The Church expresses its concern for hostages

THE CHURCH EXPRESSES ITS CONCERN FOR HOSTAGES

On March 30, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia, sent telegrams and letters in which he expressed his concern for the destiny of the Orthodox clergymen, archpriests Petr Makarov and Petr Sukhonosov, taken hostages on the territory of Ingushetia. Telegrams and letters were sent to the King of Saudi Arabia Fahd, President of the Azerbajan Republic Geidar Aliev, President of the Turkish Republic Suleyman Demirel, US Secretary General Kofi Annan, General Secretary of the European Union Daniel Tarschys, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights Gerard Stoudmann, Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Ye.M.Primakiov, President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov, President of the Ingush Republic R.S.Aushev, secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and the FSB director V.V.Putin, minister of foreign affairs of the Russian Federation I.S.Ivanov, minister of the interior of the RF S.V.Stepashin, director of the Federal Frontier Guards K.V.Totsky, minister of national policy of the RF R.G.Abdulatipov, and minister of regional policy of the RF V.A.Kirpichnikov.

The documents say in particular: ‘The capture of peaceful civilians, including clergymen, has become a bad custom in the Northern Caucasus. I must say that this and other evil deeds testify to the incapability of the authorities to maintain law and order in the region. The deliberate ousting of the Russians from the Caucasus is taking place with the connivance of the state. That will inevitably take its toll on interethnical and interreligious relations. Our Church can no longer keep silence about the events, for its believers, and now even the ministers of the church, are subjected to severe persecution. I ask you to undertake every possible measure for immediate release of the two clergymen and for making such situations impossible in future. If the situation does not change, nobody will be able to keep the Russian population in the Caucasus from reprisals, and the region will inevitable be cut off from the civilised world’.

Today Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, sent letters requesting assistance in the release of the Orthodox clergymen to the religious leaders of Muslims of Russia and Azerbaijan and to the leadership of the World Council of Churches, Conference of the European Churches and the World Conference on Religion and Peace.