03.11.2006
BELARUS: COURT TO REVIEW CHARISMATIC CHURCH'S CASE


By Geraldine Fagan, Forum 18 News Service

Belarus' state authorities have given another indication that they may be
about to reverse their position towards the embattled Minsk-based New Life
Church, Forum 18 News Service has found. In a 26 October 2006 letter - a
copy of which has been seen by Forum 18 - Higher Economic Court chairman
Viktor Kamenkov cancels Minsk City Economic Court's 27 October 2005
decision against New Life and calls for the case to be heard again. A new
hearing has been set for tomorrow (Saturday 4 November) at the Higher
Economic Court.

The 27 October 2005 Minsk City Economic Court verdict rejected New Life's
call for the city Executive Committee's 17 August 2005 decision,
curtailing the church's land rights and forcing the sale of its building,
to be declared invalid (see F18News 7 December 2005
).

In his 26 October letter to New Life, Higher Economic Court Chairman
Viktor Kamenkov calls for the new hearing to give a legal evaluation of
relevant state departments' failure "to take into account the aims of New
Life's registered statutes in allocating land to the religious community."
Kamenkov also calls for legal evaluation of "subsequent written responses
on the issue of approving construction of objects of social significance
on the plot of land." He also declares that a new hearing should review
New Life's view that its land has been confiscated without warning, in
violation of the Land Code.

In a separate procedure, New Life member and lawyer Sergei Lukanin told
Forum 18 on 1 November, the Cassation Committee of the Higher Economic
Court will on 16 November again consider New Life's suit calling for the
Minsk authorities to approve the construction of a house of worship on the
site of the church's building, which is technically a disused cowshed.

The hunger-strike begun by New Life members and supporters in protest at
the state's actions has been suspended in view of these developments,
Lukanin confirmed to Forum 18. According to the church's website, the
hunger-strike will resume if its demands are not met.

New Life's high-profile public protests have continued in recent weeks. On
21 October approximately 2,000 Belarusians took part in a sanctioned
demonstration in Minsk. "To keep silent is to consent to lawlessness. We
will not keep silent!" Belarusian Pastor Leonid Voronenko of Baranovichi's
[Baranavichy's] New Generation charismatic church told the demonstaration,
while Pastor Aleksandr Purshaga of the Emmanuel Pentecostal Church in
Russia's capital Moscow declared: "We stand with you today because there
is no division into countries and continents in the church of Jesus
Christ." Both churches have encountered state obstruction in their
respective countries (see F18News 18 April
& 18 October 2006
for New Generation
Church's problems in Belarus, and 13 June 2005
& 20 February 2006
for Emmanual's
problems in Russia).

Several prominent public figures have visited New Life Church to express
their solidarity with its hunger-strikers, including former presidential
opposition candidate Aleksandr Milinkevich on 23 October and Christian
musician Aleksandr Patlis on 24 October (see F18News 20 September 2006
). On 2 November the
church was simultaneously visited - at their own initiative, according to
New Life's website - by diplomats from the Minsk embassies of France, the
Czech Republic, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, the
United Kingdom and the USA.

Approximately 50 Belarusian churches have been directly involved in New
Life's protests, Sergei Lukanin of New Life told Forum 18. He estimated
that the church has received more than 200 letters of support from around
the world in recent weeks, "and 2000 letters of protest were sent to the
presidential administration from Finland alone." On 1 November
approximately 100 members of Latvia's New Generation charismatic church
held a sanctioned three-hour demonstration outside the Belarusian embassy
in Latvia's capital Riga.

A possible change of heart by the government became apparent on 17
October, when New Life's Pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko was invited to see
Oleg Proleskovsky, head of the Main Ideological Department within the
Presidential Administration. During the 15-minute meeting, Lukanin told
Forum 18, the senior state official maintained that President Aleksandr
Lukashenko was aware of New Life's situation, regarding them as "a normal
church in need of assistance." Explaining that a solution was not possible
outside the court system, however, Proleskovsky then reportedly suggested
that New Life turn to Belarus' Higher Economic Court. When Pastor
Goncharenko replied that the Court had already rejected the church's
appeals, continued Lukanin, Proleskovsky repeated his "strong
recommendation" that it try again (see F18News 20 October 2006
).

Until New Life received confirmation on 28 October that the Higher
Economic Court would re-examine its earlier decisions against the church,
however, there was little indication that state representatives were
preparing to alter their position. A 23 October written warning from
Minsk's Municipal Economic Court informed Pastor Vyacheslav Goncharenko
that he could be fined 6,200,000 Belarusian Roubles (18,687 Norwegian
Kroner, 2,267 Euros, or 2,896 US Dollars) for failing to comply with its
decisions. It also stated that costs totalling 310,000 Belarusian Roubles
(934 Norwegian Kroner, 113 Euros, or 145 US Dollars) incurred by the
forced sale of New Life's building would be withdrawn from the church's
bank account.

By 26 October, the hunger-strikers had gone 21 days without food, and
several were obliged to end their fast and seek hospital treatment. On the
same day a group of hunger-strikers' relatives tried to meet with the
vice-chairman of Minsk City Executive Committee, Mikhail Titenkov. While
talking to his secretary via an internal telephone in the foyer of the
Committee's offices, according to New Life's website, they were approached
by a religious affairs and second official. Speaking with this pair, the
relatives were then surrounded by people in plain clothes and pushed
outside onto the street. Svetlana Matskevich, the wife of hunger-striker
Vladimir Matskevich, was reportedly forced into a police car and taken to
a local police station for identification. On 27 October she was fined
155,000 Belarusian Roubles (467 Norwegian Kroner, 57 Euros, or 72 US
Dollars) for alleged "insubordination to the lawful actions of a police
officer." Approximately 100 members of churches and social organisations
attended the local court hearing.

However, opposition to New Life has suddenly appeared from the Belarusian
Ministry of Defence, Sergei Lukanin noted. On 30 October the Ministry's
military newspaper, "For the Glory of the Motherland", published a lengthy
article on its first page attacking the church, which is a member of the
charismatic Full Gospel Association.

Contrasting Full Gospel churches with "real Protestants - Lutherans,
Anglicans and Calvinists," the article claims that "the Full Gospel sect
is a crude magical occult system making broad use of psychological
manipulation and mind control. They hold to a false teaching directed at
the personal wealth of their pastors (…) many Full Gospel believers suffer
from depression and attempted suicides are frequent among them, as is
supported by international statistics." Journalist Vladimir Kozhevnikov
even claims that Orthodox monks who collect donations on Russian streets
are actually Full Gospel believers in disguise.

Most significantly, however, the article maintains that "neo-Protestant
sects" are a threat to national security. "Renowned for constant conflict
with the authorities and violation of the law," it claims, they support
the political opposition [an activity which the state media portrays as
bordering upon criminal]: "It is unsurprising that Full Gospel prayer
meetings are very similar to opposition demonstrations - they have the
same intonation, the same hypocritical-demagogic phraseology, the same
audience." In conclusion, states Kozhevnikov, "neo-Protestantism strives
to alter public consciousness to the extent that it will be easier to
break up the state if necessary. If one person believes one thing, a
second something else, if there is no Orthodox unity, this task becomes
easier. Neo-Protestantism (…) threatens the very existence of the
Belarusian nation, its psychological health, its security."

Two nights after this article was published, Sergei Lukanin told Forum 18,
graffiti reading "No to totalitarian sects!" was daubed on the wall of New
Life's building.

Arguing that New Life's building is legally a cowshed, Minsk officials
have refused to grant the 1000-strong congregation permission to use it
for services. The state authorities simultaneously refuse to allow the
church to legalise its position by changing the building's designation to
that of a house of worship. Minsk's top religious affairs official - Alla
Ryabitseva - has claimed to Forum 18 that this is impossible due to the
city Development Plan (see F18News 21 February 2005
). However, an official
in charge of executing the Development Plan recently told a Minsk court
that it was technically possible to site a house of worship for New Life
"anywhere in the city", but that this depended upon permission from the
religious affairs department (see F18News 28 July 2006
).

New Life has been worshipping at its disused cowshed ever since being
barred from renting a local house of culture in September 2004. As church
administrator Vasili Yurevich told public prosecution officials in
December 2004, the congregation was earlier refused requests to rent other
public facilities by district administrations throughout Minsk (see F18News
16 December 2004 ). The
church's continued use of its building for services has resulted in
multiple large fines (see most recently F18News 17 August 2006
), in addition to the
authorities' decision to confiscate the building.

Many other religious communities also face state pressure against their
activities. These include other Protestants (see eg. F18News 31 October
and 28 September 2006
), Catholics (see eg.
F18News 3 October 2006
), Orthodox Christians
(see F18News 26 October 2006
), Jews (see F18News 13
June 2006 ) and Hare
Krishna devotees (see F18News 18 October 2006
). (END)