Kyrgyzstan: Pressure on Christians over funerals

Kyrgyzstan’s government is continuing its long-standing failure to ensure that people may exercise their right to bury their dead with the religious ceremonies and in the cemeteries they would wish, Forum 18 News Service notes. Protestants, Baha’is, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Hare Krishna devotees have all long complained that the authorities have not resolved this problem, which causes great distress to the families and friends of the dead. But relatives and friends are frequently afraid to raise this problem, for fear of reprisals aided by state indifference. The most recent publicly documentable failures by the authorities to ensure people may exercise their rights concern Protestants.

The government is finding culturally sensitive ways to put pressure on those who walk out their faith in Jesus. Obligations for preparation of and burial of family members are great, but religious, security and government are working together to pressurise Christians.

Source: http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=1966