INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 4, No. 2
January 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

-- -Lukashenko-only truly independent candidate for presidency
-- -Belarus wants to resume dialogue with U.S. and Europe
-- -But doesnt invite US Ambassador to presidential reception
-- -Authorities shut down printing press
-- -Activists fined for rallying on Human Rights Day
-- -Police suppress youth inmates riot
-- -Journalist prohibited to investigate colleagues disappearance
-- -Jailed professor to stand trial on bribery charges
-- -Single currency agreement with Russia unconstitutional

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS

LUKASHENKO- ONLY TRULY INDEPENDENT CANDIDATE

On January 1, in an interview to the Belarusian state TV, Alexander Lukashenko once again accused the West of plotting against him and teaming up with the opposition to engineer his downfall next year. He also condemned the opposition for preparing the so-called provisional constitutional agreement aimed at overthrowing his newly elected hand-picked parliament and subverting the existing state order. The authoritarian ruler said that last years parliamentary election completed the creation of a strong state structures in Belarus. Prior to that, we could not say that we had a state, he said. Maybe the new structure is too powerful but this is what I promised to people, the Belarusian Soviet-style leader said. Lukashenko told the compatriots that he does not have as much time as the opposition to get ready for the coming presidential election and that his way of preparing for it is to work even harder on fulfilling all the promises he had made to Belarusians. He also expressed doubts that his political opponents, whom he regarded as a motley crew totally lacking public support would ever be able to come up with a single candidate that could successfully run against him for the Belarusian presidency.

Lukashenko also bragged about his wonderful relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin and dismissed as absurd the rumors that there will be a Kremlin candidate in the upcoming presidential vote in Belarus. It would be ridiculous for the Kremlin to seek a replacement for Lukashenko, the Belarusian leader said. He emphasized that he is the only truly independent candidate for the presidency because he does not have to bow to anyone or ask for money to hold on to power. In case of his re-election, Lukashenko promised no radical change in the state policy, and warned the Belarusians that the oppositions victory will mean the destruction of everything that has already been achieved and the loss of the countrys independence. The Belarusian leader confirmed his stance of opposing to wild privatization and promised that he will never let anyone to sell off the country. (BBC, January 3)

BELARUS WANTS TO RESUME DIALOGUE WITH U.S. AND EUROPE

Belarus is ready to come out of its isolation and resume a more constructive dialogue with both the United States and West European countries, Mikhail Khvostov, Belarusian Foreign Minister said on January 8. We admit that the U.S. is a world power that one must have good relations with, Khvostov said. Belarus is ready to negotiate and present its views on the problems in our bilateral relations, the minister said, adding that it is necessary to find things to unite us, not keep us apart. It is also important for Belarus to find mutual understanding with European institutions, particularly with OSCE, the Council of Europe, and European Union, Khvostov said. Belarus is in the very heart of Europe and is an integral part of it, so one should not isolate our country, he added. Khvostov was speaking in Moscow after talks with his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov, focusing on cooperation between Moscow and Minsk in both their bilateral and foreign policies. Belarus hopes to enlist Russian aid in dealing with political obstacles in its relations with the West, paving the way for stronger economic ties with Europe, Khvostov said. Khvostov concluded his two-day visit to Russia by signing a schedule for consultations to be held this year between the foreign ministries of both countries. (Belapan, January 8-9)

U.S.: RESTORE CLIMATE OF TRUST BY HOLDING DEMOCRATIC ELECTION

On December 21, in an interview to the Belarusian state TV that was never aired, Michael Kozak, formerly chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission to Cuba and now the new U.S. Ambassador to Minsk, said that he would also love to see bilateral relations improved and normalized. But to accomplish that task we need to deal with the perception that exists in the United States and in Europe that the processes by which the presidents term was extended in 1996 and the Belarusian parliament was recently selected did not meet basic democratic standards applicable to all OSCE members, Kozak said. He added that the coming presidential election provides an excellent opportunity for the Belarusian authorities to bring the electoral process up to the democratic standards and restore a climate of trust between the two countries. We are ready to work with whoever wins the election as long as it comes out in a democratic way that can match up to the European standards, the Ambassador said. The full text of the interview can be found at: http://www.usembassy.minsk.by/html/btv_interview.html

LUKASHENKO DOES NOT INVITE U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NEW YEARS RECEPTION

In a snub to the United States, Lukashenko did not invite Michael Kozak to his traditional Old New Years reception, reported Belapan. The Belarusian leader traditionally invites foreign diplomats accredited in Belarus for a January 13 celebration, the day the country marks New Year according to the pre-Revolutionary calendar. Pavel Latushko, a spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, told a regular news briefing an invitation had not been sent to Michael Kozak, who arrived in Minsk on October 20, 2000, and has been waiting ever since to present his diplomatic credentials. So far, Kozak has not obtained a meeting with Lukashenko, and it is unclear when he officially will be able to assume his duties. The U.S. Embassy in Minsk declined to comment. (Belapan, January 11)

AUTHORITIES SHUT DOWN PRINTING PRESS

On January 9 night, the Belarusian tax authorities have sealed one of the two printing presses operated by Magic, the main independent publishing house for eighteen independent and opposition periodicals in Minsk, including such popular independent newspapers as Nasha Svoboda, Narodnaya Volya and Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, reported Nasha Svaboda. Yury Budko, general director of the Magic, said workers had managed to put out January 11s newspapers before the tax authorities came in and ordered to seal the part of Magics equipment. The equipment, owned by the New York-based Open Society Foundation supported by financier George Soros, was leased to Magic when the Soros-sponsored foundation was forced to leave Belarus. On December 18, Judge Valery Shobik of the Belarusian Supreme Economic Court ruled that the foundations equipment must be seized to cover Soros' alleged debt in unpaid taxes. The Court refused to accept the 1997 contract, which transferred the publishing equipment from the Belarusian Branch of the Soros Foundation to the Open Society Institute, which later leased the equipment to Magic. On September 13, the Minsk city police raided Magic, without a warrant, confiscating 112,000 copies of a special issue of Rabochy, a newspaper of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union, which called for the boycott of the parliamentary election. Victor Ivashkevich, Rabochy editor-in-chief, and Dmitry Kostukevich, Rabochys general counsel, were fined for alleged violation of the election legislation under Art. 167, para 3 of the Belarusian Administrative Code. On October 16, representatives of the Leninski District Tax Inspection took physical inventory of the equipment and warned that it would be seized, and the press would be forced to close (See Belarus Update Vol. 3, No. 46, 50-53).

The Magic has been left with only one functioning press which it had bought with its own funds. It promised to continue printing opposition newspapers, but was having difficulty distributing them due to longer print times. We are continuing printing papers, but without the auxiliary equipment we will go bankrupt in two to three months, Budko told a news conference, reported Belapan. Independent newspapers will be left hanging by a thread. Vladimir Glushakov, deputy chair of the State Press Committee, denied the bailiffs had acted under political pressure. There is no pressure at all, he told Reuters. If you look at the newsstand in the presidential administration you will see Zvezda (Star), a state newspaper, lying next to Nasha Svaboda. (Nasha Svaboda, January 10-Belapan- Reuters, January 11)

ILHR CONDEMNS REGIME FOR GROSS VIOLATIONS OF FREEDOM OF PRESS

The International League for Human Rights views the sealing of a substantial part of Magics equipment as yet another step in the continuing and recently stepped-up campaign to crack down on the free press in Belarus, wrote Catherine Fitzpatrick, Leagues Executive Director, in an open letter to Alexander Lukashenko. This development is especially worrisome in view of the persistent rumors within Belarus that the government is planning to close all of the countrys remaining independent publishing outlets. The League has repeatedly taken the position that this characterization of the tax debts of the Belarusian Soros Foundation is politically-motivated and unjust, since charitable, non-profit activity for education, humanitarian work, human rights, and democracy-building ought not to be taxed. In any event, the sealing of Magic equipment is unlawful since it no longer belongs to the Soros Foundation, and, therefore, cannot be used to pay the Foundations alleged debts. The League sees further evidence of a political motivation for this act in the earlier detention of Yuri Budko, director of Magic, who was charged with violation of electoral legislation for publishing a special issue of Rabochy, an independent newspaper, calling for boycott of the parliamentary elections. The League notes that calls for a boycott are in fact legal under the Belarus Constitution and as well as under international standards for the protection of freedom of speech and the press. (Nasha Svaboda, ILHR, January 10)

JOURNALISTS SLAM RAID AT INDEPENDENT PRESS

On January 11, the Belarusian Association of Journalists said the seizure of Magics printing equipment was the first step in an orchestrated crackdown against the countrys independent media. It is obvious that ahead of the presidential election, the authorities have set about putting under total control all elements of public activity, starting with the media and its technical equipment, the group said in a statement. (BAJ, January 11)

ACTIVISTS IN VITEBSK FINED FOR RALLYING ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

On January 4, Judge Svetlana Tufan of the Zheleznodorozhny District Court of Vitebsk fined Elena Zaleskaya and Sergei Vasenko, both members of the local branch of the United Civic Party, 150 minimal wages (about $500) each for organization and participation in mass actions which violated public order under Art. 167, para 1 and 2, of the Administrative Offenses Code, reported Viasna Human Rights Center. Anatoly Zakharov, and Denis Muskov were reprimanded. On December 10, four activists were arrested for staging a unauthorized picket near the monument to poetess Evdokiya Los, forced into the police car and brought to the Zheleznodorozhny Internal Affairs Directorate, where a police report was filed. (Viasna, January 8)

ANOTHER TRIAL POSTPONED

The trial of five activists dated on Human Rights Day, December 10, 2000, has been postponed to January 12. Vladimir Velichkin, Sergei Bakun, Oleg Didishko, Evgeny Belasin, and Kiril Danko, who were detained and taken to the Leninski District Internal Affairs Directorate of Brest for staging an unsanctioned picket to mark the 52nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, reported Viasna Human Rights Center. Before staging the picket, the activists submitted to the Brest City Council five applications for a permission in different places of the city. Fearing possible mass unrest, the local authorities only allowed one picket and banned four others. The organizers of picket considered this decision unlawful and anti-constitutional, and despite the ban, staged an unauthorized demonstration near a department store in downtown Brest. The demonstration lasted for about an hour until it was dispersed by the police. Velichkin, Bakun, Didishko, Belasin, and Danko spent the night in jail and charged with violation of Art 167 para 1, Art 167 para 2 (organization and participation in mass actions which violated public order) and Art 166 (disobedience to the police) of the Administrative Offenses Code. (Viasna, January 10)

ILHR DENOUNCES CONTINUING HARASSMENT OF HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP

On January 10, in an open letter to Alexander Lukashenko, the International League for Human Rights expressed serious concern about the continuing harassment of Viasna [Spring], a prominent Belarusian human rights NGO. On December 19, 2000, Viasna received its second warning from the Belarusian Ministry of Justice, alleging that the Center had not responded to the Ministrys first warning, and threatening to close the organization if no written response was received within two weeks. The first warning, sent on October 26, 2000, claimed that the name of the organization did not match the one on its registration certificate. According to the Ministry, instead of the incorrect Viasna Human Rights Center, the organizations title on its stationery and literature, the title should read Viasna Public Association Human Rights Center. Despite the Ministrys insistent claim that Viasna did not respond, Valentin Stefanovich, Viasnas legal adviser, stated that he mailed a response to the first warning on November 27, 2000. Furthermore, the distinction between Human Rights Center and Public Association Human Rights Center appears non-existent, and seems to have been concocted merely to harass this group.

These warnings appear to be part of a pattern of harassment of this and other human rights groups in Belarus which are outspoken and uncompromising in advocating human rights protection. As these groups have gained more public support and renown, the government backlash against them has grown more fierce. Viasna, in particular, has been pressured by the Justice Ministry to leave out of its registration papers the very right to defend human rights--its core mandate. This is in gross violation of the commitments undertaken by Belarus to uphold international standards for freedom of speech and assembly, and also the right to know and act upon ones rights within the OSCE framework, and Belarus commitment to uphold the principles of the Defenders Declaration of the United Nations General Assembly. Indeed, the notions of some states that human rights protection does not include recognition of the right to vocal human rights advocacy as well as legal defense for the public at large were specifically rejected during the negotiation process of the Defenders Declaration. The League called upon Alexander Lukashenko and his government to immediately cease the harassment of Viasna and other NGOs in keeping with the countrys international commitments and stated intention of legalizing NGOs. (ILHR, January 10)

POLICE SUPPRESS YOUTH INMATES RIOT

On January 5 evening, 219 youth inmates at the Vitebsk detention center went on a fifteen-hour long rampage, barricading themselves in barracks and demanding the release of fellow inmates from isolation cells, an easing of the prison regime, and access to the media, reported Nasha Svaboda. Inmates began tearing chunks from the walls and hurling them at staff, said Leonid Domashevsky, an aide to the Vitebsk public prosecutor. The riot police stormed the center and used batons and tear gas to subdue inmates. While order was being restored, two prison guards suffered brain concussion, and one of them was hospitalized. Many of the inmates received bodily injuries, one inmate was taken to hospital with a knee injury, said Domashevsky. Forty two inmates were taken to the pre-trial detention, another 49 were sent over to another detention facility. The center sustained a substantial damage. The administration tried to hide the fact of mass disturbances, claiming that there was no uprising as such, while the riot police were holding a regular training session. The Vitebsk branch of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee issued a statement saying that the Belarusian penal system does not allow for inspections of prisons and detention centers by credible impartial monitors, whose findings should be made public. The regime makes no efforts to improve conditions in prisons and pre-trial detention centers. There are frequent police ill-treatment of detainees, many of whom suffer from tuberculosis and other life-threatening diseases. (Nasha Svaboda, BHC, January 8)

JOURNALIST PROHIBITED TO INVESTIGATE COLLEAGUES DISAPPEARANCE

On January 9, Gennady Barbarich, a correspondent of Belapan news agency was summoned for interrogation to the Office of the Public Prosecutor in connection with an article he published in January 6 issue of Narodnaya Volya, an independent newspaper, about disappearance of Dmitry Zavadsky, a cameraman with the Russian public television network ORT who has been missing since July 7. The investigators Vladimir Chumachenko and Dmitry Petrushkevich, who carried out the interrogation, warned him that by launching an independent inquiry, he may hinder the official investigation and forbade him to disclose the information about the case in the press. Barbarich refused to sign a protocol and appealed to the Belarusian Helsinki Committee saying that his rights as journalist had been violated. BHC considers the behavior of official investigators to be targeted at putting pressure on independent journalists who write about political disappearances in the country. (Belapan, BHC, January 10)

JAILED PROFESSOR TO STAND TRIAL ON BRIBERY CHARGES

On February 13, the Belarusian Supreme Court will hear the case of Prof. Vladimir Revkov, former deputy rector of the Gomel State Medical Institute, who has already spent 17 months in a local pre-trial jail on bribery charges, reported Viasna Human Rights Center. The criminal case against Revkov and Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky, ex-rector of the Institute, was initiated in July 1999. Although the prosecution has failed to produce any evidence, it claims the two took a total of $200,000 in bribes. Local observers fear that some of the testimony from students and parents may have been forced and that the charges against Bandazhevsky and Revkov are in retaliation for their outspoken criticism of the governments handling of Chernobyl issues. On December 28, 1999, Prof. Bandazhevsky was released from a pre-trial detention center on the condition that he not leave the city without permission from the authorities. After numerous petitions from the defense for medical examination, Revkov, whose health has deteriorated as a result of what he believes are the use of psychotropic substances during the interrogations and a hunger-strike, he was placed in the hospital of a penalty facility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In violation of article 200 of the Criminal Code, the former deputy rector was not provided with an opportunity to read the materials of his case before it was submitted to the court after the pretrial investigation was over. Last May, Revkovs wife Natalya addressed the investigator with a request to let her participate in the hearing in capacity of her husbands defense attorney under Art 49, para 3, of the Belarusian Criminal Code, but was refused on the grounds that she does not have formal legal education. (Viasna, January 12)

--BROTHER SLAVS

SINGLE CURRENCY AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA UNCONSTITUTIONAL

A panel of experts of the Belarusian Ministry of Justice, came to a conclusion that the agreement between Belarus and Russia on introducing a single currency and establishing a single money emission center runs counter to the current Belarusian constitution. In accordance with the first article of the agreement, the Russian ruble is to be put into circulation on Belarusian territory starting January 1, 2005. Until the currency of the Russia-Belarus Union is introduced, the central bank of the Russian Federation will have the exclusive right to issue money, which conflicts with Art 136 of the Belarusian Constitution, which stipulates that the right to issue money on the republics territory belongs exclusively to the National Bank and that the national currency in Belarus is the Belarusian ruble. Thus, the Ministry says, the agreement may come into force only after the corresponding amendments and changes are made to the Belarusian Constitution. (Belapan, January 8)

-CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS-

January 15- Market vendors to hold a rally ************************************************************************

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 60th year, is New York-based human rights NGO in consultative status with the United Nations.

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.

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tel. 212-661-0480
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The e-mail remains the same: belarus@ilhr.org

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