TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — Uzbekistan is attempting to deprive the registered Baptist Union of land it owns. The state is claiming — without any apparent legal foundation — that the land was “illegally” bought in 2000.
Baptists have complained to the prosecutor-general that “the future of Uzbekistan cannot be built on the plundering of religious organizations.”
An unrelated children’s camp organized by local Protestants was raided. The raid on a camp of 31 adults and children involved 30 ordinary police, 20 riot police and 30 officials from the regional tax authorities, Fire Brigade, Sanitary-Epidemiological Department and the regional administration. Police “began brandishing their rubber batons and collected statements from everyone — even from small children separated from their parents.”
After more than six hours of questioning and raids on the alleged organizers’ homes, it is expected that charges will be brought against six Protestants. Police have refused to discuss the raid.
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