VZCZCXRO0785
PP RUEHAST
DE RUEHSL #0786/01 2691543
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 261543Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0322
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRATISLAVA 000786 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIRF CACS SOCI LO
SUBJECT: MORMONS ATTEMPT TO REGISTER IN SLOVAKIA, GET 
KICKED OUT OF CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP'S CITY 
 
REF: BRATISLAVA 719 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000786  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 
submitted a petition to the Slovak government on September 26 
with over 25,000 signatures of local residents who support 
the Church's official registration.  (A religious body needs 
20,000 signatures to register with the GOS.)  In fact, the 
Mormons collected about 34,000 signatures, but 9,000 were 
unusable due to illegibility or incomplete addresses.  Four 
Slovak leaders of the Mormon Church from Bratislava, Trencin, 
and Zilina and their American legal counsel presented the 
signatures to the Director of the Department for Church 
Affairs at the Ministry of Culture, which processes church 
registrations. 
 
POSSIBLE BARRIERS TO REGISTRATION 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The LDS Church previously acquired a binding 
interpretation from the Ministry of Culture on the 
ambiguously-worded Slovak law on church registration.  The 
Ministry affirmed that the signatories need only support the 
registration of the Church; they need not be adherents of the 
faith (reftel).  Of greater concern to the LDS Church is the 
fact that one of the State Secretaries at the Culture 
Ministry belongs to the Slovak National Party (SNS), whose 
campaign platform included a pledge to make church 
registration more difficult. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Theoretically, the registration process should take 
one month from submission of the signatures.  At 20,000 
signatories, Slovakia has one of the highest thresholds of 
required supporters in order for an entity to register as a 
religious organization.  Slovak law also requires that the 
GOS provide certain financial support to registered 
religions, although the Mormon Church has said it would 
refuse the subsidies due to its own policies. Slovakia 
currently has 16 registered religions, 14 of which were 
grandfathered in before the law took affect.  Major world 
religions such as Islam and Buddhism are not officially 
recognized in Slovakia due to the signatory requirement, 
although no one is prevented from practicing the faith of 
their choice. 
 
HOW TO COLLECT 25000 SIGNATURES IN A MONTH 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (SBU) The Mormon Church conducted a month-long petition 
drive with volunteers on public streets and squares 
throughout Slovakia, hitting over 30 cities and towns.  A 
lawyer for the LDS Church described the reaction to the 
signature-collectors as generally positive with a few notable 
exceptions.  He said that people in Eastern Slovakia were 
friendlier and more likely to sign the petition than people 
in the western part of the country.  The petition garnered as 
many signatures in small towns as in large cities when 
measured in signatures per man-hour.  Overall, with the 
exception of Trnava, the Mormon Church was pleased with their 
reception and success rate of the petition drive across the 
country. 
 
KICKED OUT OF TRNAVA BY THE POLICE AND PICKETED BY NUNS 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) On September 22, the last day of the petition drive, 
the police in Trnava kicked 12 signature-gatherers (10 
Americans, 1 German, 1 Austrian) out of the city.  Local 
police officers told them that Mormons don't have rights 
there and that they would be fined if they didn't leave.  As 
they already had enough signatures to satisfy the legal 
requirement, the Mormons chose to leave Trnava rather than 
make an issue of demanding their right to petition.  (NOTE: 
Gathering signatures for a petition is legal in Slovakia. 
END NOTE.)  Trnava is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop in 
Slovakia.  The Catholic Church in Slovakia had issued a 
statement urging its members not to sign the petition.  In 
Zilina, nuns with protest signs urged passers-by not to sign 
the Mormon petition.  The Mormon Church's legal advisor noted 
that, also in Zilina, two older women were screaming at the 
petition gatherers and causing such a ruckus that one of the 
women was forcibly removed by the police. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The lawyer mentioned a few isolated incidents of the 
petition-gatherers being shoved by locals, in one case 
allegedly by Jehovah's Witnesses, and one incident where 
someone threw a volunteer's clipboard into a nearby river. 
In no instance was anyone physically injured. 
 
¶7. (SBU) The Ambassador will complain about the police 
treatment of petition-gatherers in Trnava at his upcoming 
courtesy call on the new Minister of Culture.  We will also 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000786  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
raise this issue and its human rights implications in a 
letter to the Minister of Interior. 
 
VALLEE