U.S. State Department considers allegations of persecution of UOC unfounded

U.S. Department of State building. Photo: ria.ru

On June 10, 2020, the U.S. Department of State published the 2019 Report on International Religious Freedom, which stated that the UOC could not prove the facts of raider attacks on its temples and believers.

"UOC-MP (as the report calls the UOC – Ed.) representatives stated but did not provide evidence that the OCU had carried out ‘raider attacks’ by deceiving and stealing parishioners by using a similar name," reads the U.S. State Department’s report. “There were continued reports of what some media and political observers characterized as radical groups physically assaulting and pressuring UOC-MP supporters and vandalizing UOC-MP property as well as UOC-MP priests locking out parishioners who wished to change to the OCU"

The report gives examples of such complaints from the UOC.

"In March representatives of the group Right Sector, commonly characterized as a violent radical group, reportedly pushed and possibly hit UOC-MP parishioners during a scuffle between OCU and UOC-MP members near a UOC-MP church in Hnizdychne, Ternopil Oblast. UOC-MP leaders accused the newly formed OCU of seizing churches belonging to the UOC-MP; the OCU responded that parishioners rather than the OCU had initiated the transfers of affiliation."

Earlier it became known that the United States no longer sees the danger to religious freedom in Uzbekistan.

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