as local authorities continued their crack-down against active Christians, said reports monitored by BosNewsLife. In Kazakstan a Baptist family was made homeless while in Belarus several Baptists were fined for singing Christian hymns, the Keston News Service (KNS) reported.
KNS, which covers religious persecution, said that a Baptist family in Kazakstan was denied access to its home because it was used by an unregistered Baptist congregation.
The Nizhegorodtsev family from the village of Georgievka in Zharma district of Eastern Kazakstan region, were also fined by the authorities for leading the church. Each family member was ordered to pay almost six US dollars in local currency, about one-tenth of the average monthly wage in Kazakhstan, KNS said.
SEALED HOUSE
A judge, who sealed their house on May 16, also confiscated the family’s washing machine as the parents refused to pay a six dollar fine imposed last February for refusing to halt the church’s activity, according to KNS, citing church sources.
"The family has been left without a roof over its head, and believers have been forbidden from meeting in that house for services," KNS quoted local Baptists as saying. There are also indications that Evangelism is becoming increasingly difficult in several area’s of the former Soviet Union.
In Belarus, three Baptists were fined the equivalent of about 113 US dollars each for taking part each in a street outreach in the town of Lepel in the north-eastern region of Vitebsk and a further six were given official warnings, KNS learned.
GOSPEL SPREADING BAPTISTS
They were part of a group of 11 Gospel-spreading Baptists, whose denomination refuses to register with the authorities in any of the post-Soviet republics where it operates.
While preaching and singing hymns on the streets the police intervened, KNS quoted church sources as saying. At their June 6 trial, two Baptists were acquitted.
The town’s police chief, Konstantin Borovik told KNS that the Baptists "violated the law," which analysts say is frequently used against political protesters and on occasion against street preachers.
Belarus and other former Soviet republics have been internationally criticized for its poor records on human rights. However human rights organizations have pointed out that these concerns are no longer on top of the world agenda because of the war against terrorism and the need to build a global coalition.
