Washington Post 24 sept

RUSSIA PASSES BILL CURBING SOME FAITHS

Gore's Pleas Ignored; Court Test Foreseen

By David Hoffman
Washington Post Foreign Service
The Washington Post
Thursday, September 25, 1997; Page A01

MOSCOW, Sept. 24-The upper chamber of the Russian parliament unanimously approved legislation today restricting the rights and activities of minority religions, brushing aside Western objections and sending the bill to President Boris Yeltsin, who is expected to sign it.

The Federation Council, which is made up of regional leaders, voted 137 to 0 for the legislation, despite two days of objections from Vice President Gore, who completed a visit to Russia today. The U.S. Senate has threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Russia if the bill becomes law.

The Kremlin signaled this week that Yeltsin, who vetoed an earlier version of the legislation on grounds that it was unconstitutional, is prepared to sign the latest draft, which his aides helped write. The lower house, the State Duma, overwhelmingly approved the legislation Friday.

If signed by Yeltsin, the law probably will face a challenge in the Constitutional Court.

Sought by the Russian Orthodox Church, which has felt threatened by the growth of minority faiths and sects on Russian soil since the fall of communism, the legislation would create separate categories of religions, and place legal, financial and operational restrictions on those not deemed "traditional."

Under the preamble to the bill, the traditional faiths are Russian Orthodoxy, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism -- which were in the original version -- and "Christianity," which was added to the final version.

But the text of the legislation places limits on those groups that cannot prove they have been operating in Russia for at least 15 years -- a requirement that would exclude all but those that were active here when Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev died, a time when the state was officially atheist and religious activists and dissidents were persecuted and imprisoned.

Among denominations that might be restricted by the new law are the Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists, Pentecostalists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many smaller sects and cults. The Vatican has objected to the legislation.

"It's clearly disappointing to anyone who lived through the events of August 1991 and saw the great break from the past," said Donald K. Jarvis, president of the Moscow mission of the Mormon Church, referring to the failed 1991 coup attempt that preceded the collapse of Soviet power.

Jarvis recalled that even before the Soviet downfall, a liberal law on religion was approved in 1990. "There was a wave of liberal thinking that gripped Russia," he said, but added that it appears to be waning as Russians suffer through hard economic times. He said minority faiths are being turned into "scapegoats" for the pain of the country's transformation.

If taken literally, he said, the legislation "looks very repressive indeed, and would make things quite difficult for our people. It would send a number of our congregations back to the way things were in East Germany under the Soviet [Communist] regime. We had a presence there and could own property, but that was about all. There was no way we could send any missionaries in, and there was no distribution of literature."

The Mormon Church has 7,000 members in Russia and about 500 people doing missionary work, Jarvis said. "If it's implemented the way it's written, we would have no missionaries from outside of Russia," he added.

In recent days, Kremlin officials, bracing for protests from abroad, have been suggesting that the law may not be rigidly implemented.

"The Russian government is promising more limited implementation. Nobody expects it to be implemented in full," Jarvis said. "I'm cautiously optimistic. In the large cities, we'll probably be treated fairly. It's out in the provinces where things may get a little shaky."

The 1993 constitution guarantees religions "shall be equal before the law." But critics say the bill creates separate and unequal categories of religion, and a court test is likely.

Lawrence Uzzell, representative here of the Keston Institute, which monitors religious-freedom issues in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, said the bill "is on an express train" and probably will be signed quickly by Yeltsin. Uzzell said Russian authorities have carried out a "disinformation campaign" suggesting that the bill is a compromise supported by many faiths, when it is not.

Gore's appeals this week seem to have been ignored. He said he raised the issue with Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and created a "process" of conveying American concerns. Less than 24 hours later, the Federation Council acted.

Uzzell said even if Yeltsin signs the bill, "pressure from the West still matters. Over the next three to four months, regulations will be written implementing the law. There is room for leeway. There has been a serious public relations offensive by the Kremlin to try and convince the press that regulations will be softer. Unless the Western pressure continues, that is going to be just a public relations exercise, and nothing else."

The legislation would create at least two levels of religious organizations with a status less than "traditional" faiths. At the bottom would be groups that fail to meet the 15-year test and thus do not qualify for official registration. According to Uzzell, they would be denied the right to engage in charitable activities, to have bank accounts or to own real estate.

At another level, some groups that are not "traditional" might win formal registration. But they would have only limited rights and would be second-class to the "traditional" denominations.