A/59/366 and religion as guaranteed under article 10 of the Constitution and to article 9 of the Constitution, which gives Buddhism a foremost place. 70. The Supreme Court considered that the bills would create a situation that would combine the observance and practice of a religion or belief with activities that would provide material and other benefits to the “inexperienced defenceless and vulnerable people”. It stated that “the kind of activities projected in the Bill would necessarily result in imposing unnecessary and improper pressures on people who are distressed and in need [and would interfere] with their free exercise of thought, conscience and religion with the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice as provided in article 10 of the Constitution”. The Court also considered that an organization propagating Christianity by providing material and other benefits and thereby converting such recipients would affect the very existence of Buddhism and contravene article 9 of the Constitution. 71. Concerns have been expressed that the part of the judgement referring to article 9 of the Constitution will give those who promote Buddhism an unfair advantage. However, it is submitted that if a person sought to incorporate a Buddhist organization that offered social or economic benefits along with religious instruction, it might also be struck down for the reason that article 9 operates subject to the rights of all religions under article 10 and article 14(1)(e) of the Constitution. Sudan 72. On 14 June 2004, the Special Rapporteur sent to the Government of the Sudan information stating that, on 20 May 2004, police forcibly evicted the Episcopal Church in Sudan from its provincial headquarters in Khartoum, producing an Islamic court order declaring the property had been sold to a new owner. Thailand 73. On 14 June 2004, the Special Rapporteur sent to the Government of Thailand information according to which a Chinese Buddhist shrine in the Pattani Province had been vandalized on 31 May 2004 during ongoing strife in southern Thailand, where Muslims were in the majority. This event followed the alleged beheading of a Buddhist farmer on 29 May 2004 in Narathiwat Province, who was found with a note threatening to target more “innocent Buddhists”. The Lim Ko Nhieo shrine is next to the historic Kru Sae mosque, where security forces allegedly killed 32 suspected militants during clashes on 28 April. It was reported that at least 200 people have been killed, including about 100 civilians and civil servants, in scores of random attacks since violence broke out in early January 2004. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 74. On 16 March 2004, the Special Rapporteur sent to the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia information stating that, on 11 January 2004, the police interrupted a church service in Bitola and arrested Archbishop Jovan (Vraniskovski) of the Serbian Orthodox Church, four monks, seven nuns and a theology student from Bulgaria. Archbishop Jovan had previously been arrested on 20 July 2003 for attempting to perform a baptism in a Macedonian Orthodox Church (see E/CN.4/2004/63, para. 48). This time, he was reportedly charged with “dissemination of national, racial and religious hatred, disorder and segregation”. The monks and nuns were allegedly charged with disturbing of public order. 15