Minority Christians in Belarus continue to suffer at the hands of the government authorities, the latest development involving a ban on a pastor to preach and also one Church was fined for activity “not according to its statute.” Norway-based Forum 18 News reported on 15 July that Belarus government has warned New Testament Pentecostal Church in the capital Minsk that it could be closed after a foreign pastor preached at a worship service.
Pastor Boris Grisenko, a Ukrainian, who leads a Messianic Jewish Congregation in the Ukrainian capital Kiev was told that he could not preach without getting a proper permission, even though as an Ukranian citizen, the pastor does not need to visa to visit Belarus.
Alla Ryabitseva, head of the city's Department of Religious and Ethnic Affairs, claimed to Forum 18, “I have been to the United States. Visitors to the country can’t just go and speak at a religious service without permission.”
Forum 18 said district police chief Viktor Pravilo refused to say how he had found out that a foreigner was preaching in the New Testament Pentecostal Church, religious communities having long complained to Forum 18 of KGB secret police surveillance. Asked whether the police did not have more important matters to deal with than a foreigner preaching at a religious service, Forum 18 said Pravilo put the phone down.
Foreigners engaged in religious activity have long been a target of state hostility, along with their Belarusian co-religionists, it said. Catholic priests and nuns have regularly been expelled, but the authorities on 15 July announced that they had completed the draft text of a Concordat. It is unknown whether this will address violations of freedom of religion or belief.
Also on 14 July, a registered Protestant congregation in western Belarus - the New Generation Church was fined for activity which officials claim was “not according to its statute,” local Protestants told Forum 18 News Service.
Forum 18 reported that the church held a special prayer service in its registered building, which church members insist was within its statute.
However, trouble for the New Generation Church began when Baranovichi local Ideology Department officials saw posters in the town advertising the service. One official and two “witnesses” arrived at the church 30 minutes before the service, but left 10 minutes before it began without witnessing it.
The official, Sergei Puzikov of the Ideology Department, refused to explain to Forum 18 what activity was outside the church's statute, as did the Department’s head, the report said.
In defiance of international human rights standards, Belarus bans all unregistered religious activity – including both unregistered communities and unregistered activity by registered communities. Religious activity is kept under close surveillance by the KGB secret police, and officials often issue warnings for activity they claim is illegal. Two such warnings can lead to a religious organisation being closed down.
According to Article 16 of the Constitution, Belarus - a landlocked country in Eastern Europe has no official religion. While the freedom of worship is granted in the same article, religious organizations that are deemed harmful to the government or social order of the country can be prohibited.
Eastern Orthodox makes up about 80 percent of an estimated 9 million Belarussians, others including Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Muslim account for 20 percent of the population who have often complain of the state authorities curtailing on their religious freedom.
Open Doors, an international ministry defending the persecuted Christians around the world on its Open Doors’ Watch List 2009 have placed Belarus at 44th spot, under ‘Some Limitations’ category along with countries like Syria, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and a host of others where believers cannot practice their faith freely.
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