A/59/366 mosques in the district of Kararya had begun on the orders of the head of the district. In May 2003, the six mosques were allegedly closed down despite being registered with the State Committee for Religious Affairs. The authorities then reportedly justified the destruction of the mosques on the grounds that they had been built illegally on State-owned land. 48. The Special Rapporteur also referred to the fact that the Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ had allegedly been banned from registering in several towns and was facing a tax bill of more than US$ 100,000 even though religious groups are taxexempt. The authorities had reportedly threatened to seize a church building in Bishkek if the taxes were not paid. 49. On 7 May 2004, the Government replied that the information concerning the closure and destruction of six mosques was inaccurate. Most of the 17 mosques in the area concerned had been built spontaneously without authorization from the local authorities. Of the 17, four had been registered with the State Commission on Religious Affairs and Friday prayers were held in those mosques. In seven mosques, daily prayers are conducted five times a day. The remaining six mosques functioned as prayer rooms and were not registered by the State Commission on Religious Affairs. In 2003, because of their poor and unauthorized construction, the activities of these mosques were temporarily suspended by the authorities, with “the consent of the inhabitants of the village”. 50. The Government also declared that only five of the 47 branches of the Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ in Kyrgyzstan had been registered; the rest engaged in religious activities without registration, in contravention of Kyrgyz legislation. To date, the State Commission on Religious Affairs has never refused to register a religious building belonging to a religious organization and has never issued an order suspending their activities. Moreover, the Pentecostal Church was invited on two occasions to register the rest of its branches but the constituent documents of only six branches had so far been submitted and were currently under consideration. The Government also maintained that the tax notification made to the Pentecostal Church was well founded and legally justified. The decision of tax liability was, moreover, confirmed on appeal. Lao People’s Democratic Republic 51. On 10 June 2004, the Special Rapporteur transmitted to the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic information alleging that anti-Christian repression had intensified since the beginning of 2004 in several villages in Sanamsay district. In appeals for help addressed to the Lao Evangelical Church in Vientiane between 3 and 19 February 2004, Christians in the villages of Ban Donthapad and Ban Donsua claimed to have been subjected to actions aimed at making them renounce their faith, including repeated death threats, attempts to run people down with cars, confiscations of rice paddies and farm animals, confinement, threats of expulsion from the village and threats to burn down houses. On 4 March 2004, authorities of Attapeu Province were said to have arrested Thong-Luang, a teacher, because he maintained his Christian faith. Thong-Luang had already been arrested on 28 December 2003 for having celebrated Christmas. He was released on 9 January 2004. 52. By letter of 15 July 2004, the Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic referred to its letter of 21 April 2004 sent to the Special Rapporteur on the 11