Protestant Churches Pressured

UNCLAS MINSK 001167 SIPDIS DEPT FOR DRL/IRF BARTH SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF BO SUBJECT: Protestant Churches Pressured REF: MINSK 0420 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The New Life Church has employed numerous techniques to protest the GOB's denial of its re- registration, but thus far without success. The latest meeting between the church and the GOB has proven unfruitful and neither side will yield its position; thus a cooperative resolution to the problem seems unlikely. End summary. -------------- Large Protestant Church Stands Up to the GOB -------------- ¶2. (U) Formed in 1992, the 1,000 member New Life Church operated in Belarus without government interference until 1999, when a presidential decree altering the laws on meetings and mass gatherings greatly restricted its ability to assemble. Since it could not find a place to rent, the church purchased a cow barn to hold its services. Further complications arose in 2004, when the GOB refused to re- register the church under the 2002 "Law on Religious Freedom". The GOB claimed that the church lacked a legal address and that a cow barn is not a place of worship. Lacking re-registration, the congregation has continued to meet at its cow barn. The GOB responded previously by fining New Life Church Pastor Alexandr Goncharenko and Administrator Vaseliy Yurevich (reftel),and evicting the church from its building in August. ¶3. (U) New Life Church leaders, refusing to give up, have implemented a series of nonviolent measures to keep their building. Over the past three weeks, church members have held a press conference, conducted round-the-clock worship services, and sent a written appeal signed by 60 Protestant Church representatives to the GOB. Most recently, Goncharenko and Yurevich planned for their entire congregation to march to Minsk City Hall and demand a meeting with the mayor on September 15. However, they agreed to postpone it after Deputy Interior Minister Viktor Filistovich approached the church leaders and offered them a meeting on Monday September 19 with senior city officials. ¶4. (U) Not surprisingly, the senior officials backed out of the meeting. Instead, they sent their deputies, including Committee on Religious and Nationality Affairs (CRNA) deputy Aleksandr Kalinov and Minsk City Executive Committee Representative for Religious Affairs Alla Ryabtseva. The deputies admitted they did not have authority to make decisions about the New Life Church, and thus the meeting proved to be unproductive. -------------- GOB Offers New Life Church Nothing New -------------- ¶5. (U) When Poloff met with CRNA Head Stanislav Buko and Kalinov on September 16, Buko repeated the GOB position that the New Life Church's building is a barn and therefore cannot legally be registered as a place of worship. In addition, Buko stated that the Minsk City Council has re- zoned the land where the cow barn is located for apartment buildings and therefore the New Life Church cannot remain there. Buko explained the New Life Church has three options: re-register at a legal address of one of the other Protestant churches in Minsk; accept a government buyout for the building; or chose another piece of land from the GOB to build a place of worship. ¶6. (SBU) In a meeting with Poloff on September 20, Yurevich and Goncharenko stated that the authorities presented them a placebo, not a solution. They maintain that the GOB appears to resolve the issue by offering to re-register at a different address or move their place of worship. However, the New Life Church cited several problems with changing their legal address. First, gaining re-registering is very difficult if not impossible in Lukashenko's Belarus. Second, even if the government re-registers the church, the GOB still has the legal authority to deny the New Life Church approval to assemble for worship at its legal address. Third, the church's efforts to find a different location have been unsuccessful because the GOB pressures potential landlords not to rent to the church. Finally, the large size of the congregation prohibits it from meeting anywhere else in Minsk. -------------- The Struggle Must Go On -------------- ¶7. (U) Goncharenko and Yurevich stated that the church would neither re-register nor give up its land. They told Poloffthat the congregation is planning to march to the Mayor's office to demand that the authorities reslve the re- registration issue. They fully expet to be beaten, fined, and possibly jailed, but are prepared to see this struggle "to the end." [ote: On September 23, Yurevich stood trial for ilegal assembly charges dating from July. The cour found him guilty and fined him BYR 4 million [UD 1,860].] -------------- The New Life Church is Not Alone -------------- ¶8. (U) The New Life Church is not the only Protestant group being targeted by the GOB. On September 21, the Minsk City Council annulled the registration of the Belarusian Evangelic Church. The community registered in 1992 using the pastor's home as their legal address. Authorities cited the 2002 religion law prohibiting the use of a residential building for office space as the reason for de-registration. In addition, the GOB noted the church does not meet the minimum membership requirement of 20 people. Evangelical Church Pastor Ernest Sabilo, however, will not let the GOB's decision stop him for he plans to continue holding services wherever possible. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶9. (SBU) The CRNA's three alternative solutions for the New Life Church blatantly overlook the underlying issue - a political decision was seemingly made to deny re- registration to the New Life Church. The church leaders, however, are not ready to give up their cause without a fight, suggesting that cooperative attempts for a resolution have been exhausted. In addition, the GOB's annulment of the Evangelical Church's registration indicates an increase in the trend of GOB violations on freedom of religion. KROL