Tolmachev complained that the situation with the hall for the church services was not good either. "We have been renting the current place for a little over a month now but we don't know how long we will be able to keep this place." The proprietors would kick them out if official pressure would come on, he told Forum 18. "Since the end of December we have been evicted from ten places already."
Other religious communities have been raided this year. A Protestant congregation meeting in a private flat in the south-eastern town of Mary
was raided in mid-February by about 13 police officers and other officials,
Protestants who preferred not to be identified told Forum 18.
The police - who had no warrant - wrote down the names of all fifteen or so church members present and briefly detained them. CDs of religious content were confiscated and police refused to return them. "They refused to give a
record of the items confiscated," one Protestant told Forum 18. "They very
rarely do so."
Protestants report that it is even more difficult to hold meetings in villages than in towns. One Protestant told Forum 18 that in a village in eastern Turkmenistan, which the Protestant preferred not to be identified, a church member who had hosted meetings in her home died. "The aksakals [village elders] banned people from attending the funeral and refused to lend chairs and crockery for the traditional funeral meal," the Protestant reported.
"The council of elders summoned a meeting and the Christians were not
invited," the Protestant added. "At the meeting, the local police, prosecutor's office and secret police officials all said that Christianity had to be stopped. They ordered residents to watch their neighbours, see who the Christians are visiting and report this to the police and elders. Families of believers are now very afraid." The family of the dead woman who had hosted church meetings were too afraid to allow them to continue, the Protestant reported.
In December 2007 a Baptist congregation in Balkanabad (formerly Nebitdag)
was raided. Religious communities face constant difficulty importing religious
literature, which cannot be produced legally within Turkmenistan. Foreigners
suspected of being involved in religious activity have been expelled. Local
religious communities cannot invite their fellow-believers from abroad. The
government severely restricts numbers of Muslims who can go on the haj
pilgrimage to Mecca (only 188 out of a quota of some 5,000 were
allowed to go in December 2007).
By Felix Corley of Forum 18 News Service, printed with permission
