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This was the decision rendered by the city court on a petition from residents of one of the buildings on Victory Prospect in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Regnum.ru reports. The construction of the house of worship next to a multistory building entailed violations of the rights of citizens to information about the adoption of decisions regarding city construction, the court found. Residents of the building opposed from the start a worship building in their neighborhood. The courts decision takes legal effect ten days after its publication in final form. However during this time representatives of the religious organization intend to appeal the court's decision. At the same time residents of the building were supported by the city assembly of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Deputies recommended to the city administration to rescind the decrees associated with granting land under the Jehovah's Witnesses' house of worship and to purchase the unfinished building as municipal property.
The Jehovah's Witnesses congregation has existed on Sakhalin for more than a year, but only this year did it received permission for construction of its own house of worship. Work began in the summer. It immediately upset the deputies of the Sakhalin provincial duma. Representatives of the Sakhalin Jehovah's Witnesses congregation did not consider the increased interest of the legislators to be a problem. The greater part of the local residents did not know what kind of building was being built in their yard. As Regnum.ru agency reported earlier, everything in the construction was done properly. The builders were cheerful and hospitable. Ideal order reigned on the construction site. According to one of the participants, this was the only construction project where uncontrolled swearing was not heard.
The administration's permission for the construction was also considered illegal by the Sakhalin diocese of the Russian Orthodox church. As the reporter for Regnum.ru agency wrote, while RPTs treats official Christian confessions as well as the representations of other world religions with tolerance, it is sharply negative toward the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The head of the local diocese thinks that such sects should not exist at all. One of the basic provisions of the rules of the Jehovah's Witnesses is not to participate in any kind of military actions. From the point of view of the representative of RPTs, this at least is strange since such a position could mean only one thing: if someone attacks the country, then followers of Jehovah's Witnesses' doctrine would not defend their fatherland. Russia is one of the few states where the organizations of Jehovah's Witnesses are not forbidden. In a majority of European countries their activity is considered illegal. The reason for the appearance of such sects in Russia, Bishop Daniil of Yuzhno Sakhalinsk and the Kuriles thinks, is the years' long spiritual vacuum. Thus, he says, it is necessary to take all possible measures for their prohibition. In order to get permission for construction the Jehovah's Witnesses bribed the government workers, the head of the diocese noted. (tr. by PDS, posted 89 December 2002)
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On Tuesday Vsevolod Kurepin, a Nizhny Novgorod conscientious objector who participated in the first Russian experiment in alternative civilian service, received from Strasbourg an answer to his appeal to the European Court on Human Rights. In connection with the adoption of a new law on alternative civilian service, he and other volunteers who worked from January to August of this year as medics in Nizhny city hospital No. 1 have been threatened with a three and a half year term of service in the armed forces of the Russian federation, far from home.
But Vsevolod is fighting not only, and not even so much, for his own interests as "for the issue" and he hopes that his appeal, which now has been registered by the European court, "will facilitate the adoption of a Russian law on alternative civilian service in accordance with international standards."
The conscientious objector was helped in writing his appeal by rights defender Stanislav Semchenko, who in his 26 years managed to graduate from Nottingham University, with a major in "international law, and from the Human Rights Program of Columbia University. The rights defender identified numerous "faults" in the law and they were sent to Strasbourg. For example, the requirement of proving one's convictions directly contradicts the constitution ("No one can be forced to express his opinions and convictions or to renounce them"). The European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia has adhered, states: "a person may profess his religion or maintain his convictions both in community with others as well as individually." That is, if a draftee is a member of the church of Jehovah's Witnesses, then he can submit an affidavit. But if he prays in his own way on the floor of his house, then does he have to go into the army?
"It is impossible to prove convictions as a juridical fact," Semchenko says.
Now conscientious objector Kurepin and rights defender Semchenko have registered an organization called the "Center for International Defense of Human Rights." Its only goal is the change in the law on alternative civilian service.
"I greatly dislike this schizophrenia with the experiment," Kurepin says. "Nobody can say what our status now is and what we have to do. Eight conscientious objectors (out of twenty) are still working in the hospital, and with the protection of the former mayor, Lebedev, they are studying at the legal academy and have received a deferment from the draft. The other participants in the experiment are awaiting their fate; many have already been "sent to military service." That is, they have had physical examinations and dealt with the draft commission, but they filed suit in court to appeal its decision. The court still has not rendered a verdict and they cannot be inducted into the army.
The new mayor, Bulavinov, sent a letter to the minister of defense in support of the eight men who are continuing their work. The remaining twelve, according to Kurepin, also do not oppose returning to the hospital; they only want for a government (any) to make a concrete decision: will the Nizhny Novgorod experiment be continued or will they receive credit for their seven months of hard work. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 December 2002)
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As we already have reported, a group of residents of one of the buildings in the provincial capital have filed suit against the mayor of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The plaintiffs request that the order granting a plot of land for construction of a house of worship to the Jehovah's Witnesses religious organization be declared illegal since undesirable consequences have occurred in the neighborhood. Recently the city court completed a review of the suit and found the mayor's order not in conformity with the law. We should add that the plaintiffs themselves had removed yet another request, that the mayor be required to pay for the almost completed building.
Although the court's decision was rendered, it still has not entered into effect and the losing side still has the right to appeal. However the plaintiffs hope that this question can be decided peacefully. Their position has also been strengthened by a decision of the city assembly of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk of 2 December supporting the residents' statement on similar bases. City deputies recommended to the mayor that he rescind his decree and buy the building for purposes of future use for city needs. In addition, the representative body issued instructions for itself: to add an amendment to its bylaws regarding participation of city citizens and their associations in the discussion and adoption of decisions regarding city construction by way of informing the population.
The court session, according to observers, was extremely crowded. Besides representatives of the sides, the trial was observed by participants of the religious organization that will be affected by this decision. Whether they can state their claims and to whom is thus far unclear.
In addition, there is in the court an appeal from several Orthodox believers who were convicted with regard to the assignment of individual tax numbers to Russians. Ignoring explanations from senior hierarchs of RPTs that there are no satanic phenomena in this action of the secular authorities, several have continued to insist on their right not to be "enumerated." They think that the time of implanting of microchips in people is not far off. Thus, as we have seen, not everything is orderly in relations among society, believers, and the authorities. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 December 2002)
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