Reported new powers by the city authorities in Burgas to allow the destruction of new places of worship near schools could see a Jehovah's Witness centre now being built in the city be destroyed. The Burgas authorities "believe such places will influence children," Jehovah's Witness leader Peter Mischler told Forum 18 News Service. "This is ridiculous." But the deputy mayor responsible for religious affairs, Marusya Lyubcheva, told Forum 18 the Jehovah's Witnesses cannot build the centre because they do not have local registration and admitted there is popular opposition to the new centre. "Civil society has a problem with this building."
A new centre the Jehovah's Witnesses are building in the
Black Sea port of Burgas might be destroyed in the wake of popular and city
council opposition. "The city council adopted a law saying no places of
worship can be built near schools. They believe such places will influence
children," Jehovah's Witness leader Peter Mischler told Forum 18 News
Service from the capital Sofia on 15 August. "This is ridiculous."
The new law reportedly grants the council the power to pull down such
buildings. But the deputy mayor of Burgas responsible for religious affairs
insists the council is acting according to its procedures. "The Jehovah's
Witnesses don't have registration with the city administration," Marusya
Lyubcheva told Forum 18 from Burgas on 18 August. "Religious organisations
must have registration to build."
Lyubcheva confirmed that there was organised popular opposition to the new
Jehovah's Witness centre. "Civil society has a problem with this
building." She said the Jehovah's Witnesses had filed papers to build a
business centre. "But it is not," she declared, reporting that she
had discovered it would be used for religious meetings. "The documents
were therefore sent back to them."
However, she declined to answer any other of Forum 18's questions about the
reported city law barring new places of worship near schools or whether the
Jehovah's Witnesses could continue to construct their centre. "I don't
believe you'll quote my words accurately." She then put the phone down.
Forum 18's repeated emailed requests to the Burgas city administration for
information about the reported city law and the text of it went unanswered.
Krasimira Cherkezova, the city's chief engineer, said the Jehovah's Witnesses
were given permission to build a business centre in the Slaveykov district last
year. "But the use of offices as places of worship is not allowed,"
she told Forum 18 on 18 August. "For us there is no problem for them to
construct the building. The use of it is another problem and this is outside
our competence." She stressed she was not a specialist on religion, but
believed that only "legitimately registered" religious communities
had the right to build places of worship. She declined to say what will happen
to the Jehovah's Witness building now.
Mischler conceded that the Jehovah's Witnesses had gained building permission
for an administrative building, but denied that also using such a building for
courses, lectures and religious meetings violated the law. He also denied that
local registration was necessary. "We already have national
re-registration with the Sofia court under the new law, and that is valid for
the whole country."
The Jehovah's Witnesses - who claim 1,300 adherents in Bulgaria - have faced
restrictions on their activity by a number of local authorities in recent
years. In Burgas a temporary tent they had been using was recently pulled down.
Mischler complained that opposition to the Burgas building had been led by the
right-wing IMRO political party, which had formed a committee to oppose its
construction. "Basically, they're against all other religions than the
Orthodox Church." He said they had organised demonstrations against Islam
and other religious communities. "We believe they've been initiating newspaper
articles with lies against us," he told Forum 18. He added that although
the Jehovah's Witnesses have faced restrictions from local authorities
elsewhere in Bulgaria, they are at present facing such problems only in Burgas.
Mischler stressed that the Jehovah's Witnesses are keen to resolve the problems
over the Burgas centre with the local authorities amicably. "The
authorities were very nice to us until these problems began." He added
that the police had come to defend the building during protests by opponents.
"I don't personally think the council will order the destruction of the
building," he told Forum 18. "It is not an illegal construction – we
have a building permit and we are building according to the drawings."
He said that because of the organised protests, the Jehovah's Witnesses had
been obliged to erect a fence around the already-completed foundations to try
to prevent physical attacks. "Construction is continuing, but only
slowly."
No-one was available for comment at the government's religious affairs
directorate in Sofia on 18 August. An official said the director, Ivan Jelev,
was on holiday and no-one else could respond.
Many larger towns have an official who handles religious affairs. A Sofia-based
expert on local government told Forum 18 on 18 August that local authorities
have often restricted religious activity by minorities. "It depends on how
the local authorities view the religious community," she said on condition
of anonymity. "There were more of such cases in the 1990s, with local laws
and regulations on religion."
In the wake of last year's controversial new religion law, which narrowly
survived a constitutional court challenge in July (see F18News 21 July 2003),
all religious groups with the exception of the Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate
were required to re-register with the courts to retain legal status. They can
also re-register on a local level with mayors' offices. Although this is
supposed to be a technical matter, there are fears local registration applications
could be subject to arbitrary refusal. Local registration has not been easy for
the Jehovah's Witnesses in the wake of the new law. "Several towns are
making an issue of this," Mischler complained.