200 RESIDENTS OF SHAKHTERSK RALLY WITH POSTERS "DPR—TERRITORY WITHOUT SECTS"
Religiia v Ukraine, 1 October 2015
A protest rally near one of the Baptist churches of Shakhtersk of Donetsk province on 29 September drew more than 200 residents who were united in social networks and came out onto the city streets in order to express a protest against the work of such organizations in the "DPR" [Donetsk People's Republic], Religiia v Ukraine reports, citing the separatists' website DAN.
The rally began near the local palace of culture from where the participants in the protest
walked with banners saying "No to the sect" and "DPR—Territory without Sects" up to the church itself. No representatives of the Baptist organization appeared there, and furthermore, according to eyewitnesses, the day before all surveillance cameras and signs had been removed from the building.
"They are afraid to answer to the people; they did not come out and they closed the doors and windows. People complain that they approach them on the street with conversations about how Orthodoxy is not their religion and that only Baptists represent the genuine and true religion," one of the initiators of the rally, Alexander Smirnov, noted.
Demonstrators awaited the appearance of the leaders of the parish for more than an hour, but nobody showed. Participants in the protest left their banners on their windows and walls of the institution.
"America and western Ukraine completely provide for this establishment. I am against that. They conduct pro-Ukrainian propaganda," Vera Perekupka, a resident of Shakhtersk, expressed her point of view.
"Nobody needs this. It is simply another way to shake down people for money and take property. We absolutely do not like such a neighbor. Whoever wants to can always light a candle in a church," said Daria Novgorodskaia, who lives next door to the Baptists' meeting place.
Some time later representatives of the "Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic" appeared at the rally. Despite that the rally was spontaneous, law enforcement agents did not want to demand that the protesters disperse, but they simply assured order.
"If people gathered spontaneously, we actually are required to ensure keeping order at the site of the rally, so that no emergencies or provocations occur with citizens," the senior captain of the Shakhtersk city police department, Yuri Kucheriavenko, said.
In conversation with a correspondent, the initiators of the protest promised to conduct similar protests until such organizations as the Baptist church cease their activity in the DPR. (tr. by PDS, posted 2 October 2015)
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