[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 124 (Wednesday, September 22, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1925-E1926]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           BAPTIST CHURCH TARGETED BY AZERBAIJAN AUTHORITIES

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 22, 1999

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, as Chairman of the Commission 
on Security and Cooperation in Europe, I rise today to highlight a 
disturbing incident involving governmental harassment of religious 
believers in Azerbaijan. We have received reports of religious liberty 
violations perpetrated by governmental authorities. As a participating 
State of the OSCE, Azerbaijan has committed to insuring the freedom of 
individuals to profess and practice their religion. These recent 
governmental actions are a clear violation of Azerbaijan's OSCE 
commitment to the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.
  On September 5th, government officials in Baku forced their way into 
a legally-registered church, Baku Baptist Church, and arrested sixty 
members of the religious group. The pastors of the church as well as a 
dozen foreigners were among those arrested and interrogated. The 
arrested Azeri religious believers were detained and asked to sign a 
statement affirming that they had attended an ``illegal meeting'' and 
promising not to attend the religious meetings in the future. 
Ultimately, two leaders of the church were sentenced to 15 days in 
prison on charges relating to resisting police. Likewise, then other 
foreign members of the religious group were charged with ``engaging in 
religious propaganda'' and ``propagating against the Muslim faith,'' in 
violation of an Azeri law that forbids such activity. On September 8th, 
all ten foreigners were deported and more deportations are likely.
  These events are alarming, Mr. Speaker. While there had been reports 
of governmental harassment in the past, especially of unregistered 
religious minority groups, these current events are especially 
problematic because the target of these actions was a legally 
registered religious group.
  Mr. Speaker, these actions are in direct violation to Azerbaijan's 
OSCE commitments, including section 16 of the 1989 Vienna Concluding 
Document, which explicitly delineates the wide scope of activities 
protected, including the right to establish and maintain places of 
worship and granting them status under law to both profess and practice 
their faith. In the 1990 Copenhagen Concluding Document Article 9.1, 
Azerbaijan has reaffirmed ``that everyone will have the right to 
freedom of expression, including the right to communication.

[[Page E1926]]

This right will include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and 
impart information and ideas without interference by public authority 
and regardless of frontiers.''
  The actions by Azerbaijani officials clearly violate these 
commitments. I truly hope that these government actions are merely an 
aberration and will be dealt with accordingly and are not the signal of 
even more repression of religious believers in Azerbaijan.
  I would like to commend to my colleagues the work of our Embassy in 
Baku on religious liberty. Embassy personnel have taken this recent 
incident very seriously and have followed the situation from the start. 
I urge those of my colleagues who interact with Azerbaijani Government 
officials to raise religious liberty issues in their discussions, 
stressing the essential role that religious liberty--and indeed human 
rights in general--play in maintaining a free, stable, and democratic 
civil society.

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