against the adoption of a restrictive new religion bill in the former Soviet Republic, according to news reports.
"If this law passes its second reading and is signed by the country’s president, many of our congregations will run up against great difficulties in passing the obligatory re-registration," leaders of four denominations were quoted as saying by Keston News Service (KNS).
Bishop Nikolai Sinkovets of the Baptist Union, Bishop Sergei Khomich of the Pentecostal Union, Aleksandr Sakovich of the Full Gospel Association and Moisei Ostrovsky of the Adventist Church said the "law does not meet international norms." The bishops cited several articles as an attack on the area of freedom of conscience and religion.
PRAYERS
They supported the Minsk-based Freedom of Conscience Information Centre which urged believers to "pray at every service" and to hold "days of fasting" against the current version of the law on freedom of conscience and religious organizations.
KNS, which monitors religious persecution, said he draft of the religion bill includes a provision specifically recognizing the Orthodox Church as having a pre-eminent role.
The draft law also requires that religious groups have to have had ten registered religious congregations in 1982, at the height of Soviet restrictions on religion. Analysts say it appears that only the Orthodox, the Catholics and the main Jewish organization will thus be able to gain re-registration.
ANTI-CONSTITUTIONAL
Such an assessment is shared by Ivan Pashkevich, a deputy in Parliament and member of its human rights commission. "This draft law is anti-constitutional," he told KNS. "It violates several articles of the Constitution. If it is adopted, it will weigh heavily on Catholic, Protestant and Jewish congregations."
He pointed out that small village congregations which cannot muster the required twenty members to gain or retain registration will be declared illegal. He highlighted the position of small Jewish communities in villages, many of whose members have left in recent years for Israel. "This would represent a ban on their activity."
Bishop Leonid Tsvitsky, head of the Lutheran Church in Belarus, added that under this law his denomination disappear. "Our church was practically destroyed under the Soviet regime and we are still trying to rebuild it."
RELIGIOUS LITERATURE
He also highlighted the requirement that all religious literature produced or imported will require prior expert assessment before it can be distributed. "Isn’t that censorship?" he asked KNS.
The latest developments come amidst international concern about humanrights violations in Belarus and growing persecution of active Christians. Yet, analysts expect he law to be adopted at this parliamentary session, which finishes at the end of June.
