Religious minorities gain support from Georgia

TBILISI, Georgia — The president of the former Soviet republic of Georgia is promising concerned U.S. lawmakers to better protect the country’s religious minorities, especially the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists and Pentecostals who have been the victims of two and a half years of violent persecution by radical Orthodox Christians.

In a letter released June 10 in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, president Eduard Shevardnadze wrote to 15 U.S. senators and congressmen and pledged to take measures to protect the rights of religious minorities and to punish those who persecute them.

The Georgian parliament is set to begin debate soon on a draft religion law that Shevardnadze claims will bolster the rights of minorities.