Uzbekistan Human Rights Visit: UZBEKISTAN T

he Baptist World Alliance (BWA) and the European Baptist Federation (EBF) conducted a joint human rights visit to Uzbekistan from September 8-12 to promote religious

freedom in Uzbekistan and to strengthen the relationship between the Baptist Union of Uzbekistan and the larger Baptist family. The Central Asian country, a republic of the former Soviet

Union, has had a checkered human rights record despite being a signatory to several United Nations treaties and charters, including the International Convention of Cultural and Political Rights, a multilateral treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly. Signers of the treaty agree to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights, and rights to due process and a fair trial. Religious freedom concerns in Uzbekistan include a law against proselytism, tough conditions and the long process required for churches to be registered, and actions against congregations and individual Christians by state authorities.

Religious liberty violations reported to the BWA/EBF team

included the detention of a Sunday School teacher at Third Baptist Church of Tashkent, and the April 2011 police raid of Second Baptist Church of Tashkent for allegedly running an unauthorized Bible School and for illegally printing and selling Christian literature. An estimated 53,000 books and brochures, along with computers and a printer, were confi scated in the raid. The Baptist delegation, comprising Raimundo Barreto,

BWA director for the Division of Freedom and Justice, Christer Daelander, EBF Religious Freedom Representative, and Pavlo Unguryan, a Baptist youth leader from Ukraine and a member of the Parliament of Ukraine, met with Baptist leaders and pastors; leaders from the Orthodox Church in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; leaders of the Pentecostal church; and leaders of the Bible Society. Meetings were also held with Juriy Savchenko, the ambassador

of Ukraine to Uzbekistan, Behzod Kadyrov, chief expert of the State Committee of Religious Affairs, as well as with the project coordinator for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The Baptist delegation raised issues of concern on religious freedom in Uzbekistan. Baptists in Uzbekistan are primarily Russian speakers who are a

small ethnic minority in the Muslim majority country. The Baptist union comprises 20 registered and 30 unregistered congregations with a total of 5,500 members.

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A special meeting with Baptist pastors in the capital Tashkent, during the BWA/EBF human rights visit to Uzbekistan

BAPTISTS IN TEXAS Affected by Wildfires B

aptists in Texas in the United States were among those affected by the severe drought and wildfi res that have had an impact on the state. The drought, in addition to strong

winds, unseasonably warm temperatures, and low humidity, helped to spark wildfi res in parts of the state. The fi res fi rst peaked in April and May. Strong winds occasioned by Tropical Storm Lee reignited a series of fi res over the Labor Day weekend in early September. More than 3.5 million acres have been burned, and fl ames destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Central Texas alone.

Several members of Calvary Baptist

Church in Bastrop County, one of the worst affected areas where more than 34,000 acres were destroyed, lost their homes. Primera Iglesia Bautista, also in Bastrop, which is about 30 miles southeast of the state capital of Austin, housed 10-12 families and served as a supply distribution center for those affected by the fi res. Colorado River

Cowboy Church in Smithville in Bastrop County ran a kitchen to aid fi rst responders and evacuees, and an arena for livestock displaced by the fl ames. A number of other Baptist churches

have been used as shelters for evacuees by the American Red Cross, including First Baptist Church of Possum Kingdom, where at least three dozen homes were burned in the area. The church sanctuary was burned in previous wildfi res in April. While worship services were still being held in the gym at the church, many were absent as approximately half its regular attendees had to either deal with fi re damage or were unable to go home.

A US forestry worker conducts a controlled burn to seal off a

wildfi re's path as it approaches a house near Bastrop.

Baptists in the communities of Hogg

Bend, Sportsman’s World and Gaines Bend have also suffered from the fi res. Texas Baptist Men operated a feeding

unit for approximately 1,000 persons, providing three meals per day. The group opened a distribution center in Central Texas offering items such as clothing, diapers, baby food, water, toiletries and other basic necessities. “Texas Baptists churches are attempting

to reach out to those affected by the fi res and help however possible,” the Baptist General Convention of Texas stated. BW

REUTERS/Mike Stone courtesy alertnet.org