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A
recently published document issued by a senior religious affairs official
reveals that close supervision of religious life in Belarus by lower-level
state representatives is neither a dwindling vestige of Soviet practice nor
the result of individual arbitrariness, but an integral part of current
central policy.
The document, a copy of which has been received by Forum 18, is a letter
dated 28 October 2003 from the vice-chairman of the State Committee for
Religious and Ethnic Affairs, Vladimir Lameko. It
consists of recommendations to the executive committee governing Nesvizh, a south-western district of Minsk region.
(Each of the six administrative regions (oblasti)
in Belarus
is divided into approximately 20 districts.)
Lameko notes "crude violations" of the
law in Nesvizh district between 1998 and 2002,
"predominantly by Protestant communities." He cites the absence
of state registration by Pentecostals in the village
of Seilovichi
and Jehovah's Witnesses in the town of Gorodeya. In
addition, he maintains, a number of Protestant communities are using
residential accommodation, functioning outside the confines of the
territory fixed in their charters, staging "unsanctioned religious
events" in public places and teaching religion to minors without the
permission of their parents.
Forum 18 has already reported how, in addition to one or two officials
dealing with religious affairs at the regional (oblast') level, each
administrative district has both a department for relations with religious
and social organisations and commissions
monitoring compliance with legislation on religion. (See F18News 18
November 2003 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=186 ) It is
these commissions which Lameko upbraids for
"not fully performing their function." Four village councils, he
complains, have not even set up such commissions, while others exist only
on paper.
With the aim of improving efforts towards "regulating the
ethnic-confessional situation," Lameko calls
for the work of commissions monitoring compliance with legislation on
religion to be activised. Warning that
re-registration by Nesvizh district's Pentecostal
communities might be jeopardised by the stand
taken by their regional (regional'noye)
leadership, he emphasises that "work on
re-registration issues with the leadership of religious organisations
should take priority at the present time."
In addition, the vice-chairman of the State Committee for Religious and
Ethnic Affairs recommends that the commissions adopt various measures, such
as: increased monitoring of the activity of religious organisations,
especially Protestant communities (including regular visits during worship
services and conversations with leaders and activists); regular check-ups
on unregistered religious structures in order to terminate their preaching,
teaching and religious events; stopping premises belonging to the Catholic
Church from being used by the Union of Poles of Belarus; "systematic
work" with the leadership of Catholic communities aimed at the primary
use of state languages (Belarusian and Russian) by foreign Catholic
personnel.
Reluctant to comment on 6 February, Vladimir Lameko
nevertheless told Forum 18 that there are Polish priests in Nesvizh district who do not know either Belarusian or
Russian very well, and that the state authorities are encouraging them to
use these languages for worship, including sermons. He stressed that this
was "strictly at the request of believers."
On the same day, a sister told Forum 18 from St Antony's
Catholic Church, Slutsk, that Nesvizh
deaconate has five priests: one local and four from Poland. She
added, however, that masses in the area - including sermons - are in
Belarusian, which the Polish priests speak reasonably. While she thought
that a number of parishioners in Nesvizh town
preferred Polish, she said that this was where the indigenous priest was
based.
On 9 February the Pentecostal bishop of Belarus told Forum 18 that,
while his union did contain unregistered regional (regional'nyye)
subdivisions, their status was purely internal. Sergei
Khomich explained that they formed a tier between
individual churches and regional (oblastnyye)
unions, all of which intended to re-register in accordance with the 2002
law on religion.
For more background information see Forum 18's latest religious freedom
survey at
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=195
A printer-friendly map of Belarus
is available at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html?Parent=europe&Rootmap=belaru
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