Memorandum to the U.S. Government on Religious Violence in the Republic of Georgia

350 Fifth Avenue, 34th Floor New York, NY 10118 Phone: 212-290-4700 Fax: 212-736-1300 [email protected] Website:http://www.hrw.org August 29, 2001 MEMORANDUM TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT ON RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE IN THE REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA Introduction Non-Orthodox Christian worshippers throughout Georgia have been the targets of at least eighty violent attacks by civilian groups in the past two years. The government has made no serious efforts to criminally investigate—let alone prosecute—the perpetrators, and in some cases, police themselves violently broke up prayer gatherings. Attacks have grown more frequent with the ensuing atmosphere of impunity. Assailants stalk worshippers on their way to or from prayer meetings, or break up prayer meetings in private homes. They beat congregants, at times inflicting serious injuries, ransack private homes, destroy property, and burn religious literature. The assailants target the victims because of their faith and seek to intimidate congregants into abandoning their religious practices. The victims are primarily Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentacostalists, Baptists, and members of the Assembly of God, also known in Georgia as “non-traditional” worshippers. The evidence indicates that many of the attacks have been led or organized by Vasili Mkalavishvili,1 a priest from Tbilisi who has been deposed by the Georgian Orthodox Church, and his followers. Religious violence is now also perpetrated by people who have no apparent connection with Mkalavishvili, including members of nationalist organizations, church clergy, and those who are simply neighbors of so-called non-traditional congregants. Human Rights Watch interviewed twenty-two victims of religious violence in Georgia in 2001. The government’s failure to address the attacks, documented in this memorandum, violates its obligations under international law. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (article 18) and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (article 9) provide for the right to freedom of religion. The right to religious freedom includes the “freedom to have or 1 He is also known as Basili Mkalavishvili, or Father Basil. to adopt a religion or belief of [one’s] choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest [one’s] religious belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.”2 Furthermore, “[n]o one should be subject to coercion which would impair [one’s] freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of [one’s] choice.”3 As a party to both conventions, the Georgian government has a duty to guarantee basic rights to religious minorities, to prosecute those who participate in religious violence, and to take administrative or legal measures against officials who are complicit in religious violence or who do not exercise their authority to enforce the criminal law. The government’s failure to uphold these obligations early on no doubt encouraged further acts of religious violence. In the few instances where the government has acted, the measures adopted were too meager and too late to be effective. Recommendations for United States Policy The U.S. government has responded to religious violence in Georgia chiefly through private expressions of concern to the Georgian government at all levels in bi-lateral relations and in the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.4 The U.S. State Department’s year 2000 annual Report on International Religious Freedom: Georgia, adequately described religious violence, but glossed over the atmosphere of impunity created by the Georgian government’s failure to act. The U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi, jointly with the Embassy of the United Kingdom, issued a public statement in response to an incident of police and mob violence in September 2000.5 While private demarches are welcome, they have been ineffectual in pressing the government of Georgia to take any meaningful action. To address the atmosphere of impunity, the Bush administration should urge the government of Georgia to conduct thorough and impartial investigations of religious violence, and to hold the perpetrators accountable. It should request the government of Georgia to make publicly available a case-by- case description of actions taken to investigate and prosecute cases of religious violence. It should encourage the Georgian government to better publicize its own expressions of concern about religious intolerance. With its mandate under IRFA, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom should make Georgia a priority country and ask the Bush administration for a full accounting of measures taken to express concern about religious violence in Georgia. It should visit Georgia with a view toward making recommendations to the Bush administration for promoting accountability for religious violence and should include a section on Georgia in its next annual report. 2 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 18. 3 Ibid. 4 E-mail correspondence with U.S. embassy in Georgia, July 23, 2001. 5 The statement, issued September 15, 2000, read: The Embassies of the United States of America and Great Britain are greatly disturbed by this and other recent serious infringements on those exercising their right of religious freedom in Georgia, including the mistreatment of members of the Baptist Church in August. The Georgian constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights guarantee an individual’s right to freely practice the religion of one’s choice. We call upon the Government of Georgia to investigate these incidents and to be vigilant in ensuring respect for the religious rights of all.” 2 Background The majority of ethnic Georgians, who make up about 70 percent of Georgia’s population, are considered to be associated with the Georgian Orthodox Church. Eastern Georgia adopted Christianity as its state religion in 337 A.D., the second state to do so after Armenia. Many Georgians consider affiliation with Orthodoxy an essential feature of Georgian national identity. 6 On March 30, 2001, parliament amended the constitution to establish relations between the Georgian Orthodox Church and the state on the basis of a concordat, which would grant the Church and its clergy a privileged position in Georgian society.7 Referred to as “nontraditional faiths,” Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pentacostalists, Baptists, and congregations of other Protestant faiths have been in Georgia for many years. Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, claim to have been present in Georgia since 1953, while Baptist churches there were established in the nineteenth century. The number of adherents is unknown but is believed to be in the tens of thousands. Georgia has no law expressly regulating the activities of religious organizations. Those critical of non-traditional faiths in Georgia argue that the latter are taking advantage of Georgia’s economic collapse and political troubles to win converts. They take particular offense at what they perceive as aggressive proselytism by these churches. They claim such faiths eradicate Georgian identity and threaten the Georgian nation, sometimes pointing to refusal by adherents of some faiths to serve in the military. Some claim that the practices of non- traditional faiths “defile” the Orthodox Church. While not all citizens who espouse these views took up the call to violence, perpetrators of violence cited these and other justifications for their actions. Vasili Mkalavishvili, for example, recently stated to the BBC: “It is terrible, terrible that today Georgia is being invaded by dark satanic forces of the outside. Many do not understand that Georgia’s salvation is in Orthodoxy, and that those sects, and especially Jehovah’s Witnesses, are trying to destroy our centuries’-long tradition. This is why I and my followers have declared a battle against those sects and we are determined to carry on fighting them.”8 In 6 For example, at a special session of parliament marking Georgia’s accession to the Council of Europe, Ilia II, Catolicos-Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, made a speech highlighting the Church’s importance to the development of Georgia’s statehood and in protecting and maintaining Georgian national identity. Newsletter of the Parliament of Georgia, April 1999, at www.parliament.ge/NEWSLETTER/april-99.htm, accessed July 2001. 7 Article 9 of the Georgian Constitution, which previously “recognize[d] the special importance of the Georgian Orthodox Church in Georgian history but simultaneously declare[d] complete freedom of religious belief and confessions, as well as independence of the church from the state” was amended to allow the forthcoming concordat to govern relations between the state and the Georgian Orthodox Church. While the concordat itself has not yet been adopted, under a recent draft, privileges accorded to the Georgian Orthodox Church would include a recognition in law that its clergy would be exempted from military service, the creation of Georgian Orthodox Church chaplains for the military and prisons, and programs for teaching Orthodox doctrine in public schools. Also under discussion is vesting in the Georgian Orthodox Church exclusive authority to grant permits for the construction of any orthodox church. 8 BBC World Service, “Focus on Faith” August 07, 2001, report on Georgia: Jehovah’s Witnesses. 3 March 2001 he declared that: “We won’t allow sectarians to build their Satanic churches”, because: “They are against Orthodoxy and insult Jesus Christ. They are selling out Orthodoxy and the Georgian soul.”9 Opponents of non-traditional religions who have not participated in violence against their adherents have a range of views. At a Tbilisi news conference given in July 2000, Guram Sharadze, a member of parliament from the nationalist Georgia First of All Party who filed a lawsuit which resulted in the de-registration of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Georgia, alleged that they were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to undermine Orthodox Christianity in Georgia and, bizarrely, that they were receiving covert support from the city’s American- managed electricity company.

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