The Norway-based human rights group Forum 18 said authorities have promised that the cultural monument will now house "a mini-hotel and/or museum," but added it still falls short of Catholics’ whishes. 

Catholics in the capital Minsk have marked a third year of daily prayer vigils outside the monastery's St Joseph Church against government plans to change its religious purpose. 

However there were no signs Tuesday, April 22, that the government would fulfill a 17-year-old promise to return the building to believers, Forum 18 told BosNewsLife.

NATIONWIDE PETITION

Yet, "local Catholics have maintained to Forum 18 that a nationwide petition for the return of the monastery, which gained 50,000 signatures, led [at least] to a more modest development project."

Protestants active in a separate petition to change the country's harsh Religion Law joined the Catholic campaign. Officials refused to comment.

Although some 95 per cent of historical Orthodox churches in Belarus have been returned, most Catholic churches, Jewish synagogues and Protestant church buildings apparently remain state property.

"TYRANNY OUTPOST"

Belarus has been described by the United States since early 2005, as Europe's only remaining "outpost of tyranny". 

Critics claim it has been ruled with an increasingly iron fist since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko. Opposition figures and devoted Christians are among those reportedly subjected to harsh penalties for organizing protests or involvement in unauthorized religious activities.

Belarus became independent in 1991, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.