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Illegal candles? A priest had his car held for 4 days by Transdniestria's customs police after an attempt to smuggle candles

BENDER (Tiraspol Times / Forum 18) - Protestants, Russian Orthodox and Jehovah's Witnesses complain of continuing problems in bringing religious literature and objects through Transdniestria's border checkpoints, Norway's Forum 18 News Service stated in a report Tuesday. According to the report, apparently harmless religious material is routinely confiscated regardless of religious denomination.

Baptists and other Protestants, as well as Russian Orthodox and Jehovah's Witnesses have complained about continuing problems trying to bring religious literature and objects through Transdniestrian customs checkpoints where, according to some reports, unregistered religious materials are routinely confiscated.

Religious communities such as Baptists complain that confiscated literature is frequently not returned, and only members of registered communities are allowed to import literature. Religious literature confiscations – including confiscations within Transdniestria for material which has not been imported legally – are a continuing problem for several congregations.

Illegal candles

In the most recently known case, Father Oleg Cermat, a Russian Orthodox priest, had his car impounded for four days for failing to declare church candles at a border crossing point. After agreeing to take the candles home, Father Cernat's car was stopped again and he was also accused of driving away from the checkpoint without authorization. He was taking the candles from his home in the suburbs of Dubossary, in Transdniestria, to the Moldovan capital Chisinau.

On the morning of 26 October, the orthodox priest arrived at the border control post separating Transdniestria from neighboring Moldova. When PMR Customs checked the contents of his car, they found forty packets of church candles which they said he should have declared.

" - I said I had no time to declare them," says Father Oleg Cernat, explaining that "all this is a very long procedure."

The case is unusual because the victim was prevented from taking religious objects out of Transdniestria, rather than importing them. Border guards – who are subject to Transdniestria's State Security Ministry – generally obstruct religious literature and objects being brought into the country.

No clear policy

Transdniestria's checkpoints and Border Service are under the control of the State Security Ministry (MGB, by its Russian initials) in the Tiraspol, the capital of Transdniestria. Critics complain that the confiscation policy is not clear, and that a heavy-handed approach to religious material is hurting the work of faith-based groups in Transdniestria.

The office of Transdniestria's Commissioner for Religious Affairs, Pyotr Zalozhkov, has not commented to the press on the confiscation policy, or the motivations behind it.

A Tiraspol-based Protestant, Igor Velikanenko, says that he went to the Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol on 7 November in an attempt to recover the Christian magazines which had been confiscated from him as he and some colleagues were about to hand them out to students at the city's main university. Security officials told him that the car confiscated from him has been returned, but that the confiscated literature would not be returned.
" - They told me to stop bothering them about it," said Velikanenko.

Transdniestria's parliament is currently considering a draft Religion Law, which - if adopted - would be able to delay the registration of new cults and other religious communities. Such groups, if they are unaffiliated to any existing registered communities, can be put on a "probation" status for up to ten years while they prove that they are legitimate faith-based groups and are not just seeking religious registration to explot tax loopholes. Unfortunately, explains Forum 18's Felix Corley, there are also side-effects: "This would deny them the right to produce and import literature, set up religious colleges, and invite religious workers from outside the new country. Independent Protestant congregations or faiths such as the Jehovah's Witnesses are likely to be most affected. (With information from Forum 18)

See also:
» PMR's Supreme Court sides with Jehovah's Witnesses against gov't [1]
» In Pridnestrovie, five times more religions than Moldova [2]
» Minority human rights and religious freedom under attack in Moldova [3]
» Religious freedom under review, preference for state religion rejected by parliament [4]