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Mr.
Alexander Lukashenko
Republic of Belarus
VIA FAX 011-375-172-26-06-10
August
10, 2001
Dear
Mr. Lukashenko,
The
International League for Human Rights, a non-governmental
organization devoted to protection of human rights,
is writing to express our grave concern about a series
of recent police raids on civic and political organizations,
which resulted in confiscation of their property.
On
August 8, a group of policemen and State Security agents
surrounded and then broke into the office of the youth
organization Gart, based in Gomel. Gart is an umbrella
organization which consists of activists from several
democratic youth groups, including the increasingly
popular ZUBR youth movement. The police detained five
young men who were in the building, including two members
of ZUBR. Four of them were subsequently released, while
Roman Palaschenko, press-secretary of the Gomel ZUBR
branch is still being held. On the same day, policemen
surrounded the office of another Gomel-based organization-Civic
Initiative-detaining Vladimir Katsoro, head of the Gomel
branch of United Civic Party.
On
August 9, police raided the office of Gart for the second
time, confiscating all of its computers and other electronic
equipment.
On
August 9, police made an unsanctioned search of the
Grodno headquarters of Semyon Domash, one of the democratic
candidates in the upcoming presidential elections. Without
providing any explanation for the search, the policemen
confiscated documents, computers and other equipment.
These
incidents come before the presidential elections in
September further undermining the legitimacy and credibility
of your government and dispelling any illusions of free
and fair elections. We demand that you use the power
of your office to return the confiscated equipment to
the aforementioned victims and stop all harassment of
public organizations and presidential candidates in
accordance with the OSCE's and other international commitments
your country has signed.
Sincerely,
Catherine
A. Fitzpatrick
Executive Director
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