Non Re-Registered Congregations in Belarus Face Uncertainty
Following the deadline for compulsory state re-registration on Nov. 16 2004, a Norway-based persecution watchdog group says it is uncertain what will happen to a number of religious communities in Belarus who are either still in the process of re-registering or who have been refused re-registration under religious law.
“Without state re-registration, it is legally impossible for religious communities to meet for worship or to engage in other religious activities,” reported Forum 18 News Service, which monitors religious persecution in Communist and former Soviet states. “Registered religious organizations cannot, for example, engage in activities outside the place where they are registered and violations of the law can result in a religious community being formally liquidated.”
According to Forum 18, authorities in the city of Brest—close to the Polish border—have now returned re-registration applications to six autonomous Baptist churches in the region. Pastor Viktor Zdanevich of the congregation on Brest's Fortechnaya Street told Forum 18 last week, "they won't re-register us."
The banks where two of the six have accounts have closed them at the request of the authorities, he added, "bank staff said we would have to be re-registered in order to have an account."
Similarly, Pastor Vladimir Bukanov told Forum 18 that his Reformed congregation had become caught in a vicious circle. "We couldn't get approval from the local architect to use a private house as worship premises – he said he wouldn't give it to us as we were apostates and chased me out of his office." On appealing at the district level, Bukanov continued, various officials simply referred him back to the architectural department.
Meanwhile, Pastor Lyavon Lipen of a Calvinist congregation in Minsk, which had not agreed with Belarus’s new religion law since its draft stage, said the congregation refused to re-register as their form of protest. Lipen told Forum 18 that, although there had been no consequences so far, "I think there will be, but it is only a short time since the deadline"
According to the U.S. State Department, which released its international religious freedom report last September, the status of respect for religious freedom in Belarus continued to be poor during the period covered by its annual report. “The Government formalized restrictions on religious freedom by passing a new law on religion in 2002 and signing a Concordat in 2003 with the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC), a branch of the Russian Orthodox Church, that many consider to elevate the BOC's status and provide the Church with privileges not enjoyed by other faiths.”
The State Department further reported that authorities continued to harass other religions and denominations while the Government repeatedly rejected the registration applications of other religious groups, including many Protestant denominations, the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (BAOC), and some Eastern religions.
“During the period covered by this report, the government-run media continued to attack non Orthodox religious groups,” the State Department added.
However, despite continued harassment, some minority faiths have been able to function by maintaining a low profile, while others have openly declared their refusal to seek re-registration under the new religion law.
