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ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
January 11, 2000
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Church Members React to Destruction of Turkmenistan Church
Silver Spring, Maryland, USA ... [ANN]

Members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church reacted with shock and grief at
the deliberate destruction by government authorities of the only Adventist
Church in Turkmenistan.

"It was a very emotional situation for the church people and pastor to
actually stand in the street and watch their building destroyed brick by
brick," said Lee Huff, president of the Adventist Church's Euro-Asia
Division.  "However, their spirits are exceptionally good for the
circumstances.  The church has gone underground . . . to survive."

The January 5 airing of the First Wednesday satellite TV program on ACN
(Adventist Communication Network) contained a video segment showing the
wrecking crew in action on November 14. The footage was taken on home video
and later brought out of the country.

"I was appalled at such a blatant violation of basic human rights,"
commented Elwyn Platner, communication director for the Adventist Church in
the California region. "To go and bulldoze a church demonstrates a total
disregard for internationally agreed policies of religious freedom. The
United Nations needs to call attention to that fact."	

As reported by ANN (Nov. 16), the Adventist Church in Turkmenistan was
legally registered during the Soviet regime, and permission to construct the
building was given by the Turkmenistan president in 1992. In 1994, a law on
religious organizations was passed requiring a minimum of 500 adherents for
re-registration. Despite providing the required list, registration was
repeatedly refused, and the church members subjected to police harassment
and fines for attending illegal meetings. Since the church continued
operation, the authorities decided to destroy the building.

"We're disappointed that any government should take that approach to a
Church," said Lowell Cooper, general vice-president for the Adventist World
Church. "We take comfort in the fact that the Church is people, not bricks
and stones. History has shown that no force can obliterate the Church."

Members of non-Orthodox Churches, including Adventists and Baptists, have
been imprisoned and fined in recent months in orchestrated moves to suppress
such Churches. Religious freedom proponents have urged the United Nations
and national governments to intervene in these clear violations of
fundamental human rights. 

Video clips of the church's destruction can be viewed on the Internet at:
www.adventist.org/videogalleries/ [Jonathan Gallagher]

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Contact Information: 
Communications Department
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600

Phone: 301-680-6300
e-mail: info@gc.adventist.org
web: http://www.adventist.org/