Vlаdimir Ivanovich Krasnopivtsev petitions this court for review of an order by the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA). Krasnopivtsev argues that he suffered persecution in Georgia on the basis of his Russian ethnicity and Baptist religion, and he fears future persecution upon removal from the United States. After carefully reviewing the record, we deny Krasno-pivtsev’s petition for review.
I.
Krasnopivtsev, a 50-year-old citizen of Georgia and an ethnic Russian, entered the United States in April 1999 as a non-immigrant visitor for pleasure, with authorization to stay until October 1999. He overstayed his visit, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) commenced removal proceedings against him in December 1999. He conceded deporta-bility but rеquested asylum, withholding, of removal, voluntary departure, and relief under Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture.
At a hearing before an Immigration Judge (IJ), Krasnopivtsev and his sister Vera testified. Krasnopivtsev testified that he is a citizen of Georgia, an ethnic Russian, and a Baptist who attends church but has not been baptized. Krasnopivtsev was not a member of a Baptist church while he lived in Georgia, but he went to church with his parents when he was young, and he attended church occasionally as an adult. His mother, father, two brothers and one sister, all active-Baptists, were granted refugee status in the United States in the 1990s. His father had been a deacon in the church in Tbilisi, Georgia, and his brother was a Baptist pastor. Krasnopivtsev did not elaborate on their experiences but testified only that his family was “persecuted.” He mentioned that his father’s uncle had been executed in 1929 due to his religious beliefs. Krasno-pivtsev’s daughter, who was approximately 27 years old at the time of the hearing, still lives in Georgia. She is not a Baptist but is an ethnic Russian and has had no knoym. problems living there. His sister Lydmila and her daughter also still live there. Lydmila is a Baptist. There is no evidence that they have suffered any harm. Krasnopivtsev said he fears he would be killed or handicapped if he returned to Georgia, and although he is of Russian ethnicity, he could not be sent to Russia.
Krasnopivtsev testified that he encountered some troubles while he was in school due to his family’s religion, such as name-calling and ridicule for going to church instead of believing in communism. This occurred in the 1960s, well before the communist Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. The IJ considered only events subsequent to this change in the country’s condition.
Krasnopivtsev testified that in 1995, a police officer stopped him ,on. the street, asked him for documents, and took him to the police station. Thе officer pointed a gun to his head and asked, “[A]ren’t you Russian[s] afraid to live around here?” (R. at 107.) The officer, who was drunk, then started shooting around randomly, and a bullet grazed Krasnopivtsev. Imme *836 diately, other police took him to the hospital for treatment and instructed him to tell the doctor that he fell down the stairs, if asked. The police took him home after the hospital visit. Krasnopivtsev said that after this incident, he was often stopped by the police and taken to do work for them without pay. He assumed this was because he was Russian, and he feared that, if he refused, they might make up a reason to put him in prison. Krasnopivtsev also testified that Georgians would stop him on the street and harass him because hе was Russian. They would ask if he had cigarettes and would hit him if he did not.
In 1997, Krasnopivtsev traveled from Georgia to Russia on a Soviet passport. While he was in Russia, there was an incident where he was accused of stealing a cow and was beaten, but he was not arrested. He offered this testimony to demonstrate that although he was Russian, he was not acceptеd in Russia and was not firmly resettled in another country.
In 1999, he returned to Georgia. Kras-nopivtsev applied for an international passport in Tbilisi. To complete the application, he was required to obtain from the police a verification of his residence and that he was not involved in any criminal activity. Although he said the police had harassed him on the streets because he was Russian, he obtained the necessary verification without incident, and the international passport was issued in the normal course of business. He came to the United States on April 3,1999.
Krasnopivtsev’s sister Vera has been granted refugee status and now lives in Minnesota. She testified that she is a Baptist who was baptized in 1980 in Tbilisi, Georgia, аnd she is an ethnic Russian. She said that Russians are threatened in Georgia on the basis of nationalism and that Krasnopivtsev would be harmed if he went back due to nationalism, being a Baptist, and because he had been in the United States. She testified that their sister Lydmila has been unable to have social gatherings or birthday parties due to her religion. Vera corroborated the 1995 police shooting incident and that Krasno-pivtsev did skilled work for the police without pay.
The IJ refused to consider a copy of Krasnopivtsev’s internal passport but considered exhibits consisting of INS forms and attachments, including an asylum officer’s “assessment to refer” and the Department of State Country Reports from Georgia for 1999 and 2000. The IJ оutlined portions of the Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Georgia, which stated, among other things, that torture was used on some criminals and detainees and that “members of the security forces beat members of religious minorities.” (R. at 65-66.) Also, although the constitution provides for freedom of religion and the government generally respects this right, local police officers and security officials have been known to harass several nonorthodox religious groups, “particularly local and foreign missionaries, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists and Hare Krishna.” (R. at 66.) Krasnopivtsev had never been a Baptist missionary.
The IJ found that Krasnopivtsev’s testimony was not credible. Even if credible, the IJ further found that Krasnopivtsev’s tеstimony was meager, general, and not the type of specific or detailed evidence necessary to obtain asylum. The IJ gave weight to the fact that Krasnopivtsev still has family members who live in Georgia, and he knows of no harm that has come to them. The IJ found that Krasnopivtsev failed to satisfy his burden of demonstrating that he had been persecuted or had a well-founded fear of future persecution, and the IJ denied all relief.
*837 The BIA affirmed the IJ’s decision, specifically noting that its adoption or affir-mance of an IJ’s decision is a statement that the Board’s conclusions coincide with those articulated by the IJ. The BIA then added some of its own reasons and rejected Krasnopivtsev’s arguments of evidentiа-ry error. Krasnopivtsev petitions this court for judicial review.
II.
Because the BIA essentially adopted the IJ’s opinion while adding some of its own reasoning, we review both decisions.
See Siong v. INS,
A.
Krasnopivtsev argues that the IJ erred and deprived him of due process by admitting into evidence the asylum officer’s referral assessment containing references to his credibility and by not admitting a copy of his internal passport. We find no errоr. First, the referral assessment was properly admitted. “The traditional rules of evidence do not apply to immigration proceedings.”
Nyama v. Ashcroft,
Krasnopivtsev asserts thаt admission of the referral assessment was prohibited by an internal Operating Policies and Procedures Memorandum (OPPM), which states that a document containing reference to INS credibility findings should not be filed with the immigration court. OPPM No. 96-1 (superseded by OPPM 00-01, Aug. 4, 2000);
see also Prokopenko,
Second, Krasnopivtsev argues that the IJ erred by refusing tо admit his passport although she admitted the passport of his nephew, Dimitri Prokopenko, in a companion case and under identical circumstances. The BIA affirmed the IJ’s decision to exclude Krasnopivtsev’s passport because it was not translated and was untimely.
See
8 C.F.R. § 1003.33 (requiring a foreign language document to be accompanied by an English languagе translation and a certification signed by the translator). We find no error. Contrary to the requirements of the regulation, Krasnopivtsev submitted only a copy of the document, with no English translation or certification. His claim of unfair treatment because Prokopenko’s passport was admitted is also without merit. The IJ admitted Prokopenko’s passport as аn exhibit, but she expressly stated in her written decision that she gave it no weight because it was untimely, untranslated, and not an original document. (Petitioner’s Add., Exhibit A at 14.) Prokopenko’s claims for asylum and other relief were all denied.
Prokopenko,
B.
Krasnopivtsev asserts that the IJ erred in concluding that he was not credible. The BIA did not comment on the IJ’s credibility finding, noting simply that it agreed with the IJ’s assessment that Kras-nopivtsev had fаiled to meet his burden to show that he was eligible for relief. We decline to address the credibility issue because even assuming that Krasnopivtsev was credible, substantial evidence supports the IJ’s and BIA’s conclusions that the events Krasnopivtsev described are not sufficient to demonstrate that he was persecuted or has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of his ethnicity or his religion.
The Attorney General may confer asylum upon a refugee. 8 U.S.C. § 1158(b) (2000). A refugee is an alien who is unwilling to return to his home country due to a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(42)(A). “Persеcution involves a threat to one’s life or freedom” on account of one of those five enumerated grounds.
Shoaira v. Ashcroft,
Krasnopivtsev claimed that he was persecuted on account of being Russian. His testimony indicated that he was harassed, both by private citizens and the police, but this harassment does not rise to the level of persecution. The 1995 shooting began with police harаssment because Krasnopivtsev was Russian, but the actual shooting was the random act of a drunken officer. Other police immediately took him *839 to the hospital for treatment. The cow-stealing accusation occurred in Russia, and he admits it is not relevant to support his claim of persecution in Georgia. The only other specific incidents of mistreatment Krasnopivtsev testified to suffering on account of his Russian ethnicity were that citizens would harass him on the street and hit him if he did not have cigarettes and that the police required him to perform unpaid work.
Harassment by private citizens does not rise to the level of persecution.
See Rife v. Ashcroft,
As to his claim of religious persecution, Krasnopivtsev argues that the mistreatment of his family members who were granted refugee status in the United States in the 1990s on the basis of religious persecution is a valid bаsis for a well-founded fear of persecution. While he asserts that his family obtained refugee status in the 1990s because they were persecuted for their religion in Georgia, Krasnopivtsev has provided no details concerning their persecution, and he has not related how it affected him. He offers only the much outdated 1929 execution of his father’s uncle as evidence of violence against family members. He indicated that since the 1970s, Baptists in Georgia have been prohibited from baptizing people in a local river, but they continued to baptize in a pool in church. Later, he testified that they now meet in private homes. He testified that he was never baptized and that he attended servicеs infrequently in Georgia. Aside from vague allegations that as a child during the communist regime he was treated poorly on account of his family’s beliefs, Krasno-pivtsev has not introduced any evidence that he suffered any specific harm on account of his religious beliefs since 1991 or that there exists a pattern of family persecution that is linked to him.
See Nyonzele v. INS,
Additionally, there is no evidence that any harm has come to his remaining family members in Georgia. The reasonableness of a fear of persecution is diminished when family members remain in the native country unharmed, and the applicant himself had not been singled out for abuse.
See Wondmneh v. Ashcroft,
To be eligible for withholding of removal, 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3), the standard is more dеmanding. “The alien must show a ‘clear probability’ that he or she will face persecution in the country to which he or she will be deported.”
Hasalla,
C.
Krasnopivtsev claims he is entitled to relief under the Conventiоn Against Torture. To qualify for relief under Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture, the applicant must prove that it is more likely than not that he would be tortured if returned to the proposed country of removal, considering the testimony of the applicant as to past torture, the possibility of relocation within the country, mass violations of human rights, or other relеvant information regarding conditions within the country. 8 C.F.R. § 208.16(c). Torture is defined as an act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted, and it is an extreme form of cruel and inhuman treatment; it does not include lesser forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. 8 C.F.R. § 208.18(a)(1),(2). Our review leads us to agree with the IJ and BIA that Krasnopivtsev has made no showing that he would more likely than not be subjected to torture if returned to Georgia.
III.
Accordingly, we deny Krasnopivtsev’s petition for judicial review.