MORMONS ATTEMPT TO REGISTER IN SLOVAKIA, GET

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRATISLAVA 000786

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF CACS SOCI LO
SUBJECT: MORMONS ATTEMPT TO REGISTER IN SLOVAKIA, GET
KICKED OUT OF CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP'S CITY

REF: BRATISLAVA 719

BRATISLAVA 00000786 001.2 OF 002



1. (SBU) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
submitted a petition to the Slovak government on September 26
with over 25,000 signatures of local residents who support
the Church's official registration. (A religious body needs
20,000 signatures to register with the GOS.) In fact, the
Mormons collected about 34,000 signatures, but 9,000 were
unusable due to illegibility or incomplete addresses. Four
Slovak leaders of the Mormon Church from Bratislava, Trencin,
and Zilina and their American legal counsel presented the
signatures to the Director of the Department for Church
Affairs at the Ministry of Culture, which processes church
registrations.

POSSIBLE BARRIERS TO REGISTRATION
--------------


2. (SBU) The LDS Church previously acquired a binding
interpretation from the Ministry of Culture on the
ambiguously-worded Slovak law on church registration. The
Ministry affirmed that the signatories need only support the
registration of the Church; they need not be adherents of the
faith (reftel). Of greater concern to the LDS Church is the
fact that one of the State Secretaries at the Culture
Ministry belongs to the Slovak National Party (SNS),whose
campaign platform included a pledge to make church
registration more difficult.


3. (SBU) Theoretically, the registration process should take
one month from submission of the signatures. At 20,000
signatories, Slovakia has one of the highest thresholds of
required supporters in order for an entity to register as a
religious organization. Slovak law also requires that the
GOS provide certain financial support to registered
religions, although the Mormon Church has said it would
refuse the subsidies due to its own policies. Slovakia
currently has 16 registered religions, 14 of which were
grandfathered in before the law took affect. Major world
religions such as Islam and Buddhism are not officially
recognized in Slovakia due to the signatory requirement,
although no one is prevented from practicing the faith of
their choice.

HOW TO COLLECT 25000 SIGNATURES IN A MONTH
--------------


4. (SBU) The Mormon Church conducted a month-long petition
drive with volunteers on public streets and squares
throughout Slovakia, hitting over 30 cities and towns. A
lawyer for the LDS Church described the reaction to the
signature-collectors as generally positive with a few notable
exceptions. He said that people in Eastern Slovakia were
friendlier and more likely to sign the petition than people
in the western part of the country. The petition garnered as
many signatures in small towns as in large cities when
measured in signatures per man-hour. Overall, with the
exception of Trnava, the Mormon Church was pleased with their
reception and success rate of the petition drive across the
country.

KICKED OUT OF TRNAVA BY THE POLICE AND PICKETED BY NUNS
-------------- --------------


5. (SBU) On September 22, the last day of the petition drive,
the police in Trnava kicked 12 signature-gatherers (10
Americans, 1 German, 1 Austrian) out of the city. Local
police officers told them that Mormons don't have rights
there and that they would be fined if they didn't leave. As
they already had enough signatures to satisfy the legal
requirement, the Mormons chose to leave Trnava rather than
make an issue of demanding their right to petition. (NOTE:
Gathering signatures for a petition is legal in Slovakia.
END NOTE.) Trnava is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop in
Slovakia. The Catholic Church in Slovakia had issued a
statement urging its members not to sign the petition. In
Zilina, nuns with protest signs urged passers-by not to sign
the Mormon petition. The Mormon Church's legal advisor noted
that, also in Zilina, two older women were screaming at the
petition gatherers and causing such a ruckus that one of the
women was forcibly removed by the police.


6. (SBU) The lawyer mentioned a few isolated incidents of the
petition-gatherers being shoved by locals, in one case
allegedly by Jehovah's Witnesses, and one incident where
someone threw a volunteer's clipboard into a nearby river.
In no instance was anyone physically injured.


7. (SBU) The Ambassador will complain about the police
treatment of petition-gatherers in Trnava at his upcoming
courtesy call on the new Minister of Culture. We will also

BRATISLAVA 00000786 002.2 OF 002


raise this issue and its human rights implications in a
letter to the Minister of Interior.

VALLEE