Belarus Project

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Belarus Updates, 2000
INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS BELARUS UPDATE Edited by Victor Cole Vol. 3, No. 44 October 2000 IN THIS ISSUE: - Opposition Leader Leaves Election Race - Post-Election Political Harassment Continues - No Lack of Money for Ideology - West Criticizes Election Results and Political Climate in Belarus - No Reforms, No IMF Loans --HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS FORMER PRIME MINISTER WITHDRAWS HIS CANDIDACY On October 24, Mikhail Chigir, ex-Prime Minister and opposition leader, announced at a press conference in Minsk that he had decided to withdraw from the second round of the parliamentary elections, reported Belapan. "There isn't the slightest fairness in the current election," commented Chigir. The opposition leader noted that the government had missed an opportunity to hold a democratic election and form a truly representative parliament. Chigir told journalists that the election process was manipulated and subverted by the regime, the electoral law was twisted, and thousands of citizens have been pressured by various state institutions to pre-vote for pro-Lukashenko candidates. Chigir said that in the Minsk district where he was officially registered as an independent candidate, the authorities had deliberately reduced the list of voters by 6,000 people in order to declare the turnout sufficient and the poll valid a few days after the voting, although, only 47 per cent of registered voters did, in fact, cast their ballots. The former prime minister added that no observers were allowed to check the list of registered voters until election day. He called on his supporters to boycott the second round of the election and confirmed his eagerness to run for the Belarusian presidency next year. (Belapan, October 24) OFFICIAL DOES NOT RECOGNIZE INDEPENDENT OBSERVATION COMMITTEE On October 26, Lydia Yermoshina, Chair of the Central Commission for Elections and National Referenda, dismissed the statement of the Coordinating Committee on Observation of Elections, which concerned about 5,000 irregularities reported by 6,000 observers, reported Belapan. "The so-called Coordinating Committee on Observation of Elections has not been registered with the Belarusian Ministry of Justice and, therefore, all its statements and conclusions are not worth listening to," she said. [On October 18, Mechislav Grib, the Committee's chair announced that voter turnout in the first round of the parliamentary was far below the required 50 per cent in 31 districts, as opposed to 13 declared by the authorities. According to the Committee, voter turnout was below the required 50 per cent in all 18 Minsk districts, while the Central Commission for Elections and National Referenda invalidated the election results only in three of them. Grib told reporters that the local election commissions arbitrarily shortened and extended lists of registered voters to secure the desired result. As a result, officially announced turnout figures for Minsk's districts were from 44 to 47 per cent on the evening of October 15 and jumped up to 53 per cent the next day (See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 43).]. (Belapan, October 27) MORE DETENTIONS, FINES, AND HARASSMENT OF OPPOSITION On October 19, Vladimir Kishkurny was beaten by the police for passing out a special issue of Nasha Svaboda, an independent newspaper, which covered the first round of the parliamentary election, near Yakub Kolas Square metro station in Minsk. Valentin Stefanovich, representative of Viasna Human Rights Center, witnessed the incident. Kishkurny and Andrei Sinyakov, another opposition member, were forcefully taken to the Sovetsky District Internal Affairs Directorate, where Kishkurny was accused of "malicious hooliganism." He is to stand trial soon. On October 20, Victor Andreev and Yury Sanko, both activists of the Orsha branch of the BPF Adradzhenne, were charged with holding an unauthorized picket on September 8 and fined 150 minimal wages (about $375) each under Art. 167, para 12, of the Belarusian Administrative Code. On October 22, Andrei Chirets was detained near the Vostok metro station in Minsk for passing out Nasha Svaboda and taken to the Pervomaisky District Internal Affairs Directorate, where a police report was filed. His 1000 copies of Nasha Svaboda were confiscated "for analysis." Next day, Chirets was summoned to appear in the Pervomaisky District Court of Minsk. On October 24, Vladimir Kishkurny and Zhanna Holuseva were arrested near the Gorizont Television Plant in Minsk for distributing Nasha Svaboda and taken to the Central District Internal Affairs Directorate, reported Viasna Human Rights Center. The activists managed to convince the policemen that distributing copies of the registered newspaper is legal and were released after a few hours. All copies of the papers, except one which the law-enforcers left for themselves, were returned to the activists. Nasha Svaboda reported on October 27 that the Minsk police detained Galina Diagileva and Elena Zhdanovich, both members of the Conservative Christian Party (CCP), led by Zyanon Paznyak. The apparent reason for detention was the speaking of the Belarusian language. The law enforcers searched the activists and found in their purses the leaflets with Paznyak's appeal to Belarusians. They were accused of distributing anti-governmental materials and dragged to the nearest police station, where a protocol was filed on them. Vladimir Yukho was detained near the Vitebsk Supermarket in Minsk while passing out leaflets inviting Belarusians to attend the traditional Dzyady rally, which usually proceeds from the Moskovskoye Cemetery to Kurapaty, the site of mass graves of thousands of victims of the Stalinist repressions in the 1930s, reported Nasha Svaboda. First, the activist was taken to the nearest police station, where a protocol was filed. Later, he was transferred to the Sovetsky District Internal Affairs Directorate, where the officer on duty ordered to release Yukho. (Viasna, Nasha Svaboda, October 27) IDEOLOGY SHOW MUST GO ON About 12 billion BYB (about $11M) will be spent next year on the presidential election, reported Nasha Svaboda. It is three times of the amount that was allocated for holding the parliamentary election this year. Although the economy has plunged deeper into misery, widespread poverty, and pitiful wages, the regime increased 2.5 times the budget of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company. With independent publications are too weak to balance the pro-Lukashenko flow of information, taxpayer-supported broadcasting and the state-owned printed media will be heavily used to manipulate the public, rather than to provide objective information. [The Company is led by Victor Chikin, faithful Lukashenko's servant, who is also a deputy chair of the Minsk City Council and First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus. As a Minsk's deputy mayor, Chikin became notorious for banning many opposition rallies in the capital and letting dogs loose on demonstrators.- Ed.]. A representative of the Belarusian Finance Ministry told a press conference in Minsk that the increased support should not be linked to the next year presidential campaign. (Nasha Svaboda, October 27) OSCE/ODIHR CONCERNED ABOUT NONDEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS On October 19, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) expressed concern about violations of OSCE standards for democratic elections. The record of OSCE countries in implementing election-related commitments was reviewed at the annual OSCE human rights and democratization conference in Warsaw. "In the past 12 months, nine elections we observed did not meet OSCE standards," said Hrair Balian, the Head of the OSCE/ODIHR's Election Section. "Only seven of the elections we observed during this period complied with OSCE standards or at least represented some progress toward meeting them." Among the elections that clearly fell short of the OSCE commitments were the parliamentary elections in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Belarus. Lack of transparency and accountability, especially in the work of upper level election commissions, numerous instances of restricting the fundamental freedoms, including the freedoms of expression, association and assembly were the key problems identified by OSCE/ODIHR observers. (USIA, October 20) NATO STATES DISSATISFIED WITH BELARUSIAN ELECTIONS On October 23, Lord Robertson, NATO Secretary General, told reporters in Brussels that the country-members of the alliance, are "utterly disappointed by the outcome of the Belarusian parliamentary election." He dismissed concerns voiced by the Belarusian authorities about NATO's expansion plans as groundless and expressed hope that Belarus, which is still involved in the NATO's Partnership for Peace program, would support the fundamental rights and democratic principles, which the program champions. (Interfax, October 24) U.S. URGES BELARUS TO LIFT RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOMS OF ASSEMBLY On October 20, Amb. George F. Ward, Jr., U.S. delegate to the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Review Meeting in Warsaw, mentioned Belarus as one of the nations in the OSCE region that still deny their citizens the right to peaceful assembly. "The 1990 Copenhagen Document guarantees that 'Everyone will have the right of peaceful assembly and demonstration,'" Ward said. "While in most of the OSCE countries citizens enjoy these rights, some governments either refuse to honor their OSCE commitments or create inappropriate barriers to the exercise of these rights," the ambassador said. Following are excerpts from the Ward's statement regarding Belarus: "In Belarus, those seeking to exercise the right to freedom of assembly face serious constraints. In Minsk, the authorities have made the center of the city off limits for any demonstrations or pickets. The authorities often wait until the last minute to issue permission for a demonstration, if at all. In June, the Minsk city authorities banned an annual Catholic procession [See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 27]. Even when mass protests are allowed, the authorities carry out propaganda campaigns urging citizens not to attend. Participants in peaceful pro-democracy rallies have been detained or beaten. Beating can be severe; as in the case of Yuri Belenki, a Conservative Christian Party leader, who received a severe concussion as a result of a beating by police during the March 25, 2000, rally to mark the anniversary of the founding of the Belarusian National Republic in 1918 [See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 15]. In the brutal suppression of this rally, riot police with dogs and armored vehicles arrested or beat hundreds, including not only Belarusian citizens but also Russian journalists, an American citizen with diplomatic status and Polish parliamentarian, Mariusz Kaminski [See Belarus Update Vol. 3, Special issue]. The regime stages political show trials of the organizers of larger pro-democracy rallies, using the continual threat of imprisonment to try to force them to cease their activities. A prime example are the trials of Valery Shchukin and Nikolai Statkevich. Participants of smaller public assemblies also face penalties: this year alone, Alexander Abramovich has served over 100 days in jail for taking part in or organizing unsanctioned protests [See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 10, 13, 18, 22, 23, 25, 26, 33, 34, 37-Ed.]. (USIA, October 21) ...AND DEPLORES REGIME FOR STIFLING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION On October 18, Dr. Ruth Walden delivered the U.S. statement on freedom of expression to the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Review Meeting in Warsaw, focusing on criminal defamation laws, which, she said, are aimed at stifling criticism of government and government officials. "The law is often defended as a means to prevent 'abuses' of freedom of expression, but, in fact, the real abuses occur as government officials use such laws to punish their critics," Walden said. She deplored the harassment, beating, arrest, imprisonment or disappearance of journalists in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Georgia and Romania. In her statement, Walden mentioned the disappearance of Dmitry Zavadsky, a Belarusian cameraman for ORT, Russia's television station, who has been missing since July 7 (See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 28-30); the September 13 confiscation by police 112,000 copies of a special issue of Rabochy, a newspaper of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union, devoted to the opposition-staged boycott campaign of the October 15 election (See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 38-39); the October 16 blocking of the bank account of Magic, private publishing house (See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 43). (USIA, October 23) U.S.: BELARUSIAN AUTHORITIES CONSIDER NGOs AN ENEMY FORCE The right of citizens to form NGOs is "indispensable to the creation and blossoming of a rule-of-law state," David T. Johnson, U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE, told the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Review Meeting in Warsaw on October 20. He pointed out that "the status of NGOs and their relations with the authorities are a litmus test of the sincerity of participating States to implement their OSCE commitments on democratization." The ambassador expressed regret that in certain OSCE countries, including Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus, authoritarian governments are cracking down on NGOs. Following are excerpts from Johnson's statement concerning Belarus: "In Belarus, state authorities often regard grassroots NGOs, including independent trade unions, as anti-governmental organization. As a corollary, the government attempts to limit NGO activities. Last month, official warnings were issued to human rights organizations and to political parties because of small discrepancies between the title of the organizations, as identified on their stationery, with the officially registered name [See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 37]. Under the current regulations in Belarus, the authorities can close an NGO after two warnings. The Lukashenko regime and local authorities also harass independent NGOs by refusing to rent them office space or conferences venues. One of the more recent examples of this type of harassment was the refusal to rent the Belarusian Association of Journalists a conference hall in Vitebsk to hold an independent press festival [See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 38]." (USIA, October 24) OSCE: BELARUSIAN COURT DECISION APPEARS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED On October 24, the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group in Minsk expressed its concern that a recent ruling in the case of Julia Chigir, wife of Mikhail Chigir, former Prime Minister, of the Frunzensky District Court of Minsk, presided over by Judge Inna Ugnivuienko, appears politically motivated and represents another attempt to silence the opposition. The court found Mrs. Chigir guilty of interfering with the work of police under Art. 187, part 2 of the Belarusian Criminal Code and sentenced her to a two year prison term, suspended for one year. The case turned on events that took place on May 19, 2000, at the Minsk City Courthouse where Mrs. Chigir bit a policeman's ear. Mrs. Chigir's attorneys argued that she had acted in self-defense when a policeman grabbed her by the arms and handled her roughly. The defense submitted photographs of Mrs. Chigir's subsequent bruising and a videotape of the events as evidence. Despite the preponderance of evidence and testimonies of a number of domestic and international observers present on the courthouse on May 19, the court sided with the policeman. The sentence effectively bars Mrs. Chigir from any political activity that could be construed as unlawful for the coming year triggering the two year sentence. (OSCE, October 24) OSCE AMG DOES NOT "CHANNEL FUNDS" Belapan reported on October 19 that Alexander Lukashenko had accused the OSCE Advisory and Monitoring Group in Belarus of channeling $70,000 to the opposition. The Belarusian strongman also referred to the October 13 meeting with the Parliamentary Troika in the course of which "he reproached Wieck and the others" regarding financial support for the opposition. During that meeting, Amb. Wieck informed Lukashenko that the OSCE AMG pays salaries for services rendered like any other institution. This, Amb. Wieck underlined, was also the case with regard to the figures mentioned by the President in the meeting with the Parliamentary Troika. The funds at the OSCE AMG disposal come either from the OSCE budget, which is known to the Belarusian authorities, or from voluntary contributions from member states and institutions and transferred through the OSCE Secretariat. On October 24, the OSCE AMG in Belarus issued a statement saying that it has not "channeled funds to the Belarusian opposition." "The $70,000 referred to by Lukashenko is part of the funds needed for the countrywide network of independent election observers, organized by the NGOs and partially supported by the OSCE AMG in Belarus. Election observation is a legal activity of non-governmental organizations and of individual citizens of the country," the OSCE AMG said in the statement. (Belapan, OSCE, October 19, 24) MARKET VENDORS TO STAGE NATION-WIDE PROTEST On October 25, the Council of the Free Trade Union of Entrepreneurs announced that outdoor market vendors from all regions in Belarus would go on strike to press the government to address their demands, reported Nasha Svaboda. The entrepreneurs demand that he government repeal an excise tax on entrepreneurs and customs tariffs on goods imported from Russia, simplify the accounting rules, and take measures to prevent officials, police, and tax officers from extorting money from vendors.(Nasha Svaboda, October 27) PROSECUTOR-GENERAL: FORMER BANKER MAY "SAFELY" RETURN TO BELARUS On October 26, Oleg Bozhelko, Belarusian Prosecutor-General told a news conference in Minsk that Tamara Vinnikova, former head of the National Bank of Belarus, can return home and "fear nothing," reported Interfax. The Prosecutor-General told journalists that he had recently received three letters from Vinnikova with inquiries about her property in Belarus and a possibility of her safe return to Belarus. On September 18, the Belarusian authorities has urged the British to extradite Vinnikova (See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 39). On October 4, in an interview to ORT, Russian TV channel, Vinnikova said that she had been granted political asylum in England. Earlier this month the Belarusian Prosecutor-General Office announced that Vinnikova's property will be confiscated under Presidential Decree No. 40 "On Reimbursement of Damages Suffered by State." Under the decree, a property may be confiscated even before its owner is found liable by the court of law. In an interview to RFE/RL, Vinnikova called the confiscation order an absolute nonsense, since it was issued on the basis of accusations that have never been tried in court. Bozhelko said that the investigator assigned to the Vinnikova's case "works hard to prove she is guilty." "There is $180,000 in bank accounts opened under her name in Belarus. We want to know where does this money come from?" he said. (Interfax, October 26) --AT HOME IN BELARUS-- IMF: NO REFORMS, NO LOANS Belarus will have to make substantial progress on long-overdue economic reforms before it can receive financial support, the IMF announced on October 20. In a scathing assessment of the country's ailing economy, the IMF's executive directors complained that there had been "no major strides in advancing structural reforms." "Fundamental progress toward macroeconomic stabilization and sustainable growth will require implementation of a comprehensive reform program, including tight macroeconomic policies and a coherent structural reform agenda," the IMF said. The Fund said it would not consider new lending, unless the Belarusian authorities will show a "clear, credible, and public commitment to a comprehensive and consistent stabilization and structural reform program." [The IMF halted lending to Belarus in 1996 and in 1998 the IMF's resident mission left Minsk in protest at the government's unwillingness to introduce serious market reforms.- Ed.]. (Reuters, October 21) -CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS- October 29- the opposition to hold the traditional Dzyady rally; November 12- the opposition youth organizations to stage protests in many Belarusian Regions November 15- Belarus to be reviewed by the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva ********************************************************************** 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 59th 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) 661-0480 or fax (212) 684-1696 or visit our web site at www.ilhr.org Back**