Mongolian Customs Impound Children’s Bibles

Mongolian girl and her father collecting provisions at a country store

ULAN BATOR, Mongolia, October 2, 1997 — A large shipment from the United Kingdom of 10,000 Mongolian Children’s Bibles together with 600 Bible videos were confiscated by the Mongolian customs on May 10, 1997. The Scriptures were to be delivered to the Bible Society of Mongolia (MBS) while the videos were intended for another organisation.

It is reported that the Mongolian Minister of Justice J Amarsanaa, signed a letter stating that these items should not be allowed through customs and that they constituted "a threat to national security" although it was not specified what that threat was.

No problems

Until the blocking of the shipment in May this year, MBS Executive Secretary, Altaa Gibbens, said there had been no problems with the authorities: all previous shipments of Scripture materials have been allowed in before. "We are now concerned about the legality of our own work," she said.

Many Christian missions have recently been encountering problems with registration. The Ministry of Justice now requires them to agree not to proselytise.

Despite being officially registered with the Mongolian authorities in 1991, the MBS has been advised that it will have to re-register. But according to Mrs Gibbens, there is confusion over what the Society should be registered as: the state has suggested they register as a company, which would not be involved in "spreading religion", while the Society does not want its freedom to distribute "religious materials" limited.

After inquiries were made by the MBS, the director of the Customs Office in the capital Ulan Bator, S Tsetsgee, wrote in a letter of July 8: "Our organisation received notice from the Ministry of Justice that the books and cassettes that have come through your organisation from abroad are connected with the spread of religion and thus they should not be allowed through customs or distributed in Mongolia. Thus we wish to advise you that we shall not be allowing them through customs."

Confiscation

The confiscation of the Children’s Bibles and videos came less than a month after the confiscation of another consignment of videos. On April 15, 9,000 video cassettes of the Jesus film were not allowed through customs because of an instruction from the Ministry of Justice, but were later released. The film had been shown across Mongolia and was aired on Mongolian national television at Christmas 1996.

The confiscations follow attempts by the Government to clamp down on the small Christian community which has grown up as a result of missionary activity since 1991. The country is traditionally Buddhist and Shamanist, with a small Muslim minority in the west, although religion was persecuted during communist rule. Fewer than 3,000 Mongolians regularly take part in Christian services.

Opposition to what are seen as "aggressive" Christian missionaries became an issue during the presidential elections in May, when the former Communist Natsagiyn Bagabandi won a sweeping victory, ousting his more reform-minded predecessor.

One nationalist member of parliament has called for the expulsion of all missionaries whom he accused of brainwashing the young under the guise of teaching them English. This call received support from Buddhist lamas, angry about the influx of Christian missionaries who they claim are poaching their supporters.

Attraction

Many people began attending Christian gatherings with the attraction of learning English, but in the last two years numbers at churches have fallen as those who were not committed to the faith have left. A Ministry of Education directive now bans the mixing of foreign language or other training with religious teaching, and English language classes offered by foreign Christians have been denounced in the press.

Justice Minister Amarsanaa declared on June 28 that the lengthy investigation of the 42 foreign religious churches in Mongolia was incomplete, because "several provincial governors have yet to send us details". Once the information is received and assessed, the ministry would analyse religious material being broadcast on radio and television and being published in newspapers and magazines.

Restrictive law

"When the state parliament passed a law restricting religious activities on November 30, 1993, we were concerned that this could have an effect upon our activities," said Mrs Gibbens. "Now it seems that the Government is enforcing the law which was virtually dormant under the previous administration." The law lays down tight restrictions on missionary activity by groups other than Buddhists, Shamanists and Muslims.

The British campaigning group, Jubilee Campaign, sent a barrister to Ulan Bator in January 1994 to assist in a legal challenge to this law in the constitutional court. The challenge was partially successful, and several of the more restrictive articles were struck from the law.

Film televised

Last year film was shown on television of a Bible Society vehicle delivering Scriptures to shops around the country, and a call followed for such activity to be stopped. Mrs Gibbens said that this is the one positive method of ensuring that the Bible is made available to all people. "We don’t have bookstores like they do in the West, except for here, in our capital," said Mrs Gibbens. "But there are many rural stores which will take our New Testaments and make them available to customers who call at the store.

"Every summer we travel great distances, this summer approximately 6,000 kms, visiting these distribution points to leave more stock and to collect the money for those that have been bought. In this way we have distributed more than 10,000 New Testaments and estimate that we have reached one person in ten in rural areas with the Scriptures. But our aim is to reach every literate person in Mongolia with the Bible," she said.

According to Mrs Gibbens, the Ministry of Justice has said that "even if the Bible Society receives the books it will not be allowed to distribute them," which seems to contradict the basic freedoms guaranteed by the national constitution. Representations have already been made through Jubilee Campaign, and there was some indication from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in September that the shipment would be released to the Bible Society. "We have heard nothing about this and the Bibles and videos are still being held by customs," Mrs Gibbens said.

She urged other Bible Societies in the UBS fellowship to petition the Mongolian Government on behalf of the MBS requesting that permission be given not only for the Bibles to be released but also that they may be freely distributed to those who want them. "People love the illustrated Children’s Bibles, and even if they are not Christians, they want their children to read them because they have a good influence on them," said Mrs Gibbens.

This page was last updated on Monday, 27th October 1997.