JEHOVAH'S Witnesses could
be banned from carrying out their preaching work on the doorsteps
of Russian householders if proposals from one of the country's top
ministries are approved.
The proposal
has been made after Russia's Expert Council of the Ministry of Justice
re-registered the Jehovah's Witnesses as a religion on May 5th (see
page 8 for details).
After coming to its decision to re-register the religion,
the Ministry demanded that certain amendments had to be introduced into
the charter of Jehovah's Witnesses Russian organisation.
The main demand was to exclude preaching at the doorstep.
The law on religion of 1997 says nothing specific against
this activity but the Ministry officials insist that as this method of
preaching was not mentioned in the law, it should not be in the
charter either.
The lawyer representing the Jehovah's Witnesses was told
that the Ministry receives
telephone complaints from members of the public who object to Jehovah's
Witnesses calling at their doors as 'arousing displeasure'.
Another demand was that the Jehovah's Witnesses Administrative
Centre draw up contracts with its voluntary workers.
The Centre was against this because it might be interpreted
as hiring workers commercially.
Sergei Vassilev, one of the leaders of the Moscow Jehovah's
Witness community, said that in his opinion the Ministry was trying to
establish a mechanism for applying pressure on Jehovah's Witnesses
in the future.
Concern will
keep readers informed of any decisions made
