movement Solidarity have been put under police surveillance, BosNewsLife monitored, Friday May 16.
"Secret instructions" are issued to police forces to follow and investigate "religious minorities" including Baptists, Adventists and Pentecostals in the Polish city of Gdansk, reported Polish media and Forum 18 News (F18News).
"These instructions are absolutely unacceptable, like something from the communist part of our history," said Andrzej Seweryn, the Warsaw based president of the Baptist Union, in an interview with F18News, a news agency specialized in religious persecution.
"They are against the law and the constitution and against our status as a legal union," he added.
MEMBERS FOLLOWED
In February the chief of the Crime Prevention Department of the police in the Gdansk region instructed local police leaders to draw up a list of religious minority organizations in their district, with data on their members broken down by age and sex.
Named in the instruction were several Christian churches – among them Baptists, Pentecostals and Adventists -and other religious organizations, such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, F18News said.
In addition to legally recognized denominations, therapeutic and non-conventional medicine groups, as well as clairvoyants and fortune tellers were mentioned.
"The instruction indicated that the police monitoring is to be undertaken in cooperation with organizations and institutions involved in similar activities," F18 News revealed.
POLICE VISIT PENTECOSTALS
Two Pentecostal facilities in the region – a church and a retreat centre – have already been visited by police, Tomasz Ropiejko, pastor of a Pentecostal church in Gdansk, told F18 News.
"They asked questions about what went on at the centre, what events were planned and whether a youth event was planned for this year as was held last year," he was quoted as saying.
However several police officials have defended the actions, saying that Christians have nothing to fear. "The police are only interested in criminal matters, crime prevention and security," said Slawomir Cisowski, spokesman for the national police headquarters in Warsaw.
POLICE AND "SECTS"
Police have indicated they are especially interested in what they call "sects".
However the Adventists have already sent an open protest to Interior Minister Krzysztof Janik, and asked whether the Gdansk police are also planning files for a "Catholic religious group," F18 News reported.
Poland is a mainly Catholic nation, which is seeking European Union membership in 2004, while also maintaining close ties to the United States.
