F18News Summary: Belarus; Kazakhstan; Russia; Ukraine;

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

2 May 2005 BELARUS: WHY NO FULL TV BROADCAST OF PAPAL FUNERAL AND INAUGURATION? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=553 About 20 per cent of Belarus' population is Catholic, but less than an hour of the late Pope John Paul II's funeral mass and none of Pope Benedict XVI's inauguration was broadcast on state TV, Forum 18 News Service has found. The only Catholics able to view full live coverage of the funeral were those who can receive terrestrial Polish TV. Catholics were surprised by the small amount of TV coverage, but, "there was no outcry," a Catholic laywoman told Forum 18. That the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI was not shown on Belarusian television, and given next to no coverage in news broadcasts, "offended us a bit as we wanted to hear about who the new pope was," a Belarusian Catholic journalist remarked to Forum 18. She did not believe the lack of television coverage to be the result of Belarusian state policy, a view supported by Ilona Urbanovich-Sauka of the independent Belarusian Association of Journalists. She told Forum 18 that her colleagues had encountered no evidence of a bar on broadcasting recent Vatican developments. Several believed that the minimal coverage simply reflected unprofessionalism.

3 May 2005 KAZAKHSTAN: PARLIAMENT CONSIDERS RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM TOMORROW; BAPTIST HEAVILY FINED AND CHURCH ACTIVITIES BANNED http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=554 Kazakhstan's parliament will possibly tomorrow (Wednesday) consider sweeping new restrictions on religious freedom, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Concurrently, a Baptist leader has been given a heavy fine for leading an unregistered religious community, and his church's activities have been banned. Law Professor Roman Podoprigora commented to Forum 18 that "the religion law does not require registration. This unjust demand is not in any law." Public Prosecutor Galim Kojekenov claimed to Forum 18 that "this is not persecution - we have freedom of conscience here." Planned restrictions on freedom include criminalising unregistered religious activity, banning unapproved "missionary" activity, requiring state approval for religious literature and dress, and widening officials' powers to ban religious communities. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has commented that this will "result in non-compliance with a wide range of OSCE commitments regarding human rights, democracy and the rule of law," and raise "serious concerns, particularly with regard to freedom of association, freedom of religion or belief, as well as freedom of opinion and expression."

4 May 2005 RUSSIA: SALVATION ARMY OFFICERS DENIED ENTRY "IN THE INTERESTS OF STATE SECURITY" http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=555 Two British and Danish Salvation Army officers have been denied entry to Russia "in the interests of state security," Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Colonel Barry Pobjie told Forum 18 at the Church's Moscow headquarters that "the accusations are ludicrous - this is directed not against these individuals but the organisation as a whole," he maintained, pointing out that both officers had previously worked and travelled extensively in Russia for several years. The two were traveling to a congress celebrating the elevation in the status of the Salvation Army's operation covering Russia, Georgia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine from "Command" to "Territory". This allows greater independence from the Church's London headquarters. Five foreign Catholic clergy were denied entry to Russia in 2002, following a similar internal decision to elevate the status of its four apostolic administrations to dioceses. Meanwhile, German Lutheran Bishop Siegfried Springer, the head of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in European Russia who was recently denied entry to Russia, has been told he can make one brief return visit. No reason was given for the annulment of his multi-entry visa. * See full article below. *

5 May 2005 UKRAINE: RUSSIAN HAND BEHIND JAPANESE MONK'S ENTRY DENIAL? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=556 Ukraine's security police have refused to explain to Forum 18 News Service why Japanese Buddhist monk and teacher Junsei Teresawa was taken off the train from Poland last night (4 May) and refused entry, while his valid visa was cancelled. But security police spokesperson Marina Ostapenko vigorously denied it is because Ukraine is following Russia's secret police blacklist. "If Ukraine barred him entry he must have done something here," she insisted to Forum 18 News Service. "What's it got to do with Russia?" Teresawa described the ban to Forum 18 as "unjust, unreasonable and unconstitutional".

4 May 2005 RUSSIA: SALVATION ARMY OFFICERS DENIED ENTRY "IN THE INTERESTS OF STATE SECURITY"

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=555 By Geraldine Fagan, Moscow Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service

Two high-ranking British and Danish Salvation Army officers were denied invitations to enter Russia in March "in the interests of state security," Forum 18 News Service has learnt. "If this is an official policy of opposition driven from above, it doesn't speak well of the nation as a whole," Colonel Barry Pobjie remarked to Forum 18 at the Church's Moscow headquarters on 26 April. "The Russian people are the victims - the Salvation Army and other churches play a vital role alongside the state authorities in tackling the Aids epidemic here, as well as the trafficking of women and child homelessness. These issues are so great that we would like to think all assistance would be welcomed."

Colonel Pobjie categorically rejected all possibility that Major Robert Garrard and Colonel Karl Lydholm might pose a threat to Russian state security, describing them as "two very fine Salvation Army officers" serving respectively as the personal secretary to the Salvation Army's highest ranking officer and co-ordinator of the Church's work in Finland and Norway. "The accusations are ludicrous - this is directed not against these individuals but the organisation as a whole," he maintained to Forum 18, pointing out that both officers had previously worked and travelled extensively in Russia for several years without any impediment whatsoever.

In September 2000 another Salvation Army officer, Canadian citizen Geoff Ryan, was denied an entry visa to Russia without explanation and has not returned since. The Salvation Army in Kalmykia, in south-eastern European Russia, where he worked, was described in the local state press as "western spies" and "one of the most powerful totalitarian sects in the world" and foreign missionaries from the Salvation Army and other Protestant organizations were refused entry (see F18News 14 April 2003 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=31).

Dated 22 March 2005 and viewed by Forum 18, two letters from the Moscow city department of Russia's Interior Ministry explain that both Garrard and Lydholm were denied visa invitations under Article 27, Part 1 of the federal law on entry to and exit from Russia, in accordance with which a foreign citizen may be denied permission to enter the country "in the interests of state security". The official commentary to the law adds that such a decision is to be taken, in particular, if there is evidence that the foreigner concerned "belongs to an international terrorist organisation or organised crime network, has links with extremist or criminal organisations in Russia or foreign secret services, or intends to commit a crime in Russia".

When there was no response to the Salvation Army's mid-February visa invitation applications submitted in Moscow, Colonel Lydholm applied independently for a tourist visa from Finland at the beginning of March, but received his passport back from the Russian Embassy in Helsinki with a stamp showing that he was barred. He is now pursuing the matter through the Danish Foreign Ministry, Pobjie told Forum 18, while the Salvation Army is currently still deliberating its official response as an organisation to the rejections. He added that the two officers were due to stay in Moscow for only several days in order to attend a church congress on 12 March, and that, while there was an unusual delay, other foreign visitors - including Lydholm's wife - were able to attend the event: "She wasn't seen as a threat."

While not attributing any significance to the 12 March congress, Colonel Pobjie mentioned that it was to celebrate an elevation in the status of the Salvation Army's operation covering Russia, Georgia, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine from "Command" to "Territory". A purely internal change allowing greater independence from the Church's London headquarters in financial and personnel matters, this decision was made on 1 December 2004 but became operable on 1 March 2005, he added: "I don't know how the Russian authorities could have known about it."

Five foreign Catholic clergy were denied entry to Russia in the course of several months in 2002 after the Catholic Church in Russia made a similar internal decision to elevate the status of its four apostolic administrations to dioceses. Currently, the visa situation of foreign Catholic clergy is best described as mixed (see F18News 23 November 2004 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=461).

Despite an unsuccessful attempt to liquidate the Moscow branch of the Salvation Army by the state authorities in the Russian capital in 2000-2, Colonel Pobjie also told Forum 18 that relations with them have since been "warm, cordial and helpful," with the rejections coming "completely out of the blue".

However, while a 2002 Constitutional Court decision prevents the Moscow branch from being liquidated, it has still not been re-registered in line with Russia's 1997 religion law, Anatoli Pchelintsev of the Moscow-based Slavic Centre for Law and Justice told Forum 18 on 28 April. "The Russian authorities argue that this is impossible because the re-registration deadline expired at the end of 2000," he explained.

On 1 July 2004 the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible a case filed against Russia by the Moscow branch of the Salvation Army in 2001. While the Church would prefer to settle the affair without turning to Strasbourg, Colonel Pobjie stressed to Forum 18, the Salvation Army is anxious to overturn accusations contained in a July 2000 Moscow district court decision that it is a "militarised organisation" with "barrack-room discipline": "We were considered for the Nobel Peace Prize once or twice - I think our name is worth defending."

While those accusations are outstanding, continued Pobjie, the Salvation Army is unable to challenge the 2002 publication of a Moscow school textbook, "The Basics of Living Safely", which draws upon the July 2000 local court verdict. Endorsed by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the textbook's chapter on terrorism counts the Salvation Army among "pseudo-religious organisations seeking all possible methods of using the Russian education system to spread their so-called religious teachings". "Posing as an evangelical Protestant Church," it continues, "the Salvation Army is in essence a militarised formation with a strictly hierarchical system, military ranks, uniforms and commands, as well as unflinching subordination of juniors to seniors."

Meanwhile, German Lutheran Bishop Siegfried Springer, the head of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in European Russia who was recently denied entry to Russia (see F18News 18 April 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=545), has been told he can make a brief return visit after the General Synod of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Russia and Other States wrote to President Vladimir Putin calling for his return. Bishop Springer told Forum 18 from the German town of Bad Sooden-Allendorf on 4 May that the German embassy in Moscow and the Russian consulate in Berlin both indicated on 28 April that the Russian authorities would grant him a one-week visa. "They also intimated that a decision would be taken at the end of May as to whether I will then be given a one-year visa, although there is no firm promise of this yet." He has now applied for a one-week visa for mid-May.

Bishop Springer is unhappy that Russian officials have still not told him why his valid one-year visa was abruptly annulled at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on 10 April. "I keep asking for the reason, as I don't want to get a new visa without knowing this," he told Forum 18. "Otherwise a shadow will remain on me and my office - I want truth and clarity."

For more background see Forum 18's Russia religious freedom survey at http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=509

A printer-friendly map of Russia is available at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=russi (END)

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