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From explosions in synagogues to a mine field throughout Russia
Last Sunday an explosion rumbled again in the capital. And again in a synagogue. This time on Bolshaia Bronnaia. Fortunately, nobody was injured. But the persistence with which the terrorists are delivering their "pinpoint blows" on Jewish worship centers causes terror. In just the last three months there have been four explosions near synagogues. Quite recently there was the horrible attempted assassination on the director of the Jewish cultural center, Leopold Kaimovsky.
One of the most influential newspapers in Israel, "Maariv," writes: "Everything that has happened can be considered as an intensification of antisemitic attitudes on the streets of Russian cities."
"We cannot analyze the motives of the terrorist act; it is not our work," the chief of the department of explosives technology of the center for the study of criminology of the MVD, Vladimir Martynov, told Obshchaia gazeta. "We cannot even say how similar are the mechanisms used in all of the incidents you have mentioned. We have been engaged only in the study of the explosive devices that were placed in the synagogues in May and now. With a great deal of probability experts suggest that these mechanisms are similar. That is, possibly they all are the work of a single maker. Most likely he is a specialist in explosives. But the explosive devices could have been placed by an entirely different person, not the maker. If the conclusions of experts are confirmed, then it may suggest the presence in Russia of some kind of underground center for manufacture of homemade explosives. thus, according to informants' data, the "infernal machine" costs 3,000 dollars or more on the black market.
What is thought about this in FSB, the only organization in Russia which is involved in investigation and analysis of terrorist acts in the country? As the chief of TsOS of FSB, Alexander Zdanovich, told OG, fragments of the explosive device collected from the synagogue on Bolshaia Bronnaia are in a special laboratory of the department. They are being studied there in hopes of identifying the maker. Each of them has its own distinctive mark. At least, the Chechen origin of the explosive in Piatigorsk was "distinctively marked." So the experts' conclusions then permitted the presentation of weighty evidence against terrorists Dadasheva and Teimaskhanova. Zdanovich declared that even if FSB experts discover something important, reporters will not be told about it. The search for the terrorists requires maximum secrecy.
To determine how many terrorist acts there have been in the last approximately two years is practically impossible. This is because of the secrecy which FSB has long practiced. But simple statistics of events that have received wide publicity testifies that in the past two years, at least in Moscow and Novosibirsk, there have been 14 terrorist acts. Of these, eight had signs of antisemitism and six were, so to speak, of a general nature (explosions at the USA embassy, Spassky tower, Kiev railroad station, etc.). It is curious that last year practically every explosion cost the life or health of people, while this year there have been no victims of explosions. It is not known what conclusion investigators draw from such an outcome, but for some reason it raises among us reporters to idea of a conscious provocation. To whom and why it is necessary is another matter. Possibly we sometime will get an answer to this question.
The rabbi of the synagogue on Bolshaia Bronnaia, Isaak Kohan, told OG that his parishioners now do not have confidence in the capabilities of the power structures. There is good reason for this declaration. It is a paradox, but literally on the eve of the Sunday explosion the chief rabbi of Russia, Adolf Shaevich, visited the Ministry of Internal Affairs with a delegation of Jewish clergy. There the rabbis were told that the synagogues can be secured in only one way, but concluding an agreement with independent security forces. "They tried to assure us," Adolf Shaevich told us, "by saying that the action with regard to our worship buildings does not have a systematic character. I agree with this. I think that the explosions are the work of individuals. But nevertheless individuals inspired by the failure to punish terrorists who carried out explosions in previous years.
And what does the government of Russia intend to do? In contrast to the loud appeals of Makashov and the months-long debates in the duma about the "Jewish question," there is no firm voice heard from the authorities. This is where to find the roots of the growing failure to punish Russian neonazis. And this is the reason for the explosions remaining unsolved for years. This is the source of the indifference of people with power. They say to reporters in corridors: "Why are you all concerned with an explosion in a synagogue. An Orthodox priest was recently killed outside Moscow, and who wrote about this."
So long as we divide citizens of Russia into ours and theirs, antisemitism will flourish in Russia like a hearty flower. While the material was being prepared for this edition, a new report arrived. The same synagogue on Bolshaia Bronnaia was surrounded again. Again a bomb search was conducted.
On Monday the general secretary of the World Jewish Congress, Israel Singer, met with the prime minister of Russia, Sergei Stepashin, in Washington. Mr. Singer insisted on strong actions by the Russian government with regard to the antisemitic organizations in the country. Sadly, Russian politicians are not making such demands on the prime minister. (tr. by PDS)
STEPASHIN PROMISES TO CRACK DOWN ON ANTI-SEMITISM
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - U.S. Jewish leaders met visiting Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin on Tuesday and said he had pledged to crack down on anti-Semitism.
``Prime Minister Stepashin said very clearly that he and his government are committed to provide security today to the synagogues and Jewish institutions,'' Denis Braham, spokesman for the Jewish groups, said after the meeting.
``We have to now wait and see what kind of actions they will implement,'' he added.
Braham, the chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, said Stepashin gave an assurance he would ``eradicate'' those perpetrating anti-Semitic and racist acts.
``The statements that we received in the past were not as strong as those we received today,'' Braham said, adding that the Jewish leaders would take Stepashin up on an invitation to visit Moscow to assess the situation.
Braham said the meeting with Stepashin, who is winding up a two-day visit to Washington that included talks with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, dealt at length with two anti-Semitic crimes in Russia earlier this month.
Last weekend, an attempt was made to bomb a Moscow synagogue and on July 13 the head of a Jewish community centre was stabbed by a youth with a swastika painted on his chest.
Jewish groups in Russia say economic hardship has fuelled a surge in anti-Semitism, especially in the south, and they accuse the government of acting too timidly to stamp it out.
``We are very much concerned that so far we have not eliminated ... the anti-Semitism from radical organisations,'' Stepashin said at a lunch earlier on Tuesday.
Braham quoted Stepashin as saying that he and President Boris Yeltsin's office had discussed the problem with Russia's internal security services.
(posted 29 July 1999)
An explosion in the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue of Moscow was avoided only by a miracle.
The investigative administration of the capital's federal security service opened a criminal code yesterday regarding the discovery of a bomb in the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue of the capital on Bolshaia Bronnaia street on the basis of article 205 of the criminal code of the Russian federation: terrorism.
The primary version of the investigation, naturally, is the planning of a terrorist act by antisemitic radicals. The bomb which was placed in the Chabad Lubavitch synagogue was not the first terrorist act committed in recent times against a Jewish congregation of the capital. Suffice it to recall the explosions of 1 May outside the building of the Central Choral Synagogue and the synagogue in Marina Roshche, as well as the attack in the building of the Central Choral Synagogue by twenty-year-old Nikita Krivchun on the associate director of the children's center of the arts, Leopold Kaimovsky. As was declared by the president of the Jewish congregation of Moscow, the popular artist Gennady Khazanov, "before our eyes the Jewish community of the capital has been turned into the object of unceasing provocations and terrorist acts."
The capital's mayor, Yury Luzhkov, issued a declaration yesterday in which he said: "We consider that this terrorist act was directed not only against Jews but also against the entire multinational population of Moscow. The criminals will be found and severely punished." The hope is that the best of the capital's counterintelligence forces will be thrown into the uncovering of the terrorist act on Bolshaia Bronnaia.
But in private conversation, one of the detectives told a Segodnia reporter: there also exists a second version: that the terrorist act did not have a political, but a commercial purpose, the destruction of a competitor. It is known that on Sunday the celebration of the day of the first haircut of the son of one of the influential members of the Jewish community was planned for the prayer hall of the synagogue, where the bomb was found on a book shelf. To it were invited around 200 persons, many of whom are famous businessmen. It cannot be ruled out that the terrorists were targeting one of them and chose the synagogue as a place for the attempted assassination in order to conceal its true goals. If that is the case, then the terrorist act is doubly inhumane: the chief guests for the holiday were three-year-old children.
No one today doubts that the number of victims would have been colossal. According to the preliminary conclusion of bombing experts of FSB, the "infernal machine" placed in the synagogue was of the high powered fragmentation type. Its force was greater than 500 on the TNT scale and it was filled with balls and ball-bearings.
Unfortunately, for now the experts can say nothing about the mechanism which was supposed to detonate the bomb. After the bomb was destroyed by the bomb squad that was sent it ceased to exist. Nevertheless a preliminary examination permitted bomb experts to draw the conclusion that the "infernal machine" was very much like the one that worked on 22 June at the building of MVD on Zhitnaia street. That was why it was decided to blow up the dangerous discovery. As counterintelligence officials said to the Segodnia reporter, in the very complex situation this was the only secure means of disarming it. Actually, the damage from the explosion was relatively light: thirty broken windows in medical clinic E112 and two windows in the synagogue building.
For the sake of justice it must be said that not only the counterintelligence officers deserve praise in this matter. Who knows how everything would have come out had the bomb not been accidentally discovered by the son of Rabbi Isaak Kohen, the twelve-year-old Joseph, who was tidying things up before the party in the prayer hall. Joseph himself described the event in this way for the Segodnia reporter: "I was dusting the shelf and when I moved the books I caught sight of a strange object, a cylinder, held together with bolts and tied up with a string." The boy called to a nearby staff member of the synagogue, who carried the bomb into the street.
One of the staff said upon hearing the story: "It was luck." However the circumcisionist, Isaiah Shafit, remonstrated with him: "God simply loves us." Members of a delegation of Israeli rabbis, who came directly from the airport to the site of the incident, agreed with him. Having learned about the incident they sadly observed that even in Israel they often must confront such incidents, after which they begin dancing in from of the police lines giving glory to their God. (tr. by PDS).
EXTREMISM MUST NOT REMAIN UNPUNISHED
Segodnia, 28 July 1999
(Interfax) The helplessness of Russian authorities in the face of chauvinism and the indifference of public opinion of the country places before national minorities questions about appeals to the international community and the possibility of continued residence on Russian territory. That was the opinion expressed in a declaration of the Russian Jewish Congress (REK) in connection with the incidents at the Choral and Chabad Lubavitch synagogues of Moscow. "Such incidents have ceased being something that comes from the ranks of the scum and are being committed with the obvious connivance of those upon whom the formulation of the moral climate of our society depends," notes the REK declaration. REK includes in the forefront of this group the Russian legislators. Although "one could hardly be surprised at the expansion of violence and an atmosphere of impunity when members of the Federation Council and deputies of the State Duma issue chauvinistic declarations." In connection with this REK has demanded of the leadership of the country "condemnation of the racists irrespective of the high positions they may occupy," as well as "immediate and effective" investigation of the incidents in the capital's synagogues. The declaration emphasizes that extremism is a "threat to all citizens of Russia, irrespective of nationality, and it must not remain unpunished." (tr. by PDS)
EXPLOSIVE FOUND IN MOSCOW SYNAGOGUE
25 July 1999
.c The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) - A bomb was found in a Moscow synagogue on Sunday in what appeared to be part of a recent wave of attacks and attempted assaults against Jewish sites in the Russian capital.
A rabbi's child found the device in a Lubavitch synagogue near Moscow's central Pushkin Square, and members of the congregation brought it outside, Russian news agencies reported.
After a sniffer dog confirmed that the package contained explosives, a special robot exploded it. No one was injured, but several windows in a neighboring building were shattered, Interfax news agency said.
The bomb contained the equivalent of up to 2.2 pounds of TNT, ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing Federal Security Service duty officer Anatoly Zverev.
The bomb was discovered shortly before the celebration of the first haircut of a boy in the congregation, Interfax said. As police and Federal Security Service agents cordoned off the area around the synagogue, invited guests stood nearby, holding flowers they had brought to congratulate the boy's family.
About 200 people had been invited to the celebration, ORT television station reported.
``While miraculously no one was seriously hurt, we cannot continue to rely on miracles,'' the synagogue's Rabbi Izzy Kogan said in a statement from New York, according to Lubavitch News Service.
He called on Russian authorities to investigate and prosecute those responsible, ``in order to reassure the Jews of Moscow and Russia that they are still safe.''
There have been several violent anti-Semitic incidents in Moscow and across Russia in recent months. Bombs exploded near two other Moscow synagogues in May, and a Jewish leader was stabbed in the city's main Choral Synagogue earlier this month.
Neo-Nazi groups have denounced Jews at public rallies, and several parliamentary deputies have made virulent anti-Semitic remarks.
Jewish leaders say the open anti-Semitism has emboldened some to commit crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions.
RUSSIAN SYNAGOGUE THREAT PROBED
26 July 1999
.c The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) - An attempt to bomb a Moscow synagogue over the weekend has been officially classified as terrorism and will be investigated by Russia's main security agency, a news report said today.
A rabbi's child found a bomb Sunday in a Lubavitch synagogue near Moscow's central Pushkin Square, Russian news agencies reported. The bombing attempt appeared part of a long series of anti-Semitic attacks and attempted assaults recently.
The bomb was brought outside and exploded by a robot. No one was injured, but several windows in a neighboring building were shattered, the Interfax news agency said.
The attempted attack has been officially classified as a terrorist act and will be investigated by the Federal Security Service, the Interfax news agency reported, citing an FSB spokesman.
The Moscow city government released a statement Monday saying the attempted attack ``was directed not only against Jews but against the entire multi-ethnic population of Moscow,'' Interfax reported.
The bombers ``will be found and severely punished,'' the statement said.
The bomb contained the equivalent of up to 2.2 pounds of TNT, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
The bomb was discovered shortly before the celebration of the first haircut of a congregant's son, Interfax said. About 200 people had been invited to the celebration, the ORT television station reported.
There have been several violent anti-Semitic incidents in Moscow and across Russia in recent months. Bombs exploded near two other Moscow synagogues in May, and a Jewish leader was stabbed in the city's main Choral Synagogue earlier this month.
Neo-Nazi groups have denounced Jews at public rallies and several parliamentary deputies have made virulent anti-Semitic remarks. Jewish leaders say the open anti-Semitism has emboldened some to commit crimes against Jews and Jewish institutions.
POLICE EVACUATE MOSCOW SYNAGOGUE AFTER BOMB THREAT
MOSCOW, July 27 (Reuters) - Police evacuated a Moscow synagogue on Tuesday after an unknown caller warned there was a bomb nearby, eyewitnesses said.
Fire fighters, ambulances and police arrived at a synagogue run by the U.S.-based Chabad Lubavitch movement but ended their search without finding a device, eyewitnesses said.
Police detonated a bomb, at the same synagogue on Sunday with a robot. The Moscow office of the federal security service said it had opened a criminal case under the category of what the criminal code calls terrorism for Sunday's bomb.
Attacks on Jewish targets have become more frequent in recent months prompting Russian Jewish groups to tighten security at synagogues.
The bomb threats follow an attack on July 13 when a youth with a swastika painted on his chest burst into the synagogue office of the head of a Jewish cultural centre and stabbed him repeatedly with a hunting knife.
(posted 28 July 1999)
In connection with the abduction of the rector of the church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Grozny of the monastic priest Zakhary and two of his co-workers, His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus has sent letters to President B.N. Yeltsin of the Russian federation, Prime Minister S.V. Stepashin, and the minister of internal affairs of the Russian federaion, V.B. Rushailo, as well as the secretary general of the Council of Europe, Walter Svirmmer, and the acting chairman of the Organizatin for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Knut Vollebek.
The letters expressed the request from the most holy patriarch to do everything possible for the liberation of the ministers of the Russian Orthodox chruch who were abducted in Grozny. They called special attention to the systematic character of the criminal actions of the abductors, whose victims again and again have been Orthodox ministers. "The stream of illegalities should be stopped," writes the patriarch. "Orthodox believers who live in the Chechen republic cannot be left without pastoral care." (tr. by PDS)
(posted 28 July 1999)
Legal case against the Magadan Pentecostals fell apart during the trial
by Tatiana Tomaeva
Nezavisimaia gazeta--religii, 7 July 1999
From 18 to 21 May the case on the suit of the procurator of Magadan province for the liquidation of the "Word of Life" Pentecostal church was heard. The procuracy was represented in court by Procurator Anatoly Stepanov, and the church by pastors Nikolai Voskoboinikov and Alexander Vasilenko, as well as attorneys Anatoly Pchelintsev and Vladimir Riakovsky of the Slavic Legal Center of Moscow.
The case was decided by Judge Tatiana Arshinskaia in favor of the church and the seventy persons present in the small room gave the judge an ovation after the decision had been read in tense silence along with a separate determination establishing that the representative of the procuracy had frequently and crudely violated the legislation of the Russian federation in the course of the trial.
One must conclude that this is only the first part of the judicial story and that is seemingly came our successfully for the "Word of Life" church. However, it is possible that the church will have to pay for this legal victory with new persecutions, since while legality may have triumphed in the courtroom, that still does not at all mean that it will be observed on the streets.
The "Word of Life" church is one of the oldest in Magadan. "We arose as a religious group in the beginning of the 1980s, when there was not even an Orthodox parish here yet," says Alexander Vasilenko, the second pastor of the church. So the church could in principle consider Magadan its own "canonical territory."
The newspaper NG-religii already has written about how 326 members of this church appealed to the American embassy for political asylum. That was on 21 January; in February another 75 persons joined them. And members and ministers of the church says that in the near future another 200 intend to join them. At present, according to the estimates of the pastors, there are around 600 permanent members of the church, despite its uninterrupted growth.
A representation by the provincial procuracy for liquidation of the "Word of Life" church was made in court back on 10 June of last year. The basis was the systematic conduct of damage to "morality, the health and family relations of citizens, including the use of hypnosis and the compulsory alienation of citizens' property" for the benefit of the church.
This case was heard for the first time in court on 28 August 1998 and was postponed in view of the obvious lack of preparation of representatives of the procuracy for the trial. The case lay dormant for nine months. Can one say that in this time the procuracy was making absolutely no preparation for the trial? It was preparing. The preparation, to be sure, was rather peculiar. In the course of the trial sessions it became clear that the procuracy had not checked the testimonies of witnesses already questions and did not examine any new ones. The procuracy in these months made no effort to enlist psychological or psychiatric expert opinion, on the need for which its representative Anatoly Stepanov so firmly would insist during the trial. No, the procuracy obviously saw its role differently and the nature of its "preparation" became obvious in the trial.
In December of last year a search was conducted on the premises of the church during which among the contributions a small quantity of industrial gold, thirteen grams in all, was found. The source of the gold is still not clear to the ministers. As a result the tax police initiated a criminal case for illegal possession of industrial gold. To be sure, it later was closed. Or delayed, as the representatives of the church were told, obviously so that they would not feel too much at ease. However literally on the eve of the trial this case was revived and on petition of the procurator Stepanov it was added to the material for the liquidation and read in the courtroom.
Mass media, incidentally, took an active part in the "preparation" of the legal investigation. "The most difficult thing in the upcoming court trial in Magadan . . . will be proving instances of influence upon the subconscious of parishioners by means of a special methods which in plain talk is called simply 'making zombies,'" wrote one of the local reporters in the newspaper "Kolyma trakt," in advance of the trial.
The esteemed colleague was not quite right. It is simply to show facts right away; if they exist. But if they do not? There were no facts. There were none in August at the first hearing of the case. And they did not show up even in May, and the investigators' version in a criminal case with a complex fate was not considered "fact" by the court. Then was presented in enormous quantity material evidence: videocassettes, on the basis of which experts in court were supposed to determine whether harmful hypnosis was practiced on believers in church or not. There is a strange history of the videocassette, which was added to the case from the very beginning--it disappeared. Then it seems it was found again. What actually was recorded on it, no one knew, and in petitioning for adding it to the case the procurator spoke extremely vaguely.
Somewhere around the middle of the trial Procurator Stepanov presented to the court not one but a whole five videocassettes. The "FSB" stamp on them was obvious even from the benches of the courtroom. It seemed that the special services had conducted (secretly and without consent of the pastor and parishioners, in violation of articles 23 and 24 of the constitution) a filming operation in the premises where the services were conducted. The attempt of the procurator to use material evidence collected by illegal means in the trial subsequently became one of the chief bases for the court's rendering the separate determination. In accordance with article 11 of the law on search operations, materials obtained as the result of such activity may be used as evidence only in a criminal case and not in a civil, as a trial about liquidation of a church is. Thus the procuracy was shown to be on shaky grounds doubly: first, it publicly demonstrated its close cooperation with FSB, and second it got not benefit out of this disclosure; these five cassettes were not admitted to the case.
In the course of the trial around thirty witnesses were questioned. A horrifying picture was painted in the presentation of total destruction of families, decline in morality, and loss of reason. According to the conclusion of expert witness, psychiatrist Yury Savenko, presented in the trial, the proportion of psychiatrically ill people in the church is seven times less than in the city of Magadan as a whole. He said that church services can have more likely a beneficial, wholesome character and that this was confirmed by testimony of the witnesses. Nobody reported becoming worse as a result of prayers in church.
"Even if there are in a church psychiatrically ill people," declared the advocate representing the interests of the church Vladimir Riakovsky in rebuttal, "This is normal, since the church after all always was the place where they could find healing and consolation. Does it turn out that now we are supposed to admit people to church only by permission?" But the most unforgivable crime of members of this church, in the view of the prosecution, was that everything was fine with them. One of the parishioners told me an amusing event in which she participated. Two women were discussing on the street the current times that are difficult in all respects and they invited her to join their conversation. "You know," she answered, "I cannot say anything on this matter because everything is fine with me."
"What's with you; are you from 'Word of Life'?" one of the women asked suspiciously. When she received an affirmative answer, she quickly retreated.
I hope that after a substantive and victorious trial, everything will be fine with them. It is fine that such cases can be resolved in court in a civilized manner. What is bad is that around them there is a great deal of intrigue that has nothing to do with judicial investigation. (tr. by PDS)
PROTEST OF THE PROSECUTOR ON DECISION OF THE "WORD OF LIFE" CHURCH LEFT
UNSATISFIED
Human Rights Without Frontiers, 26 July 1999
The Magadan regional court denied the third appeal of the regional prosecutor to liquidate the Pentecostal "Word of Life" church by affirming a previous decision of the Magadan City court dated May 21.
Vladimir Ryakhovsky, the President of the Christian Legal Center, who represented the church in the court, once again presented persuasive arguments proving the groundlessness of the protest of the prosecutor of the Magadan region. Due to the rude interference of the prosecutor and other authorities into the private lives of the citizens and to the antagonism resulting from it, more than 400 members of the church appealed for political asylum in the U.S. Magadan City Court in its special opinion regarding the General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation pointed out facts of violations of the law by the Prosecutor's Office.
At the present moment the situation around the "Word of Life" church remains difficult. According to Vladimir Ryakhovsky, who testified after the court hearing, "much time will pass before authorities will recognize the value of the freedom of conscience in a democratic society and will start to truly obey the Russian Constitution."
The Slavic Centre for Law & Justice News Bulletin 3 (20.06.1999)
received from Human Rights Without Frontiers
and edited slightly for English style
courtesy of Ray Prigodich
(posted 27 July 1999)
According to reports from Grozny, on 17 July a group of armed persons abducted the rector of the local church of Saint Michael the Archangel, monastic priest Zakhary, who had arrived for pastoral ministry in Chechnia about three months ago. Along with him were abducted the person serving as the churchwarden of the Grozny parish, Yakov Viktorovich Riashchin, and another church worker.
Monastic priest Zakhary (secular name, Vasily Vladimirovich Yampolsky) was born in Karachaevo-Cherkessia in 1968; he previously conducted pastoral ministry in Armavir diocese. The 26-year-old Yakov Riashchin, a native of Grozny, has been responsible for the church property and financial life of the parish of Saint Michael the Archangel for several years.
In the recent past in Chechnia and neighboring territories, eight Orthodox clergy have already suffered as a result of criminal activities of abductors. The fate of two of them (Fr Anatoly Chistousov and Fr Peter Sukhonosov) still remain unexplained.
At present in the Chechen republic once again there is not a single Orthodox priest. Orthodox believers who live there again are deprived of pastoral leadership.
In a telegram to Bishop Alexander of Baku and the Caspian, His Holiness Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and all-Rus stated:
"With pain I have learned about the abduction of the rector of the church of Saint Michael the Archangel in the city of Grozny, monastic priest Zakhary Yampolsky, the acting churchwarden Yakov Riashchin, and another church worker. I am profoundly disturbed by this barbarian crime. I have sent a new call for peaceful relations among the people of the northern Caucasus.
Unfortunately such criminal activity is by no means the first of its kind and this evokes our special concern . Church life of Orthodox Christians in the Chechen republic has become extremely difficult because the forces for maintaining order apparently do not have the ability to put an end to bandit attacks, whose victims regularly include ministers of the Orthodox church.
I testify to my sympathy for the flock of the Grozny parish. I ask it to remain steadfast in the faith and courage in the hour of new trials. I pray for the liberation of the abductees. May the Lord not slacken his care for Orthodox believers in Chechnia who now are deprived of pastoral nurture." (tr. by PDS)
(posted 26 July 1999)
Press release
Department on Communications with the Public, Administration of Nizhegorod
province
9 July 1999
Recently on the downtown streets of Nizhny Novgorod one frequently can meet young people who ask passersby to donate money for the needs of a "student organization," "for aide to students," or the buy postcards attached to the same charitable purpose. These young persons who are not averse to appealing to people who are relaxing in street cafes, as a rule, do not report that they represent a religious association that has an ambivalent reputation, the "Association of the Holy Spirit for the Unification of World Christianity" or the "Unification Church," or that they represent one of its numerous daughter organizations, in particular, the "Youth Student Organization, CARP." The "Unification Church" has tried recently to become active in our province, where its successes have been less than in a number of other regions.
Adherents of the religious association "Association of the Holy Spirit for the Unification of World Christianity" (UC) began to spread on the territory of our country in the second half of the 1980s. This organization, according to its own data, comprises around two million followers, active in 160 countries. The founder of UC, the Korean Sun Mung Moon (born 1920) created his organization in 1954. Several times he has been charged with "amoral conduct and holding persons against their will," refusal of military service, and refusal to pay taxes (on this charge he served a thirteen-month prison term). Besides this, many other indictments in various countries have been advanced against Moon's organization. At the same time it is necessary to note that UC possesses enormous experience in responding to indictments and maintains a large staff of qualified attorneys.
If one speaks about the doctrines of Moonism (the views that really are preached in Moonist religious organizations, as a rule, are quite different from those which its missionaries begin with in describing Moonism), they comprise approximately the following. There have been three epochs in the divine revelation to the world: the epoch of Moses, the epoch of Jesus Christ, and the current epoch, the epoch of Moon. Moon, whom his followers consider the Messiah, the living God, was called to unite all Christian religions and create a "new humanity," a new human harmonious family, as well as some kind of new race of people in order to secure peace throughout the world. People who are not followers of Moon are condemned to destruction (there is a paradox in the way the doctrine also emphasizes "the value of every religion on the road to creating a single world").
Public concern, however, is evoked not by the doctrines of the Moonists as such but by the actual practice of the religious organization. Various public associations in the West and in Russia, whose purpose is to oppose the negative influence of some new religious movements, have arisen since World War II; reporters frequently have used with respect to Moonism such phrases as "destructive cult," "totalitarian sect," and "psycho-cult," etc. (Of course, such expressions do not have a judicial character since in the Russian law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" there is not notion of "sect" and "cult.") The reasons for this are seen in the following features which, in their opinion, are characteristic of the Moon organization (it is possible that some of the following points are open to debate).
1. Social mimicry: that is, an attempt to conceal their religious and mystical essence under secular names and forms. As already noted, Moonists often are in no hurry to give their name, introducing themselves, for example, as representatives of "an international student organization." There are a whole range of Moonist organization by whose names one could not guess that they are directed by Moon or his wife, Hak Zha Han: "International religious fund," "Assembly of the religions of the world," "Council of religious of the world," "Youth seminar on religions of the world," "Religious youth service," "Association of new ecumenical confessions," "Conference for clergy of various confessions," "International federation for peace in all the world," "Academy of professors for peace in all the world," "International educational fund," "International fund for aid and friendship." In Nizhny Novgorod the following are active: "Youth Student Organization, CARP," "Federation of women for peace in all the world," "Federation of families for peace in all the world," and others (in all there are around 300 such organizations). Moonists try to use for their purposes all of the vital public problems: the struggle for peace, ecology, anti-drugs, AIDS, etc. Frequently a young person is invited to a lecture where in the first part nothing is said about Moon.
2. Strict "totalitarian" organizational hierarchical structure, built on the cult of the leader and harsh discipline of the pyramid of power, authoritative subordination and centers of power outside the control of society. Members of UC relate to Moon as an absolute power and obedience to him is placed above all civil laws. Public organizations are disturbed by the so-called "blessings," massive weddings of couples who beforehand were "infallibly" arranged by Moon on the basis of photographs and written forms (incidentally, the "messiah" himself was married three times before his present marriage, a the divorces are explained by Moon's followers on the inability of the previous wives to cope with the mission that was laid upon them). The have been cases when Moon married 30,000 couples in this way. As a rule, the couple is chosen from representatives of different races or, at least, different nationalities.
3. Emphasis on conversion, the transformation of the consciousness of adepts of the particular organization, and on manipulation of people for their goals; alienation of people from the outside world and disruption of their social relations. Among Moonists they conduct hours-long lectures in the course of which it is forbidden to ask questions; Moonists try to restrict as much as possible contacts of new converts with the outside world and often do not hesitate to do things that threaten the dissolution of relations between parents and children. All methods of psychological techniques that have been worked out in several new religious movements are employed ("bombardment with love," and the like). A characteristic trait of Moonists is an orientation almost exclusively upon youth, especially impressionable young men and women and youths who have various problems. There is evidence that in Moonist congregations members' shadowing of each other is practiced and blind subordination to the leader. There arises the danger of depriving a person of basic rights and freedoms declared in the constitution of the Russian federation and international documents.
4. Emphasis on maximum receipt of commercial income by means of donations, exploitation of unpaid labor of adepts, transfer of personal property to the organization, etc. These characteristics of Moonism are especially evident in foreign countries where Moon owns a great quantity of enterprises, including military. Moon is among the richest people of the world and his religious activity has brought him his situation. For the time being in Russia stress is not placed on immediate growth of income but on the creation of a sufficient base of adepts of "the saintly Moon." In Russia in Moonist organizations missionaries and evangelists are encouraged with free trips to USA or Canada (where they also engage in missionary activity, collection of donations, etc.). The real leaders of Moonist organizations in Russia are, as a rule, foreign citizens. In Russia Moonists practice the formation of groups for collection of donations which go to other cities. In Russia it is characteristics for Moonists to devote attention to leaders of various institutions who are offered free trips abroad. However various free camps for children and youth, rallies, and concerts are organized.
In the West Moonism long ago acquired a negative reputation (less so
in USA where the position of Moonists is more solid) and a whole series
of declarations by authoritative public and other organizations against
the Moonists has occurred. Thus, back on 2 April 1984, the European
Parliament adopted a declaration on the question of damage to society by
the Church of Unification of Moon: "The European Parliament having
carefully analyzed the damage created by the sect of Moon:
1. welcomes the uninterrupted exposure of the Moonist activity through
mass media,
2. calls the governments of the whole community to take care
that the sect of Moon not be granted any special status, not be permitted
any arrangements, and not be given any special privileges,
4. calls for notification of the Commission on Youth, Culture,
Education, Information, and Sports regarding the activity of adherents
of the sect of Moon and the danger which it represents for society."
The embassy of FRG in its response to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian federation, which had requested information about nontraditional religions and the relationship of the government of FRG to them (Dec. 1994), noted that the government sees danger of such organizations as UC "in particular in their hierarchical authoritative structure which often contradicts generally recognized democratic values, in their fundamental ideology and claim of the absolute truth of their convictions about the 'way to salvation of the soul,' which deceive people and completely take control of those who are seeking for themselves a change and new orientations, and in the demand of unconditional obedience of their members. . . ." In the West there has been a lot of negative magazine and newspaper articles about Moon and his organizations and a number of books have come out. Thus, if one speaks about editions with substantial numbers, the book by the French television reporter Jean Francois Bois "The Empire of Moon" has been translated into Russian.
Apparently, in particular, in connection with the fact that in western countries Moonists to a significant extent have discredited themselves they rushed into eastern Europe as soon as the possibility presented itself. Their spread in the former USSR was facilitated by M. Gorbachev's reception of Moon in the Kremlin in 1990 as well as by the uncritical attitude toward this organization by various groups including offices of national education. A role also was played by the imperfections of the Russian law "On freedom of religious profession" adopted in 1990. However it must also be noted that the Moonists have experience in organized missionary activity and are able to work without formally violating laws. Moonists have managed to create a network of their organizations in Russia and in a number of educational institutions the course "My world and I" which they developed has been taught.
Recently, however, public opinion with regard to Moonists in Russia has not been different from that of the West. This is expressed in mass media which in the past three years have published many critical materials about adepts of Moon. The danger of their activity has been noted by a number of scientific and public conferences devoted to problems of youth. This, for example, was noted in the concluding document of the international seminar "Totalitarian sects and problems of the protection of the interests and rights of the family, children, and youth in Russia" (Moscow, 7 December 1995). In St. Petersburg there was a court case on a suit brought by parents of young men and women who had been drawn into UC claiming that these young people has suffered psychological damage. In December 1996 the State Duma by a substantial majority of votes adopted an open letter to the president of the Russian federation "About the dangers consequences of the actions of several religious organizations for the health of society, the family, and citizens of Russia." The letter suggest the working out of a conception of the religious security of Russia; among the religious organizations whose activity poses public danger the letter names, among others, Moonists. The letter emphasizes that teaching in several thousand Russian schools with the textbook "My world and I," prepared by the Moonist International Fund of Education, is a "blatant violation of the constitutional principle of the secular nature of our schools." The Russian Orthodox church and other traditional religious organizations in Russia as well as a large portion of protestant Russian religious associations view the Moon organization negatively.
There have been complaints from parents whose children became adherents of Moonism made to the provincial administration and the administration of Nizhny Novgorod.
In our country the time of prohibition of religion has passed. There is no doubt that adherents of UC have the right to their views and to respect for their leader. However the principle of freedom of conscience should not mean an uncritical attitude toward those religious groups which have a negative international reputation. The point is not a matter of "persecution" of "whipping up anticult hysteria," but of the citizens' right to have information and to learn a critical point of view about any religious association, including the followers of Sun Mung Moon. It is this which has caused the Committee of Religious and National Relations of the Department on Relations with the Public of the administration of Nizhegorod province to distribute this press release. (tr. by PDS)
(posted 25 July 1999)
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