A/56/253 Sudan 65. On 8 December 2000, a man suspected of belonging to the Al-Takfir wa-alHijra group apparently killed 20 worshippers and wounded 40 others at evening prayers at the Al-Muhammadiyah mosque in Garaffa. 66. On 10 April 2001, the Government reportedly decided to cancel the Easter service at Khartoum. Thousands of young Christians apparently gathered in front of All Saints Church in the suburbs of Khartoum in order to dispute the decision. The security forces reportedly wounded a number of demonstrators and made 40 arrests. The Ministry of the Interior is said to have stated that prayer meetings had been prohibited in any open space in Khartoum in order to prevent any friction between the various believers. Sri Lanka 67. On 18 February 2001, in Hingurangoda district, Buddhist extremists are said to have violently attacked the Sanasum Sevana church in the village of Nuwarawattee. It is reported that a pastor and two other church officials were seriously injured and that a religious official was also dragged into a Buddhist temple and savagely beaten. The extremists allegedly threatened to rape his wife and attack his family if he continued to visit the church. The police apparently refused to record the complaints of the victims and would not ensure adequate protection of the Christian community. Turkmenistan 68. On 22 November 2000, the National Security Committee apparently launched an operation against four Protestants in Ashgabat. The members of the National Security Committee are said to have arrested and harassed these young Protestants after discovering a box of Christian videos in the Turkmen language in the car in which they had been travelling. On 24 November 2000, they were allegedly forced to sign away their property as a gift to the President of Turkmenistan. After being threatened with deportation, the four Protestants apparently also signed documents by which they undertook to leave Ashgabat and return to the town in which they were officially resident. 69. On 25 January 2001, in Ashgabat, the police reportedly interrupted a Bible study session organized by the World of Life Church and took 25 Protestants to the police station, where they were questioned and then released. Members of the police force and representatives of the khyakimlik (local administration) apparently pressured those questioned into signing statements to the effect that they would cease to take any part in the “illegal” activities of the church. 70. On 10 May 2001, Dmitry Melnichenko, a member of the Baptist Evangelical Church at Ashgabat, reportedly refused to perform his military service because of his religious convictions; he was then placed in a military unit, taken on 15 May to the office of the National Security Committee to be forced to take an oath, and on 16 May was transferred again to a military unit in Serdar. There appears to be no alternative form of civilian service in Turkmenistan for conscientious objectors who are reportedly liable to be sentenced to imprisonment. 18