E/CN.4/2005/61/Add.1 Page 62 on the Tak Bai incident, and shall promptly submit their recommendations to the Prime Minister and the Cabinet on systemic measures and administrative approaches to manage similar situations should they recur. The study shall address, inter alia, the issues of how to prevent such situations as well as the required procedures, including legal and law enforcement problems. It should also address the question of the inadequacy or unavailability of equipment and facilities that are needed, and should submit recommendations on their procurement. Recommendations are also to be made on regulatory measures on prevention. Observations 240. The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the details provided in the responses sent by the Government. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 241. On 15 March 2004, the Special Rapporteur sent a communication to the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in relation to information according to which on 11 January 2004, 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 been previously arrested on 20 July 2003 for attempting to perform a baptism in a Macedonian Orthodox Church. The arrests reportedly took place in the apartment of Archbishop Jovan’s father, where the service was taking place. The apartment had been turned into a small chapel with the name ‘The Ascension of the Lord’. All those arrested were allegedly held in custody for 24 hours. After his release, Archbishop Jovan was reportedly re-arrested and sentenced to 30 days’ “investigative detention” and the Bulgarian student was deported and banned from entering the country for two years. Archbishop Jovan has reportedly been charged with “dissemination of national, racial and religious hatred, disorder and segregation”. The monks and nuns arrested would allegedly be charged with “disturbance of public peace and order”. Follow-up to previously transmitted communication 242. By letter dated 26 January 2004, the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia replied to a communication sent by the Special Rapporteur on 13 October 2003 related to a question similar to that raised in the communication dated 15 March 2004. 243. The Government first emphasized that freedom of religion and belief is guaranteed in the Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia. Article 19 of the Constitution guarantees the right to express one's faith freely and publicly, individually or in community with others. All religious communities are equal, i.e. have equivalent legal status. Religious communities and religious groups are separate from the State and are equal before the law. Freedom of religion is elaborated in greater detail in the Law on Religious Communities and Religious Groups of 1997, which regulates issues in the field of the legal status and work of religious communities and religious groups. Upon the initiative of certain religious groups and of the Helsinki