Belarus; Kazakhstan; Russia; Serbia; Uzbekistan

Thinking maturely about the Christian faith

Search

// you’re reading...

Prayer

Belarus; Kazakhstan; Russia; Serbia; Uzbekistan

By Rowland Croucher and others ⋅ April 24, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

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

18 April 2006 BELARUS: “THE STATE DOES NOT INTERFERE IN THE ACTIVITY OF RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS” http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=762 A Pentecostal leader in Belarus, Gennady Akhrimovich, is facing a fine for organising a Bible study group within his congregation, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. However, Tatyana Zhitko, head of the local Ideology Department, has refused to say why this is happening. “Why are you calling me?” she complained. “I don’t know your publication and I’m not prepared to give you any information.” Akhrimovich’s New Generation Church is facing state threats to its place of worship, like the Minsk-based New Life Church which is now facing a forced sale of its worship building to Minsk City Property Department. Meanwhile, two Protestants jailed for illegal religious activity have been freed. And despite the expulsion of Catholic priest Fr Robert Krzywicki, Vladimir Lameko of the state Religious Affairs Committee has told Fr Robert’s parishioners that “the state does not interfere in the activity of religious organisations.”

19 April 2006 KAZAKHSTAN: ONLY HARE KRISHNA COMMUNE IN CIS TO BE CONFISCATED http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=764 The long running struggle of Kazakhstan’s Hare Krishna community to retain a farm they own – their only commune in the former Soviet Union – has intensified, Forum 18 News Service has learnt, as Almaty regional court has ordered the farm to be confiscated without compensation. “We will contest this decision in the Kazakhstan Supreme Court of Supervision. The situation is critical. Under the law the court bailiffs can come to us at any moment and begin to take the land from us,” Rati Mandzhari (Yekaterina Levitskaya), of the Society for Krishna Consciousness, told Forum 18. The commune has long been the target of state attempts to close it down, which the community thinks may be motivated by state intolerance of Hare Krishna devotees and greed for material gain. Other religious minorities in Kazakhstan – such as Protestants – are also experiencing state intolerance of religious freedom.

18 April 2006 RUSSIA: MUSLIMS REJECT HIZB-UT-TAHIR MEMBERSHIP CHARGES http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=761 Many of the 46 Muslims convicted of membership of Hizb-ut-Tahrir – a party which claims to reject violence, but which is banned in Russia – have denied that they are members of the organisation, Forum 18 News Service has noted. Mars Gayanov, for example, maintains that an official account of a police conversation, which he signed, “was substituted for one in which I said I belonged to Hizb-ut-Tahrir.” He stated that his family was targeted simply because “we are serious Muslims – our women wear the hijab, we don’t drink alcohol, we are trying to live in accordance with Islam.” Vitali Ponomarev of human rights group Memorial told Forum 18 that after the Beslan school siege “there was a need to find terrorists” and that, as the only large Muslim political organisation with a definable membership, Hizb-ut-Tahrir “filled a vacuum.” However, Georgi Engelhardt, a researcher into militant Islam at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Forum 18 that it was not possible to say whether evidence was planted: “The rumours about the reputation of the police remain rumours.”

20 April 2006 RUSSIA: LITERARY ANALYSES KEY TO HIZB-UT-TAHRIR CONVICTIONS http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=765 Analyses of publications has been a key element in criminal prosecutions brought against alleged Hizb-ut-Tahrir members, some of whom have been jailed, Forum 18 News Service has found. These have been conducted by Russian academics, including a former scientific atheism lecturer. Vitali Ponomarev of the human rights group Memorial has closely followed many of the trials, and he commented to Forum 18 that “if someone speaks about the caliphate or has the organisation’s literature, that would automatically be considered proof of membership. (..) in most cases this isn’t examined – normally there is just a witness who says that the accused gave them literature and asked them to join, or talked about the caliphate.” However Georgi Engelhardt, who researches militant Islam at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Forum 18 that, for him, dissemination of Hizb-ut-Tahrir literature was sufficient proof of membership. “It demands a certain sharing of views – the person is not a paid postman. You need to be quite motivated to be connected with Hizb-ut-Tahrir.”

17 April 2006 SERBIA: ALMOST NO ONE SATISFIED AS RELIGION BILL REACHES PARLIAMENT http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=760 Serbia’s National Assembly is today (17 April) due to begin consideration of the long-delayed new religion bill, which many religious communities and human rights activists complain discriminates between five levels of religious community with differing status, grants pre-eminence to the Serbian Orthodox Church at the expense of other faiths, fails to protect non-theistic beliefs adequately, prevents religious communities of similar name from gaining state registration and fails to protect against arbitrary denial of registration. “Our main complaint is that those drafting the law have capitulated under pressure from the national churches,” Zarko Djordjevic of Serbia’s Baptist Union told Forum 18 News Service. Some question the timing – between Western and Eastern Easter – of parliamentary consideration for this, the sixth draft religion law in thirteen years. “Maybe I sound paranoid, but controversial laws like this were always voted on in the holiday season and I believe the authorities want to do the same now,” declared Belgrade professor Ljubisa Rajic.

21 April 2006 SERBIA: RELIGION LAW RUSHED THROUGH PARLIAMENT http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=766 Serbia’s National Assembly has with great haste passed the controversial new religion law, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. It has long been in preparation, and there is suspicion about why the law has been rushed through parliament just before the Serbian Easter holiday. Serbian President Boris Tadic has been asked to sign the Law into force “immediately.” Many NGOs, religious communities and the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission are highly critical of the law, but in an undated Religion Ministry report obtained by Forum 18, it is claimed that the law “is agreed by all churches, religious communities and other religious communities in Serbia.” This is strongly denied by many religious communities, who are very concerned that the law’s final text is not publicly available. “We cannot see the text. We cannot complain because we do not know what to complain about,” Dane Vidovic of the Baptists told Forum 18, in a comment echoed by many. * See full article below. *

19 April 2006 UZBEKISTAN: RAIDS, DETENTIONS AND RAPE THREATS ON JEHOVAH’S WITNESS’ HOLY DAY http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=763 As in 2005, Uzbekistan’s Jehovah’s Witnesses again faced raids, mass detentions and rape threats on their most holy day – the commemoration on 12 April of the death of Jesus, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. “The NSS secret police and the ordinary police have carried out operations before on this day, but we have not seen repression on such a scale,” Forum 18 was told. In Karshi [Qarshi], raids were particularly severe, with one Jehovah’s Witness suffering severe concussion and a brain haemorrhage after being beaten by the police. Female Jehovah’s Witnesses were threatened with rape. The raids took place despite assurances from the state Religious Affairs Committee that the government would not attack the commemorations. Also, as the Religious Affairs Committee itself admits, harassment of Protestants continues throughout Uzbekistan – even involving the authorities themselves breaking Uzbekistan’s highly repressive laws.

21 April 2006 SERBIA: RELIGION LAW RUSHED THROUGH PARLIAMENT

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=766 By Drasko Djenovic, Balkans Correspondent, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

Serbia’s National Assembly yesterday (20 April) passed the controversial new Law on Churches and Religious Communities with 120 votes for the law, 4 votes against and 5 abstentions, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The rest of the 250 parliamentary deputies were did not absent. The law has long been in preparation, and some are suspicious of the government’s motivation in rushing it through parliament just before the Serbian Easter holiday weekend.

Predrag Markovic, speaker of the Assembly, on 20 April asked Serbian President Boris Tadic to sign the Law “immediately” so it could be formally promulgated in the Official Gazette. Many NGOs, religious communities and the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission are highly critical of the law (see F18News 17 April 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=760>).

Predrag Markovic told RTS television on 20 April that he wanted President Tadic to sign the law quickly, so that on either 4 or 5 May, the government can approve the draft text of a law on returning properties to the Churches and send it to the Parliament. Forum 18 notes that if only the “traditional” religious communities are recognised, this will discriminate against the right of many smaller religious communities to receive back property confiscated from them after 1945. These properties include churches, old peoples homes, a Methodist Church hospital in Novi Sad, and a large building confiscated from the Adventists in Belgrade.

Forum 18 has obtained an undated report on public discussion of the draft law from the office of Serbian Minister of Religion Milan Radulovic, which pre-dates the parliamentary debate. This report contains the statement – underlined on Forum 18′s copy -that the law “is agreed by all churches, religious communities and other religious communities in Serbia.” However, the Ministry’s statement is strongly denied by many religious communities.

Vladimir Majersky, president of the representative body of the Brethren Church, told Forum 18 on 18 April that his predecessor, Jan Cizmansky – who held the post from 2002 to early 2006 – told him that he did not receive any version of the draft law. “He was therefore not able to agree to something he had not read.” Aleksandar Mitrovic, President of Serbia’s Evangelical Alliance, told Forum 18 on 18 April that “As far as I know, smaller religious communities did not receive any copies of the draft versions.” Damir Porobic, a legal representative of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, also told Forum 18 on 18 April that “we did not receive any draft laws and so do not have an official standpoint.”

The General Secretary of the Serbian Baptist Union, Zarko Djordjevic, also denied the Ministry’s statement, as did Stefan Stankovic a prominent Pentecostal church leader in Leskovac in southern Serbia. “We, as a local church, did write a letter protesting against the 2004 draft,” Stankovic told Forum 18 on 19 April, “and also wrote protesting against the summer 2005 draft. We have made no comment on the latest draft law.”

The next week is a holiday period in Serbia, but President Tadic has promised that he will sign the law after he has consulted with religious leaders. In Serbian law, the President must either sign the law into force within 7 days, or refer it back to the National Assembly.

Consideration of the law by the National Assembly has been rushed, with the law being accepted in principle – after the normal length of parliamentary session was extended – on Monday 17 April, with detailed discussion taking place on Wednesday 19 April, when the parliamentary session was extended until 11 pm. The final vote on the bill was on the morning of Thursday 20 April. Parliamentary discussion was heated, with the sitting being suspended several times as a result.

Ksenija Milivojevic, President of the Board for European Integration of the Serbian Parliament, voted against the Law. She commented that “I voted against the Law because it is not in harmony with European standards, and it is not good for Serbia as a multiethnic civil society. I will be interested in what the Constitutional Court will have to say about the Law, as many of the Law’s articles are contrary to the Constitution.”

The text of the Law as amended and passed by parliament, and now sent to the President for final approval, was not publicly available today (21 April). As a result of the authorities not making the law’s final text available to citizens, several religious communities asked Forum 18 for the final version.

“I do not know how to comment on the law, as no-one knows what has been decided by the National Assembly,” Miodrag Zivanovic of the Seventh-day Adventist Church told Forum 18 on 21 April. Catholic Archbishop Stanislav Hocevar said that the text of the law was changed, compared to the wording that had been agreed with the “traditional” churches. “But we do know why everything is kept secret, and we have tried to get the final text without success. The parliamentary discussion [which was screened live on Serbian TV] was so controversial that, in the end, we do not know what was decided.”

Dane Vidovic, a Baptist pastor and a member of the Freedom and Justice Commission of the Baptist World Alliance, told Forum 18 on 21 April that “the worst thing is that the Law is hidden and that we cannot see the text. We cannot complain because we do not know what to complain about. We have tried to get the text, but everyone is now on holiday.”

Damir Porobic of the Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum18 on April 21, “I cannot comment on something I cannot read.”

Romanian President Traian Basescu this week visited Serbia, and requested during his visit that the Romanian Orthodox Church be recognised by the Serbian government as one of the favoured “traditional” religious communities. Much tension has arisen in recent years between the Serbian Orthodox Church and Romanian Orthodox Church (see eg. F18News 19 September 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=654>).

The Law currently recognises seven “traditional” churches and religious communities – the Serbian Orthodox Church, Roman Catholic Church, Slovak Lutheran Church, Reformed Church, Evangelical Christian Church (another Lutheran Church), the Islamic and Jewish communities. (see F18News 17 April 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=760>). Article 10 of the draft version of the law was deleted by parliament, thus removing continuity of legal status gained by communities on the basis of previously applicable laws on Churches and religious communities. Also deleted was Article 17, thus removing state registration from several Protestant and Evangelical churches which were registered in the then Yugoslavia between 1953 and 1977.

There are unconfirmed reports in Belgrade newspapers of what has been passed by the National Assembly. ‘Blic’ reports that Jelena Markovic of the Serbia and Montenegro Ministry of Human and Minority Rights has stated that registration of new religious communities will need 8,000 signatures.

Zdravko Sordjan of the Belgrade-based Centre for Tolerance and Inter-religious Relations is very concerned by the latest moves. “This law will deepen the gulf between religious communities which already existed,” he told Forum 18 in Belgrade on 21 April. “We are afraid this will be the beginning of persecution of the smaller religious communities, mainly those with a Protestant and Evangelical orientation. Although the law is with the President for signature, we cannot find out what it says and this worries us.” (END)

For a personal commentary by a religious freedom lawyer arguing that Serbia should not follow Austria’s system of dividing religious communities into different categories with differing legal rights, see F18News <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=403>

For more background, see Forum 18′s Serbia religious freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=387> and survey of attacks on religious minorities in 2004 and early 2005 at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=581> and survey of attacks later in 2005 at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=647>

A printer-friendly map of Serbia and Montenegro is available at <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=yugosl> (END)