly oppressive personality cult, now effectively a state-imposed religion, that impinges on all aspects of public life in the country, Cromartie added. In Uzbekistan, the climate for human rights in general and for religious freedom in particular have been deteriorating, particularly since the violence in the Uzbek city of Andijon in May 2005, when government troops fired on a crowd of demonstrators, killing hundreds, the ISCIRF said. Though security threats do exist in Uzbekistan, including from members of Hizb ut-Tahrir and other groups that claim a religious linkage, these threats do not excuse or justify the scope and harshness of the government s ill treatment of religious believers, Cromartie said. He added that the commission s recommendation regarding Uzbekistan should not in any way be construed as an exculpatory defense of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist and highly intolerant organization that promotes hatred of moderate Muslims, the West, Jews, and others. UNCIRF represents a kind of hybrid public institution that might be unfamiliar in some parts of the world because it institutionalizes a governmental advisory role for civil society leaders. Congress created the commission through the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998 to give religious freedom a more prominent place in U.S. foreign policy. Appointed by President Bush and congressional leaders, the commission s members several of them clergy -- monitor the status of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief globally and make recommendations on how the U.S. government can further the protection and promotion of religious freedom in its relations with other countries. The IRFA also established an Office of International Religious Freedom in the Department of State headed by an ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Ambassador John V. Hanford III, and requires the State Department to report annually on the conditions of religious freedom worldwide, as well as U.S. actions to promote religious freedom. The State Department s annual report calls the worst offenders countries of particular concern (CPCs). In 2005, eight countries had that designation: Burma, the Democratic People s Republic of Korea (North Korea), Eritrea, Iran, the People s Republic of China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam. When a nation is found to be so severe a violator of religious freedom as to merit the CPC designation, the International Religious Freedom Act recommends that the secretary of state enter into direct consultations with that country to find ways to improve the situation. Sanctions are not automatic but are one of the tools the IRFA envisions. In addition to urging that Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan be designated CPCs, the commission also has established a watch list of countries that need close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments. It is to this list that Belarus has been added because of its enforcement of the harsh 2002 law on religion, resulting in calculated and serious regulatory obstacles and bureaucratic and legal restrictions on the activities of many religious communities, Cromartie wrote in his letter to Rice. Belarusian authorities appeared to be adopting even tougher sanctions against religious leaders and others who take part in unregistered religious activity. The authorities also refuse to acknowledge anti-Semitism or to prosecute acts of anti-Semitic vandalism, Cromartie said. Russia is slated for special monitoring by the commission. The deterioration in conditions for religious freedom and other human rights appears to be a direct consequence of the increasingly authoritarian nature of the Russian government, and the growing influence of chauvinistic strains in Russian society, which seem to be tolerated by the government, Cromartie wrote. He also cited the favored status of the Russian Orthodox Church as affecting the right of religious minorities to freedom of religion or belief.