New York, NY, February 7---Activists from Charter 97 in Belarus, a citizens' human rights movement working in partnership with the International League for Human Rights, were attacked by fascist thugs Friday night in Minsk as they left their office. Andrei Sannikov, Charter's international coordinator and a former deputy foreign minister of Belarus, was beaten unconscious and suffered broken ribs, a broken nose, bruises, and a concussion. Dmitry Bondarenko, a Charter organizing committee member, was sprayed in the face with a mace cannister, and Charter press secretary Oleg Bebenin was beaten in the kidneys.

At approximately 9:00 p.m. on Feb. 5, Sannikov and Bondarenko left the Charter office on Skaryna Avenue, a main thoroughfare in Minsk, and proceeded toward Victory Square. They noticed some teen-aged youths, wearing the distinctive black berets and swastika-like symbols on red armbands and buttons typical of the "RNE," the Russian initials for the Russian National Unity party founded in Russia. The youths had arrayed themselves in twos and threes at intersections of the avenue, and were handing out copies of "Russian Order," the RNE's newspaper. When two youths thrust some leaflets at the Charter activists, there was an
exchange of words, and one punched Sannikov in the face. Then Sannikov and Bondarenko descended into an underground passageway to cross the street. When they emerged, 20 Barkashev followers converged upon them, now with older men in their 20s joining the juveniles, and beat and kicked them viciously. The Charter members heard an older man of approximately 30, sporting camouflage fatigues and an RFE armband, give directions to the youngsters, telling them whom to beat. The assailants shouted "Zhidy," an anti-Semitic epithet, and swore in Russian as they attacked the Charter activists, using fists, feet, and a mace cannister.

Oleg Bebenin, press secretary of the Charter, subsequently left work and came upon the melee. He tried to help his colleagues, and was kicked and punched in the kidneys. A passer-by who said he was a military officer tried to intervene to stop the attack, and was himself beaten and knocked to the ground, and later left the scene. As Sannikov lay on the street, Bondarenko ran for help to the nearby offices of the Belarusian Popular Front, and Bebenin managed to get to a nearby police academy to summon assistance. When they returned, the RNE followers had fled. Although police presence in downtown Minsk is ordinarily very heavy, and patrols are normally present on Skaryny, no policemen could be found.

Passers-by eventually asked a police patrol car which cruised by the scene to call for an ambulance but the car then left and apparently failed to report the attack. Sannikov and Bebenin managed to get to a hospital, where Sannikov was x-rayed and treated and both were released. They are now recuperating at home. The hospital filed reports to the district police.

Three Russian television stations that broadcast into Belarus have covered the attack, although the Belarusian news channels, under the president's control, have been silent.

On Jan. 29-30, the Charter 97 leaders were among the civic movements and parties who joined an organizing committee to convene the Congress of Democratic Forces, an effort to form a united opposition to the growing tyranny of President Lukashenko. The Congress contested Lukashenko's continuance in office after July 1999, and avowed to seek presidential elections in May 1999 under the 1994 constitution, abrogated by Lukashenko in 1996. President Lukashenko is believed to have retaliated against the democratic opposition's Congress by passing a decree last week requiring on all parties and trade unions to re-register with

authorities in the next six months.

The Belarusian branch of the Russian National Unity party, led by Alexander Barkashev in neighboring Russia, has grown more active in Belarus in recent weeks, even as Russian officials are now attempting to curb the fascistic movement. Moscow's Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and the Moscow chief of police have cracked down again on the ultranationalists last week, since banning an RNE march in December. Apparently, the self-proclaimed fascist movement has found a greater reception in Belarus, where such extremist manifestations have been tolerated under President Lukashenko, known for publicly expressing his admiration of Hitler, and for supporting rallies of conservative activists who favor a merger with Russia and a restoration of the former USSR.

Barkashev's organization, founded in 1990, is reported by Russian human rights groups who monitor the growth of extremist movements to have thousands of followers in dozens of Russian cities. They are known for their distinctive Nazi-like emblems and Nazi-style salute, and have a paramilitary youth wing which human rights activists claim are responsible for attacks on Jews, Caucasians, and Roma. Barkashev has publicly announced at rallies that "Jews, democrats, and Freemasons" are the enemies of the RNE, which seeks the imposition of a dictatorship of ethnic Russians in a national-socialist system.

According to international and local wire reports from Reuters, JTA, and Itar-Tass, Moscow's police chief fired two senior police officers last week for failing to stop a demonstration of Barkashev's followers. Police claimed they had no grounds to detain the self-acknowledged fascists; Russian TV showed a policeman even apologizing to the marchers for briefly halting them. Facing mounting pressure from the international community as well as concern from within Russia, Russian prosecutors announced recently that they may reverse an earlier decision not to open up a criminal investigation into Barkashev and his movement.