President Eduard Shevardnadze must select new security ministers who will end organized violence against non-Orthodox Christians, Human Rights Watch said today.
Last week President Shevardnadze dismissed his entire government after a Security Ministry raid on the independent Rustavi-2 television channel brought thousands onto the streets of Tbilisi in protest against threats to media freedom. In a letter sent today, Human Rights Watch detailed recent incidents of violence by mobs against Christian minorities, which has been going on for two years already, and urged President Shevardnadze to use the opportunity to select a new minister of national security, procurator general, and minister of internal affairs who will end the violence.
"This is a basic violation of freedom of religion," said Elizabeth Andersen, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia division. "Georgian authorities have indulged the perpetrators of violence against non-Orthodox Christians for too long."
Civilian militants, sometimes led by Orthodox priests, have targeted Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentacostalists, Baptists and followers of other Christian faiths non-native to Georgia, beating congregants, ransacking and looting homes, and destroying religious literature. More than eighty attacks have been reported since 1999, with more than forty taking place this year. Emboldened by government, police, and judicial inaction, the frequency of attacks is rising. The leader of the majority of the attacks, Vasili Mkalavishvili, a defrocked Orthodox priest, openly admits to receiving help from the police and security services.
The authorities indicted Mkalavishvili in early September, but did not arrest him, leaving him free to organize new attacks. On September 24 Mkalavishvili led a demonstration on Tbilisi's central Rustaveli Avenue, and reportedly called for a widening of his campaign of religious violence. Three assaults by mobs, which are described in the letter, took place that week.
Human Rights Watch urged President Shevardnadze to back up his rhetoric against religious violence with concrete measures. "The authorities know the main perpetrators of these attacks by name, and there is abundant evidence against them," said Andersen. "Prosecutions are needed so that people can worship in safety."
