Source: www.forum18.org
Date: September 2, 2020
Tuesday 1 September 2020
BELARUS: Catholic Church "cannot exist without its leader"
Border guards denied Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, head of Belarus'
Catholic Church, re-entry to his own country on 31 August. President
Aleksandr Lukashenko says he is on the shared Belarus/Russia entry ban
list. No officials explained to Archbishop Kondrusiewicz – a Belarusian
citizen – why he is barred. "The right of a citizen to enter the Republic
of Belarus cannot be restricted," says the Law on Exit and Entry for
Belarusian Citizens.
BELARUS: Catholic Church "cannot exist without its leader"
By Olga Glace, Forum 18
On 31 August, Belarusian border guards denied Archbishop Tadeusz
Kondrusiewicz, head of the Catholic Church in Belarus, re-entry to his own
country. They gave no reason for the decision, the Vicar-General of
Minsk-Mogilev Diocese Bishop Yuri Kasabutsky announced. Under Belarus'
Constitution, and its international human rights obligations, the
government is not allowed to deny entry to its own citizens.
Archbishop Kondrusiewicz was seeking to return to Minsk after a one-week
visit to Poland, travelling in his official car. He tried to cross at the
Kuznitsa Belostokskaya Bruzgi border crossing near the city of Grodno when
border guards refused him entry. After waiting several hours in vain he
returned to Poland, while his driver continued to Minsk in the official
car, Catholic spokesperson Fr Yuri Sanko told Radio Free Europe's
Belarusian Service.
"We will protest here and reach out to all Belarus' government structures,"
Fr Sanko added, "because the Catholic Church of Belarus cannot exist
without its leader."
Fr Sanko confirmed to Forum 18 on 1 September that neither Archbishop
Kondrusiewicz nor the Church has received any explanation for the entry
denial from the authorities.
The Archbishop sent an inquiry to the State Border Committee, he wrote in a
1 September letter from a parish in the Polish city of Bialystok, where he
is having to remain while waiting to re-enter his homeland.
President Aleksandr Lukashenko told journalists that Archbishop
Kondrusiewicz is one of a number of people on an entry ban list, which is
shared between Belarus and Russia. He claimed the Archbishop had been given
"some assignments" at "consultations" in Warsaw before his planned return.
He did not explain (see below).
Officials at the border crossing point at Bruzgi, and the State Border
Committee and Presidential Administration in Minsk refused to explain to
Forum 18 why Archbishop Kondrusiewicz was banned from re-entering his own
country and returning to his diocese (see below).
Why the entry ban?
The officer at Kuznitsa Belostokskaya Bruzgi border check point who
answered the phone on 1 September said they do not give comments. "You
should call the State Border Committee in Minsk for explanations," he
advised Forum 18.
The same day the press secretary of the State Border Committee, Anton
Bychkovsky, and the press service of the Presidential Administration
similarly refused to comment on the denial of entry to Forum 18.
The phone of the head of the religious affairs department at the Office of
the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs in Minsk, Andrei
Aryaev, went unanswered each time Forum 18 called on 1 September.
It remains unclear if the denial of re-entry to his own country to
Archbishop Kondrusiewicz is related to the government crackdown following
the disputed 9 August presidential elections. The Archbishop called for
fair elections before they took place, and condemned police violence and
called for dialogue afterwards. On 21 August he was received by the
Interior Minister Yuri Karayev.
Following the blockading of Saints Simon and Helena Church (Red Church) in
central Minsk by OMON special forces on 26 August with about 100
anti-government protestors sheltering inside, Archbishop Kondrusiewicz
described the 40-minute blockade as "illegal" and called on those
responsible to be punished.
Fr Sanko refused to comment on whether political motives were the cause of
the entry denial. "We still don't know the reasons and haven't received any
explanation from the authorities, so it is difficult to make any comments,"
he told Forum 18.
Archbishop included on entry ban list?
Asked about the re-entry denial by journalists on a visit to Baranovichy on
1 September, President Aleksandr Lukashenko said that Archbishop
Kondrusiewicz had been included in the entry ban list shared by Belarus and
Russia. He claimed that the Archbishop had "unexpectedly" travelled for
"consultations" in Warsaw and was returning to Belarus "with some
assignments", according to remarks on the presidential website. Lukashenko
did not explain what these alleged "assignments" were or who might have
given them to him.
Lukashenko claimed that the Archbishop might have dual citizenship and this
information is under investigation.
"It is not only him [on the entry ban lis tut.by from Bialystok on 1
September.
"Well, we sit in the car and wait. Another border guard came up, took our
passports, looked at everyone and left. He was gone for a long time. When
he returned, he said that there was a problem with the documents, and asked
us to move aside. We drove to one side, then another border guard came out
and blocked the wheels. We sat and waited, sat for a long time. Then the
chief of the crossing point, it seems, came and said that everyone can go,
but I cannot." They gave no reason.
Archbishop Kondrusiewicz was not willing to link the re-entry denial to his
criticism of police violence after the disputed election, when he insisted
that peaceful solutions must be found. He did not hide his frustration over
the uncertainty of his situation after he had made so many efforts in the
interests of Belarus.
Diocese to function with absent leader
Fr Sanko pointed out that the barring of the Archbishop's re-entry to
Belarus and to his diocese has dramatic moral repercussions on Catholics.
"This is a blow on the Church," he lamented to Forum 18.
However, Fr Sanko added that the diocese continues to function, with the
Archbishop staying in contact by phone and e-mail from Poland.
"The ban on entry to Belarus," Archbishop Kondrusiewicz wrote from
Bialystok on 1 September, "obstructs me from carrying out my pastoral
service and participation in planned church events as ordinary of the
Minsk-Mogilev Archdiocese and chair of the Conference of Catholic Bishops
of Belarus."
Entry ban violates Belarus' human rights obligations
Article 30 of Belarus' Constitution declares: "Citizens of the Republic of
Belarus have the right to move about freely and to choose a place of
residence within the boundaries of the Republic of Belarus, to leave it and
to return to it unobstructed."
Article 3 of the Law on Exit and Entry for Belarusian Citizens includes the
provision: "The right of a citizen to enter the Republic of Belarus cannot
be restricted."
Several international human rights agreements to which Belarus is party
forbid the banning of citizens from returning to their own country.
Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes the
declaration: "Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his
own, and to return to his country." Article 12 of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights includes the declaration: "No one
shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country."
Catholic spokesperson Fr Sanko commented to Forum 18 that there have been
no similar cases in the world when a citizen was not allowed to his own
country.
Earlier denials to foreign Catholic priests
The Belarusian authorities have frequently rejected requests by Catholic
diocesan bishops for foreign clergy (mostly from Poland) to be able to
continue serving in local churches. Officials have also rejected petitions
by the ousted priests' parishioners.
In November 2018, Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs Leonid
Gulyako refused Bishop Oleg Butkevich's request to extend permission for
Polish Catholic priest Fr Pawel Knurek to continue religious service at the
cathedral parish of the Merciful Jesus in the north-eastern city of
Vitebsk. The priest had to leave Belarus after 15 years' service. Gulyako
refused Bishop Butkevich's continuing appeals in January 2019, as well as a
petition by parishioners.
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