U.S. Department of State Human Rights Report 1998
The Constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the
Government restricts this right in practice. The Government enforces
a 1995 Cabinet of Ministers decree that controls religious workers,
in an attempt to protect orthodoxy and prevent the growth of evangelical
religions. Foreigners generally are prohibited from preaching or
heading churches, at least with respect to what the Government views
as "nontraditional" religions, which include Protestant
faiths. In September 1997, a Belarusian Baptist pastor was arrested
for allowing a foreigner to lead a prayer group under the pastor's
auspices. The pastor subsequently was released. A 1997 directive
by the Council of Ministers prohibits teaching religion at youth
camps.
Citizens are not prohibited from proselytizing, but foreign missionaries
may not engage in religious activities outside the institutions
that invited them. Only religious organizations already registered
in the country may invite foreign clergy.
Foreign religious workers who do not register with the authorities,
or who fail to get approval for religious activities--often a difficult
bureaucratic process--have been expelled from the country.
The Government and the President encourage a greater role for the
Orthodox Church, largely as part of an overall strategy to strengthen
Slavic unity in the region. However, the effort has not slowed the
growth of Roman Catholic and Protestant churches. Nevertheless,
the Catholic Church has experienced difficulty getting permission
from authorities to bring in a sufficient number of outside religious
workers to make up for a shortage of native clergy. According to
an independent Russian press report, President Lukashenko told Russian
Orthodox Church Patriarch Aleksey II, during a visit by the Patriarch
to Minsk in late September, that Christian values should become
"the state ideology of Belarus."
During a press conference held at a seminar in Minsk in early December,
Vyacheslav Savitskiy, an official of the State Committee on Religious
and Ethnic Affairs, emphasized the existence of "destructive
sects" in the country. According to Savitskiy, the Government
had denied the registration requests of 11 such "sects."
For example, authorities consistently have denied the repeated registration
attempts of the Belarus Orthodox Autocephalous Church.
The President granted the Orthodox Church special financial advantages,
which other denominations do not enjoy, and has declared the preservation
and development of Orthodox Christianity a "moral necessity."
Bishops must receive permission from the State Committee on Religious
Affairs before transferring a foreign priest to another parish.
Restitution of religious property remained limited during the year.
A key obstacle is the lack of a legal basis for restitution of property
that was seized during the Soviet era and the Nazi occupation. The
few returns of property to religious communities have been on an
individual and inconsistent basis, and local government authorities
in general are reluctant to cooperate on the issue. Over the past
several years, the Jewish community has lobbied the Government successfully
to return three synagogues in Minsk and several buildings outside
the capital. In August following extensive restoration, the Catholic
community reconsecrated a church in Pruzhany that had been shut
down by Soviet authorities following World War II. The consecration
ceremony was led by the church's former priest who had spent 10
years in prison in Siberia during the Soviet period.
Source:
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1998, U.S. Department
of State.
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Religious
Freedom in the Belarus Constitution
