E/CN.4/2005/61/Add.1 Page 87 on 7 October 2003 regarding the activity of the unregistered Christian Evangelical Church in Andijan City. 345. The Government indicated that on 20 January 2003, Bakhtier Tuichiev submitted a formal request to the Municipality of Andijan City for the opening of a Christian Evangelical Church. On 31 January 2003 the Municipality of Andijan City rejected the request due to the absence of formal documents by the relevant bodies (Architecture Office the regarding legal and postal address, the Health Office, the Fire Department and local self-governance office), in accordance with paragraph 2 of annex 1 to the Decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Uzbekistan of 20 June 2000 entitled “On the Order for Registration of Religious Organizations in the Republic of Uzbekistan”. The Government finally indicated that there had been no unlawful activity by law enforcement bodies of Andijan Province with regard to Bakhtier Tuichiev. General information received from the Government 346. By letter dated 2 March 2004, the Government of Uzbekistan provided various special rapporteurs with an aide-mémoire and information on several topics relating to human rights. The issue of freedom of belief and registration of religious organizations was addressed as follows: “Representatives of various religions live in Uzbekistan and all the citizens are free to profess their religious beliefs. This is guaranteed by the Constitution and country’s laws. “The adoption of the Law on ‘Freedom of conscience and religious organizations’ in 1991 and its revision in 1998 resulted in a qualitative change in the role and legal status of religious organizations. The aim of this Law is to secure and guarantee the freedoms and rights of conscience and belief for everyone, to maintain equality among citizens regardless of their religious beliefs, and to regulate issues related to the activities of religious organizations. “It is worth mentioning that in 1990 only 211 religious organizations were registered in Uzbekistan. Currently, more than 2,000 religious organizations are registered in Uzbekistan, 1,955 of them Islamic, 170 Christian, 7 Jewish, 6 Bahá’í communities, 2 Krishna consciousness communities and 1 Buddhist temple. All believers and religious organizations are free to set up and maintain international links and direct private contacts, including trips abroad for pilgrimage, participating in seminars and conferences. “Since independence about 40,000 citizens of Uzbekistan have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca (big Haj) and 20,000 the small Haj (Umrah). It should be mentioned that during the whole period of Soviet rule the number of pilgrims from Uzbekistan was only 86 men. Over this period the number of mosques has increased from 89 to more than 2,000 thousand.