CEE Story From The Mission Field
The Violence Continues
January 24, 2005
Violence against Baptist Churches continues to be a problem in the Republic of Georgia. Two small village congregations in the Eastern part of the Republic are facing violent attacks aimed at removing them from the villages.
In the village of Velitsikhe, 600 villagers surrounded the home of a church deacon, which was still under construction. This home was also to serve as the meeting place for 12 Baptist families in the village. The mob, carrying banners declaring “We’re Orthodox, we don’t need Baptists,” surrounded the house and shouted insults for three hours before dispersing.
Despite the fact that the Baptists have won the legal right to build, the District Governor claimed that they could not enforce a law against the will of the people.
"[The Villagers] don’t understand the Baptists’ rights, and the village is against the Baptists’ buildings,” he said. This was his justification for the persecution. His advice to the Baptists was to sell the house or watch it be demolished.
In a separate incident, unknown attackers smashed windows of a house in the village of Kuchatani that is used as a simple church for up to fifteen local Baptists. This is just the latest in a series of attacks. The house had just been repaired from a prior incident in October. The village of Kuchatani is in the same district as the church that was burned out in 2003.These church members have still not been granted the right to re-build.
The arson of 2003 was the grand finale of a five-year reign of terror against religious minorities by self-appointed and self-declared Orthodox vigilantes between 1999 and 2003. One Priest and 6 of his associates are currently on trial for the crimes committed against Baptists and other non-Orthodox congregations during this time. However, according to those who have been victimized, hundreds more individuals who organized and took part in the wave of violence, including the Georgian Orthodox Patriarch, have never been punished.
Much planning went into this latest attack in the village of Velitsikhe. Though the village administrator and the district governor deny it, Baptists claim that the villagers were “stirred up” against the Baptists for two days before the attack. Even teachers and children missed school to take part in the demonstration.
"This was all prepared in advance,” said pastor Akhalmosulishvili.
The persecution is not only against the Baptists and other Evangelicals in Georgia. The Catholic Church is also complaining of denied permission to build churches. The local authorities in the city of Akhaltsikhe say that they need the permission of the Orthodox Church to build. Throughout Georgia, no religious minorities are currently building places of worship openly.
"There is no religion law and religious communities apart from the Orthodox Church have no legal status, so they cannot build,” explained Nikolai Kalutsky, a Pentecostal pastor.
Meanwhile, the Orthodox are building more than a hundred new churches across the country. Pastor Akhalmosulishvili is frustrated with the bureaucracy. “If we’re banned from building churches, meeting and praying together, let them expel us from Georgia,” he said.
The information in this report was obtained from Forum 18 news service. Find out more at http://www.forum18.org.