Macedonia;Uzbekistan;

FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway http://www.forum18.org/

The right to believe, to worship and witness The right to change one's belief or religion The right to join together and express one's belief

19 October 2004 ARMENIA: PROMISES BROKEN BY CONTINUING JAILING OF PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=434 This month (October), five Jehovah's Witnesses have been sentenced to jail terms for their conscientious objection, on religious grounds, to military service. A sixth prisoner of conscience has been given a lesser sentence, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The number of imprisoned Jehovah's Witnesses has been brought to thirteen by these sentences, with a further two awaiting trial on the same charges. The continued sentencing and detention of religious prisoners of conscience clearly violates Armenia's previous promises to free its religious prisoners, and to introduce alternative civilian service. The Armenian Foreign Ministry declined to explain to Forum 18 how these latest sentences matched Armenia's previous promises, claiming that the issue is "outside the competence of the Foreign Ministry".

20 October 2004 BELARUS: POLICE DENY BEATING BAPTIST AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES FEAR FRESH REPRESSION http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=436 Police in the town of Lepel [Lyepyel'] have angrily denied beating up a Baptist street evangelist, however the police have admittedly repeatedly detaining Baptists who were running a street library. The detentions allegedly took place at the instigation of the local Orthodox priest wife. Religious minorities fear that, after the strongly disputed referendum and parliamentary elections this week, the government's attention will turn to implementing Belarus' repressive religion law, under which all religious activity by unregistered religious communities is illegal. Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek of Minsk-Mohilev, the latest religious leader to criticise the law, has described some of the law's restrictions and said that "This law appears to normalise relations between the State and the Church, but does it in a way that suits the State, not the Church."

18 October 2004 KAZAKHSTAN: PROTESTANT TEACHER'S CRIME: "NOT HIDING MY RELIGIOUS BELIEFS" http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=433 The KNB secret police has accused a ballet teacher, Vladislav Polskikh, of "a corruption of [children's] objective interpretation of events and adoption of certain life values", and is investigating him under an under an article of the criminal code which can lead to imprisonment of up to two years. Polskikh told Forum 18 News Service that "my only 'crime' is that of not hiding my religious beliefs" from children or parents. Even though this it is not required by Kazakh law, he told parents in writing that he was a Protestant and gained their specific written consent to "the use of any expressions or images connected with his faith during lessons." The KNB is hostile to Polskikh's church, and only began investigating him after he sued a newspaper which accused him of being a paedophile.

21 October 2004 MACEDONIA: MONASTERY DEMOLISHED - ANOTHER CHURCH DEMOLITION PLANNED, AND METROPOLITAN TO BE JAILED? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=437 A Macedonian government official, Dr Cane Mojanovski, has refused to confirm or deny to Forum 18 News Service reports that the government intends to demolish the Serbian Orthodox Church in the village of Luzani. The reports follow the surprise night-time destruction of the St John Chrysostom Monastery in Nizepole, southern Macedonia - which contained Metropolitan Jovan (Vranisskovski) and about 10 monks and nuns - by approximately 500 police armed with automatic weapons, and demolition workers with bulldozers. The monastery was the cathedral of the Archbishopric of Ohrid, and was earlier this year attacked by a paramilitary 'state security' unit armed with machine guns. Officials in Bitola have refused to discuss the monastery demolition with Forum 18. Metropolitan Jovan is separately being threatened with an 18 month jail sentence, and told Forum 18 that he expects his appeal against the sentence will be turned down. * See full article below. *

20 October 2004 UZBEKISTAN: PREACHER TO FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES, AND JW TO BE FIRED? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=435 Dilshod Akhmedov, a Jehovah's Witness in Tashkent who was imprisoned for 15 days in May, and who refuses to give up public preaching, is now being investigated under the criminal code by police. Conviction carries a penalty of a fine of between 50 and 100 times the minimum wage, or up to three years in prison. Also, officials in the city of Samarkand [Samarqand], have threatened a female Jehovah's Witness, Lolya Nurmanova, with being fired for her beliefs. The authorities have also compelled a woman sympathetic to the Jehovah's Witnesses to report to the authorities everything that goes on in the religious community. Pressure continues on Jehovah's Witnesses throughout Uzbekistan, with some being convicted and fined without being given a chance to defend themselves in court.

21 October 2004 MACEDONIA: MONASTERY DEMOLISHED - ANOTHER CHURCH DEMOLITION PLANNED, AND METROPOLITAN TO BE JAILED?

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=437 By Drasko Djenovic, Forum 18 News Service

Dr Cane Mojanovski, president of the Macedonian government's committee for relations with religious communities, refused to confirm or deny to Forum 18 News Service on 20 October reports from Metropolitan Jovan (Vranisskovski) and the media in Belgrade that the Macedonian government intends to demolish a Serbian Orthodox church in Luzani village, near Prilep in south central Macedonia, referring all enquiries to the building inspectorate. Metropolitan Jovan told Forum 18 that the church is threatened with destruction even though a building permit was issued for it in September. Metropolitan Jovan heads the Macedonian archbishopric of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is not recognised by the Macedonian government (see F18News 23 September 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=418).

The intended church demolition comes after the sudden and unexpected demolition, just before midnight on the night of 15-16 October, of the Serbian Orthodox monastery of St John Chrysostom in the village of Nizepole, near Bitola in southern Macedonia. About 500 police from the capital Skopje, armed with automatic weapons, surrounded the monastery while Metropolitan Jovan was inside with about 10 monks and nuns. At the same time, police blocked the Ohrid - Bitola - Nizepole road. Workers then used bulldozers to demolish the monastery, as well as walls stabilising the steep terrain on which the monastery was built. The monastery was the cathedral of the Serbian Orthodox Archbishopric of Ohrid, in Macedonia.

The authorities have claimed that the reason for the monastery's demolition is that it did not have a building permit. Forum 18 made eight calls on 21 October to various officials of the Bitola administration, but no-one was prepared to discuss the reasons for monastery's demolishion. Once Forum 18 had explained why it was calling, officials immediately referred the questions to other offices.

Dr Mojanovski told Forum 18 that he cannot comment on the acts of other state institutions, and that the demolition of church buildings is under the authority of the building inspectorate.

The monastery was built in a village, and in its vicinity are more than 50 solidly-constructed buildings none of which has a building permit, as is normal in Macedonia for villages of this type. The land on which the monastery stood belongs to Metropolitan Jovan's parents, Galina and Argira Vranisskovski, and their house - which was recently robbed and damaged by fire - is about 100 metres (100 yards) from the site of the monastery. Even though in planning terms their house, like the other village houses, has the same legal status as the monastery, the building inspectorate has shown no interest in any of the village's houses.

Metropolitan Jovan told Forum 18 on 20 October that he had gone to Bitola's building inspectorate after the monastery's destruction to ask for the formal legal decree ordering the destruction, but officials told him that there was no decree. They said they had received an order from Skopje and then placed an "information paper" announcing the intended demolition of the monastery on the town hall noticeboard. When Metropolitan Jovan asked to see a copy of this "information paper", the officials told him that they no longer had it.

The demolition is the latest in a long series of attacks by Macedonian authorities on the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia. Among numerous other incidents, Metropolitan Jovan has been jailed, as well as another bishop and a monk fined (see F18News 28 January 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=238), and the now-demolished monastery was attacked last February with machine guns by a paramilitary "state security unit" (see F18News 24 February 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=259).

A day before the destruction of the monastery, 15 October, Metropolitan Jovan received the results of an appeal against a mid-August court decision that he be sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for "spreading religious, national and racist intolerance", charges he rejects (see F18News 23 September 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=418). He told Forum 18 that he has 15 days to make another appeal, but that he expects that this will be turned down and that he will be sent to jail again.

The Macedonian state has prevented any rival Orthodox jurisdiction to the Macedonian Orthodox Church from existing in the country (see F18News 23 September 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=418). On 18 October the MIA state news agency reported that "representatives of the Macedonian Orthodox Church clergy and monastic order fully support the Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church in its efforts to preserve the church, its name, autocephaly status and dignity". The Macedonian Orthodox Church claimed autocephaly (complete independence) from the Serbian Orthodox Church in 1967, but no other canonical Orthodox Church in the world recognises this.

A printer-friendly map of Macedonia is available from http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=macedo Note that the formally recognised name of Macedonia in international law is "The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". (END)

© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved.

You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to F18News http://www.forum18.org/

Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at http://www.forum18.org/

SUBSCRIBE here: http://www.forum18.org/Subscribe.php and enter your e-mail address for either the full or the weekly edition.

- Or send an e-mail to (for the full edition):

(for the weekly edition):

with the following text in the subject or body of the email:

subscribe

UNSUBSCRIBE here: http://www.forum18.org/Subscribe.php and enter your e-mail address for either the full or the weekly edition.

- Or send an e-mail to (for the full edition):

(for the weekly edition):

with the following text in the subject or body of the email:

unsubscribe

If you need to contact F18News, please email us at:

Forum 18 Postboks 6663 Rodeløkka N-0502 Oslo NORWAY