Belarusian MFA does not agree with the estimations of the USA :: Charter'97 :: News

2006 Report of the Department of State of the USA on freedom of faith in the world in terms of Belarus is “ mostly of a tendentious and contradictory nature”, head of the information department –spokesman of the ministry for foreign affairs of Belarus Andrei Papou declared to Interfax.

“Outdated and less important facts on the religious life in Belarus are given in the report and positive trends of the religious freedom are not reveled”, remarked the MFA spokesman.

According to him the employment of the Belarusian official data continues to be of” a biased nature and does not facilitate the objectivity of analyses of the freedom of faith in the country”.

“Biased estimations of the religious life in our country, denial of the information unfavorable to the authors of the report proves the fact of ignoring historical conventions of the Belarusian people as well as of the intention to impose their own viewpoint of the religious freedom”, said A.Popov.

Meanwhile, he declared, unlike the previous reports, which had stated the deterioration of the religious freedom situation in Belarus, in 2006 the report’s authors admitted the improvements in this sphere including the relationship with the Roman Catholic Church.

The MFA expressed its hope that in their future report the Department of State of the USA would avoid” ungrounded estimations and conclusions, and rely more on the official information and take into account the official Belarus’ aspirations to constructive cooperation with religious confessions in Belarus”.