Drago Cepar, director of the government's Office for
Religious Communities who has failed to register any new religious groups in
the three years he has held the post is facing mounting pressure not to block
further the registration of religious communities. Mirko Bandelj, general
secretary of the government, wrote to Cepar on 12 June instructing him to
"handle promptly" the registration of the Dharmaling Tibetan Buddhist
group, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The ombudsman's office has taken up
the case of the Buddhists as well as of the Stoic Pantheists, two of the ten
religious communities whose registration applications have languished
unanswered (see F18News 12 June 2003). "The problem in our opinion is with
the religious affairs office, which does not respond to the applications,"
Barbara Samaluk, spokesperson for the ombudsman's office, told Forum 18 from
the capital Ljubljana on 13 June.
In his letter to Cepar, of which Forum 18 has seen a copy, Bandelj noted that
Rok Ceferin, lawyer for the Dharmaling community, had complained to the
government on 2 June about the Office's failure to respond to the registration
application, lodged on 14 January. "The reasons with which you have
explained your silence in this concrete case to the ombudsman (Ljubljana, 27
May 2003) are not based on the derogated realisation of the
constitutionally-guaranteed equality of religious communities and of the basic
human right of freedom of religious belief in the Republic of Slovenia,"
Bandelj wrote. "I request you at the same time to inform me about the
course of the procedure, especially about any eventual difficulties and their
solution."
Samaluk said the ombudsman's office equally regarded Cepar's response on the
Buddhist denial of registration as "unsatisfactory". "We will
take further steps," she declared. She said deputy ombudsman Jernej Rovsek
is completing a letter to Cepar urging him to register the Buddhists and the
Stoic Pantheists. The Hindu community, which applied for registration last
year, is among other communities which have seen their applications ignored.
In a 13 June written response to Forum 18's question as to why the applications
were languishing unanswered, Cepar merely outlined what he claimed was the
country's adherence to religious freedom standards and explained that religious
communities can if they wish gain legal status as associations. "Each
group, also a group which thinks of itself as being a religious community, can
attain the status of legal subject according to the Law on Associations, which
doesn't exclude religious activities from registration," he declared.
"This enables it to immediately start the religious mission; it can for
example found schools, own property and conduct legal business with it, employ
people, build objects."
However, Cepar pointedly failed to explain why his Office was failing to
register religious communities under the specific provisions his Office is
supposed to be overseeing. "Some groups wish to get the status of legal
subjects on the foundation of the Law about the legal status of religious
communities. To none of these groups has the state denied this, or admitted
this," he claimed. He maintained that the matter is
"complicated", claiming that the state has not set out criteria
"to determine when a group is a religious community". He said the
government is working "intensively" to fill this "legal
void".
"How it is possible to talk about a 'legal void' when 31 religious
communities have already been registered?" the abbot of the Dharmaling
community, Gelong Shenphen, told Forum 18 from Ljubljana on 15 June. "How
it is possible to say that an association and a religious community have the
same rights, when it is obviously not true!" He says it is "a
fact" that the Office does not want to share the state funds that
currently go to some religious communities with others. "I really wonder
how such discrimination can still take place in a country which will enter
Europe next year!"
While the Buddhist Dharmaling community, the Hindus and others have seen their
registration applications stalled, other groups were able to register with the
Office before Cepar became director, including the Rosicrucians, Moonies,
Mormons and Scientologists. One of the last groups to gain such registration
was the White Gnostic Church in 1999.
Cepar's secretary Maria Pajk confirmed to Forum 18 on 18 June that her boss
will become acting director on 28 June while the Office's activity is reviewed.
She said she was unable to say what response Cepar would give to the government
secretary's letter. Cepar himself was out of the office, she said.