VZCZCXRO4863
PP RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1078/01 1981316
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 171316Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0672
INFO RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 1477
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS 1240
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 2005
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 2188
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 2157
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 2199
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 2478

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 001078 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CASC PGOV PHUM KDEM KIRF TI
SUBJECT: TAJIK OFFICIALS ATTEMPT TO ARREST AND DEPORT AMERICAN 
JEHOVAH'S WITNESS 
 
REF: A) SEPTEL: JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES FIGHTING TO IMPORT LITERATURE, B)  DUSHANBE 790 C)  DUSHANBE 623 D)  06 DUSHANBE 1354 
 
DUSHANBE 00001078  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY AND COMMENT:  The government of Tajikistan 
continues to squeeze nongovernmental organizations and religious 
groups, its latest target being the Jehovah's Witnesses.  On 
July 13, two men identifying themselves as officers of the State 
Committee on National Security detained an American citizen 
Jehovah's Witness on the street in Dushanbe and threatened him 
with arrest and deportation.  The incident follows a pattern of 
harassment against the Jehovah's Witnesses by Tajik security 
officials who were responsible for the confiscation of three 
containers of imported Jehovah's Witness literature and 
detention and interrogation of local members (REFTELS B-D).  The 
July 13 attempt to deport a Jehovah's Witness for proselytizing 
indicates that the government is becoming less tolerant of 
religious activity. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  The Jehovah's Witnesses have faced ongoing 
registration problems with local government, and the State 
Committee on National Security has detained, questioned and 
verbally harassed local members in the past.  However, in recent 
months, since the group began importing larger shipments of 
religious literature, government scrutiny and pressure has 
escalated.  The Tajik government may be fearful of a growing 
population of Christian converts, or simply concerned with what 
they perceive as Western involvement in religious and other 
social activism. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Although proselytizing is not illegal under the 
current body of law, according to Department of Religious 
Affairs officials, the government receives many complaints from 
local Tajiks about Christian proselytization and the government 
in practice disapproves of proselytizing.  Other international 
faith-based organizations suspected of proselytizing have been 
harassed in the past.  Embassy sources say that the State 
Committee on National Security assumes that American citizens 
working with faith-based international organizations in 
Tajikistan intend to spark a "color revolution."  The draft law 
on religion and religious associations, which is rumored to pass 
into law before the end of the year, does prohibit proselytizing 
and it appears that the State Committee on National Security is 
attempting to apply the draft law prior to its formal adoption 
by parliament and the president.  END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  James Hwang was walking down a main street in 
Dushanbe July 13 with his wife, Jane Hwang, and another 
Jehovah's Witnesses American couple, Gregory and Martha Olds, 
when James Hwang said he recognized a local man who had just 
passed them.  According to Hwang, the man had earlier been 
involved in the physical assault of a Tajik Jehovah's Witness. 
The four Americans then entered a store and two men identifying 
themselves as officers of the State Committee on National 
Security stopped them upon exiting.  The two female American 
citizens kept walking to avoid the confrontation, while James 
Hwang was detained by the officers and Gregory Olds, a visiting 
attorney from the Jehovah's Witness headquarters, remained. 
According to Olds, the officers kept insisting to him that he 
was "free to go," and that they wanted to take Hwang with them. 
Olds asked the officers if they could go to the U.S. Embassy, at 
which point Hwang called ConOff.  ConOff asked to talk to the 
officers by telephone to understand what the charges were and 
where they would be taking Hwang, as neither Olds nor Hwang 
spoke Russian.  The officer at first refused to take the phone 
from Hwang, then, after ConOff identified himself on the phone, 
hung up. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  ConOff arrived at the scene approximately half an 
hour after Hwang had first been stopped.  ConOff asked the 
officers for identification, whether they planned to arrest 
Hwang, and what the charges were.  One officer, Captain Khalimon 
Saliboev, provided identification, but the second responded that 
he did not have any on him at the time.  When asked what his 
name was, he replied Ivan Tojev.  [COMMENT:  The officer 
hesitated before responding, as if to think of a name to use. 
END COMMENT]  The two officers said that Hwang had to 
voluntarily leave Tajikistan immediately or face arrest and 
deportation.  They said they had told the same to Hwang and that 
they expected him and his wife to be at Dushanbe International 
Airport at 6 a.m. the next day to leave on the first available 
flight.  [COMMENT:  An unreasonable request, seeing as Hwang did 
not have a visa for any of the countries with flights the next 
day.  END COMMENT]  After repeatedly asking for clarification of 
 
DUSHANBE 00001078  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
the charges resulting in the threatened deportation, Saliboev 
dispatched Tojev for the document which detailed them, but in 
Tajiki which Saliboev only partially translated for ConOff.  The 
order from the prosecutor's office stated that Hwang had been 
illegally living at an address at which he had not registered, 
and that he had illegally proselytized at a school.  When ConOff 
mentioned that to his understanding, Hwang had been registered 
and had re-registered at his new address, Saliboev said that the 
primary concern was Hwang's illegal religious activities and 
their impact on children.  According to Saliboev, Hwang had been 
talking about religion with children, which resulted in numerous 
complaints to the Department of Religious Affairs from students, 
parents and teachers of School number 16 in Dushanbe.  Hwang 
later told ConOff that this was an outright lie, as he had never 
set foot in a school in Dushanbe.  Hwang believes that the 
proselytizing charges stem from a different incident on May 11. 
Hwang had been with another local Jehovah's Witness on May 11 
near a store in Dushanbe.  The local had offered to share a 
religious magazine with a passerby, who happened to work for the 
Department of Religious Affairs.  According to Hwang, he was 
called over by the passerby and asked to sign a statement saying 
who he was and where he lived.  The address Hwang provided was 
different than that at which he was registered, leading to the 
false registration charges.  ConOff subsequently assisted Hwang 
in clarifying that he was properly registered with the Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs at the correct address. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  ConOff asked Saliboev how an alien could be deported 
without a hearing or a chance to appeal.  Saliboev ignored the 
question and insisted to ConOff that they (the State Committee 
on National Security) were trying to be nice, and that they did 
not want to have to arrest Hwang.  They repeated that they 
expected Hwang and his wife to be at the airport the next day 
and left.  ConOff subsequently escorted Hwang and Olds to the 
Embassy.  At the Embassy, the Ambassador also met with Hwang and 
Olds to express concern about treatment of American citizens and 
rule of law and religious freedom issues.  A Kazakh citizen 
Jehovah's Witness, Vladimir Voyevodin, who is a lawyer for the 
organization, also joined Olds and Hwang.  Olds and Hwang told 
ConOff they had decided not to fight this, but to have Hwang and 
his wife leave the country.  At 19:30, Voyevodin called to ask 
ConOff to inquire about a Kyrgyz visa for Hwang.  ConOff called 
the Kyrgyz Consul, only to be told that if Tajik authorities 
were deporting Hwang, then that information would be in the 
Kyrgyz immigration system and Hwang would not receive a visa. 
ConOff called Hwang to convey this information and Hwang 
reported that he was "in hiding" and arranging to leave the 
country.  ConOff, PolOff and DCM met with Olds and Voyevodin 
July 16, after being unable to reach either Hwang, Olds or 
Voyevodin July 15.  Olds reported to ConOff that James and Jane 
Hwang had left the country "immediately."  Olds would not reveal 
where the Hwangs were, but insisted they were safe and had left 
Tajikistan. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Greg Olds informed EmbOffs his wife, Mary, has also 
departed Tajikistan.  He is unsure how much longer he will 
remain in country, but will attempt to meet with government 
officials to release the confiscated religious literature.  Olds 
says that Jehovah's Witnesses are determined to continue 
importing religious literature and carrying out the group's 
mission in Tajikistan. 
 
¶8.  (U) James Hwang has signed a Privacy Act waiver related to 
this incident. 
JACOBSON