A/56/253 “At present, the instigators and perpetrators of the acts in question are undergoing a number of examination proceedings. “The district administrative services, acting jointly with the police authorities and other competent bodies, have undertaken to implement a series of measures aimed at preventing manifestations of extremism and fostering a spirit of tolerance.” Georgia 13. In connection with two communications from the Special Rapporteur (paras. 47 and 48), in addition to a detailed review of its legislation and of its policy in the field of human rights, in particular freedom of religion or belief (including a speech by the President of Georgia condemning incidents affecting minorities, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, Evangelists, Baptists and the Hare Krishna movement and reporting government measures in that area), Georgia explained: “Case 1 “The information received by you about the interruption of a Baptist church service is true. The head of the Baptist Organization appealed to the Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia on Human Rights Issues, Ms. R. Beridze. At her request the Ministry of Internal Affairs studied the case. The Head of the Tianeti Police Department, Mr. Gigauri, was reprimanded and given appropriate instructions. “Since the incident, the Baptists have been conducting their church services in peaceful and calm conditions. “The President of the Baptist Organization, Mr. Songulashvili, sent a letter on 14 September 2000 to the Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council. He wrote: ‘I would like to thank you for your successful intervention, since the Baptist community is deeply interested in building up the democratic society in our country and will participate as much as possible in this process’.” “Case 2 “Before receiving your letter, no official information on the incident involving Jehovah’s Witnesses Sergi Barsegiani and Vladimer Mirikiani and the followers of Basil Mkalavishvili was available to the services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Reviewing the information, three units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs took appropriate measures and later it was stated that Sergi Barsegiani, born in 1979 and a resident of the Vazisubani district of Tbilisi, and Vladimer Mirikiani, born in 1980 and a resident of the Gldani district of Tbilisi, were questioned and declared that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses. On 2 or 3 August 2000, at about 11 a.m. (as stated later), they were approached by cars owned by Basil Mkalavishvili and Givi Khutulishvili; four men and eight women got out of the cars and physically and verbally abused the Jehovah’s Witnesses, tearing up religious literature belonging to them and taking away their personal documents. They threw powder made of some unknown material into S. Barsegiani’s eyes, which later made Bersegiani’s eye sore. He went to 60