BELARUS: POLICE DENY BEATING BAPTIST AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES FEAR FRESH

BELARUS: POLICE DENY BEATING BAPTIST AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES FEAR FRESH
REPRESSION

By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service

The police chief in the town of Lepel [Lyepyel'] in Vitebsk [Vitsyebsk]
region north east of the capital Minsk has angrily denied Baptist
accusations that one of his officers beat local Baptist Andrei Fokin at the
police station on 2 October. "That did not happen," Anatoli
Shivlo claimed to Forum 18 News Service from his office in Lepel on 20
October. "I conducted a verification of the claims and nothing
confirms that he was beaten." Baptists have told Forum 18 that after
his detention for running a street library in the town with fellow Baptist
Yuri Fedoruk, Fokin was taken to the police station where he was beaten by
Captain Igor Karaga. Forum 18 has been unable to reach Captain Karaga on 20
October.

Equally adamant that no-one had been beaten was Lepel administration head
Pyotr Shikshnyan. "They've been feeding you disinformation," he
claimed to Forum 18 from his office in Lepel on 20 October. "If Fokin
says he's been beaten he should get a doctor's expert opinion and complain
formally. It's just a fairy-tale." Yet he seemed remarkably well
informed about the beating, which he claimed had not taken place. He also
complained that the two men had sung hymns in the police station after
their detention on 2 October.

However, he did not deny that the police had repeatedly detained Fokin and
Fedoruk, telling Forum 18 that police had explained to them each time why
they had been detained.

The two Baptists have long been conducting a street library ministry in
Lepel, setting up a small table on the street, singing hymns and offering
passers-by Christian literature. Baptist sources told Forum 18 on 10
October that five times in the past three months they have been taken to
the police station. "Not once was a record of their detention drawn
up," the Baptists complained. "Most of the time the police
officers didn't give their names and behaved rudely, accompanying their
actions with bad language."

The Baptists reported that on 2 October Fokin and Fedoruk were manning
their street library as usual when the wife of the local Orthodox priest
- who they say had long tried to obstruct their work - and her son
phoned the police, who arrived and took the two men to the police station.
After Fokin and Fedoruk began singing hymns as they were waiting, they
claim that Captain Karaga grabbed Fokin "in anger", took him
upstairs and started to beat him.

Fedoruk tried to get close to the door leading up the stairs to hear what
was happening to his friend but another officer moved him away. Fedoruk
then contacted their pastors and other fellow Baptists, who started to
telephone the police station to demand that the two men be freed. However,
the duty officer N. Fedosenok denied that the two men were being held. They
were later released.

The following day, a Sunday, the two men again took their library to the
streets and again the priest's wife called the police. The Baptists say
that the Orthodox priest himself was also there. The police arrived and
confiscated the books, but allowed the two Baptists to continue talking to
the people who had gathered. Fokin and Fedoruk are members of a
congregation that is part of the Council of Churches Baptists, who refuse
on principle to register with the state authorities in CIS countries.

Police chief Shivlo - who admitted that he knew Fokin personally -
insisted to Forum 18 that the Baptists can only conduct such street library
work in accordance with the religion law and other regulations. "They
must get permission for any such activity," he declared. He refused to
discuss with Forum 18 why literature had been confiscated from them and why
they had been taken to the police station five times in the past three
months.

Lepel administrative head Shikshnyan likewise complained that the Baptists
were violating regulations, by standing on the street to conduct their
library ministry. "They were obstructing the cars and pedestrians
trying to go past," he told Forum 18. "Let them come here to the
town administration and apply and we will assign them a specific
location." At the same time he claimed that there are "no
restrictions" on religious life in Belarus.

Many members of Belarus' religious minorities fear that, now the government
of President Aleksandr Lukashenko has achieved what it regards as a
successful result to both the referendum and parliamentary elections on 17
October, government attention might turn to implementing Belarus'
repressive religion law. Under Belarus' repressive 2002 religion law, all
religious activity by unregistered religious communities is illegal (see
F18News 7 October 2003 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=154)
and official restrictions on public religious events also exist (see
F18News 1 September 2003
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=131). The influence of
militant atheism on officials is strong (see F18News 18 November 2003
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=186), and close supervision
by officials of religious communities is an integral part of central state
policy (see F18News 9 February 2004
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=248).

The government claims that 77.3 per cent of voters backed a constitutional
amendment allowing President Lukashenko to seek a third term in officer,
and no opposition candidates were elected to parliament. The result of both
votes are very strongly disputed inside and outside Belarus. The
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which refused to
monitor the referendum, has criticised the election for "unrestrained
bias and unregulated intrusion into polling stations." Endorsing this
view, the European Union has described the process as having fallen
"short from being free and fair," and is said to be considering
imposing sanctions on Belarus.

Under the religion law, a two year deadline for re-registering religious
communities expires on 16 November 2004, and those who fail to gain
re-registration by then risk losing any property they own. The most recent
religious leader to criticise the religion law is Cardinal Kazimierz
Swiatek of Minsk-Mohilev. "Unfortunately this law brings with it, in
some respects, restrictions on religious activities," he told the
Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, just ahead of his 90th birthday
on 21 October. "Thus the registration of parish communities is
prescribed, as is a visa requirement for priests from abroad. They have to
renew their residence permits every year and recently the arrival from
abroad of priests has almost come to a standstill. This law appears to
normalise relations between the State and the Church, but does it in a way
that suits the State, not the Church."

For more background information see Forum 18's Belarus 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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