Jehovah's Witnesses recalls troubles
AP (19.04.2001) HRWF International Secretariat (23.04.2001)- Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net Jehovah's Witnesses in Ukraine on Thursday marked the 50th anniversary of their deportation to Siberia by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, reviving painful memories of the expulsion.
"Armed soldiers broke into houses at night, ordering the people to gather their belongings,'' said Roman Yurkevych, head of the U.S.-based church's Ukrainian bureau.
The deportation occurred on March 27, 1951, though a round table conference marking the event was held Thursday. Some 2,020 families comprising 6,140 believers were deported from Ukraine - about 70 percent of Jehovah's Witnesses taken to Siberia from across the former Soviet Union.
" They only allowed a family to take 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of belongings, put people into cattle wagons and took them to Siberia,'' Yurkevych said at the round table, according to the Interfax news agency.
He said most Jehovah's Witnesses refused to sign a document renouncing their beliefs, which could have allowed them to stay.
"Jehovah's Witnesses were ready to accept sacrifices and trials but preserve their beliefs,'' Yurkevych said, adding that more than 1,000 of those deported to Siberia from Ukraine are alive today.
The church was officially registered in Ukraine in February 1991, just months before the Soviet collapse, and today its followers number about 115,000 people, Interfax reported.
Jehovah's Witnesses have been registered in other former Soviet republics as well, but still suffer persecution and harassment including a spate of recent attacks in the Caucasus nation of Georgia and court cases initiated by regional authorities in Russia.
Greek-Catholics out in the cold in Crimea
Zenit (02.02.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (05.02.2001) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - A Greek-Catholic community in this Black Sea port is facing ongoing opposition from the Orthodox Church, which has prevented it from building a church to serve its 200-strong community, the Keston News Service reports (http://www.keston.org).
The problem simmers, just months before John Paul II's visit to Ukraine, which he hopes will help promote dialogue with the Orthodox in this country of 49 million people.
Despite having obtained registration a decade ago, the Greek-Catholics have failed in persistent attempts to acquire a plot of land in central Sevastopol to build their own church. City Council in 1995 approved a development plan which includes up to 99 Orthodox churches, but leaves no space for a Greek-Catholic church.
It is not clear if the refusal to grant the Greek-Catholics land for a church will be discussed when the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, visits Sevastopol next week, although he will discuss with City Council the refusal to hand back the confiscated Roman Catholic church.
Anatoli Sigora, a senior official of the religious affairs department of Sevastopol's city administration, said, "The Orthodox do everything they can to prevent Greek-Catholics, whom they consider 'uncanonical,' from acquiring a plot, especially near the Orthodox churches. Historically, there has never been a single Greek-Catholic church in this area."
Orthodox obstruction has also prevented the Greek-Catholics from joining the Interconfessional Council of the Crimea, of which Roman Catholic Father Roman Derdzyak of the Latin rite is a permanent member. The explanation given is that the Greek-Catholics are not a "traditional" denomination in the region.
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