Leader

Published by The Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2005

Jewish Leader Says Belarus Govt Ignores Anti-Semitism

MINSK, Belarus (AP)--Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and his government are turning a blind eye to blatant expressions of anti-Semitism among officials, writers and the dominant Russian Orthodox Church , a Jewish leader in the former Soviet republic said Thursday.

"President Lukashenko and his circle are pretending not to notice anti-Semitic tendencies among bureaucrats, ideologues and leaders of the Orthodox Church in Belarus," said Yakov Basin, vice president of the Union of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Belarus.

According to Basin, a state-owned printer put out three openly anti-Semitic books last year under contract with a publisher owned by the Belarusian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church . Most people in the nation of 10 million are Orthodox Christians.

Basin said that some books published by the church were illustrated with crude anti-Semitic caricatures.

Literature condemned by Jewish leaders as anti-Semitic is freely sold in Belarusian stores.

Basin also said that suspects accused of bias crimes directed at Jews haven't been brought to justice. He pointed to state prosecutors' decision last year to close a case instigated by Jewish activists who sought to curb the distribution of anti-Semitic literature.

Officials in the government Committee on Religion and nationalities declined to comment on Basin's statements.

Mostly Slavic Belarus has witnessed a steady series of what Jewish organizations say are anti-Semitic actions. Many Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized in recent years.

About 28,000 Jews now live in Belarus, which lies between Poland and Russia and was home to a substantial Jewish minority before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Some 800,000 Jews were killed in Belarus by the Nazis, and many have left the country since the late 1980s.

In power for a decade, Lukashenko has increasingly alienated Western countries by stifling dissent and persecuting independent media and opposition parties. He also has boosted his authority through a series of votes that international organizations say were marred by fraud.



Volume 7 Number 12 - Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY