INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 3, No. 20
May 2000

IN THIS ISSUE:

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS--

FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF DISAPPEARANCE OF YURY ZAKHARENKO
On May 8, Richard Boucher, a newly appointed U.S. State Department spokesman, issued the following statement on missing Belarusian opposition leaders General Yuri Zakharenko, Victor Gonchar, and businessman Anatoly Krasovsky:

"May 7 marked the first anniversary of the unexplained disappearance of Belarusian opposition activist and former Interior Minister, General Yury Zakharenko. General Zakharenko resigned from his position as Interior Minister in 1995 to protest the abuses of Alexander Lukashenko's dictatorial rule. After his resignation, he founded the Belarusian Union of Officers and supported former Belarusian Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir's campaign in the opposition-organized presidential elections in May 1999. General Zakharenko vanished while walking home on May 7, 1999, and has not been heard from since. On September 16, 1999, Belarusian opposition leader Victor Gonchar and his associate Anatoly Krasovsky joined General Zakharenko among the ranks of the disappeared. Shortly before his disappearance, Gonchar called his wife to say he would be home soon. He never arrived. The United States again urges the Belarusian authorities to account for the disappeared and assures the Zakharenko, Gonchar and Krasovsky families that they and their loved ones are not forgotten." (U.S. Department of State, May 9)

UNAUTHORIZED PICKET HELD IN MINSK
About 30 people took part in an unauthorized picket staged on May 7 in Minsk to commemorate the anniversary of Zakharenko's disappearance. Prominent opposition leaders, human rights activists, and relatives of former Interior Minister gathered on Mogilevskaya Street, where he disappeared a year ago. They held a placard saying: "This is the place where Yuri Zakharenko was kidnapped on May 7, 1999," and pictures of the general. In an interview to a Belapan correspondent, Zakharenko's wife, Olga said that it is the country's top leadership, who is to blame for what happened to her husband. No incidents with the police were reported. (Belapan, May 9)

OPPOSITION COMMEMORATES WAR VICTIMS IN MINSK
On May 9, about three hundred people attended a commemorative rally held at the place of the former Minsk ghetto, where thousands of Jews were executed by the Nazis during World War II. The site of the killings is now a memorial known as Yama [Pit]. The rally was attended by leaders of opposition parties, including Vintsuk Vyachorka, chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front Adradzhenne, Vyacheslav Sivchik, BPF deputy chairman, Anatoly Lebedko, vice-speaker of the 13th Supreme Soviet and chairman of the United Civil Party, Alyaksandr Dobrovolsky, UCP deputy chairman, and Ales Belyatsky, head of the Spring-96 Human Rights Center. They laid flowers at the Yama monument. Speaking at the gathering, Leonid Levin, the chairman of the Belarusian Congress of Jewish Communities, recalled that almost all the Jews who lived in Minsk were killed during the war. BPF leader Lyavon Barshchewski, who chairs the society of Belarusian-Jewish friendship, stressed that Nazism and anti-Semitism should not be allowed to take root on Belarusian soil. The opposition leaders also placed wreath with the words "To fighters against fascism - from the Belarusian democratic forces" to the monument at Victory Square and visited Kurapaty, the site of mass graves of thousands of victims of the Stalinist repression in the 1930s. Speaking after the ceremony to a Belapan correspondent, Anatoly Lebedko spoke negatively of the pompous military parade that had been held by the authorities at the time when many Belarusian families are starving. (BPF Press Service- Belapan, May 9)

MINSK OFFICIALS REFUSE NATIONALISTS' REQUEST TO RALLY IN CENTER
The Minsk City Council prohibited the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front chaired by Zyanon Paznyak to hold a rally in Yanka Kupala Park and a solemn ceremony on Victory Square in Minsk on May 8 on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the victory over the Nazis. "We planned to warn the Belarusian people about the danger of the use by the Lukashenko illegal regime of the anniversary of the victory over Nazism to justify the deployment of a 300,000-strong army group in the country. The regime wants to split Europe again and add Belarus to a new 'Soviet camp' which opposes civilized Western countries," the organizers wrote in a statement. (Belapan, May 8)

ANTI-FASCIST COMMITTEE STARTS WORKING IN BELARUS
The Coordinating Council of the Congress of Democratic Forces and the United Civil Party have recently established the Belarusian Antifascist Committee, the Nasha Svaboda independent newspaper reported. The main task of the Committee will be the consolidation of efforts of the country's democratic forces to restrain the proliferation of fascism in Belarus. The Committee will be co-chaired by Yury Khashchevatsky, a well-known Belarusian film director and member of the Charter 97 nationwide civic movement, by Ludmila Gryaznova, a deputy of the 13th Supreme Soviet, and famous Belarusian writer Arthur Volsky. (Nasha Svaboda, May 12)

JUDGE TO ANNOUNCE RULING ON CHIGIR'S CASE
The farcical trial of former Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir former Belarusian Prime Minister and opposition leader, who faces five years imprisonment (See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 18), has come to an end, the Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta reported. The judge will announce the verdict within a week. On May 10, Chigir was granted the opportunity to make his last statement, and pleaded not guilty. "The absurdity of charges against me is so obvious that I see no reason to reiterate that I am not guilty. I have lived honestly according to the country's laws and my conscience. I have done nothing illegal in my life and I have nothing to fear," the former Prime Minister said in his concluding statement to the Minsk City Court on May 10. He said that both the prosecutors and judges are well aware that the charges against him are groundless and politically motivated. Chigir believes that his biggest mistake was to accept Lukashenko's invitation to join his team as a Prime minister in 1994. [He resigned his post to protest the 1996 controversial constitutional referendum and was arrested three years later after he had challenged Lukashenko in the opposition-organized presidential elections.]

Formally, Chigir is accused of "criminal negligence" and "abuse of power resulting in serious damage for the state budget" under Articles 167-168 of the Belarusian Criminal Code. He is charged with authorizing dubious loans to the BelOST, a Canadian private company, while heading the Belagroindustrialbank prior to becoming the prime minister. Chigir said that the prosecution has failed to produce a single document signed by him to confirm the transfer of $1m for the construction of Belagroindustrialbank's office. He did not deny that his bank did pay $1m to the Canadian company in advance for building the office, but explained that the contract was cancelled by the new head of the bank shortly after he had become the prime minister. Chigir argued that the loan had been given to the BelOST against a well-prepared business plan and sufficient insurance policies. He is also accused of giving Piask, a private company [headed by a son of Stanislav Bogdankevich, another prominent opposition leader], an extension in paying customs duties while he was Prime Minister from 1994 to 1996. The defense contests that the State Customs Committee's orders prove that it was the Committee that violated regulations by allowing Piask, which is now insolvent, to postpone paying customs duties without checking whether it had necessary bank guarantees.

The defense demanded full acquittal. Still, Chigir's leading attorney Gary Pogonyailo does not rule out suspended sentence or even imprisonment. "The sentence depends on Lukashenko's decision, Pogonyailo said. Chigir's case has been in court since January 19, 2000. He was arrested in April 1999, and spent eight months in custody before being released pending conviction. (Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta, May 12)

BPF LEADER ACQUITTED
On May 11, the Leninski District Court of Minsk dismissed the case of Yury Khadyka, BPF Adradzhenne deputy chairman, who was accused of participating in an unauthorized demonstration in Minsk on July 21, 1999, marking the end of Lukashenko's five-year presidency, the BPF press service reported. On September 21, 1999, the opposition leader was fined for violating street demonstration regulations, which is punishable under Article 167-1 of the Administrative Offenses Code. Khadyka appealed the fine to the Minsk City Court, arguing that there had been no unsanctioned rally - people simply gathered for festivities. The Minsk City Court reversed and remanded the case, this time to Judge Elena Tereshkova, who did not find any evidence of criminal behavior and dismissed the complaint against the BPF leader. (BPF press service, May 12)

JUDGE DISMISSES COMPLAINT AGAINST BPF ACTIVIST IN MOGILEV
On May 11, Sergei Girkin, activist of the Mogilev branch of the BPF Adradzhenne, was acquitted by the Tsentralny District Court, Charter 97 reported. On May 1, Girkin was arrested during an alternative rally organized by the local branches of the United Civil Party, BPF Adradzhenne, Malady Front, and the Independent Trade Union, and charged with violating street demonstration regulations and resisting to the police. The judge did not find any elements of the offence in Girkin's activities and dismissed the case. (Charter 97, May 12)

BELARUS - SOVIET THEME PARK
Mark Tissen, press-secretary of Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, and Ian Brzezinski, another Committee member, who visited Belarus on April 20-22 (See Belarus Update Vol., No.18), shared their experience with the readers of the European edition of the Wall Street Journal. The following are the excerpts from the article titled "Belarus Can Return To The Democratic Path" they wrote for the Journal.

"Arriving in Minsk is like stepping back in time into the old USSR. Statues of Lenin and KGB founder Felix Dzerzhinsky still stand proudly in the squares of the capital; people wait in long lines outside state stores for bread, shoes and whatever items may be available that day; and troops stand on every street corner, menacing to passers-by. Belarus has not even bothered to change the name of its security apparatus from "KGB." Belarus, as one diplomat here put it, is "a Soviet theme park."

But the brutality of Alexander Lukashenko's regime is very real. The latest twist to his dictatorship: disappearances. Over the past year, senior opposition leaders have suddenly begun to vanish. Numerous opposition figures have been jailed and otherwise harassed. Belarus is fast becoming the Cuba of Europe--a sore spot of tyranny in a region of emerging and maturing democracies. As is the case in Cuba, all power in Belarus is concentrated in the hands of a megalomaniac leader, prone to multi-hour speeches and irrational outbursts. As in Cuba, the state controls access to work, housing, education and heath care. Lukashenko has decreed himself the power to confiscate property at his whim. He's also instituted a 5-year prison sentence for anyone who insults him. But there is one important difference. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Belarus enjoyed four brief years of democracy. And in those four years, a civil society took root that is refusing to die quietly. Independent newspapers struggle to publish, despite harassment, intimidation, arbitrary fines and arrests. The leadership of the parliament dismissed by Lukashenko refuses to concede legitimacy to his sham regime, and scores of NGOs fight for space in society. Despite the threat posed by baton-wielding interior ministry forces, the opposition consistently attracts tens of thousands to regular anti-regime rallies.

So far, however, Western capitals - including Washington - have ignored Belarus' backslide into tyranny. This is a grave error. Allowing Moscow to reabsorb an independent democratic state that emerged from the Soviet collapse will only whet Moscow's appetite to further restore Soviet borders, setting a destabilizing precedent for other new democracies in the region. Indulging Russian hegemony in Belarus also undermines Russian democracy. A more immediate threat is that Belarus will become a proxy for Russia's dealings with rogue states such as Iraq and Iran, doing business on Moscow's behalf while giving the Kremlin plausible deniability.

What can the West do? Help Lukashenko's opponents break the government's information blockade, through support for independent newspapers and increased radio broadcasting. Provide direct support for the opposition, in the same way financial, intelligence and diplomatic support was offered to Poland's Solidarity movement. The West should deny recognition and legitimacy to the agreements Belarus signs and ratifies - including the Union treaty with Russia. (Wall Street Journal Europe, May 5)

--RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN BELARUS--

BELARUS: STAND-OFF OVER CATHOLIC PRIEST CONTINUES
After being ordered to leave the country by the Brest authorities (see Belarus Update Vol.3, No.13, 16, 17), Father Zbigniew Korolyak continues to insist that he does not intend to leave his parish, citing instructions from Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek, head of the Catholic Church in Belarus. "Cardinal Swiatek has instructed me to stay in the place I serve, and I intend to carry out his instructions," he told Keston News Service. He maintains that his decision to remain in the parish is the only correct and possible course of action. Currently Korolyak is accompanied everywhere by representatives of the church committee, which is determined to defend their much-loved priest against any attack from the authorities. Father Zbigniew argues that the authorities' position is in direct contravention of the Belarusian Constitution, according to which the church is separated from the state and the latter should not and may not interfere in the process of appointment, transfer or promotion of clergy. After an initial refusal, the Leninski District Court of Brest is to study a complaint by the church committee and Father Korolyak about the priest's unlawful detention, fine and the unprovoked use of force by members of the security forces in April. The complaint was accepted after a direct order by a higher court to which the believers had appealed.

In the opinion of Ivan Yanovich, deputy chairman of the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs in Minsk, there can be no other decision other than the one already adopted. "The priest must leave Belarus, and then we'll be ready to discuss any future steps with the local congregation and with the leadership of the Catholic Church, Yanovich told Keston. Asked by Keston why such a harsh position has been adopted in Father Korolyak's case, a source at the Belarusian Council of Ministers who wished to remain anonymous, responded sternly: "We do not need priests like Korolyak, who always and everywhere poke their noses in and stir up the people with their feverish activity." This statement is similar to what other insiders close to Cardinal Swiatek say the government think. The authorities are displeased with Father Zbigniew because he does not just perform the church sacraments, but tries to improve the life of his parishioners and others. Father Zbigniew has organized a soup kitchen and has tried to set up a pharmacy for the poor. Sources who declined to be named told Keston that at the beginning of May the 5th Directorate of the Belarusian KGB, which in Soviet times was in charge of' religious communities and clergy, has been given an order to "single out" Father Zbigniew and also to "work more actively on the cases" of all other foreign clergy in the country. (Keston News Service, May 8)

BELARUSIAN NEWSPAPER INCITES RELIGIOUS HOSTILITY WITH IMPUNITY
On April 19-20, the Narodnaya gazeta government newspaper published an article written by Nina Yanovich under the headline "The Prospect Looms for Belarus to Become a Protestant Republic, or We are Incessantly Being Urged to Deny the Faith of Our Ancestors." It is not the first time that Yanovich has attacked religious minorities in the newspaper. In her previous articles she has leveled similar attack at Bishop Pyotr Hushcha, head of the Belarus Autocephalous Orthodox Church, (See Belarus Update Vol.1, No.4, 9,12), and has attacked other confessions which "try to obstruct the complete and absolute supremacy of the Orthodoxy in Belarus." A newspaper editor, who understandably insist on anonymity, believe that Yanovich simply puts her signature under material written by the State Security Council, headed by Viktor Sheiman, who is also known as the "Grey Cardinal."

Yanovich's article alleges that Protestant communities carry out fanatical rituals, including the ritual use of human blood and human sacrifice, threaten Orthodox priests with physical violence, and remove national-religious consciousness from the Belarusian people. "The neo-Protestant tendency takes on ugly forms in Belarus, and carries with it a threat to the very existence of the Belarusian nation, its psychological health, its security. In this way, the creation of an exclusive ring has been achieved, which exerts US pressure on Belarus on the basis of its economic, political, diplomatic, and now also religious-ideological links," reads the author of the article. She calls on the government to use restrictive and repressive measures to "protect" Orthodoxy.

Many Protestant ministers and preachers, representatives of the Roman Catholic as well as the Orthodox Churches believe that the article incites religious hatred. But they also say that their appeals to the law enforcement agencies and to the State Committee for Religious Affairs would achieve nothing. Given that the feature may be almost entirely classified as a criminal act punishable by law in accordance with Article 71 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, it would seem logical to expect the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, whose direct duty it is to oversee the observance of the laws on freedom of religion and to prosecute infringements of the law in the area of the rights of national and religious communities, independently to make an appropriate representation to the public prosecutor. Yet, asked how the State Committee viewed the article, deputy chairman Ivan Yanovich told Keston that it is "a normal event in democratic society with the freedom of the press." (Keston News Service, May 8)

--BROTHER SLAVS--

BELARUSIANS ARE COMING!
Although only a few weeks ago Alexander Lukashenko called for the formation of a 300,000-strong army group in the country that would include Russian as well as Belarusian forces, now he is talking about 500,000, the Izvestia Russian newspaper wrote. His argument is the same as it has always been: "We'll be unable to defend ourselves single-handed in the face of the threat posed by NATO." According to his estimates, NATO forces in Europe include a million "well-trained and well-equipped" men. Lukashenko's latest flurry of activity is easy to explain. The Council of the Union of Russia and Belarus will hold its second meeting in late May. Before the previous meeting on April 25 Lukashenko was actively pressing for elections for a joint parliament. As a result Putin said after his meeting with the Belarusian leader in Minsk in April that the elections could take place within six months. And already Alexander Veshnyakov, chairman of Russia's Central Electoral Committee, has reported that the Commission has drafted a legislative act on the matter. Now it is being considered by Duma committees and the legal department of the Kremlin administration. What Lukashenko cannot foresee is when the two countries will agree on the economic aspect of the union state although Belarus would seem to be vitally interested in it. (Izvestia, May 10)

--CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS--
May 14- opposition to mark the anniversary of a 1995 referendum
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The Belarus Update is a regular news bulletin of the Belarus Human Rights Support Project of the International League for Human Rights. The League, now in its 58th year, is New York-based human rights NGO in consultative status with the United Nations and ILO.

The Belarus project was established to support Belarusian citizens in making their cases before the U.S. government and public and international fora and intergovernmental organizations regarding Alexander Lukashenko's wholesale assault on human rights and the rule of law in Belarus.

For more information e-mail belarus@ilhr.org or call (212) 684-1221 or fax (212) 684-1696 or visit our web site at www.ilhr.org

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