MOSCOW, Russia - The Salvation Army said on Wednesday its Moscow branch was being threatened with closure, by Russian authorities who have accused the religious group of being a paramilitary body bent on toppling the government.
Colonel Kenneth Baillie, commanding officer in Russia of the British-based church, said its use of military-style ranks and uniforms had clearly been misunderstood by courts who are gradually cranking up the pressure on non-traditional religions.
"The charges are ridiculous and false. We just want to be left alone to do our Christian ministry, and we want to do it properly under Russian law," Baillie told a news conference, dressed in a dark blue uniform with burgundy and silver trim.
Moscow city court has rejected the Salvation Army's appeal against a ruling that it had applied too late to register as an independent religious organisation and did not fit the criteria. The Salvation Army -- which returned to Russia in 1991 after being expelled in 1923 by the Bolsheviks -- denies both counts.
A controversial 1997 law, which approved Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity as Russia's traditional religions, forced faiths without a long history of Russian activity to undergo a complex registration process, throwing many into legal limbo.
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton stressed the need for religious and other freedoms during a June 2000 summit with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Russia's Orthodox church has rejected talk of oppression, saying the law is justified in stopping dangerous sects flooding the spiritual vacuum created by 70 years of Communist rule.
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ALSO IN DOCK
The Jehovah's Witnesses also face expulsion from Moscow after the city court upheld in May charges brought by the city's northern district accusing the group of breaking up families, infringing individuals' rights and converting minors without parents' permission.
Baillie said the experiences of the Salvation Army and Jehovah's Witnesses boded ill for all faiths in Moscow.
"If someone in the Moscow Ministry of Justice or Moscow administration can arbitrarily decide which groups to endorse and not endorse, then all religious groups are eventually at risk -- it is fundamentally wrong," he said.
Vladimir Ryakhovsky, a lawyer from the Slavic Centre for Law and Justice, said the group had appealed to the European Court of Human Rights over the threat of closure, but hoped federal authorities would step in before Strasbourg made a ruling.
"We hope the Russian side will read carefully our complaint and the law, and because it is so absurd and has no legal basis, the protest will be accepted and the case concluded without going to the European Court of Human Rights," he said.
"Russia should try and save face on this."
Baillie said the group had no problems with any of its branches in 15 other Russian towns and cities, and had attracted almost 400 people a week to worship in Moscow last year and handed out some 80,000 meals to the city's poor and homeless.
"We do not know why anyone would want to stop us doing that kind of work or...suggest we are some kind of anti-Russian military group...," Baillie said.
He said he hoped another hearing in September would bring the stand-off to an end, but cautioned against over-optimism.
"We feel like the sword is poised overhead and our necks are on the block. All of us are feeling the pressure."
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