Religious communities barred from meeting 09/08/2005
Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk, head of Orthodox Church in Belarus, greets president Lukashenko, Easter 2005.
The former Soviet republic of Belarus, situated between Russia and Poland, has been ruled since 1994 by President Aleksandr Lukashenko. It was occupied by the Nazis between 1941 and 1944, when 2.2 million people lost their lives, including most of its large Jewish population. New borders – taking in what had been part of Poland - were established after World War II.
The country became independent in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, but today its international isolation is intensifying.
It has been ruled with an increasingly iron fist since 1994 and opposition figures are subjected to harsh penalties for organizing protests.
Repressive policies have led the EU to impose travel restrictions on a number of senior officials and US sanctions are also in place.
The lack of religious freedom is another big challenge. According to Forum 18 News Service, religious communities that choose to function independently face particularly acute restrictions.
Some are randomly denied the registration necessary to be able to function and barred from renting anywhere to meet legally.
One independent Baptist church in the capital Minsk was forced to go underground after being refused registration. One Messianic Jewish congregation finally gained registration in March only after it joined the Baptist Union and changed its name so that its Messianic Jewish affiliation was no longer obvious.
The pastor and administrator of the 600-strong charismatic New Life Church in Minsk – which has been denied legal status – have been repeatedly fined for organising ‘illegal’ worship.
Russian Orthodox Bishop Agafangel (Pashkovsky) told Forum 18 "I can’t believe that in our time, in the centre of Europe, believers are being banned from gathering together to worship God. This is discrimination against our Church. They don’t get involved in politics or opposition activity – it is a purely religious organisation."
About 20 per cent of Belarus’ population is Catholic, but less than an hour of the late Pope John Paul II’s funeral mass and none of Pope Benedict XVI’s inauguration was broadcast on state TV. Catholics were surprised by the small amount of TV coverage, but, "there was no outcry," a Catholic laywoman told Forum 18.
Belarus is just one of many countries in the region in which CSW has concerns. At a recent conference of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) CSW staff highlighted disturbing new developments in Kazakhstan where amendments to a range of laws will effectively criminalize unapproved religious worship. Miss Chellapermal, speaking on behalf of a coalition of NGOs and religious groups, said “An environment which denies legitimate and moderate expressions of religious faith can breed more extremist religious sentiments which can have a negative impact on tolerance in the society.” She also called for the OSCE to maintain a special focus on religious freedom violations.