Supreme Soviet member speaks about draft law on religion (12/31/89)

Supreme Soviet member speaks about draft law on religion

by Ted Okada
News Network International

WASHINGTON - In a recent unprecedented hearing before the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a progressive member of the newly elected Supreme Soviet testified that substantial improvements in Soviet human rights progress are inevitable.

Fyodor Burlatsky, chairman of the Subcommittee on Humanitarian, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation of the Internal Affairs Committee of the Supreme Soviet, said on November 28 that recent acceptance of draft laws conforming to Helsinki agreements "shows the measure of progress between the U.S. and the Soviet Union." He added "Many of the violations have been corrected."

Mr. Burlatsky, 62, heads the Supreme Soviet committee responsible for addressing human rights issues. As a member of the Constitutional Commission he is also responsible for the drafting of "new laws" on human rights which Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev hailed during the December summit with President George Bush in Malta.

Mr. Burlatsky defended a draft law on religious freedom when Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), an active proponent of the right of religious education in the Soviet Union, expressed concern over whether a newly proposed law on religion will allow for the religious education of minors by parents.

"The new law," Mr. Burlatsky answered, "will allow parents to give religious education to their children." After quoting Article 3 from a draft brought by a Soviet Embassy representative, Mr. Burlatsky said the law would also be expanded to allow for non-parental figures to engage in religious education for minors.

Yet, Louise Shelley, chairperson of the American University Department of Law and Society, testifying at the same hearing, said reform was a significant distance away. With regard to pending laws before the Supreme Soviet, "All of the legislative commissions attached to the Supreme Soviet are not equally reform-oriented," she said.

"The commission concerning freedom of conscience (i.e., religion) is not reformist, while those concerning judicial and criminal reforms are dominated by those pressing for human rights improvements," Ms. Shelley emphasized. Most of the intended changes, she added, relate to anti-Stalinist sentiments rather than fundamentally changing the nature of the relationship between the citizen and the state.

But, Ms. Shelley acknowledged, "In the area of freedom of conscience, a more liberal d raft than that proposed by the Supreme Soviet commission has now been published and publicly discussed in the hope that greater rights to practice and teach religion will be introduced in the legislation considered by the Supreme Soviet."

Citing further difficulties in "legislative" maneuvering through the Supreme Soviet, Ms. Shelley said, "The proposed law on freedom of conscience is problematic. The decision on the recognition of the Uniate (Ukrainian Catholic) Church should not be a policy decision but the result of an existing law allowing recognition of different religious groups.

"The provision," Ms. Shelley continued, "of the more liberal version of the law on freedom of conscience, published in the official journal Sovietskoye Gosudarstvo i Pravo, have as yet to be incorporated into the legislation to be considered by the commission. Without such changes Soviet citizens will still be limited in their ability to provide children with religious instruction."

On the question of the legalization of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Mr. Burlatsky reiterated the view, as expressed in a previous interview with News Network International, that full legalization of the Church will occur. "The question of the Uniate Church," he said, "is one of the difficult questions in the relationship between the Orthodox and the Catholic Church."

"We as a legislative group," Mr. Burlatsky said, "consider that we can help conduct dialogue between the two Churches. And we have included in the law the recognition of every Church including the Uniate."

Joseph Stalin forcibly dismantled the Uniate Church in 1946 through a "merger" with the Russian Orthodox Church. The Uniate Church is considered the largest banned religious group in the Soviet Union with an estimated membership of 5 million.

Rep. Smith also questioned Mr. Burlatsky on the recent crackdown on the Christian Democratic Movement during a time when the Soviet Union has been putting its best face toward the West. Rep. Smith cited a November 7 robbery and assault on the offices of the Christian Democratic Union in Moscow, led by Russian Orthodox activist Alexander Ogorodnikov. Though Mr. Ogorodnikov was not in the offices during the robbery, a colleague and priest, Victor Grigoriev, was severely beaten. The intruders, who many believe either were or had links to the KGB, stole computers, printers, a fax machine, a video camera, VCRs and other office equipment.

In this regard Mr. Burlatsky said he would look into the matter and "invite people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to our committee to receive their explanation."

Other human rights monitoring groups believe the break-in was part of a larger pattern of persecution. When Mr. Ogorodnikov returned to Moscow on October 20, he was detained, questioned and authorities confiscated 79 books he was personally carrying back to Moscow. His personal Bible and prayer book were also confiscated and he was forced to pay excessive import duties on those items which were not confiscated.

Further, on October 23, Mr. Ogorodnikov's long-time assistant, Sergei Savchenko, a 34-year-old physicist who worked as a photojournalist for the group's publications, was killed in a mysterious hit-and-run automobile accident. Mr. Savchenko was known to have taken on many risky assignments, which included the documentation of religious persecution and informal meetings of democracy activists. The KGB had already ordered his expulsion from the Institute of Physics of the USSR Academy of Sciences because of his political activities.

The suspicious circumstances under which Mr. Savchenko died are similar to those which surround the death of Mr. Ogorodnikov's brother, Rafail, 37, who died an automobiie accident in 1988.