France is to defy President Bill Clinton's appeal to be more tolerant of religious sects and introduce draconian laws, including an offence of "mental manipulation" - brainwashing - which will carry a two-year prison sentence.

President Jacques Chirac has told Mr Clinton that religious freedom will no longer be a subject for bilateral presidential talks, in the light of what has been officially described as "shocking" White House support for Scientologists and Moonies.

The French government has also complained that Congress's introduction of laws protecting religious freedom internationally is "an unacceptable intrusion into internal affairs".

The chairman of a French ministerial mission to combat the influence of cults, Alain Vivien, said many observers believed that Mr Clinton was making his peace with big religious movements "because they offer an indispensable source of political financing".

The French senate has approved legislation reinforcing the right of victims to take action against marginal religious groups.The national assembly plans to toughen the measure even further when it debates it on June 22.

MPs on both the left and the right are expected to vote in favour of authorising the courts to forcibly dissolve sects after two complaints, and to forbid them operating in the neighbourhood of schools, hospitals and rest homes.

They intend to make such movements responsible for acts considered to be a provocation to suicide or incitement to abandon families.

France's war against mainly American-sponsored movements, including the Jehovah's Witnesses, has been running for at least 20 years. It has prompted the accusation, particularly by Scientologists, that it is indulging in "collective hysteria" and preparing to ban religious freedoms.

Mr Vivien denied that France was acting alone, claiming that Germany was leading the battle, with strong support from Belgium, the first country to produce a legal definition of a sect. "The United States position is less and less understood in Europe," he said.

"No one can forbid us to take action against sects in the interests of human rights. This point of view is particularly absurd when these movements flout the most elementary rights."

He claimed that, headed by Scientologists, sects were infiltrating UN and European human rights associations, financing some of their work, and collaborating on reports that condemned France "with virulence".

Go Back