In a new crackdown on Pentecostal home meetings in various
towns and villages of western Belarus, a series of fines has been handed down
on church members who allow their homes to be used for prayers meetings.
"This is the only place in Belarus where this is happening at the
moment," the head of the Pentecostal Union, Bishop Sergei Khomich, told
Forum 18 News Service from the capital Minsk on 20 June. "But it could get
worse." Among those fined were two women in the town of Baranovichi in
Brest region, one an invalid and the other a pensioner. Bishop of Brest region
Nikolai Kurkaev blamed the highly restrictive new religion law, passed last
year. "You see the new law is working already," he told Forum 18 on
20 June.
Police have already broken up religious meetings since the new religion law
came into force last November and issued warnings and fines (see F18News 10
June 2003). In addition, the government signed an agreement with the Orthodox
Church on 12 June which many other religious communities fear will further
reduce their rights.
The most recent Pentecostal fine was handed down on 4 June by the
administrative commission of Grodno's Lenin district. Aleksandr Tolochko was
fined 70,000 Belarusian roubles (238 Norwegian kroner, 29 Euros or 34 US
dollars) under Article 193 of the code of administrative offences, which
punishes unregistered religious activity. "He hasn't paid the fine yet
he doesn't earn enough to pay it," Fyodor Tsvor, bishop of Grodno region,
told Forum 18 on 20 June.
He said Tolochko has appealed against the fine, which was handed down after
police raided a house rented by the Pentecostal Church in the nearby village of
Zheludok. Three police officers and the religious affairs official from the
local administration arrived at the house at 1 am on a night in early May and
drew up a protocol against Tolochko for leading "illegal" services.
Pentecostal evangelist Mikhail Balyk from Molodechno was fined 26,600 roubles
on 27 May for his work in Zheludok (see F18News 3 June 2003).
"It is very worrying that the police came in the middle of the
night," Bishop Khomich declared. Bishop Tsvor agreed. "They came
illegally. Services have not even begun in the village," he insisted.
"Friends come along, drink tea and talk about the Bible." He said the
authorities "don't want a Pentecostal church there".
District administration information officer Sergei Kasperchuk told Forum 18
from Shchuchin on 20 June that local religious affairs commissioner Yuri
Yereminovich was on holiday. But he rejected suggestions that the Pentecostals
are being targeted. "There is no campaign against them certainly
not." He insisted though that they could only meet if they register.
"No-one is stopping them from registering in accordance with the
law," he declared. He claimed (wrongly) that in every European country
believers must register with the authorities to be able to meet (Belarus is the
only European country that requires this, in defiance of international human
rights commitments).
Igor Popov, religious affairs commissioner for Grodno region, likewise denied
any campaign against Pentecostals. After initially claiming he could not
remember the fines imposed on Tolochko and Balyk and declaring that "we
don't have the practice of fining believers", he then admitted the two had
been fined. "Our law specifies that religious meetings can only take place
after registration," Popov told Forum 18 on 20 June. Told that this
violates Belarus' international human rights commitments which, article 40 of
the religion law declares, override all other provisions of the religion law,
he responded: "If you live in Rome you must live according to Roman
law." He maintained there were "no restrictions" on the
Pentecostals, pointing to what he said was the Church's "faster, more
dynamic growth" than with other Churches.
Meanwhile in neighbouring Brest region there have been four attempts to fine
Pentecostals for home meetings. One home owner in the village of Khotislav
close to the southern border with Ukraine was twice handed down fines earlier
this year by the local administration, but each time the local court annulled
the fine, Bishop Kurkaev reported. "The court ruled that the fines had
been handed down illegally."
In Baranovichi, police came to the home of pensioner Anna Lukashenya and on 18
April she was fined 20,000 roubles by the local administration for hosting
religious meetings. "If people drink, everyone says they are OK, but if
they pray they want them to be punished," Pastor Sergei Poznyakovich
quoted Lukashenya as declaring. He told Forum 18 from Baranovichi on 20 June
that Lukashenya is a simple woman and when she received the order handing down
the fine she went and paid it. "She could have challenged the fine in
court, but she didn't," Poznyakovich reported. He said the pastor went to
the police about the case, but they said it was right that she had been fined.
At the end of May invalid Yevgeniya Savashchenya was fined 5,000 roubles under
Article 193 for hosting meetings in her home. "A police officer came to
her home and forced her to write a statement," Poznyakovich reported.
"She wrote that she was an invalid, but they still fined her." He
said Savashchenya has not paid the fine and that he has taken up her case with
the administration. "I went there today and explained she is an
invalid," he told Forum 18. "I showed them the religion law which
allows us to visit invalids in their homes and they promised to review the case
on Monday."
Pastor Poznyakovich insisted neither Lukashenya nor Savashchenya had done
anything wrong. "The meetings did not go on late, nor were they loud.
People met as friends, prayed, read the Bible and sang hymns. That is all.
These were not official services." He said "of course" believers
should be allowed to meet in private homes for religious meetings.
Bishop Kurkaev believes the fines are part of a "real campaign".
"It will only get worse," he told Forum 18. "No-one touched us before
no-one was interested." Bishop Tsvor agrees, linking the campaign to
implementation of the new law. "I believe the new law gives a privileged
position to the Orthodox Church. Protestants are put at a disadvantage,"
he maintained. "They're allowed everything, we're allowed nothing."