Latest News #240 - Georgia
April 10, 2003

Georgian president pledges end to religious violence

TBILISI, Georgia — The Rt Rev Malkhaz Songulashvili, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia and the United Bible Societies’ (UBS) Representative in Georgia, has hailed an ecumenical service at which President Eduard Shevardnadze pledged to bring an end to religious violence as “a milestone in the development of religious life in Georgia”.

Mr Shevardnadze spoke out strongly against religious violence during the service at the Cathedral Baptist Church in Tbilisi on March 14, saying, “As the president of Georgia and as a believer, I […] promise you that the government and the president will do their best to safeguard full freedom for the individual to express his or her faith”. He continued, “Anyone who violates this principle will be made responsible by the state. I would like you to believe: the aggressor will be punished”.

The service had been originally scheduled for January 24, but Christian leaders representing five denominations were forced to cancel it at only an hour's notice when they and members of the congregation who had already arrived to prepare for the service came under attack from defrocked fundamentalist Orthodox priest Vasili Mkalavishvili and his supporters. The fundamentalists smashed the church’s windows and verbally and physically attacked those inside, according to Bishop Songulashvili, who was able to contact the Chancellery and arrange for additional police protection.

This incident follows an attack in March 2001 on three members of staff from the UBS office who were handling a truck containing Scripture books and blankets (see Latest News #143) and a threatened attack on one of the UBS offices in Tbilisi in May 2002 (see Latest News #199). Bishop Songulashvili said that, having previously felt frustrated by the actions of Mr Mkalavishvili and his supporters, the latest incident had left him “very sad and angry”.

Within a few days of the service being cancelled, Mr Shevardnadze ordered four senior officials to investigate the incident and bring those responsible to justice, although no arrests have been made so far. At the rescheduled service, he expressed “great sorrow and even anger that our unity, mutual respect and liberty of faith have been violated by some aggressors”.