Stop to eurointegration – religious discrimination

On 17 October 2013, Lvov

Dear Sir,

dear Members of the European Parliament!

Sisters of the Monastery of St Prophet Elijah in Lvov hereby publicly warn EU leaders and the European public about gross violations of human rights in Ukraine. Unless and until the issue of blatant religious discrimination is settled, it is not possible to deal with the issue of Ukraine’s integration into the EU.

Our contemplative monastery was founded in 1925. At the time of Communism, our Sisters lived in the catacombs.

In 2008 our monastery separated from the UGCC (Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church) structure headed by Cardinal Husar and on 1 May 2011 from the Vatican. The response to this was that the UGCC hierarchy did not respect our right to freedom of conscience but began to discriminate against our Sisters through the mediation of state authorities.

1) On 31 July 2009, on the orders of Mr Derzhko, LRSA (Lvov Regional State Administration) official, a group of unknown people headed by a LRSA official from the Main Department on Matters of Internal Policy, Religions and Nationalities committed pirate action in our monastery. They forcibly kidnapped a member of our monastery. The case has not been settled to this day. (http://uogcc.org/en/video/index.php/article/.31/)

2) On Friday evening, 12 November 2010, our Sisters arrived in Chortkiv, Ternopol Region, to attend Divine Liturgy. An organized group prevented them from entering the church. Then they attacked the Sisters after dark, threw some to the ground and kicked them. Some of the Sisters sustained injuries. One of them had a dangerous tumour and if she had suffered a blow in that place, it would have caused death. She escaped death only by a miracle. The Sisters were lynched, kicked and mercilessly dragged along the ground. (http://uogcc.org/en/actual/article/?article=5359, http://uogcc.org/ua/video/index.php/article/.3739/)

3) This same organized group of aggressors surrounded our monastery in the village of Probizhna, Chortkiv District, on Sunday, 14 November 2010. They chanted hate slogans through a megaphone for several hours and the Sisters were under threat all night. The whole action was watched by an official of the Main Department on Matters of Internal Policy, Religions and Nationalities of the Ternopol Regional State Administration, Mr Kulchytskyi. The Sisters called the police but the police remained passive. (http://uogcc.org/ua/video/index.php/article/.3745/)

4) On Monday, the organized group fastened our monastery gate with a big padlock to prevent the Sisters from leaving. The main reason was to prevent the injured sisters from obtaining a forensic medical examination after the beatings. (http://uogcc.org/ua/video/index.php/article/.3747/)

5) In October 2012, a group of aggressors broke down the door of the monastery with axes and iron rods during the night and threatened the life and health of the Sisters. (http://uogcc.org/en/video/index.php/article/.8396/, http://uogcc.org/en/actual/article/?article=8521)

6) In November 2012, about 20 men in masks broke the window on the second floor, climbed the ladder and broke into the monastery. They threw the Sisters out of the monastery by force. Several Sisters were injured. One had to be taken to the hospital in Chortkiv. Our monastery with all the equipment and personal property was stolen from us. (http://uogcc.org/en/actual/article/?article=8752)

This is one of the methods of gross discrimination, lynching and even threat to life.

In 2012, for a period of about two months, the magazine Express grossly maligned our monastery, carrying shocking headlines. It stated that we allegedly steal children, fabricated horror stories about ritual murders, argued persuasively that we serve people with psychotropic drugs etc. The fruit of this smear campaign, which inflamed religious hatred against us, was an attack on a defenceless Sister on Chyhyrynska Street in Lvov when she walked out of the store. The police called by us to the scene of the event classified the attack as an act of hooliganism. Moreover, Sisters have met with religious hatred in shops, at the doctor’s or in public transport. These vicious lies and defamation were cynically spread on TV channels (ZIK, 12LTB, ICTV, STB, “1+1”…) by Mr Pavlyuk, academical and cultural worker and representative of the Lvov lodge. Our demands for refutation of defamatory statements and publication of truthful information about us were repeatedly rejected.

Another form of destruction of the monastery is the prohibition of residence in the monastery for our Sisters from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The authorities have created such conditions that the Sisters are practically forced to leave their monastery where some of them have lived for almost 20 years. Since 2008, the Main Department on Matters of Internal Policy, Religions and Nationalities of the Lvov Regional State Administration has unlawfully prevented them from obtaining permission for temporary residence. Moreover, the Sisters try in vain to receive a religious visa since the Department on Religions and Nationalities in the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine has groundlessly refused to register our Church for four years. Our Sisters are thus forced to cross the border every three months.

However, on 16 October 2013 the Main Department on Matters of Internal Policy, Religions and Nationalities of the Lvov Regional State Administration turned to the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. They gave them a list of our Sisters from the Czech and Slovak Republics on the basis of which our Sisters will not be allowed to return to Ukraine and hence to the monastery after crossing the border. This is another method of modern Ukrainian “Taliban”!

Dear Sir, dear Members of the European Parliament, blatant religious discrimination on the part of the Ukrainian state authorities continues. Therefore we demand that Ukraine’s integration into the EU, scheduled for November, should be rejected! Turkey’s integration into the EU was rejected by reason of Taliban.

Sisters of the Monastery of St. Elijah the Prophet

Copies to:

President of Ukraine V. Yanukovych

MPs of Ukraine

Department on Religions and Nationalities, Ministry of Culture (M. Moshkola)

President of the Czech Republic

President of the Slovak Republic

President of the Russian Federation V. Putin

Members of the State Duma of the Russian Federation

The Prosecutor General of Ukraine

Head of the State Security Committee of Ukraine

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine

Mass media

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