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  • Belarus: We have Orthodox, Catholics, Muslims - all others are sects

    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

    ========================================== ======
    Wednesday 11 November 2009
    BELARUS: "WE HAVE ORTHODOX, CATHOLICS AND MUSLIMS - ALL THE OTHERS ARE
    SECTS"

    The Deputy Chief of Minsk's Frunze District Police, Dinas Linkus, said he
    sent the local police officer to question the Kagramanyan family, who are
    Pentecostals, about their religious faith. "We had a request from the
    Culture Department of Minsk City Executive Committee several weeks ago to
    find out whether any religious activity was going on at this address, to
    establish whether a church was active there or not," he told Forum 18 News
    Service. "We have Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims - these are the
    religions. All the others are sects." Meanwhile Transfiguration Baptist
    Church in Vitebsk Region was fined for using a private house for religious
    worship, despite having official permission to do so. Jehovah's Witness
    Dmitry Smyk has been fined for refusing compulsory military service on
    religious grounds, but criminal charges against one other conscientious
    objector have been dropped.

    BELARUS: "WE HAVE ORTHODOX, CATHOLICS AND MUSLIMS - ALL THE OTHERS ARE
    SECTS"

    By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

    At the request of Minsk City Executive Committee, local police in the
    capital Minsk visited the Kagramanyan family, who are Pentecostals, and
    asked intrusive questions about whether they use their home for worship,
    which church they attend and why they are believers, Forum 18 News Service
    has learnt. The Deputy Chief of Minsk's Frunze District Police with
    responsibility for public security, Dinas Linkus, insisted to Forum 18 that
    now the family has answered the questions, no further action will be taken.

    Meanwhile, a Baptist congregation has been fined in Vitebsk Region,
    although administrative charges against the leader of another local Baptist
    congregation have been dropped. And Jehovah's Witness Dmitry Smyk, facing
    imprisonment for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of
    religious faith, has instead been fined.

    Who ordered the police questioning and why?

    Linkus, the Deputy Police Chief, told Forum 18 that he had ordered the 26
    October visit by a local police officer to the home of the Kagramanyan
    family. "We had a request from the Culture Department of Minsk City
    Executive Committee several weeks ago to find out whether any religious
    activity was going on at this address, to establish whether a church was
    active there or not," he told Forum 18 from Minsk on 11 November. "We have
    Orthodox, Catholics and Muslims - these are the religions. All the others
    are sects." He said the Culture Department maintains a record on each
    church.

    Linkus said that no further police action is envisaged in the wake of the
    questioning of the family and their neighbours. "We just checked the
    address, that's all." He denied claims by the family that the local police
    officer asked intrusive questions about their faith and religious practice,
    and reports that neighbours were shocked by the police questions. "That's
    all made up. Don't believe everything you hear. No one complained to us
    about the visit."

    Linkus insisted there was nothing special about the Culture Department's
    request, and said that his District Police gets "thousands" of such
    requests from various state agencies on many issues each year.

    The Head of the Culture Department, Vladimir Karachevsky, told Forum 18 on
    11 November that his Department handles ancient monuments and the like and
    has no connection with religious activity. Asked for clarification of who
    had ordered the police visit, Linkus told Forum 18 that he would answer no
    more questions, that he did not care what Forum 18 wrote, and would throw
    the Kagramanyan family out onto the street and give their flat to someone
    else.

    Local police inspector Major Vladimir Filimonov of Minsk's Frunze District
    Police arrived at the family home at about 9pm on 26 October, Kristina
    Kagramanyan told Forum 18. "One of his first questions was 'What were you
    doing at New Life Church?' He asked my husband Armen if he serves there as
    a pastor, why he was there, what he does when he is there and how often he
    visits."

    New Life Church has faced relentless state pressure over many years to
    oust it from the church building it legally acquired (see most recently
    F18News 24 August 2009
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1339>).

    Armen Kagramanyan assists the pastor of New Generation Church in the town
    of Baranovichi [Baranavichy] south-west of Minsk, which belongs to the same
    Full Gospel Union as New Life. New Generation has faced repeated
    harassment, most recently a raid in June and a fine in July (see F18News 16
    July 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1327>).

    Major Filimonov - who Kristina Kagramanyan said was polite and appeared to
    be uncomfortable asking such questions - then moved on to more general
    questions, such as "Why are you a believer?". Filimonov wrote down the
    family's answers and insisted that Armen Kagramanyan sign the record. When
    Kristina Kagramanyan asked him why he needed the information, Filimonov
    said a new department had been set up in Frunze District police "on this
    question", but refused to say what the "question" was.

    Deputy Police Chief Linkus denied to Forum 18 that any such department had
    been established, saying that the information had been passed on to the
    Culture Department.

    "I asked the inspector if it was a crime to be a believer," Kristina
    Kagramanyan told Forum 18. "I believe they wanted us to understand that if
    my husband continues to believe as he believes, they will try to expel him
    from the country." Armen Kagramanyan, an ethnic Armenian from
    Nagorno-Karabakh in the south Caucasus, has lived in Belarus since 1991 but
    has no citizenship. She said he has a valid residence permit, but his
    repeated applications for Belarusian citizenship have been rejected without
    explanation.

    Major Filimonov confirmed to Forum 18 on 10 November that he visited the
    Kagramanyan family in their home. "I was just fulfilling my duty in
    accordance with the instruction from the Executive Committee." He
    vehemently denied that he had asked the family or the neighbours any
    intrusive questions or that he had been aggressive. "The conversation took
    place in an excellent atmosphere and we parted amicably." He denied that he
    had described the family to neighbours as "sectarians".

    Baptist church fined, charges against another dropped

    Transfiguration Baptist Church in the village of Voropaevo in Postavy
    District of Vitebsk [Vitsyebsk] Region has been fined for meeting for
    worship in its own building. The church was visited during a service on 22
    September by Sergei Kiselev, the District inspector of the Department of
    State Control of Nature and Land Use. He drew up a record of an
    administrative offence, seen by Forum 18, alleging that the church was
    using the property for religious worship unlawfully.

    The congregation was taken to Postavy District Court where, on 5 October,
    Judge Anna Romanovich found it guilty of violating Article 15.10 Part 3 of
    the Administrative Violations Code, which punishes using a plot of land not
    for its purpose with fines on legal entities of up to 100 times the minimum
    monthly wage. She fined the congregation the minimum fine of 700,000
    Belarusian Roubles (1,446 Norwegian Kroner, 172 Euros or 258 US Dollars),
    the verdict reveals.

    Pastor Aleksei Alshevsky told Forum 18 on 10 November that this represents
    three months' average wage locally. Unhappy with the ruling, the
    congregation challenged the fine at Vitebsk Regional Court, but on 28
    October, Judge S. Ivanova upheld the fine.

    Alshevsky complained of discrimination, pointing out that the Catholics
    and the Russian Orthodox both have churches locally, one of which is a
    former shop and the other an adapted private house. "Some Churches are
    privileged while the rest are fined," he told Forum 18.

    In documents seen by Forum 18, Transfiguration Church - which is
    registered - was given permission to use their free-standing building by
    the local Executive Committee in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In a letter also seen
    by Forum 18, on 4 November Leonid Gulyako, the state Plenipotentiary for
    Religious and Ethnic Affairs confirmed to the congregation that it can
    legally use its property for worship.

    However, both courts ruled that when Pastor Alshevsky sold the building
    (for a nominal sum) to the congregation in 2005 for continuing use as a
    place of worship, the sale once more made the house a residential property
    for which the permission for use as a place of worship had lapsed.

    Alshevsky says his congregation will complain about the court decisions to
    the Presidential Administration.

    Marina Tsvilik, who works in Gulyako's office and who drafted the 4
    November response, said that personally she feels some "understanding" for
    Alshevsky. "Let them come to us to resolve this," she told Forum 18 from
    Minsk on 10 December. "There's always a legal way."

    Asked why such a complex web of regulations exists over what properties
    can and cannot be used for religious worship and why religious believers
    are punished for meeting for worship when people who gather in homes to
    drink beer or watch football are not, Tsvilik responded: "It is a question
    of the Law." She insisted that the fines handed down on religious
    communities are for "various reasons".

    Meanwhile, Postavy District Court told Forum 18 on 11 November that the
    administrative case against Council of Churches Baptist Sergei Dedovets for
    leading unregistered religious worship in a private home in Postavy was
    withdrawn "a month ago". "No offence had been committed," the court
    chancellery noted. "It was all thanks to the prayers of people around the
    world that the charges were dropped," members of his family told Forum 18
    the same day.

    The Council of Churches congregation was raided by a local ideology
    official, Anna Mukhlya, and a police officer during Sunday worship on 27
    September, when the charges were lodged against Dedovets (see F18News 19
    October 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1363>).

    Unwilling to discuss why two churches in Postavy District were raided
    within days of each other in September and one punished was Alla Keizik,
    Deputy Head of the District Executive Committee who oversees social issues.
    "Dedovets wasn't fined, but he was warned he shouldn't hold religious
    services in a private home," she told Forum 18 from Postavy on 10 November.
    "Alshevsky violated the land use for the building."

    Asked why these communities were being harassed merely for religious
    worship, Keizik put the phone down. Forum 18 was unable to ask her what had
    changed since 2005, when she had signed a letter approving the use of the
    church building for worship.

    Conscientious objector sentenced

    Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector Dmitry Smyk was found guilty at
    the Central District Court in the south-eastern town of Gomel [Homyel] on 6
    November of refusing compulsory military service under Article 435 Part 1
    of the Criminal Code. The verdict - seen by Forum 18 - notes that Judge
    Grigory Dmitrenko fined him 3,500,000 Belarusian Roubles (7,230 Norwegian
    Kroner, 862 Euros or 1,290 US Dollars). He was also ordered to pay 3,000
    Roubles in court costs, banned from leaving the country, banned from
    travelling elsewhere in Belarus without prior notification and required to
    maintain good conduct. The maximum penalty under this Article is two years'
    imprisonment.

    The verdict reveals that the court did not believe that Smyk's decision to
    "join the religiously inclined people" in October 2006 at the urging of his
    wife's stepfather was genuine. It pointed out that his own parents did not
    belong to such a group. "The reference by the accused to the absence in law
    of an alternative service, which allegedly prevents him from fulfilling his
    duty to the state, the court considers as his way of evading military
    service and evading criminal responsibility for this."

    The court believed Smyk was merely trying to preserve "the comfort of his
    daily civilian life" and rejected his argument that serving - even without
    weapons - in a military unit would violate his conscientious beliefs.
    According to the verdict, the court believed that as the statute of the
    Jehovah's Witnesses does not specify that their members reject military
    service on religious grounds, such rejection cannot be a fundamental tenet
    of their faith.

    Smyk rejects the court decision. "They said in court that I specially
    became a Jehovah's Witness to avoid military service, but that's not true,"
    he told Forum 18 from Gomel on 11 November. "I didn't even know about the
    attitude to military service until after I joined." He said he is preparing
    to lodge an appeal to Gomel Regional Court.

    The criminal sentence handed down to the 23-year-old Smyk is the first on
    a Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector since 2000, Forum 18 notes (see
    F18News 30 October 2009
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1370>).

    Three other Jehovah's Witnesses - two of them also in Gomel - were also
    facing criminal prosecution. However, Smyk told Forum 18 that the
    prosecutor in Gomel has dropped charges against one of them, Aleksei
    Boinichev, saying no crime had been committed. "This is interesting, as he
    is in the same situation as me," Smyk told Forum 18. However, Boinichev
    will again be included in the spring 2010 call-up "and if he refuses he
    will again be charged".

    Round-table postponed

    Meanwhile, organisers have postponed a proposed roundtable in Minsk to
    discuss an alternative Religion Law, as they told Forum 18. The roundtable
    had been scheduled for 13 November, but was postponed because of the
    outbreak of the H1N1 virus.

    Earlier plans to hold the roundtable had been obstructed by the Minsk City
    Executive Committee (see F18News 30 October 2009
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1370>). (END)

    For a personal commentary by Antoni Bokun, Pastor of a Pentecostal Church
    in Minsk, on Belarusian citizens' struggle to reclaim their history as a
    land of religious freedom, see F18News 22 May 2008
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1131>.

    For more background information see Forum 18's Belarus religious freedom
    survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1311>.

    Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Belarus can
    be found at
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&a mp;religion=all&country=16>.

    A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
    (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=1351>.

    A printer-friendly map of Belarus is available at
    <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=belar u>.
    (END)

    © Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
    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/

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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