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Will Shevardnadze's fall bring religious freedom?
by Felix Corley
Forum 18 (26.11.2003)/ HRWF Int. (27.11.2004) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Religious minority leaders and commentators have told Forum 18 News Service that they do not believe the 23 November resignation of President Eduard Shevardnadze after mass street protests in the capital Tbilisi heralds any immediate improvement in the religious freedom situation for minority faiths. "I don't expect it to improve soon," Dr Gia Nodia, director of the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development, a Tbilisi-based think tank, told Forum 18 on 26 November. "Although the new leaders are not interested in supporting religious violence, at the same time I don't think fighting it will be a priority - it is not a popular cause, unfortunately." He believes that the public mood against religious minorities will eventually change. "But you can't change it overnight."
Levan Ramishvili, director of the Liberty Institute, a human rights group, points out that the political situation remains unstable. "The revolution is not yet finished," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 25 November. "Only after the elections will the situation stabilise." He said he thinks it unlikely that the long-promised religion bill will reach parliament before the next parliamentary elections, due next year. Without a religion law, no religious group can register with the authorities so none have been able to gain legal status as religious communities (except the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate, which gained legal status with its own concordat with the state in October 2002).
In the past five years, Georgia's religious minorities - including Baptists, Pentecostals, Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses - have suffered hundreds of physical attacks from self-appointed and self-styled Orthodox vigilantes. Only in November were five of the attackers given suspended sentences, while all the other attackers - allegedly including priests of the Orthodox Patriarchate - have gone unpunished. Religious minorities are mostly unable to build places of worship, unable to publish or import religious literature and often forced to send their children to compulsory Orthodox lessons in schools.
The ousting of Shevardnadze, which was followed by the resignation of several ministers closely associated with him, was masterminded by three opposition leaders: a former justice minister Mikhail Saakishvili, former parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze and an earlier parliamentary speaker Zurab Jvania. They were protesting against widespread rigging in the 2 November parliamentary elections. Burjanadze is now acting president until a new presidential poll, which parliament has called on 4 January. New parliamentary elections will follow later.
Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, leader of the Baptist Church, described Shevardnadze's resignation as a "positive development". "We thanked the Lord for the bloodless resolution of the political crisis that had been going on for a couple of weeks," he declared on 25 November. "There was incredible joy and celebration in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi. People were singing and dancing, drinking and enjoying themselves."
He said that although the falsified elections were the spark, there were many other issues that brought people onto the streets. "They had been fed up with years of poverty, corruption, hypocrisy, social injustice, unfairness, communist manner of doing things, and the violation of human rights and religious liberties." He said the Baptists had been "actively involved" in supporting the protest movement. "They participated in the demonstrations and in the non-violent takeover of the Parliament building and the State Chancellery." They had distributed hot drinks and food to the demonstrators during the cold nights on the streets. Bishop Songulashvili also spoke on television about the role of the church at a time of national crisis. Also appearing on television to call for a peaceful resolution was Orthodox Patriarch Ilya. "Government television kept replaying his statement, but I don't think the patriarch had great influence over the course of events," Nodia told Forum 18.
Bishop Songulashvili noted that in the early days of the street protests, pro-governmental forces were "furious" about the Baptist Church's involvement. Sulkhan Molashvili of the State Control Chamber declared on television that "one of the main ideologists of the national movement in Georgia is Malkhaz Songulashvili, the Baptist Bishop". Also critical of Baptist support for the protests was Shalva Natelashvili, chairman of the Labour party.
Gari Azikov, a Lutheran pastor in Tbilisi, said that in the wake of the president's resignation, his church had hosted an ecumenical service on 24 November in thanks for the peaceful change of power. But he added that only the Baptists and Lutherans participated. "The Armenians and the Catholics had agreed to come, but for some reason they didn't," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 26 November. "The Orthodox were also invited, but they never come."
Bishop Songulashvili is optimistic that the change in the leadership "will certainly promote greater democracy" and "therefore it will also promote religious liberty". He believes the new parliamentary elections will allow more democratic politicians to be elected. "In accordance with the results of the falsified elections, more than half the members of parliament would have been hardliners, including Guram Sharadze and others who had been openly supporting religious terrorism," he declared. "We still do not understand how President Shevardnadze could have promoted such people through the governmental party list!"
Others are more sceptical that the religious liberty situation will improve. "I don't see any changes," Pastor Azikov told Forum 18. "It is unknown what will happen until there are new presidential and parliamentary elections. After that? Let's wait and see." He remained highly suspicious of the new leaders. He pointed out that during his address to the crowds outside parliament on the night of 23/24 November, Jvania had declared in connection with the visit Patriarch Ilya was about to make to Russia: "Orthodoxy is our traditional religion and we should cherish it."
Also adopting a wait-and-see attitude is Tony Kennedy, regional officer for Georgia of the Salvation Army. "I don't believe there will be any immediate changes," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 26 November. "We are in a transition period and everything will depend on what happens in the next elections."
Other religious leaders point out that Saakishvili was minister of justice when many of the attacks on religious minorities were taking place, while Jvania and Burjanadze were successive speakers of parliament. "When he was justice minister, Saakishvili showed a strong inclination to be close to the Patriarch," Nodia agreed. "Certainly he didn't focus on bringing to justice those responsible for the religious violence, although in law he had no power over the judicial authorities. But as a politician he should have spoken up."
Some find it hard to believe that the three leaders have suddenly become more democratic. "Before the elections, all parties including the so-called democrats made nationalist remarks about Georgia for the Georgians," Azikov complained. "Politicians change their words every ten minutes."
But Nodia believes the most influential politicians supporting religious violence and restrictions on minority faiths were allied with the former government, especially the parliamentary deputy Sharadze. "Guram Sharadze was the main ideologist, and he was in the government bloc." Although he believes all politicians, including the new leaders, want to be close to the Patriarchate, the Patriarchate's power may diminish.
Source: http://www.forum18.org
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"We want legal status!", say minority faiths
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (17.11.2003)/ HRWF Int. (24.11.2004) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - "We have no legal status - this is our one single biggest problem," Antimos Natsulishvili (Bhuashana Das), leader of the Hare Krishna community in the capital Tbilisi, told Forum 18 News Service in the city on 6 November.
"We're waiting for a new law on religion - to know what we are allowed to do and what we're not." His comments were widely echoed by leaders of almost all other religious minorities. Without a law on religion (the only former Soviet republic without one), Georgia has no mechanism for granting religious communities legal status - except for the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate, which gained such status through a controversial concordat with the government in October 2002. Without legal status, religious communities cannot own property, cannot maintain bank accounts and cannot go to law as communal entities.
"All confessions were equal until the concordat with the Patriarchate was adopted," Tamaz Papuashvili, head of the Religion and National Development Department at the State Chancellery, told Forum 18 at his office in the State Chancellery on 6 November. "Then the Patriarchate was given special privileges." He says religious organisations' rights are not defended, making it an urgent need that the law be adopted. "Only with a religion
law will other faiths get legal status."
"Certainly there must be a religion law," Pastor Gari Azikov of Tbilisi's Lutheran Church told Forum 18 in Tbilisi on 4 November. "There could have been one a long time ago." He said his Church and other religious communities are suffering without legal status and must have their legal rights and responsibilities defined in law.
"Of course we have spoken up for a law on religion," Fr Nairik Kushyan, a priest at the Armenian Apostolic cathedral in Tbilisi, told Forum 18 on 2 November. Asked why he believes there has not been one so far he responded: "Ask parliament. It doesn't depend on us." He complained that the Church's property cannot be held in its own name and the Church cannot maintain bank accounts. "All this stems from the lack of legal status. Every civilised state has a law on religion." He said religious faiths already exist de facto and a law would define what rights and obligations they have.
His view is echoed by Bishop Giuseppe Pasotto, head of Georgia's Latin-rite Catholic community. "It is very bad that no religious community has legal status," he told Forum 18 at his office in Tbilisi on 4 November.
"Everything they do is unregistered. Officially the Catholic Church doesn't exist." He complained that if he wants to buy something for the church, he has to do so as an individual, not in the name of the Church. He said he personally owns the city's Catholic cathedral and the neighbouring offices, while the Vatican nunciature owns the St Peter and St Paul church elsewhere in the city. "I have many things, but they are not mine," he joked.
The Catholics tried to gain legal status by signing their own concordat with the government, but Orthodox opposition forced the government to back down. "There was nothing special in the concordat that isn't in the Georgian constitution," Bishop Pasotto insisted to Forum 18. "When the Orthodox concordat was signed it was said there would be similar agreements with other religious communities. But it has turned out differently." It seems the Catholics are relying on a religion law to resolve their difficulties.
"Without a religion law, many paths are closed," Fr Benny Yadgar, priest of Tbilisi's Assyrian Chaldean Catholic parish told Forum 18 on 4 November. "There should be such a law - Europe is watching." He cited the impossibility of buying land for a church office or building a church. He personally bought a plot of land for the church in his own name but -
like almost all other non-Orthodox faiths - has been unable to proceed.
Rabbi Avimelech Rosenblath of Tbilisi's synagogue told Forum 18 that his community finds the lack of registration an inconvenience. "We cannot have a community bank account, so we have to hold money in personal accounts," he told Forum 18 at his office on 3 November. "If we buy furniture, for example, it means we have to take money from our personal account to go to buy it." He says his community has not been obstructed in its activity. "But if the synagogue and other institutions could have legal status it would not harm us."
Bishop Pasotto said a number of religious communities - including the Jews, Muslims, Armenians, Lutherans, Baptists and Catholics - approached various political parties ahead of the 2 November parliamentary election to find out their views on a religion law. "All agreed verbally that the religion law needed to be adopted after the election," Bishop Pasotto reported.
However, Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, head of the Baptist Church, points out that no major politicians have publicly spoken up for religious freedom and believes the political climate has worsened since the election. "We question the genuineness of the pro-Western, democratic political forces - none of them have raised their voice against religious violence, for example," he told Forum 18 on 7 November. "I'm disappointed."
Although President Eduard Shevardnadze promised on 22 September that parliament would consider the draft of the new religion law immediately after the 2 November election, the political upheavals in the wake of the disputed poll - with almost daily opposition
demonstrations on the streets - make the early adoption of a law doubtful.
Many religious minorities believe that now the Patriarchate has legal status it has no desire to see a religion law adopted. "I don't believe there'll ever be a religion law. I know from my experience," Azikov maintained. "The Patriarchate has no interest in this and in parliament
there are people who oppose the presence of other faiths in the country."
But Papuashvili of the State Chancellery denies that the Patriarchate will be in a position to obstruct the process. "The Ministry of Justice is working on the religion law and it will soon be sent to parliament," he told Forum 18. He said once the law is adopted religious organisations themselves will have the power to defend themselves in law against those
physically attacking them and obstructing their lawful activity. "It will give them the possibility to resolve these problems."
Some are sceptical that even if a new religion law is adopted the dominance of the Orthodox Patriarchate will be redressed. "The law will apply to all, but we won't be equal," Giorgi Salarishvili, an associate officer of the Salvation Army, told Forum 18 on 3 November. "There will still be restrictions on us. I'm not expecting a religion law that gives equal
rights to all faiths."
The Jehovah's Witnesses are equally sceptical. "We reviewed last year's draft law and saw it as a tool to continue harassment through the legal system," their lawyer Manuchar Tsimintia told Forum 18 on 3 November. "They were obviously hoping to do legally what they can't do illegally." He sees little hope that a new text presented to parliament will be any better.
Equally pessimistic is Nikolai Kalutsky, pastor of a Russian-language Pentecostal church in Tbilisi that has been prevented from meeting at his home for the past six months by self-styled Orthodox mobs. "Even if a democratic religion law is adopted, I don't expect any improvement in our situation," he told Forum 18 on 2 November. "The most important thing is to have legal status, to be able to go to court to defend ourselves. But who
knows if they would defend us? And even if they did, who would enforce the decisions?"
Members of the True Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston - while favouring a religion law "provided the text is good" - reject the idea of registration as a religious organisation as long as the Patriarchate's concordat remains in force. "In a country with a concordat such registration would do no good," Fr Gela Aroshvili told Forum 18 in Tbilisi on 3 November. "We would be subordinate to the concordat and
registration would only lead to interference in our activity."
He said his Church had taken part in discussions on the draft religion law prepared by the Justice Ministry in 2002. "All agreed the draft law was too pro-Patriarchate and draconian and had to be changed," Fr Aroshvili maintained. He said the Patriarchate then lost interest in a religion law, the concordat was adopted and therefore no religion law will ever be
passed.
One group that is indifferent to the impossibility of gaining registration are the congregations of the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, which reject registration in all the post-Soviet republics where they operate. "We have no problems with the government," Pastor Sergei Osipov, pastor of their Russian-speaking congregation in
Tbilisi, told Forum 18 at the church on the edge of the city on 5 November.
"We leave them alone and they leave us alone."
Despite the absence of a religion law, a quirk of the legal system allows believers to be punished for violating the religion law. Article 199 of the Code of Administrative Offences - lifted entirely from the Soviet-era administrative code - punishes those who refuse to register their congregations and those who organise specialised religious work with young
people.
In the absence of a religion law, it would appear that the article had fallen into disuse - except that the local police cited this article in a 25 August letter to Pastor Kalutsky banning him from using his home for religious services without special permission. He was warned that if he went ahead with such meetings (though he cannot because of self-styled
Orthodox mob pressure), he would be fined twice the minimum monthly wage.
Source: http://www.forum18.org
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After four years of attacks, a suspended sentence is given
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News (05.11.2003)--Website: http://www.forum18.org -- HRWF Int. (17.11.2003) C Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - After four years of unpunished violence by Orthodox extremists, religious minorities have greeted the conditional sentence handed down yesterday (4 November 2003) on violent self-appointed Orthodox vigilante Paata Bluashvili and four associates. The five were sentenced only for their violent attacks on two Jehovah's Witness meetings, although they have been involved in a string of attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses and Protestants. But Bluashvili is unrepentant. "We have material proving that we are 100 per cent innocent," he told Forum 18 News Service on 5 November from Rustavi, an industrial town south east of the capital Tbilisi. "The Jehovah's Witnesses beat us," he claimed. He said he and his colleagues from the Jvari (Cross) organisation, would be lodging appeals by the end of this week to the Tbilisi regional court.
"We are not overjoyed - it would have been better if they had gone to prison - but we believe this is a good verdict," the Jehovah's Witness' lawyer Manuchar Tsimintia - who represented the victims in court - told Forum 18. "The conditional sentences mean that if they do anything at all now they will immediately be sent to prison." Malkhaz Songulasvili, head of the Baptist Church in Georgia, also welcomed what he called "the belated but expected verdict". "This is a very positive sign - this is the first time anyone involved in religious violence has been punished."
Nikolai Kalutsky, the Tbilisi-based pastor of a Russian-language Pentecostal denomination with an affiliated congregation in Rustavi which has been threatened by Jvari members, greeted the sentences. "This is the first verdict of this type," he told Forum 18 on 5 November. "This verdict will we hope bring people to their senses and help to restrain such violence in future."
Another Protestant pastor, whose congregation in Rustavi has been threatened also, told Forum 18 that the verdict was a "good beginning". "We disagree with the Jehovah's Witnesses' theologically, but beating people up and breaking up meetings must be punished."
The trial of the five - which began at Rustavi city court in April - related to seven violent attacks on Jehovah's Witness meetings in Rustavi and Marneuli. "Dozens of our people were injured and hundreds were threatened and insulted," Tsimintia reported. Victims of the violence were regularly insulted in court by Bluashvili and his supporters. (At one hearing in another case last January, Bluashvili punched Tsimintia in the face in the hallway of the court.)
Bluashvili was given by Judge Giorgi Chemer a four years suspended jail sentence, as were two associates. Two further associates received sentences of two years' imprisoment. The judge recommended to Tsimintia in advance that he not attend court on 4 November to hear the verdict for his own safety.
However, last month a court sent back for further investigation a separate case against Bluashvili related to the breaing up of two congresses in Gori and Kaspi. "More than one hundred people took part in those attacks but for some reason only Bluashvili was charged," Tsimintia complained.
Bluashvili, who describes himself as an artist, told Forum 18 that he is a member of the St Nicholas parish of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate. Patriarchate spokesman Giorgi Andriadze declined any immediate comment on the verdict. Also witholdng comment for the moment was Tamaz Papuashvili, who is responsble for religious affairs in the State Chancellery.
Rustavi was known as an atheist town during the communist period with almost no places of worship. "It was a Komsomol town," Kalutsky declared, "and that spirit lives on." When the Lutherans opened a church in the town in spring 2001 a local Orthodox priest immediately visited to find out who they were, telling them that they should not be allowed, Tbilisi-based Lutheran pastor Garri Azikov told Forum 18. The Lutherans responded that if he wanted to know who they were he could phone the Ministry of Justice or the Patriarchate. Azikov said. Neither the priest nor Bluashvili have troubled the congregation again.
As early as April 2001 Bluashvili was leading attacks on Jeghovah's Witness meetings, raiding private flats and beating individual Jehiovah's Witnesses. He has often worked together with Tbilisi-based Old Calendarist priest Basili Mkalavishvili, who is also the subject of a long-running but so far inconclusive trial (see F18News 5 June 2003 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=72 ). Forum 18 has learnt that he is currently in Tbilisi's 8th hospital undergoing medical treatment, though officials claim they cannot find him.
In May this year Bluashvili and six colleagues raided a private flat where a Pentecostal congregation was meeting, Kalutsky reported, warning them that if they ever caught them meeting again they would be beaten. Bluashvili denied to xx that this attack had taken place.
Another Protestant community, which does not want to be identified, said it too had to keep changing the venue of its meetings after being threatened. "We can't rent any buildings there and it is difficult even meeting in private flats," the pastor told Forum 18. "It was better under communism."
Oleg Khubashvili, head of the Pentecostal Union, told Forum 18 that they have a prayer house, but do not even have a notice outside to say it is a church. "There is not enough freedom in the town for that."
Malkhaz Songuashvil of the Baptist Church regards the Bluashvili verdict as the follow-up to the promises made by President Eduard Shevardnadze in March 2003 that all those guilty for violent attacks on religious minorities would be brought to justice (see F18News 25 March 2003 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=16 ). "We were expecting an immediate police and procuracy response," he added. "But the state chancellery told us they would only take action after the 2 November parliamentary elections." He said the verdict - handed down two days after the election - was "a landmark".
Source: http://www.forum18.org
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Should violent Orthodox group be banned?
By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service
Forum 18 News (13.11.2003)--Website: http://www.forum18.org -- HRWF Int. (17.11.2003) C Website: http://www.hrwf.net/ - Email: info@hrwf.net - Opinions are divided over whether a violent self-styled Orthodox organisation that has been terrorising religious minorities in the industrial town of Rustavi (Rust'avi) close to the capital Tbilisi should be banned. Five members of Jvari (Cross) were sentenced on 4 November for their role in attacking Jehovah's Witness meetings. "I can't say if a court should ban them or not C that is a question for the judges," Tamaz Papuashvili, the country's senior religious affairs official, told Forum 18 News Service in his office at the State Chancellery in Tbilisi on 6 November. "There is a big difference between an organisation that violates the law and a criminal organisation." Others are more clear-cut. "Of course it's a criminal organisation," Levan Ramishvili, director of the Liberty Institute, told Forum 18 in Tbilisi on 6 November. "But banning it would be only a symbolic gesture and I don't believe in banning organisations. More important is for its members to be prosecuted."
Members of several minority religious faiths C who feel intimidated under pressure from years of violence by self-appointed Orthodox vigilantes C told Forum 18 on condition of anonymity that Jvari should have been banned long ago when it began its reign of terror against religious minorities in Rustavi and the surrounding area. Western diplomats in Tbilisi privately echoed this view to Forum 18, but expressed little hope that the authorities would have the courage to take this and other steps to prosecute those involved for hundreds of violent attacks.
"Jvari is registered as a patriotic, cultural and sporting organisation. In practice its aim is to persecute followers of other faiths," Mikhail Beroshvili, deputy head of the NGO Caucasian Home, told Forum 18 in Tbilisi on 5 November. His colleague Anna Abramishvili agrees. "Jvari is a very reactionary organisation. It wants the Orthodox Church to be cut off from outside contact and persecutes Jehovah's Witnesses and others." Although pleased that some of Jvari's members have been sentenced, they believe the failure to ban the organisation sends a signal that violence is tolerated.
But Jvari's leader, Paata Bluashvili, vigorously denied that Jvari is a criminal organisation. "We're just defending our faith. The Jehovah's Witnesses and all these other groups are criminal sects C they should be banned," he told Forum 18 on 13 November from Rustavi.
Bluashvili, was among the five members sentenced on 4 November to suspended prison terms for their violence against Jehovah's Witness meetings in Rustavi and Marneuli (see F18News 5 November 2003 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=176 ). Bluashvili also faces a further trial for leading violent assaults on two Jehovah's Witness conventions in Gori and Kaspi. However, no criminal cases have been launched against Bluashvili or any of his associates for a string of other attacks against Protestant churches in the town, or for attacks against other Jehovah's Witness meetings.
Bluashvili identified Metropolitan Atanase Chakhvashvili of Rustavi and Marneuli as one of the co-founders of Jvari in 1998. The group was registered the same year as a non-governmental organisation at Rustavi city court, legal status it retains to this day despite its violent activity. Bluashvili said that Metropolitan Atanase, an old man, does not play an active role in the organisation. He identified Fr Teimuraz, priest of St Nicholas' parish in Rustavi, as Jvari's spiritual father, a role he has had since the organisation was founded.
Papuashvili, who heads the Religion and National Development Department at the State Chancellery, openly admits that Jvari members are involved in criminal activity. "They issue calls to violence. I met them many times and told them they shouldn't do this." But he said he is not able to make any public statement on whether he believes the group should be banned as this would constitute undue pressure on judges. He agrees that the attacks on religious minorities represent "a question of criminality" and admits that the criminal code is not being enforced.
Fr Basil Kobakhidze, a Patriarchate priest who is at odds with the current fundamentalist mood dominant among the Patriarchate leadership, argues that his Church must take responsibility for the violence Jvari and individuals within the Church have perpetrated against religious minorities. He stresses that the preamble to Jvari's statute describes it as an Orthodox organisation. "One of Jvari's cofounders is Metropolitan Atanase - under canon law he leads the organisation," Fr Basil told Forum 18 in Tbilisi on 5 November. "The Patriarchate has clear responsibility."
Yet the chief spokesman at the Patriarchate, Zurab Tsokhvrebadze, claimed that it has nothing to do with Jvari. "The Patriarchate doesn't approve of or support the methods this organisation uses," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 13 November. "The Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church has always condemned all violent methods against any sectarian organisation." However, he said the Patriarchate had no view on whether Jvari should be banned or not, declaring that it was a question for the courts.
Tsokhvrebadze said the Patriarchate had no information on any role Metropolitan Atanase or Fr Teimuraz might be playing in Jvari.
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Will non-Orthodox faiths ever get legal status?
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (25.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (26.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - In the wake of the Georgian government's refusal to sign an agreement with the Vatican granting legal status to the Catholic Church (see separate F18 article), the head of a Pentecostal association Bishop Oleg Khubashvili stressed that no religious groups apart from the Orthodox Church have any legal rights as a religious community. "Of course this is not right," he told Forum 18 News Service from the capital Tbilisi on 25 September. "There is no religion law so there is no legal status. We want legal recognition as a Church." The Orthodox Church gained such legal status after it
signed a controversial concordat with the state last October, a concordat drawn up with as much secrecy as the stalled Vatican agreement.
Despite fierce Orthodox opposition to the Vatican agreement, Metropolitan Daniil (Datuashvili) of the Orthodox Patriarchate rejected suggestions that his Church opposes legal status for other faiths. "On the contrary, the Orthodox Church wants all of them to get legal status as religious organisations. The Church is absolutely not against that," he claimed to Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 25 September. "The Orthodox Church demands this from the government as soon as possible."
In his radio interview on 22 September, President Eduard Shevardnadze maintained that a new religion law would "remove all controversial issues from the agenda". He said a new text was with the State Chancellery, but it would "take some more work". He pledged it would be ready to present to parliament after the elections, which are due on 30 November.
Bishop Khubashvili told Forum 18 that without legal status as a religious community his Church's activity is limited. It cannot buy land to build churches and cannot get permission to build on land it owns. "We got permission to build a headquarters for our association in Tbilisi three years ago," he pointed out, "but criminal elements didn't want us to
build it. We couldn't build as we had no guarantee of security."
One Catholic official who preferred not to be named told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 24 September that in the absence of legal status his Church could not get back churches built by the Catholic community before the communist period and now in the hands of the Orthodox, such as those in Gori and Kutaisi. "Normally we should have the right to build new churches, but each time there are protests from the Orthodox," he complained. "Officially there is no ban on new Catholic churches, but in practice there is. The agreement would have put an end to this."
Others question whether it is right for the government to sign an agreement regulating the life of one religious community. "It is difficult to say if it is good or bad that the Vatican agreement was not signed," Genadi Gudadze, leader of the 15,000-strong Jehovah's Witnesses in Georgia, told Forum 18 on 25 September. He believed this was a distraction from the main problem that no religious communities had legal recognition apart from
the Orthodox Patriarchate.
His ambiguous stance was echoed by Fr Gela Aroshvili, leader of one of three True Orthodox parishes in Georgia under the jurisdiction of Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston. "If they sign an agreement with the Catholics they should sign an agreement with all religious communities so that they all get the same rights," he told Forum 18 on 25 September. "Otherwise there will be two monopolists, not just one."
He believed that the agreement's failure came as a result of Catholic attempts - along with those of the Baptists, Armenians, Lutherans, Muslims and Jews - to try to gain their own status with the government in return for failing to oppose the concordat between the Orthodox Patriarchate and the government. "When the Patriarchate got its concordat it became a monopolist and was able to obstruct everyone else," he told Forum 18.
Fr Aroshvili describes the Catholic Church as a "strong competitor" for the Orthodox. "The Patriarchate takes money from people, while the Catholic Church does the opposite - it gives humanitarian aid and supports hospitals." He believed there was a real danger for the Patriarchate that the "much richer" Catholic Church would be able to use this to gain converts.
In the absence of a religion law (uniquely among former Soviet republics) and the possibility for non-Orthodox communities to gain legal status as religious groups, some faiths - such as Khubashvili's Pentecostal association - have been able to register as social organisations. "We have been able to register an educational and cultural association," Fr Aroshvili declared of his True Orthodox Church, "but religious activity is not itself covered by this."
Even such registration can be difficult. The Jehovah's Witnesses registered two such associations, but in 2001 a Tbilisi court stripped them of this registration, saying such status was not designed for religious groups. Gudadze told Forum 18 that their challenge to this legal decision is due to be heard soon at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
Bishop Khubashvili was sceptical that the long-promised religion law will be adopted soon. "We have seen many drafts, some good, some unacceptable. There is no concrete draft at present - or at least no-one has shown it to us." Gudadze was equally sceptical. "There are thousands of drafts, but none has any freedom in it. They've been speaking about it for so many years."
Georgia has seen a sustained campaign in recent years against religious minorities conducted by self-appointed Orthodox vigilantes. Baptists, Pentecostals, Old Believers, True Orthodox and Jehovah's Witnesses have seen places of worship attacked or destroyed, literature burnt and believers physically attacked. No one has been punished despite numerous protests from within Georgia and abroad.
Gudadze told Forum 18 that violence against Jehovah's Witnesses has lessened in recent months since one of the organisers of the violence, Old Calendarist priest Fr Basil Mkalavishvili, went into hiding in June to evade a court order that he should be held in preventive custody for three months (see F18News 5 June 2003).
However, despite more than one hundred documented violent incidents in the past four years, Orthodox leaders find it hard to admit the extent of the violence, or the role of the Orthodox Church in it. Metropolitan Daniil repeated his denials to Forum 18 on 25 September that there is a problem with religious violence, claiming that there were only a few "isolated incidents", often provoked by the "wrongdoing" of the "totalitarian sects" themselves. He said he did not hear Bishop Zenon's words at the demonstration against the Vatican agreement on 19 September that the agreement was part of a Western and Masonic plot and that Catholics should be driven out of Georgia.
The Special Rapporteur on the freedom of religion or belief of the United Nations Human Rights Commission, Abdelfattah Amor, visited Georgia from 31 August to 7 September, where he heard accounts of the religious violence from religious groups that have suffered. However, he described his discussions as "confidential" and declined to make any public statements while in the country.
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
Catholics fail to break Orthodox monopoly
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (25.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (25.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The Catholic Church failed in its bid to become the second religious community to gain legal status when the government abruptly cancelled plans to sign an agreement with the Vatican on 19 September.
Catholic officials stressed that the Church needs the agreement. "For the past decade they kept saying a law on religion would be adopted which would grant such recognition, but it never happened," a Catholic official told Forum 18 News Service from Tbilisi. "That's the reason for the agreement."
The government's change of mind followed complaints from the Orthodox patriarch and street protests. "These demonstrations were organised by the Orthodox Church, which stirred up the students by telling them the agreement was part of a plot by European and Masonic agents," Orthodox priest Fr Basile Kobakhidze told Forum 18.
With the last-minute refusal by the Georgian government on 19 September to sign an agreement with the Vatican which would have granted the 50,000 strong Catholic Church legal status in Georgia, the Georgian Orthodox Church remains the only religious community in the country with legal status as a religious community (see separate F18 article). "The Catholic Church C like all other non-Orthodox religious communities C still has no juridical recognition," a Catholic official, who preferred not to be named, told Forum 18 News Service from the capital Tbilisi on 24 September. "For the past decade they kept saying a law on religion would be adopted which would grant such recognition, but it never happened. That's the reason for the agreement." No one in the foreign ministry was able to tell Forum 18 why the government declined to sign at the last minute or whether the agreement could be signed in future.
In his weekly radio interview on 22 September, President Eduard Shevardnadze expressed his regret that the agreement had not been signed and promised that a religion law would be adopted to regulate the legal status of all faiths in the country.
The Georgian government's refusal to sign the agreement came after a sustained campaign against it by the Orthodox Church, which included demonstrations outside the nunciature in Tbilisi and at the airport as Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's "foreign minister", flew in on 18 September. "For Orthodox Georgia the signing of an inter-state agreement with the Vatican cannot be desirable," Patriarch Ilya, the head of the Orthodox Church, told a press conference on 18 September. He said he had written to President Eduard Shevardnadze warning him not to allow the signing to go ahead. The patriarch claimed that other unnamed faiths in Georgia also opposed the signing of any agreement with the Vatican.
The following day some 2,000 students waving placards joined demonstrations outside parliament in central Tbilisi, where Orthodox Bishop Zenon of Dmanisi told the protestors that the agreement would have allowed the Vatican to increase its influence in Georgia. After an hour State Minister Avtandil Djorbenadze addressed the crowd, telling them that President Shevardnadze, who was attending a summit in Ukraine, had ordered the signing to be cancelled.
In televised comments on 20 September, Bishop Zenon denied the protest had been organised by the church leadership, calling such claims "amoral" and saying the demonstrators "simply showed that they understand the importance of Orthodoxy for Georgia".
One Tbilisi-based Orthodox priest rejects Bishop Zenon's claims. "These demonstrations were organised by the Orthodox Church, which stirred up the students by telling them the agreement was part of a plot by European and Masonic agents," Fr Basile Kobakhidze told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 25 September. "They told them our Church is in danger and that the Catholics want to destroy Orthodox belief."
He particularly criticised Bishop Zenon's role. "He made fascist statements saying that they should drive the Catholics out of Georgia," Fr Kobakhidze complained. "He was the main organiser of the demonstrations."
Among the Orthodox Church's complaints against the agreement was that the text had not been made public and had been prepared in great secrecy. Forum 18 has been unable to get a copy of the text.
Teimuraz Mikeladze, the head of the foreign ministry's information office C one of those at the ministry who was unable to explain why the signing had been stalled C said that it was not possible for agreements between two subjects of international law (i.e. Georgia and the Holy See) to be published before they are signed. "This is a very serious juridical norm," he told Forum 18. "Only if both sides agree can the text be made public." He declined to say if the Georgian foreign ministry wanted to see the text published.
Likewise the Vatican nunciature in Tbilisi declined to give the text to Forum 18. "There is no definitive text because it has not been signed," a nunciature spokesman told Forum 18 on 23 September. "It cannot be published until it is signed." A spokeswoman at the Vatican Press Office told Forum 18 on 24 September that it was customary for agreements between the Holy See and individual states to be in the public domain once they were signed. But she was unable to say why they were not made public before then so that they could be openly discussed.
Fr Kobakhidze described the refusal to sign the agreement as a "great mistake". "If anyone had any disagreement with it they could have protested in a civilised and democratic way."
His views were echoed by Bishop Oleg Khubashvili, head of a Pentecostal Union with some 5,000 adult members, who condemned the refusal. "The right of Catholic believers has been infringed," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 25 September. "The agreement was there to protect their rights to function, build churches and open schools. This means that now they have been deprived of those rights."
The Georgian government's unexpected decision to refuse to sign the agreement provoked a sharply-worded statement by Archbishop Tauran. "It is mainly the Catholic community in this country that will suffer this failed pledge, a community which continues to be deprived of every juridical guarantee and to whom we express our solidarity," Archbishop Tauran declared on 20 September as he left Georgia.
"In addition, the Holy See delegation felt gravely hurt by the conduct of the Georgian Orthodox Church which has spread news that does not correspond to the truth, notwithstanding the fact that it has been shown many times (our) willingness to provide information about how the talks were going," Archbishop Tauran added. "The Holy See hopes that Georgia, which takes part in important international conventions on human rights, will know how to remedy such a regrettable situation."
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Georgian Orthodox leader warns against Vatican treaty
Zenit.org (17.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The head of Georgia's Orthodox Church urged the government not to sign a treaty setting down relations with the Vatican, saying it was not ''expedient'' for the former Soviet state, Reuters reported.
Patriarch Ilia II called on the government Thursday to think again before proceeding with signature of the pact, to take place Saturday during a visit by Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican secretary of state for relations with states, the news service said.
Most of Georgia's 4.2 million people are Orthodox Christians. Georgian officials say the treaty merely establishes standard relations between their country and the Holy See.
Source: http://www.forum18.org/
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Baptists deny they burnt down own church
by Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (03.07.2003) / HRWF Int. (23.07.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - Baptists have rejected suggestions made by the governor of the district in eastern Georgia where a Baptist church was destroyed on 15 June that they set fire to their own church. "Some people are saying the Baptists did it themselves because they wanted a much nicer church," Timur Berianidze, governor of the Kvareli district, told Forum 18 News Service on 3 July. He described as "a lie" the widely-held view that the local Orthodox priest Bessarion Zurabashvili was involved. Berianidze denied reports from Baptists in the village of Akhalsopeli that they were still facing threats. "That is false information. There is no pressure."
Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili, head of the Baptist Union who visited Akhalsopeli again on 3 July, described accusations that the Baptists burnt down their own church as "silly". "It is clear to everyone that this was done at the instigation of the Orthodox priest and even with his direct participation," he told Forum 18 from the capital Tbilisi on 3 July. He said Fr Bessarion keeps visiting families and "stirs them up against our people". Villagers have threatened the Baptists that they will never be allowed to rebuild their church and if they do so, they warn that it will be burnt down again.
The governor told Forum 18 there was "nothing new" in the investigation. "No-one has been arrested, but the district police are continuing to investigate," Berianidze reported. He said it was impossible to say when any arrests in the case might be made.
Givi Berashvili, police chief for Kvareli district, was less forthcoming. "Everything is normal there," he told Forum 18 on 3 July. "There was a fire, that's all." Asked about speculation that Fr Bessarion was involved, he denied it vigorously, then put the phone down.
A high-profile delegation from Tbilisi, led by Bishop Songulashvili, visited the burnt-out church for a Eucharist service on 22 June. Joining the delegation were the Secretary of Security Council Tedo Japaridze, Deputy Secretary Rusudan Beridze, Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili, US Ambassador Richard Miles, German ambassador Uwe Shramm and an Orthodox Archpriest Basil Kobakhidze. The delegation was accompanied to the village by the governor of Kakheti, Bidzina Songulashvili (no relation to the bishop), and other local police and security chiefs. "You do not need to have a roof to worship God," Ambassador Miles told the congregation at the end of the service.
"The service was an enormous encouragement for the local congregation and ministers," Bishop Songulashvili told Forum 18, "but it also was a powerful message for the local regional and district authorities. They had never expected that burning of a Baptist church would have caused such attention from ambassadors and the national government in Tbilisi."
However, Akhalsopeli's Baptists remain highly concerned about continuing pressure on the community, even after the fire. Marika Tskhadadze reported from Akhalsopeli on 29 June that after the 22 June service relations between the Baptists and "some local people" became tense. "They are warning us that they will not let us have a church in this village," she declared. "They say 'we do not need foreign religions here'. They sent somebody to tell us that they will stone us if we still keep attending the burnt-out church."
She said that after a further service at the burnt-out church, threats were made "even more vigorously". "The priest has been particularly threatening me in person, saying he will not forgive me for those interrogations he had to undergo at the procuracy." She added that local criminals have threatened to pull down any new church the Baptists build to replace the old. However, Tskhadadze insisted the Baptists "are not scared of anything".
Bishop Songulashvili told Forum 18 he had hoped the 22 June service would mark the end of their problems. "It was our hope that situation would improve immediately," he declared. "But it seems there are some forces that are interested in stirring up Orthodox people against non-Orthodox."
The congregation believes that only pressure from the district governor, whose brother is said to be a friend of Fr Bessarion, will put an end to the harassment of the Baptists. "If the priest stops the people will also be pacified," Tskhadadze argued.
Berianidze insists that the Baptists can continue to live and meet for worship in Akhalsopeli. "They can build a new church," he pledged.
Georgia has been plagued by religious violence in recent years, with attacks by self-appointed Orthodox vigilantes on True Orthodox, Pentecostal, Baptist, Catholic and Jehovah's Witness targets. One of the most active vigilantes is Old Calendarist priest Basil Mkalavishvili, who was ordered by a district court in Tbilisi on 4 June to be held in preventive custody for three months (see F18News 5 June 2003). He went into hiding to evade detention, but at the end of June a Georgian paper Alioni published a letter from him to Eduard Shevardnadze claiming that the president was taking instructions from the "secret world government" and allowing "sects" to multiply. He warned that the president was heading for hell.
Although there have been more than 100 attacks on religious minorities in the past four years, Georgia has failed to sentence anyone for involvement in these attacks. The country has been under intense pressure to end this immunity, both from other governments and from religious leaders abroad. The new Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, Dr Rowan Williams, wrote to Bishop Songulashvili in January to express his distress at the attack that month on an ecumenical service at Tbilisi's Baptist church.
When he received Alexander Chikvaidze, Georgia's new ambassador to the Vatican, on 15 May, Pope John Paul expressed his clear concern about religious violence in Georgia, stressing the importance of the right of freedom of conscience "expressed most sublimely in freedom of worship". He highlighted the pledge by President Shevardnadze in the spring that those guilty of religious violence would be punished (see F18News 25 March 2003).
"It is fidelity to truth and charity which renders anomalous, indeed even contradictory, any obstacles placed in the path of genuine religious worship and the preservation of cultural patrimony associated with it," the pope told the ambassador. "In this regard, I am confident that the recent statement of President Shevardnadze about religious intolerance echoes the thoughts of all men and women of goodwill."
But some are sceptical about the level of political will, especially in the run-up to elections. "The issue of religious violence in Georgia has to be sorted out even though the authorities are not keen on that because of the upcoming parliamentary elections," Bishop Songulashvili declared. "The international community in Georgia is seriously interested that religious liberty is appreciated in this country."
Source: http://www.forum18.org/
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UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
to visit Georgia
UN Press Release (02.07.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.07.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Abdelfattah Amor, will visit Georgia from 31 August to 7 September 2003 at the invitation of the Government of Georgia.
The Special Rapporteur will go to Tbilisi where he will meet with representatives of the authorities concerned with his mandate as well as representatives of religious communities, non-governmental organizations, and persons who can testify on the situation of the freedom of religion or belief in Georgia.
The Special Rapporteur's visit to Georgia comes within his mandate to promote and protect the freedom of religion or belief in light of the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief (1981).
Mr Amor, who has held the title of Special Rapporteur since 1993, is the President of the Human Rights Committee.
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Police chief bans Pentecostal Church
By Felix Corley,
Forum 18 News Service (20.06.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.06.2003) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - The Orthodox priest suspected of being behind the repeated mob blockades of a Pentecostal church in the capital Tbilisi has denied that he has anything to do with the protest. "I have no role in this whatsoever," Fr David Isakadze, priest in the nearby village of Dighomi, told Forum 18 News Service on 23 June. While police looked on, a large mob of neighbours and self-appointed Orthodox vigilantes from further afield blockaded Pastor Nikolai Kalutsky's church yesterday (22 June) for the fourth time since services resumed on 27 April. Fr Isakadze, who admitted he had visited Pastor Kalutsky's home last July "to discuss religion with him", appeared well-informed about the protest but insisted Forum 18 was "asking the wrong person". "You should ask the neighbours." The local police chief has now banned the church from meeting in the Kalutsky home.
During the blockade on 15 June, Pastor Kalutsky and his wife Vera both reported, a member of the mob telephoned a Fr David "time and again", apparently to seek advice (see F18News 16 June 2003). Vera Kalutskaya says that two Orthodox priests visited some neighbours on the evening of 20 June, two days before the most recent blockade. "She thinks it was for reconnoitring or instruction," Emil Adelkhanov of the Tbilisi-based Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development reports, adding that she has "no direct evidence" that Fr Isakadze was one of them.
And, in a new development, the police chief for the Tbilisi district of Gldani-Nadzaladevi, Temur Anjaparidze, has told Forum 18 that he will not allow the Kalutskys to use their home as a church. "No-one is stopping them from living there," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 23 June, "but I won't allow them to use their home for religious services." Asked why the Kalutskys cannot invite whom they like to their home he replied: "Five hundred people twice a week? It's not fair on the neighbours. The neighbours won't allow this. What can I do?" Asked whether he did not have a duty to protect individuals and their rights, Anjaparidze angrily responded: "I have the duty to defend the rights of all citizens, but I don't have to defend myself before you." He then put the phone down.
On 22 June, as had happened the previous Sunday, the mob arrived in the street where the church is located before 9 am and blockaded it with their cars, Adelkhanov told Forum 18 from Tbilisi that day, citing information from Pastor Kalutsky. At about 10 am some 30 Pentecostals arrived for the Sunday service but were stopped by an outnumbering crowd of "Orthodox zealots". To avoid a scuffle, Kalutsky asked the Pentecostals to leave, which they did.
The police came when the Pentecostals had left. They tried to persuade the picketers to leave but they persisted, suspecting that the Pentecostals might come back. The police also told Pastor Kalutsky that some neighbours had complained that he preached in the street, something he denies. "We were not ordered to disperse the mob," the police reportedly told him. "We were ordered to see that it didn't come to blows."
Pastor Kalutsky quoted a picketer as having told him, in reference to his Russian ethnicity: "You are a guest here. Haven't you stayed here enough? Go wherever you like." Kalutsky responded: "Where should I go? Will you leave us in peace if we hold our meetings on the desert shore of the Tbilisi Sea [an artificial lake near the capital]?" The answer was, "We won't."
Adelkhanov reports that the picketers also threatened to beat a correspondent of Rezonansi newspaper who had written a report about the 15 June blockade. Part of those talks took place in the presence of reporters from Mze TV who arrived soon after the police. One of the picketers said to the cameraman: "We do not want him to deprave our children. We do not want his children to play with ours." While leaving, they warned, as they had done the previous Sunday, "We'll be back." And one of them added, "This is the last time we let you off. Next time I will stop at nothing."
The Russian-language Pentecostal church meets in a building in Kalutsky's yard. The church insists it has to meet there as it has been barred from renting any local buildings at affordable rates.
While Fr Isakadze admitted he had visited the Kalutsky home on 2 July last year, Forum 18 was unable to ask him if he had led the mob raid on the house four days later during which Kalutsky's wife Vera was concussed, leaving her in hospital for three days. Fr Isakadze had put the phone down. On that second occasion, a mob picketed their house for three days continuously.
In what Kalutsky describes as a "horrible year", the church had to halt its Sunday services after 25 October, when a mob blockaded the church and prevented Kalutsky's guests from arriving for his birthday party. "I had to promise the police to stop our meetings for six months," Adelkhanov quotes Kalutsky as reporting. The church resumed its Sunday services on 27 April this year and the first four services went off undisturbed. But the 24 May, 1 June, 15 June and 22 June services could not take place because of the mob. "After the meeting of 1 June was foiled too, the district police promised Kalutsky not to let such things happen again. Indeed, the meeting of 8 June went off calmly," Adelkhanov notes.
Asked how he knew so much about the blockade if he claimed he was not involved, Fr Isakadze told Forum 18: "I know because parishioners of mine who live there came and told me." While admitting that he had visited Kalutsky's home without an invitation last July, he said it was "a lie" that Vera Kalutskaya had been injured in the clash. And he added: "Nikolai - or whatever his name is - is cynically misusing religion." Forum 18 was unable to ask Fr Isakadze why Kalutsky and other members of his church could not enjoy their rights to freedom of religion and freedom of assembly as he resolutely refused to discuss the case further and had put down the phone. Nor was Forum 18 able to ask whether he condemned the racist nature of some of the comments addressed to Kalutsky by the mob.
Source: http://www.forum18.org/
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"We'll be back", mob warns Pentecostals
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (16.06.2003)/ HRWF Int. (16.06.2003) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net Young men who blockaded a Pentecostal church in the capital Tbilisi for seven hours on 15 June to prevent believers from gathering for worship have promised the Pentecostals they will be back next Sunday, church members have told Forum 18 News Service. "We will do everything to prevent you from meeting. We won't stop till there's blood," Vera Kalutskaya, wife of the pastor, quoted members of the mob as telling the Pentecostals. "The police just stood and watched - they didn't defend us." The blockade of the church by self-appointed Orthodox vigilantes came the same day that a Baptist church was set on fire in the village of Akhalsopeli in Kvareli district of eastern Georgia (see separate F18News article) and two weeks after police and local authorities halted Jehovah's Witness conventions in central and southern Georgia.
Kalutskaya told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 16 June that their Russian-language church had organised a special service and meal to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. She said that although there was no actual violence, the mob shouted and threatened to beat and even kill her husband, Pastor Nikolai Kalutsky. "But he's not afraid," she added.
She reported that the demonstrators were brought in about a dozen vehicles at about 9 am and they did not leave until 4 pm. She said one of the young men admitted that the protest had been organised by an Orthodox priest, Fr David. She believes he was one of the two Orthodox priests who visited their home a year ago to tell them they were Satanists and that they were not to meet any more. "At that time the mob was shouting 'Georgia without Satanists!', exactly the same as they were shouting yesterday."
Contacted about why the police had not prevented the Orthodox mob from blockading the Pentecostal service, the police chief for the Tbilisi district of Gldani-Nadzaladevi declared: "You have incorrect information. They were not Orthodox, they were just local residents." Timur Anjaparidze claimed that the neighbours had every right to protest against the Pentecostals. "They meet in a private home in a narrow street," he told Forum 18 on 15 June. "They shouldn't meet there. Their services disturb the neighbourhood as several hundred people attend and make lots of noise."
Kalutskaya denies that the protestors were neighbours and insists that the mob was organised and made up mainly of young men between the ages of about 15 and 30. She vigorously rejected claims that the church was noisy or disturbed neighbours. "The hall where the church meets in our yard is half below ground. You cannot hear anything in our yard, let alone on the street." She said that when the police came to the house in the evening after the protestors had dispersed they had repeated these claims. She insists the church members are "quiet and orderly".
Georgia has been plagued by violence against religious minorities from self-appointed Orthodox vigilantes in the past few years, who appear to enjoy powerful support from the authorities. No-one has been convicted and imprisoned for any of the more than one hundred violent attacks. One of the most notorious organisers of the attacks, Old Calendarist priest Father Basil Mkalavishvili, is also based in Tbilisi's Gldani district. On 4 June a court ordered that he be taken into preventive custody for three months while the long-running trial against him for attacking Jehovah's Witness meetings continues (see F18News 5 June 2003), a decision upheld by a higher court on 10 June. However, Mkalavishvili has gone into hiding to evade arrest.
"We are now looking for Mkalavishvili," Anjaparidze told Forum 18, denying rumours that he has taken refuge with his supporters in his church in Gldani. "Of course we have looked for him inside the church. He's not there," Anjaparidze declared categorically. "As soon as we find him we will arrest him." He denied suggestions Mkalavishvili had support from the police or that they were afraid of arresting him. "I'm not afraid of anyone. I fulfil the law. The police had no sanction to arrest him before - we have only had this sanction for ten days."
Elsewhere in Georgia, the authorities are continuing to crack down on religious minorities. On 1 June, uniformed police with handguns entered private property in the central town of Gori where about 600 Jehovah's Witnesses were attending a convention. "Amateur video shows the chief of the criminal section of Gori police, Levan Chokheli, taking the stage and ordering the meeting to stop," the Jehovah's Witnesses reported on 2 June. "Those in attendance departed after police ordered them to leave."
One day earlier, on 31 May, police in plain clothes stopped large buses, minibuses and personal vehicles from entering private property in the Aspindza region of southern Georgia where the Jehovah's Witnesses were preparing another convention for about 700 people. "In that instance, the governor of the Aspindza region, Anzor Sandroshvili, took the stage of the convention and ordered those assembled to leave the site. Eyewitnesses believed that Governor Sandroshvili threatened further action if those in attendance did not depart."
On 3 May, Gori region governor, Zaza Koshadze, and Gori region police chief, Rezo Kotiashvili, as well as other officials, ordered the cancellation of a Jehovah's Witness meeting planned on the same Gori site. On 4 May, camouflage-uniformed police armed with machine guns entered the site.
Source: http://www.forum18.org/
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Protest against "anti-sect" school textbook
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (09.06.2003)/ HRWF Int. (12.06.2003) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Opposition among human rights activists and religious minorities is mounting to a textbook that warns school children about the "dangers" of religious "sects". "Security: Dangerous Situations and Civil Defence", issued with Education Ministry approval last year, is used in the tenth class (for children of 15 and 16 years' old) in the compulsory subject Security. Emil Adelkhanov of the Tbilisi-based Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development told Forum 18 News Service on 3 June that he regards the book as a further symptom of "religious hysteria" in Georgia. "I think the textbook encourages religious violence," Malkhaz Songulashvili, bishop of the Baptist Union, told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 5 June. "If the state is serious about religious freedom it has to withdraw the book immediately and apologise for issuing it."
The book, by Otia Mdivnishvili, Otar Tavelishvili, Gela Ramishvili and Dimitri Makharadze and edited by Teimuraz Melkadze, was published by the Meridiani publishing house in Tbilisi. It is prescribed for use in all state-owned Georgian-language schools (some of Georgia's schools teach in Russian, Armenian or Azeri). The five-page chapter "The Dangers from Religious Sects", which comes at the end of the 64-page book, does not mention any specific religious communities by name, but recommends how children can protect themselves from what the authors regard as the dangers from minority religious communities.
"The fact that the textbook does not mention any particular religious group as harmful does not make it less dangerous for our religious minorities," Adelkhanov told Forum 18. He highlighted a number of phrases in the chapter which worried him: "Religious sects ... forbidden in other countries, with their anti-State, antihuman, amoral sermons, are entering the country"; "Many sects brainwash young people and then ask them for money, make them rob their relatives, compel them to sell their houses..."; "The members of some sects have no scruples about using any means (bribing, deceiving, winning over traitors, including officials, etc.) in their business activities."
Adelkhanov pointed out that Georgian newspapers also often write in general terms about "sectarians sapping the Orthodox and national identity and integrity of our nation". "In this context," he warned, "such phrases from the textbook may easily be understood as referring to any non-traditional religious group in this country."
At the end of the chapter pupils were given a task to carry out in their own time: "Collect information about the activities of internationally compromised religious sects (organisations, associations), write an essay to discuss it in your class and discuss their possible danger at school and at home." Adelkhanov was worried by this. "This task invites teenagers to read what our yellow press - the only available source of such kind of information - writes about Satanic devices and the hidden agenda of evil sectarians."
Pastor Gary Azikov, secretary of the Lutheran Church in Georgia, was also concerned about the textbook, although he had not personally seen a copy. "No-one has given it to us but we have heard about it," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 9 June. He believed that school textbooks should not include material on religious issues without broad consultation with religious communities. "There should have been a conference so that all religious communities could know what was in the book," he declared."There wasn't." He complained that the Education Ministry was the victim of heavy lobbying by the dominant Orthodox Church.
Azikov maintained that there might be "totalitarian sects" which call for the use of weapons or engage in brainwashing, but believed that if so such groups should be identified by name. "Unfortunately there is a tendency to lump together all religious minorities as groups that people should be defended against." Songulashvili said the textbook would be one item on the agenda in a forthcoming meeting with the security minister. He said there would also be a meeting with the education minister about the book.
Contacted on 9 June, a spokesperson for the Education Ministry in Tbilisi promised to answer Forum 18's question within ten days as to why such a book which appears to denigrate religious minorities has been issued for use in all state-owned Georgian-language schools.
Source: http://www.forum18.org/
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Jehovah's Witnesses challenge literature seizures
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (07.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (13.05.2003) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Georgia's first deputy finance minister has pledged that two consignments of Jehovah's Witness literature seized by customs in the Black Sea port of Poti in March and April will be released as soon as customs procedures are complete. "I hope this will be soon," Lasha Zhvania told Forum 18 News Service from the capital Tbilisi on 7 May. He said the head of the customs service, Aleko Aslanikashvili, who had ordered the seizure of the books, had been dismissed the previous day, although "for other reasons". Zhvania strenuously denied that the shipments had been seized because they had been sent by the Jehovah's Witnesses. "Not at all," he declared. "It is certainly not my government's policy to obstruct people receiving religious literature of any kind." However, Manuchar Tsimintia, the Jehovah's Witness lawyer, remains sceptical. "We have already presented all the documentation we need to. They should already have released the books," he told Forum 18 on 7 May.
Genadi Gudadze, the Jehovah's Witness leader in Georgia, told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 6 May that the two containers of literature with more than 20 tonnes of literature were seized on 8 March and 12 April on the basis of a written order from then customs service director Aslanikashvili.
"Although authorities are well aware that the illegal seizure of the religious literature is a gross violation of the Georgian Constitution, of Georgian Laws and of Georgian international commitments, they adamantly refuse to release it," the Jehovah's Witnesses declared in a 24 April statement.
Zhvania reported that he had that morning discussed the case with the finance minister, who was "concerned", and the minister had spoken with the deputy head of the customs service. Zhvania explained that shipments of humanitarian aid - which can be anything from food to literature - must have a document signed by the finance minister to clear customs free of duty. "The shipments did not have this document, so that's why they were stopped. But we will do our best to speed things up."
Tsimintia contests Zhvania's claims. "These are fabricated reasons," he declared. "We don't need to present a document signed by the finance minister each time." He said that after the Supreme Court annulled the registration of two Jehovah's Witness organisations two years ago (Georgia does not have a system of registering religious organisations) the court pointed out that this did not mean that the Jehovah's Witnesses could not function. A 2001 letter from the court executors spelled this out and the Jehovah's Witnesses clarified with the customs then that they could continue to export and import literature.
However, Tsimintia said problems arose earlier this year with a February letter from Aslanikashvili to all the country's customs divisions not to allow in Jehovah's Witness literature. That same month the court executors wrote to the customs service asking if the Jehovah's Witnesses were importing literature legally or not. "Maybe there was pressure on them," Tsimintia speculated. "All our problems started with these letters." The court executors again wrote to the customs service in March withdrawing some of their questions, declaring that the matter was the competence of the customs.
In the wake of the seizure of the shipments, the Jehovah's Witnesses filed a legal challenge in the Vake-Saburtalo district court in Tbilisi on 17 April. Tsimintia said the court has not yet set a date for the case to be heard.
An official of the customs service denied to Forum 18 that there is any kind of list of banned literature. "Books cannot be confiscated," David Gabilishvili, an inspector in the legal department, told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 6 May. "The law doesn't allow it." He claimed not to be familiar with the case, but said if any books were seized it was because paperwork had not been filed properly or because the Jehovah's Witnesses were not registered with the tax authorities.
"The authorities claim the literature should be taxed," Levan Ramishvili, director of the Tbilisi-based Liberty Institute, told Forum 18 on 6 May, "but of course it shouldn't as it is not for sale." He said his institute has contacted the state minister's office, which promised to resolve the problem, but so far there has been no resolution.
Asked whether the Jehovah's Witnesses were allowed to import religious literature into Georgia, Gabilishvili declared: "It is not banned under the law, so they can. There should not be any problems if it is done properly." He insisted that they would only have problems if they tried to do so illegally.
This is not the first time that Jehovah's Witness book shipments have been held in customs. Two years ago, a similar seizure of religious literature resulted in two court cases. After finally releasing the shipments, a court ordered the state on 26 February 2001 to pay ompensation for having "seriously violated" the "religious freedom" of Jehovah's Witnesses "guaranteed by article 19 of the Constitution of Georgia and article 9 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms."
A few weeks after that decision, the authorities seized a further Jehovah's Witness literature shipment but released it after another lawsuit was filed and before the trial was held.
Source: http://www.forum18.org/
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No end to immunity despite presidential pledge
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (06.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (07.05.2003) - Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Nearly two months after Georgia's president Eduard Shevardnadze made a high-profile pledge that those who attack religious minorities will be punished, attackers continue to enjoy state-sanctioned immunity.
On 4 May a mob managed to stop the Jehovah's Witnesses holding a congress in the village of Ortasheni near the city of Gori west of the capital Tbilisi. Genadi Gudadze, the Jehovah's Witness leader in Georgia, told Forum 18 News Service from Tbilisi on 6 May that the mayor of Gori and the police chief warned them not to hold the congress. "It is not some bandit taking action against us but the state," he complained. "So who can we complain to?"
Meanwhile the trial of violent Old Calendarist priest Father Basil Mkalavishvili is making little progress, while the investigation into those who axed the transmitter of a radio station in the western city of Kutaisi which broadcast a weekly Catholic programme has likewise not resulted in any arrests.
Georgia has been plagued in recent years with violence against religious minorities by self-appointed vigilantes, who have physically attacked Baptists, Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses and True Orthodox. President Shevardnadze made his promise that "the aggressor will be punished" at an ecumenical Christian prayer service on 14 March in Tbilisi's Central Baptist Church (see F18News 25 March 2003). The service was originally scheduled for 24 January, but had to be abandoned when it was attacked.
However, no-one has ever been prosecuted for the more than 100 attacks which have seen believers injured, places of worship wrecked or demolished and religious literature burnt.
"Progress since the president made his pledge is not very significant,"Levan Ramishvili, director of the Tbilisi-based Liberty Institute, which has defended religious minorities, told Forum 18 on 6 May. He said government departments continue to leak information to extremist groups about the activity of religious minorities which helps them undertake attacks. "Perhaps the 'mainstream' religious minorities - like the Baptists, the Catholics and the Lutherans - have seen some improvement, but the others - including the non-Patriarchate Orthodox, the Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishna followers - have seen nothing change."
In the run up to the planned congress in Ortasheni, Gudadze reported that local Jehovah's Witnesses were joined by their lawyer from Tbilisi, Manuchar Tsimintia, at a 3 May meeting with Gori's police chief. "He told them he couldn't defend them because of the high level of criminality in the region and the shortage of police officers," Gudadze told Forum 18. "They always say this."
He said the message was later repeated when the Jehovah's Witnesses met the mayor Paata Chkhaidze later in the day. Also present at that meeting wasparliamentary deputy Guram Sharadze, who has been vocal in recent years in opposing the activity of minority faiths in Georgia. "The officials invited Sharadze to attend, that's my guess," Gudadze declared. "He criticised and insulted our people."
Gudadze said that in the wake of the protests by a mob of more than 100 people who blocked all access roads to the village and the refusal of the police and mayor to protect the 700 or so Jehovah's Witnesses expected to attend the congress, the organisers had to cancel it. "They contacted those planning to come from across the region and told them not to."
The Jehovah's Witnesses have been able to hold such congresses in other regions without problems, provided they do so quietly without advance publicity and that no more than 200 people attend, Gudadze reported.
There has been little progress in the trial in Tbilisi of Mkalavishvili,who has organised or led dozens of attacks on religious minorities in recent years. "Hearings have begun and the victims have at least been able to begin to give their testimony," Gudadze reported. However, he complained that the two or three police officers assigned to the court are not enough to prevent "disorder" in the courtroom or to protect the victims. "They have no intention of defending us," he declared. Nor does he believe Mkalavishvili will ever been sent to prison. "The result can be predicted."
But he notes that a similar trial of Paata Bluashvili, leader of the extremist Jvari organisation in the town of Rustavi near Tbilisi, is proceeding with less intimidation of the victims. "The courtroom is quieter and safer - it is not as bad as at Mkalavishvili's trial."
Meanwhile, Irakli Machitadze, director of the independent radio station Dzveli Kalaki (Old City) in Kutaisi which was put off air by axe-wielding men who destroyed the antenna on 28 March (see F18News 16 April 2003) and which was attacked again on 17 April, says there has been no visible progress in the case. "They say there is progress in the investigation of the 28 March attack and that they have identified the suspects," Machitadze
told Forum 18 from Kutaisi on 6 May. "But these are standard phrases. No-one has been arrested." He added that there had been no progress in the investigation of the 17 April attack.
He said students and non-governmental organisations held a public meeting in the city centre on 1 May to protest against the attacks. "The students were originally protesting against the university, saying they wanted to be allowed to listen to our station. Then they turned against the mayor's office." Machitadze said at a 3 May meeting with the city mayor Nugzar Paliani, the mayor had declared that the problems for the station were now "resolved". "The mayor and the police chief promised that the investigation would be successful and that the station would be back on air soon."
Machitadze said officials had offered the station to place their antenna on the nearby television mast, to help guarantee security. He told Forum 18 that he would be prepared to accept this as a "compromise", though he said it will take about four months to arrange and will cost the station money.
Paliani insisted that five perpetrators of the first attack had been identified, but said they could not be found. "A hunt is underway for them," he told Forum 18 from the city on 6 May. "Certainly they will be punished." But he said investigators had not yet identified the organiser of the attack. He strenuously denied suggestions that the station had been attacked to halt its weekly Catholic programme. "There is a mobile phone mast on the same roof and that was probably the target of the attack," he claimed.
Machitadze says he expects the Catholic programme to continue when the station resumes broadcasting in the next few days.
Source: http://www.forum18.org/
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Catholic radio broadcasts axed
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (16.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (17.04.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email : info@hrwf.net - The director of a radio station whose antenna was destroyed on 28 March by a group of men armed with axes - apparently to prevent the station airing a weekly Catholic programme - says he hopes the perpetrators will be brought to justice quickly. "I'm inclined to be optimistic," Irakli Machitadze, director of independent station Dzveli Kalaki (Old City) told Forum 18 News Service on 15 April from Kutaisi in western Georgia. "There was wide publicity over the attack and officials promised that the case would be dealt with properly." However, others are more sceptical. "Theoretically they will get justice," Emil Adelkhanov of the Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development told Forum 18 from the capital Tbilisi on 15 April. "But in practice this is highly doubtful." Other employees of the station regard this attack as part of the continuing series of attacks on minority faiths by self-appointed ultra-Orthodox vigilantes that have plagued Georgia in recent years. The vigilantes enjoy de facto immunity from prosecution (see F18News 25 March 2003).
Tengiz Shekralidze, who is handling the case at the Kutaisi city procuracy, declined to discuss it. "The investigation is underway, so I am not allowed to say anything," he told Forum 18 on 15 April, before putting the phone down.
Machitadze reported that the attackers broke down the door of the radio station late on 28 March, then broke their way onto the roof and destroyed the antenna. He put the damage at 4,000 US dollars (28,985 Norwegian kroner or 3,690 Euros). "We will have to find this money ourselves. It is unlikely we will ever be able to recover it, even if they prosecute the perpetrators." The station has been off the air since the attack, though Machitadze hopes it will be possible to begin broadcasting again in the next few days.
"The Catholic programme is one of the most likely reasons for the attack," Machitadze told Forum 18. He said the Catholic community in Kutaisi, which he described as "fairly strong", proposed the idea of a weekly programme a year and a half ago. He believes the fact that the programme touched on the case of the city's former Catholic church - now in the hands of the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate - may have contributed to Orthodox hostility to the programme and the station.
Machitadze stresses that the 28 March attack is only the latest in a string of incidents, including rowdy protests on 22 and 31 January. "The police investigated those incidents but brought no criminal cases. Why not?" He says that in the wake of the latest attack, the city procuracy is again looking at these incidents.
As one of the leading suspects in the latest attack - Gia Aprasidze - is a serving army officer, investigation of the attack was handed to the military procuracy, but on 10 April it was returned to the city procuracy after the military procuracy ruled that there was "insufficient evidence" against the officer.
Both Machitadze and Adelkhanov report remarks by the local Orthodox bishop, Metropolitan Kallistrat, who has been hostile to the station. "He twice warned his flock not to listen to the Catholic programme and threatened that he would deny communion to those who did so," Adelkhanov told Forum 18. He pointed out that local Orthodox seminarians took part in demonstrations against the station in January, including an attempt to ransack the station on 31 January that was prevented by the station's security guards after the police had left.
Machitadze believes Metropolitan Kallistrat might have been behind an attempt to close down the station at about the same time, when local people protested that the station's broadcasts were harming their health. With such strong forces ranged against it, Adelkhanov doubts whether Dzveli Kalaki will see justice done and whether the state authorities will protect it. "I believe the station will not have protectors strong enough to resist those who are more powerful. The Catholic Church is very cautious and I doubt it will take strong measures to defend the station."
Despite the continuing pressure, Machitadze vows that the weekly 20-minute Catholic broadcasts will continue. "It is a question of principle," he told Forum 18News
Source: http://www.forum18.org/
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Scepticism greets new pledges to end religious violence
By Felix Corley
Forum 18 News Service (25.03.2003)/ HRWF Int. (26.03.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email : info@hrwf.net - Minority religious leaders and human rights activists remain sceptical that new pledges from Georgia's political leaders to end the long-running religious violence and punish the perpetrators will bring justice to the victims of the more than one hundred attacks since 1999. Pledges made by President Eduard Shevardnadze at a rescheduled ecumenical Christian service on 14 March (see separate F18News article) have been echoed by the secretary of the Georgian Security Council Tedo Japaridze. "I have no doubt that the perpetrators of this violence will be punished," he told Forum 18 News Service from Tbilisi on 25 March. Prosecutor general Nugzar Gabrichidze was equally confident. "The perpetrators are not above the law," he told Forum 18 the same day. "I give a guarantee that if the victims of the violence go to court the perpetrators will be sentenced within one or two days."
Most critical of the authorities' claims to be tackling the violence was Levan Ramishvili, director of the Tbilisi-based Liberty Institute, which has defended religious minorities and was itself the victim of violence from a mob last July. "President Shevardnadze's apology at the ecumenical service was positive, but came too late," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 25 March. "There is no willingness on the part of the government to end the persecution."
Genady Gudadze, head of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Georgia, withheld any verdict on the president's promises. "The statements sound wonderful but in practice no-one has been sentenced for the violence," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 25 March. "The government must work to bring its practice into line with its promises."
Even Malkhaz Songulashvili, head of the Baptist Union and host of the 14 March ecumenical service attended by the president, remained to be convinced that the high-level pledge to end the religious violence would lead to prosecutions of the perpetrators. "I am not one hundred per cent sure," he told Forum 18 from Tbilisi on 25 March. "What I felt from the president's words is that any new cases of violence will be prosecuted. But I didn't have the feeling that those who have already committed violence will be put in jail immediately."
Ramishvili said the trial of one leader of the violence, the Tbilisi-based Old Calendarist priest Basil Mkalavishvili, is continuing as before, "but with no progress". Likewise, the trial of Paata Bluashvili, leader of the ultra-Orthodox group Jvari in the town of Rustavi south east of the capital, is making little progress. Neither has been arrested.
Ramishvili termed Jvari "a criminal organisation". "They hide behind patriotic statements, but they have engaged in violence, such as attacking a Jehovah's Witness convention in Gori. They should be in prison - all of them." He said Jvari activists were the chief suspects in the attack on his institute. He added that he believes the group was set up by senior police officers, notably Soso Alavidze. Alavidze, a former chief of the Rustavi and then Tbilisi police, is now head of public relations at the mayor's office in Rustavi.
Gudadze told Forum 18 that both Bluashvili and Mkalavishvili not only organised and led the attacks on their communities but personally participated. "They didn't just lead them but joined in the beatings."
Mkalavishvili's trial began in Tbilisi's Didube-Chugureti District Court on 25 January 2002 but was postponed on numerous occasions. At first the case included three attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses (one of which took place in the public defender's office), one on the Baptists and one on the newspaper Rezonansi. The Baptists and Rezonansi withdrew from the case, leaving only the three Jehovah's Witness incidents. Mkalavishvili faces charges under articles 120 (causing light injuries), 125 (beatings), 155 (illegally hindering religious activity), 226 (hooliganism) and 256 (persecution) of the Criminal Code.
"The Mkalavishvili case is due to resume on 31 March," Gudadze told Forum 18. "Although the case has been in court for more than a year they have not even begun to hear testimony from victims." He said court officials had promised to arrange adequate security when the trial resumes. "They have promised more than 50 police officers. That will be enough. Although we are likely to be verbally abused, we will turn up." He said at some hearings in the past it had been impossible for the Jehovah's Witnesses to attend because of the lack of security.
Bluashvili's trial in Rustavi, set to begin on 26 or 27 March, covers several of the most serious attacks by Jvari on Jehovah's Witness meetings, including an attack in Marneuli in 2001 and attacks in Rustavi that year and in 2002.
Despite the failure to secure any prosecutions over the more than one hundred attacks, Japaridze of the security council is convinced the perpetrators will be brought to justice. "The case is quite strong now," he told Forum 18. "It is a good question why they have not been prosecuted so far, but there is no doubt they will be punished." He said that the government could not directly intervene in a legal case, but it was aware that the country could be expelled from the Council of Europe if it failed to punish the perpetrators. Although he claimed to be confident that justice would be done he declined to give any time frame.
Prosecutor general Gabrichidze denied that Mkalavishvili had escaped prosecution so far because the government was afraid of him. "He is not above the law. No-one is afraid of anyone, least of all of Mkalavishvili." Gabrichidze put more of the blame for the failure to see the perpetrators prosecuted on the victims. "The victims failed to turn up in court," he told Forum 18. "The procuracy is doing everything." Told that the Jehovah's Witnesses and other victims had earlier been reluctant to turn up in court without guarantees of adequate police protection, he responded: "They shouldn't be afraid. We give a guarantee we will give them police protection. Maybe there was an atmosphere of intimidation in the court-room, but there won't be in future."
Gudadze takes some comfort from the fact that there have been no attacks on Jehovah's Witness communities since 30 January, when Bluashvili led an attack on a meeting in Rustavi. A day earlier one of Mkalavishvili's victims, Giorgi Meparishvili, was confronted in Tbilisi by two unknown men carrying handguns. He was injured during his escape. "Something has changed ever so slightly since the president's statements."
However, Songulashvili points out that the Baptist Betheli centre now being built in Tbilisi was raided by a mob led by the parliamentary deputy Guram Sharadze on 12 February. "The mob tried to enter the building, but our people didn't let them in." He said the police were called but the mob eventually disappeared. "I heard later from officials that the raid was related to the talks I held later that day with the visiting rapporteurs of the Council of Europe," he told Forum 18. He pointed out that the local police chief and other officers had raided the centre in January and insulted the Baptists.
Although violent attacks have tailed off in the past month, many believe it is only a temporary respite. In an interview in the weekly paper Asaval Dasavali (News from Here and There) of 17-23 March, Mkalavishvili pledged to resume his fight when Lent is over, promising that 50,000 Orthodox would take to the streets to fight against "sectarian, Satanic meetings".
Source: F18News http://www.forum18.org/
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Council of Europe warns Georgia on rights
AP (14.02.2003)/ HRWF Int. (14.02.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - A Council of Europe monitor warned the former Soviet republic of Georgia on Friday that it could be expelled from the continent's chief human rights body if it does not heed the group's recommendations in the coming months.
"Georgia is not fulfilling its commitments before the Council of Europe," council rapporteur Matyas Eorsi said in a sharp statement after a three-day visit to the Caucasus Mountain nation, where President Eduard Shevardnadze is under pressure from vocal opponents.
"The government believes that it can only satisfy Council of Europe standards by adopting new laws," Eorsi said. "Passing laws is important, of course, but it should not be forgotten that the most important thing is not their adoption but their implementation. It's time for the authorities to understand that you cannot provide for forward movement with empty pieces of paper."
Eorsi did not discuss the perceived shortcomings in detail, but said that if Georgia does not fulfill the council's recommendations by the time of the group's next visit in June, it could be expelled.
He said the most recent presidential and parliamentary elections were marred by many violations and said the lack of trust between the government and the nation's political parties ion the run-up to autumn parliamentary elections is disturbing.
Eorsi also criticized what he said were cases of persecution of religious minorities, saying those responsible for attacks motivated by religious prejudice must be punished.
He said that when religious groups such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and Hare Krishna members feel comfortable in Georgia, it will be a sign that democratic reforms are making progress.
Followers of a defrocked Georgian Orthodox priest have frequently attacked Jehovah's Witnesses, disrupted their meetings, and burned books and brochures printed by the group.
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Violent religious intolerance remains unchecked in Georgia
Georgian JW Public Affairs Office (31.01.2003)/ HRWF Int. (03.02.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - On January 29, 2003, on the eve of a Supreme Court hearing of a case he filed, Giorgi Meparishvili, who is one of Jehovah's Witnesses and a previous victim of religiously motivated violence, was confronted and then chased by two unidentified men armed with handguns. Meparishvili fled, making his way to the roof of a five-story apartment building. Attempting to escape his pursuers, he jumped, aiming to land in a tree near the building. The tree broke his fall, but he was still seriously injured. He is now in the hospital and has regained consciousness. The extent of his injuries has yet to be determined.
On the next day, yet another attack by religious extremists was carried out against a congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses peacefully meeting together in the city of Rustavi. Victims identified the attackers as Paata Bluashvili and other members of the ultra-Orthodox extremist organization "Jvari." Bluashvili is known to have publicly boasted on national television that he carries out such attacks. Despite numerous promises from the government of Georgia to curb such violence, even the simplest step of detaining Bluashvili has not been undertaken.
Over the last three years, nearly 800 criminal complaints have been filed with the Prosecutor's office against known religious extremists who have carried out violent attacks against Jehovah's Witnesses. To date, not one of these individuals has been arrested or convicted for these criminal acts.
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Orthodox seminarists against radiomen
CIPDD (28.01.2003)/HRWF Int. (29.01.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - On January 28, 2003, some Orthodox seminarians attacked a group of radiomen in the town of Kutaisi, Georgia, because they had broadcast a programme on the Catholic Church.
On 25 January, the broadcasting of the only independent Kutaisi radio station, Dzveli Kalaki (Old Town), was suspended by a court decision, formally as a result of some townspeople's complaints about harmful radiation emitted by the station. It turned out that the station had not a sanity certificate. None of the Georgian radio stations has, the radio journalists say. Some of them say they have enough reasons to suppose that the complainants were influenced by local Orthodox Church authorities displeased with the weekly 20-min programme on the life and history (sometimes also on concerns) of the local Catholic community. They say Bishop Kallistrat of Kutaisi had repeatedly warned his flock against listening to the programme.
Indignant at the court decision (they say no health service has ever had anything against their broadcasting), the journalists arranged an protest action but they were attacked by the students of the local seminary.
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The radical Orthodox wrecked the eucumenical service
CIPDD (24.01.2003)/ HRWF Int. (29.01.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net - On January 24, 2003, at about 3 pm, a crowd of ultra-Orthodox Basil Mkalavishvili adherents disturbed the ecumenical service that was due to start at the main Baptist church in Kakhovka Street, Tbilisi. They threw stones, broke windows and tried to rush inside. Some of those, who locked themselves in the church, including a female NGO worker, Lela Kartvelishvil, were injured. The police managed to drive the assailants off.
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