Georgia: Baptists deny they burnt down own church

Forum18.org 2003-07-03 - copyright by Forum18

Baptist leader Malkhaz Songulashvili has described as "silly" a suggestion to Forum 18 News Service by district governor Timur Berianidze that Baptists in the village of Akhalsopeli burnt down their own church.

The video is not part of the official release.

Berianidze described as "a lie" the widely-held view that the local Orthodox priest Bessarion Zurabashvili was involved. Songulashvili said Fr Bessarion keeps visiting families and "stirs them up against our people". Villagers have thr

Baptists have rejected suggestions made by the governor of the district in eastern Georgia where a Baptist church was destroyed on 15 June that they set fire to their own church. "Some people are saying the Baptists did it themselves because they wan