FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
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 <;
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
< 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 < 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 < 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
< 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
< 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
< e_id=1131>.
For more background information see Forum 18’s Belarus religious freedom
survey at < 1311>.
Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Belarus can
be found at
< 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
< id=1351>.
A printer-friendly map of Belarus is available at
< s/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=belar u>.
(END)
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
