Two foreign Protestants - Edward Sands from New Zealand and Alastair
Morrice from Scotland - have been expelled from Kyrgyzstan in the past
month at the insistence of the National Security Service (NSS) secret
police.
Sands, the Rector of the Protestant interdenominational United Theological Seminary in the capital Bishkek, was accused of violating the Religion Law by having allowed the Protestant International Church of Bishkek (ICB) to hold services in its building without the church being officially registered at their building.
Morrice, the Pastor of the English-language ICB, was also accused of
violating the Religion Law for not registering the church's use of the
seminary building for worship.
"We were always very open with the State Agency for Religious Affairs,"
Sands told Forum 18 from Germany on 12 June. "The NSS occasionally came to the seminary, and we always gave them information." He said the probable catalyst for the eventual expulsion came in October 2007, when the NSS asked to see the recommendations churches gave for individual students. "I have always regarded these as confidential and told them that," he told Forum 18. "But they were very angry."
Kairbek Manybaev, a Kyrgyz national who now leads the team of three in
charge of the seminary, says they were shocked by the forced exit of their
rector. "All of us in the Christian community and particularly those at the
seminary loved and respected him for his great work," he told Forum 18 from Bishkek on 19 June. "We would love him to return, and continue his work."
Manybaev said it was very difficult for them to fill the void of Sands'
absence. "For me and the other local people who have been asked to step up for the work, it is not easy to manage the immense task," he told Forum 18.
"Our school is interdenominational, and it demands a lot of sensitivity to
the needs and traditions of various churches."
He said it was planned that by 2010 Sands would hand over the job to local Protestant leaders, but these plans were disrupted by his forced exit. "We have some experience as pastors but this work is not easy and we needed more experience to do it," Manybaev told Forum 18.
"In March 2008 we submitted our applications to renew our visas," Sands
told Forum 18. "It was then we were warned about the use of the seminary
buildings by two churches, the English-language International Church and
the Korean Church. The State Agency told us the seminary was not registered as a place for religious worship but for religious teaching." They then applied for permission for the churches to use the premises, he told Forum 18. The State Agency allowed the churches to continue to use the premises while the application was being considered, but the NSS said they were breaking the law.
"This was a power play between the State Agency for Religious Affairs and
the NSS," said Sands. "The State Agency was helpful, and it is interesting
that the NSS moved when the State Agency chairman was abroad."
Morrice's term as ICB pastor had already come to an end and he and his
wife were due to leave in May anyway, but Sands had intended to remain as rector of the seminary. He told Forum 18 he does not yet know if he will be allowed to return.
Sands - who had lived and worked for ten years in Kyrgyzstan, for the last
six as rector of the seminary - was told by the Foreign Ministry consular
service on 27 May that he had ten days to leave the country. "My visa had
11 days left to run, so they said they would not stamp my passport
'deported'," Sands told Forum 18.
