The Batkivschyna Party has expressed its concern about oppression of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate (UOC-KP) and the "irresponsible attitude towards the sphere of religion" by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.
"Yanukovych violates the provisions of the constitution on equal treatment of various religious organizations by the authorities. All officials in his structure of power have immediately assumed the same attitude and start acting in the regions in the way [President] Yanukovych acts in the center: favoring one confession and humiliating and discriminating against the others," reads a posting on the party’s official Web site on Tuesday.
The party noted that the head of state "significantly differs from his predecessors, who despite having their own confessional preferences against the background of the lack of unity in Ukrainian Orthodoxy, pursued a more or less balanced policy and kept equal distance between the authorities and all religious jurisdictions."
The Batkivschyna Party also expressed concern about reports from regions of the complicity of the current authorities in attacks on UOC-KP churches and the ban on religious services by this confession on the territories of cemeteries and state and utility institutions.
"BYT-Batkivschyna demands Yanukovych immediately stop pursuing such a destructive policy, which violates the right to freedom of consciousness and offends the religious feelings of the people. If Yanukovych does not do this, he will be responsible for the destabilization of inter-confessional relations, which might lead to unpredictable consequences, " the party said.
