Wednesday 7 October LUTHERAN MISSION IN KHAKASSIA DEPRIVED OF REGISTRATION By Tatyana Titova, Keston News Service As Keston News Service has already reported, the persecution of the Lutherans in Khakassia by the local procurator has not stopped. The community led by PASTOR PAVEL ZAYAKIN has already suffered many attacks. On 3 June Keston News Service reported on the court examination being prepared for July. The court rejected the procurator's demands that the community cease its distribution of religious literature, that its educational and other programmes be suppressed and that its foreign contacts be halted. Nevertheless, the subsequent court session went ahead two months later and ruled that the community be deprived of registration. The procurator of Shira district read a statement to the court calling for points 4-9 of Article 3, Article 8, points 2 and 4 of Article 14, and Article 21 of the statute (`Ustav') of the Evangelical-Lutheran Mission of the village of Tuim to be ruled invalid. He argued that `in accordance with point 3 of Article 27 of the Federal law of 26 September 1997 on freedom of conscience and religious organisations, statutes and other founding documents of religious organisations established before the entry into force of the current Law are valid only in those parts that do not contradict the Law.' The procurator argued that the points of the Lutherans' statute he cited contradicted the 1997 law as the community did not have documents proving their existence on the given territory for at least 15 years. In reply, the representative of the community, V.N. NOSOV, presented two documents signed by the head of the administration of the town of Borets and the head of the administration of the Shira district declaring that the religious organisations had existed in the town of Borets and in the district since 1972. Countering the procurator's assertion that the community was registered as a juridical person only in 1978 and that therefore the documents had no legal validity, Nosov explained that until the adoption of the 1990 law on freedom of religious confession, if registration of religious organisations took place at all it was only unofficially by the organs of the KGB. Therefore he doubted whether even the Orthodox Church could provide such registration documents. The presence of communities of Lutherans was clearly linked to the resettlement there of a large number of Volga Germans during the Second World War. Having heard the arguments of the procurator and the representative of the Lutheran community and having reviewed the documents presented, the court ruled: `The application by the procurator of Shira district to recognise as invalid points 4-9 of Article 3, Article 8, points 2 and 4 of Article 14, and Article 21 of the statute of the Evangelical-Lutheran Mission of the village of Tuim is REJECTED.' However, it was not time for the community to celebrate a victory. On 10 September Pastor Zayakin received a summons to appear on 15 September at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Khakassia `for a conversation'. It was not until Pastor Zayakin presented himself on that date that it emerged that the procuracy of the Republic of Khakassia had again filed a suit to have the state registration of the Lutheran Mission declared invalid. The regular court session took place on 22 September and ruled that the registration of the mission was invalid. An appeal is to be launched to the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, the court of highest instance. The case is likely to be heard in two or three months. Pastor Zayakin told Keston News Service in a telephone conversation on 24 September that this time the procuracy contested the central provision of the Evangelical-Lutheran Mission statute, claiming that 7 of the 10 founders of the community were not Lutherans. This conclusion was based on statements which were extracted from members of the parish in the presence of a policeman and an officer of the Federal Security Service. 'We said that this was a question of a person's conscience, in accordance with the constitution. They asked during the hearing: "What is your confession?". One witness went pale and fainted, and I was not even allowed to help him. Witnesses declared: "We will not reply, as it is our own personal business." The plenipotentiary for religious affairs, NIKOLAI STEPANOVICH VOLKOV, declared that the Americans were paying us a wage. People in the court were saying that they had been put under such pressure that they were afraid. But the judges did not seem to pay any attention to this.' Zayakin summed up the feelings of the Lutheran community in the wake of the court ruling. `We have 100 people, many of them children. I simply cannot explain in words how painful it is for us. It is such a trampling of our freedoms and rights! We told the people: "Don't be afraid. You have the right to choose any faith."' (END)