BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/05/2007

Belarus expels US evangelist

Author : DPA

Minsk - The authoritarian-ruled state of Belarus expelled a US humanitarian aid worker because an evangelical Christian group employed him, the Belapan news agency reported on Tuesday. Decker Travis Todd had worked in the Belarusian capital Minsk at a humanitarian aid agency sponsored by the a US-headquartered branch of Protestant church.

Todd was kicked out of the country "for activities directed towards the bringing of harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus," according to a Minsk police statement.

Belarusian authorities cancelled Todd's visa without grounds, as his activities in the country centred on helping the poor, said Maria Savushkina, a church member.

Belarus authoritarian government in recent months has targeted foreign-financed religious organizations as a potential threat, often claiming the groups are fronts for Western spy agencies.

Belarusian President Aleksander Lukashenko has repeatedly linked Western aid to groups in Georgia and Ukraine for those two states' pro-democracy Rose and Orange revolutions in the last five years. He has vowed a "coloured revolution" will not take place in Belarus, citing a need "to preserve stability."

The Lukashenko regime this year alone has thrown more than twenty foreign nationals involved in religious work out of the country, said Boris Chernoglaz, pastor of the Minsk Church of Jesus Christ.

"We church members all are under pressure from the government," Chernoglaz said. "It is an organized campaign."

Lukashenko's strong-arm government for years has cracked down systematically on opponents to the regime. Early victims were foreign diplomats, the independent media, and opposition political parties.

More recent targets have been ethnic Poles, and religious organizations with foreign links.

Source:

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/62894.html