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

28 September 2005 BELARUS: SECOND MASSIVE FINE FOR ORGANISING RELIGIOUS WORSHIP http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=661 On 23 September, two months after a regular Sunday morning service of the embattled New Life charismatic church in Minsk was raided by police, a court fined the church's administrator Vasily Yurevich the equivalent of 160 times the minimum monthly wage for organising an "illegal" service. Yurevich told Forum 18 News Service that Judge Natalya Kuznetsova ignored church members' insistence that he had not organised the service, while the court decision maintained that the judge "believes offender Yurevich is trying to evade responsibility for what has been committed". This is Yurevich's second massive fine and he fears further fines in the wake of a police raid on the church's 4 September service. In separate cases, one Baptist punished for organising "illegal" worship was able to overturn his fine in August, but two other Baptists have been fined in recent months. One was ordered to take down the church sign.

30 September 2005 BELARUS: LIQUIDATED CHURCH PLEDGES TO CONTINUE SERVICES http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=664 Pastor Ernst Sabilo - who spent 13 years in Soviet labour camps for his faith - has pledged that the Belarusian Evangelical Church he leads in the capital Minsk will continue to meet for worship despite the liquidation of its legal status by the city court on 20 September. Belarus' restrictive 2002 religion law bans unregistered religious activity. "They could fine us for gathering - but we have no other option," Sabilo told Forum 18 News Service. The liquidation came a month after the same court liquidated a Calvinist church. A whole range of other religious communities which failed to gain re-registration by the deadline remain in legal limbo, Forum 18 has found. The pastor of a Protestant church in Minsk region denied re-registration and ordered to "liquidate itself" told Forum 18 he is optimistic a new registration application will be successful.

27 September 2005 BURMA: WHY DID MILITARY AUTHORITIES CLOSE PROTESTANT CHURCHES? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=660 Burma's military authorities have closed three Protestant Full Gospel churches in the capital Rangoon since early August, as well as a series of Protestant house churches elsewhere in the country, Burmese Protestants have told Forum 18 News Service. One Rangoon-based pastor told Forum 18 the Full Gospel churches were closed because they make too much noise during services, but the crackdown reaches much further. "Church leaders were called in by the military authorities and told to close their churches," another Protestant told Forum 18. The military authorities retain tight control over all religious activity. "If a church is not registered it is illegal," one Protestant leader reported after being warned by police intelligence not to hold unapproved worship services. "I was also warned that working with foreigners or inviting foreigners to preach in the church is likewise illegal." Over the past three years, Protestant congregations without their own place of worship have been prevented from building churches.

29 September 2005 MACEDONIA: TRIALS WITHOUT END FOR SERBIAN ORTHODOX? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=663 Just days after being handed an extra two years in prison for "embezzlement" for holding church funds in a private bank account for two days three years ago - bringing his total prison term to four and a half years - the fourth trial for Archbishop Jovan, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia, began in Veles on 29 September. "It is ridiculous that I am accused of embezzling the funds that I spent on the life and work of my diocese," Archbishop Jovan told Forum 18 News Service before his recent imprisonment. Eleven church members who attended a service he conducted in a private flat in January 2004 now face court summonses. Goran Pavlovski, spokesperson for the cabinet of ministers, refused to explain to Forum 18 why his government is so hostile to Macedonian parishes of the Serbian Orthodox Church and declined to say if Macedonian citizens are allowed to belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church. It has called its followers to a week of fasting in response to the third sentence in a row against Archbishop Jovan. * See full article below. *

26 September 2005 RUSSIA: PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH TO BE CONFISCATED? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=658 Its registration liquidated in 2003 for "administrative violations" and with subsequent registration applications denied, the Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Mozdok in Russia's North Caucasus now faces the confiscation of its "beautiful Gothic-style" prayer house, church administrator Olga Mazhurova told Forum 18 News Service. The local administration told the congregation in early September that there is enough evidence to file suit for its confiscation, though no date for a court hearing has been set. The church admits it "made mistakes" over the way the church was built without planning permission, but claims it has been blocked from regularising its position due to local suspicion of its foreign connections. Officials at Mozdok district prosecutor's office have refused to discuss with Forum 18 why they are seeking to confiscate the church.

26 September 2005 XINJIANG: HOW LONG WILL ARRESTED SUFI MUSLIMS BE HELD? http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=659 Forum 18 News Service has been unable to find out why the government of the Ili-Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of China's north-western Xinjiang Region banned the Sala Sufi Muslim order as a "dangerous" group in August. "I'm not prepared to voice an opinion on whether or not this order is harmful," a professor from Beijing's Institute of Nationalities told Forum 18. But she denied that if any practitioners had been arrested it was for their religious beliefs. The German-based World Uyghur Congress says 179 people have been held. Local Muslim Abdu Raheman told Forum 18 that the practitioners were seized by the security services. "There was no court case against them, so no-one knows how long they will spend behind bars." He views the moves - which also include closures of mosques and seizures of religious literature - as part of a campaign against local Huis, ethnic Chinese Muslims. "The religious practices of the Huis bring out the international nature of Islam, and that aggravates the authorities."

29 September 2005 XINJIANG: CONTROLS TIGHTEN ON MUSLIMS AND CATHOLICS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=662 A Muslim in the Ili-Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in China's north-western Xinjiang region has complained of ever tighter restrictions on Muslims, even since the ban on the Sala Sufi order in August and closure of two local mosques. "Now that the Sufi believers have been dealt with, traditional Sunni Muslims are being persecuted," Abdu Raheman told Forum18. He says the authorities have arrested some Muslims in possession of "unauthorised" religious literature and have ordered some Muslim young men to shave off their beards. Forum 18 learnt that priests and those active in Catholic parishes have been put under surveillance, while - in the absence of native priests - Orthodox Christians complain they are still being denied a priest from abroad. One Protestant said an underground church would not even try to register as it feared repercussions on its members when registration is refused.

29 September 2005 MACEDONIA: TRIALS WITHOUT END FOR SERBIAN ORTHODOX?

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=663 By Branko Bjelajac, Balkans Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service

In the wake of the additional two year sentence on Archbishop Jovan of Ohrid, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia, handed down on 23 September and a further trial begun today (29 September), as well as summonses to eleven participants in a Serbian Orthodox service held in a private flat, Macedonian government officials have refused to explain to Forum 18 News Service why the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia has been denied registration, why its communities have been attacked and why Macedonian citizens cannot belong to the faith of their choice. Goran Pavlovski, spokesperson for the cabinet of ministers, refused to explain why his government is so hostile to Macedonian parishes of the Serbian Orthodox Church. He insisted that the Church is not recognised in Macedonia, but refused to respond when Forum 18 observed that this was because the government has repeatedly rejected its registration applications. He repeatedly and pointedly declined to say whether Macedonian citizens are allowed to belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church or not.

On the case of Archbishop Jovan, whom he referred to by his secular name Zoran Vranisskovski, Pavlovski insisted that he has merely been punished for his crimes. "You think you know very much about this case, but you know very little," he told Forum 18 from the capital Skopje on 29 September. "Mr Vranisskovski committed a crime with money and that's why he's in jail." He declined to say what information he believes Forum 18 is unaware of.

Borce Pesesvski, spokesperson for the interior ministry, also maintained that "Mr Vranisskovski" has been punished for fraud he committed when he was a bishop of the Macedonian Orthodox Church and referred all enquiries to the Justice Ministry. He declined to discuss why his ministry has played a part in suppressing the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia, including by attacking and demolishing places of worship.

Likewise Tomislav Dopuzovski of the government's Committee for Relations with Religious Communities refused to explain the official determination to crush the Church's activity. "We do not have the Serbian Orthodox Church here," he told Forum 18 from Skopje on 29 September. Told that the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia had applied to his committee for registration and been refused, he declined all further discussion.

The prosecution of Archbishop Jovan at the court in the town of Veles south east of Skopje came on the prosecutors' third attempt after two earlier attempts failed. On 23 September the court found him guilty of embezzling 57,180 Euros (448,541 Norwegian kroner or 68,725 US dollars) donated for church reconstruction when he was a bishop of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. In the same case, his former clerk Toni Petrusevski was also found guilty and sentenced to fifteen months in prison.

Archbishop Jovan's two year sentence will be in addition to the sentences he has already received (see F18News 20 September 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=655>). As he is already serving a combined sentence of two and a half years from two earlier trials, this new sentence will now require him to stay in Idrizovo prison in Skopje for a total of four and a half years.

The Serbian Church in Macedonia has dismissed the case as a "set-up". It pointed out on 24 September that the two defendants were sentenced for holding the money for two days between the time it was withdrawn from a private account to the moment it was deposited with the court in Veles in November 2002. At the time the money was in a private account, no religious organisation was permitted to hold a bank account with foreign currency. The Church has called its followers in Macedonia to one week of fasting, from 26 September to 2 October, in response to Archbishop Jovan's third sentence in a row.

"What was shocking at this trial," abbot David (Ninov) of the Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God told Forum 18 from Skopje on 29 September, "was that the same court which acquitted our bishop twice, and the same judge who judged the second of these trials - without any new evidence and merely at the request of the Appeal court to repeat the trial, and this for the third time - now finds Jovan guilty, sentencing him to two years in jail as a criminal. We, who seek only a democratic trial, honouring the facts and respecting human and religious rights, find this incomprehensible." He claimed Archbishop Jovan's human, constitutional and internationally-guaranteed rights have been violated.

On 29 September, the court in Veles began a new, fourth trial against Archbishop Jovan on charges of embezzling 600,000 Euros (4,706,150 Norwegian kroner or 721,104 US dollars) from church funds, also while he was still serving as a bishop of the Macedonian Orthodox Church in Veles. His lawyer, Vasil Georgiev, told the Belgrade daily Danas on 28 September that Archbishop Jovan is being accused of embezzling "all that his diocese spent during seven years of his service, for all the salaries, bills, material costs, purchases, and other expenses, for all priests, clerks, churches, monasteries, petrol, etc."

Archbishop Jovan rejects all the new accusations. In his last interview to Forum 18 before being sent to prison in July, he complained that attempts are underway to put him on trial "for all the expenses since the days of Adam". "It is ridiculous that I am accused of embezzling the funds that I spent on the life and work of my diocese."

Sister Olimpijada of the Ohrid Archbishopric reported that she was among 70 church members denied access to the Veles courtroom today, although the trial was billed as "open". "We complained to the president of the court, who ordered that our two bishops and one monk should be permitted to enter the courtroom," she told Forum 18 from Veles on 29 September. "Previously, the judge permitted only members of the schismatic Macedonian Orthodox Church to enter, and some journalists, but not us. But, when the presiding judge saw it, he ordered the court police to remove our bishops, but since they had permission from the higher authority, the judge cancelled the proceedings and set a new date." She said the proceedings were over within half an hour and the trial is due to resume on 25 October. She says they have asked for a larger courtroom so that all the church members who wish to attend can do so.

Abbot David likened the continuing moves against his church to "the best years of Bolshevism". He reported that all the monks and nuns arrested in January 2004 for attending the liturgy led by Jovan in his father's flat in the south-western town of Bitola have now been summoned for trial. The prosecutor's office appealed to the Appeal Court after they were freed. "They will pursue this until we are all in jail," he told Forum 18. "Most of the summonses were sent already in September, but they were not delivered to us, since we were all expelled from our monasteries, so they do not know our present addresses."

He added that a priest who was badly beaten last year when their church was demolished now stands accused as the originator of all of the troubles. "It is getting worse, and worse, day by day, and we do not know what to do, except to pray and to fast," Abbot David observed.

But he expressed his admiration for the way Archbishop Jovan is bearing the repeated legal cases. "We saw him today in court and his face was beautiful. He faces trial after trial, but does not lose his spirit and you can see joy in his face. His trials are a new testimony of faith - he stands there for his religious convictions."

A printer-friendly map of Macedonia is available from <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=macedo> (END)

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