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The leaders of 50 Protestant communities in Belarus have petitioned Alyaksandr Lukashenka to overrule the Minsk government's decision to take away a land plot and a prayer house from New Life Church.
"As church ministers, we work to restore spirituality in the country and free people from the vices that corrupt their personality," the petition says. "The position you declare indicates that we make common cause with you. If this is true, we do not understand why government officials of different levels obstruct our work, which is based on the constitution of the Republic of Belarus and regulations currently in force, especially considering that these regulations often restrict freedom of religion."
Instead of ensuring compliance with freedom of conscience regulations, authorities persecute Protestant believers, the petition says. And yet they tell the media and international organizations that religious communities in Belarus have absolutely no problems, according to the petition.
The government's treatment of New Life Church has been particularly appalling, the petition says, noting that the community has been hounded for almost a decade.
In 2006, presidential aide Aleh Pralyaskowski promised to deal with the problem facing New Life Church, which was in danger of losing its prayer house, the petition says. "However, three years have passed and we can see that nothing has changed," it adds.
The building, which rightfully belongs to New Life Church and gathers more than 1000 worshippers every Sunday, is to be vacated by August 21, the petitioners say.
They urge the Belarusian leader to intervene to restore justice and protect the constitutional rights of believers.
In mid-May, Dzmitry Shashok, head of the Maskowski district housing authority, ordered New Life Church to vacate its prayer house by June 1.
The community defied the order despite Mr. Shashok's warning that failure to obey it would be dealt with in accordance with regulations currently in force.
In March, the Minsk government offered the community to consider applying for a 0.4-hectare (one-acre) plot at the intersection of the Minsk Beltway and Sharanhovicha Street instead of the land plot that New Life Church had been ordered to vacate.
The city government explained that the community's current prayer house was to be demolished under a presidential edict and the general development plan for Minsk.
At their general meeting held on May 5, New Life Church members unanimously voted to reject the offer.
It would take the community between 18 and 24 months and at least $100,000 to obtain the necessary permits for getting a new land plot, New Life Church lawyer Syarhey Lukanin explained in an earlier interview with BelaPAN. The construction of a new building would cost from $3 million to $5 million, he added. "In addition, people said that the community's prayers and sufferings had made the disputed plot into holy land," Mr. Lukanin said.
According to him, the community actually asked the Minsk government to expand its current land plot to enable the construction of a new modern building, a Bible college, a student dormitory, a rehabilitation center for alcohol and drug addicts and victims of violence, a homeless shelter and other facilities to accommodate social services. New Life Church requested the Minsk government to provide funding for these projects out of its budget.
On March 5, an appellate panel of the Supreme Economic Court of Belarus rejected an appeal against a ruling by a Supreme Economic Court judge that upheld the Minsk city government's decision to take away the land plot and the prayer house from New Life Church.
New Life Church, one of the largest communities of the Association of Full Gospel Christians, obtained state registration in December 1992 and is said to have more than 1000 members. In 2002, the community bought a former cowshed together with a four-acre land plot from a kolkhoz. It converted the building into a prayer house and some 500 to 700 people gathered there each Sunday for worship.
The area was later added to the territory of Minsk and the city government decided to confiscate the plot and ordered New Life Church to sell the former cowshed to the city for 37.6 million rubels, or some $10 per square meter. Officials explained that this amount was what the building had been worth before New Life Church converted it into a prayer house without permission.
In the fall of 2006, following several unsuccessful suits, more than 100 community members went on an open-ended hunger strike, with dozens starting a round-the-clock protest vigil inside the prayer house. The hunger strike lasted for 23 days and was suspended after Viktar Kamyankow, chairman of the Supreme Economic Court, had contested all court rulings against the community and requested the Court to hear the New Life Church case as a court of primary jurisdiction.