EU ambassadors meet with New Life pastor

On 25 August the French embassy to Minsk hosted a meeting of a number of EU diplomats with representatives of the New Life Protestant church. The meeting initiated by the Swedish ambassador Stefan Ericsson dealt with the possible seizure of the church building. The diplomats said they had received a letter from Minsk city authorities expressing their vision of the issue.
According to New Life’s lawyer Siarhei Lukanin, the letter contained false information concerning the amount of compensation offered to the church by the authorities.
‘In fact, the USD 13,000 we were offered would not even pay a construction project. As for the building land, the proposals were too vague to consider,’ says Mr.Lukanin.
New Life’s pastor Viachaslau Hancharenka says the conflict is not purely economical, since the Evangelic community has been harassed for 10 years already.
The ambassadors expressed their concern about the situation in the field of the freedom of conscience and religion in Belarus and said they were going to analyze the information provided by the both sides.