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August 20, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - The following is another edition of Way of Life Literatureâs Persecution Watch, which is published to encourage prayer and vigilance on the part of Bible-believing Christians:

There has been a steady increase in persecution against unregistered churches in the last three years. A 1990 law guaranteed religious freedom, but a 1997 Religion Law required that all churches and religious groups register with the government by December 31, 1999. Only about 30% met the deadline, and in March 2000, newly elected President Vladimir Putin signed an amendment extending the deadline for registration until December 31, 2000. "The amendment included language requiring the liquidation (closure by court order) of all groups that failed to meet the extended reregistration deadline" ("Religious Liberty in Russia a Renewed Concern," Compass Direct, May 19, 2000). In May, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom listed Russia, China, and Sudan as the three major countries of concern. Anatoly Krasikov, president of the Russian chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association, sees "a 50-50 chance" for Russia to return to something resembling its Stalinist past (Ibid.).

According to the Keston Institute, there have been many cases of trumped up charges against believers, such as phony traffic offences and planting of illegal drugs. The following examples of recent persecution are from the Keston Institute web site: Pentecostal pastor Rashid Turibayev, of the Full Gospel Church in Nukus, Uzbekistan, was arrested in February 1999 and Bible literature was confiscated from him. He was also charged with possessing hashish, and in June 1999 he was sentenced to prison for 15 months. Turibayev testified that he does not drink, smoke, or use drugs. Two other members of Turibayevâs church were also arrested and sentenced on drug charges. Both received 10 year prison sentences. All three were freed by presidential decree in August 1999. The men were beaten on numerous occasions while in police custody and deprived of food for extended periods. Pentecostal pastor Nail Asanov was arrested with his fiancée and another woman in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, in March 1999. He was sentenced in June 1999 to five years in prison on drug charges and "spreading extremist propaganda." He claimed the drugs were planted on him in the police station, and his parents denied he had ever been involved in drugs and stressed that he had always been law-abiding. He was beaten during the interrogation. In August 1999 he was freed. Pentecostal pastor Ibrahim Yusupov of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, was sentenced in June 1999 to one year in prison on charges of missionary activity. He was beaten in custody, and even after being freed under a presidential decree in August 1999, he has suffered the effects of the ill treatment. In October 1999, police in Karshi, Uzbekistan, raided an annual meeting of an unregistered Evangelical Baptist church. They beat and jailed many of the participants and threatened the owner of the house where the meeting was conducted.

Between December 1999 and May 2000, six Russian Baptist missionaries have been deported from Turkmenistan. It is part of a concerted plan by the Turkmen government to expel all foreigners suspected of working with local religious communities (Keston News Service, May 23, 2000). Turkmen officials had openly declared that they would deport all foreign Baptists and then "strangle" local Baptists. "Several dozen citizens of Western countries suspected of contacts with local Christian churches were expelled or failed to have residence permits renewed in the last few months of 1999 and the first few months of this year."

Members of a Baptist church in Siberia have recently been threatened with arrest for handing out free religious literature. The warning came from local police after local Baptists in Tura offered Bibles, New Testaments and other Christian publications to people at the municipal library, and in the town center. The police action came in response to complaints by a Russian Orthodox priest. The group was told that since it has not registered with the authorities, it was prohibited from distributing literature. Another congregation of unregistered Baptists in the same region has recently complained of harassment by authorities too.