INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 4, No. 7
February 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

- Harassment prosecution of presidential candidate's relatives continues
- Police break up annual Valentine's day protest in Minsk
- Trade unions rally in Minsk
- New opposition movement in Belarus
- Opposition activists detained in Minsk
- Local opposition activist fined for contempt of court
- Professors stand trial on bribery charges
- Andrei Klimov: three years behind bars
- U.S. OSCE envoy urges free and fair election in Belarus
- Law On Information Security regarded as direct attack on media freedom
- Malady Front activists hold picket in Grodno
- Regime restricts opposition activities in provinces
- Club director fired for hosting opposition meeting with voters
- OSCE calls for end to censorship by killing

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS-
HARASSMENT PROSECUTION OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE'S RELATIVES

Fearing to lose this year's presidential election, the Lukashenko regime has resorted to desperate measures to discourage contenders. On February 10, Alexander Chigir, 24, a son of Mikhail Chigir, former prime minister and a key opponent to Alexander Lukashenko, was arrested at a car market along with Sergei Koleda and Vasily Bykov, a law student, on charges of selling spare parts from stolen vehicles, reported Belapan. [Bykov is not a relative of the famous Belarusian author of the same name, as previous reports indicated--Ed.] Police did not permit any contact between the detainees and their relatives for 3 days, reported Nasha Svaboda, and ILHR also learned that no lawyer was permitted to see the youths for the first 24 hours. Alexander Chigir was also beaten in the police station. On February 14, Bykov was released on his own recognizance under a pledge that he would not leave town without permission from authorities. Chigir and Koleda were informed that they would remain in custody for at least another ten days and were transferred to a pre-trial detention center. On February 15, the court rejected Alexander Chigir's petition contesting the lawfulness of his arrest. Twelve investigators were assigned to the case, who will attempt to prove the detainees guilty of large-scale property theft under Art. 205 par. 4 of the Criminal Code.

Belarusian state television unleashed an unabashed propaganda campaign against the detainees. In a deliberate flaunting of the presumption of innocence, Evgeny Novikov, a journalist of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company, repeatedly called the suspects, "thieves" and "crooks." Leonid Glukhovsky, head of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told reporters at a press conference in Minsk that a "criminal gang" of which Chigir was allegedly a member used a spacious garage to store stolen spare parts. Six KamAZ trucks were said to be needed to haul away the parts. The Lukashenko official said that four people have already identified parts reportedly removed from their stolen vehicles, but he failed to clarify how exactly they managed to recognize the parts, which have no serial number on them.

"It was done to put pressure on me ahead of the presidential poll," Mikhail Chigir told local journalists. Chigir plans to challenge Lukashenko in this year's presidential election. "The authorities realized that they could not get me personally so they are targeting my children." [Last year, the ex-prime minister's eldest son Alexei, applied for political asylum in Germany after he found a box of ammunition planted in his car.- Ed.]. Chigir said his son "is a hostage of my political activities." He said that neither the detention of his son Alexander, nor the criminal charges brought against him, will change his plans to run for the Belarusian presidency this fall.

This is not the first time Mikhail Chigir and members of his family have been harassed and persecuted, evidently in retaliation for his political opposition. (The Belarusian government has also shown a pattern of harassing relatives of activists on other cases followed by the League.) In March, 1999, the former prime minister was arrested on charges on abuse of power and embezzlement, which he insisted were fabricated and brought for political reasons, and spent seven months in prison. In May, 2000, the Minsk City Court had found Chigir guilty of "criminal negligence" and "abuse of power resulting in serious damage to the state budget" under Articles 167-168 of the Belarusian Criminal Code and sentenced him to three years in prison with a two-year suspension. The former prime minister called the sentence "legally absurd" and appealed it. In December 2000, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court ruling against Chigir, yet ordered further investigation.

In October 2000, the Frunzensky District Court of Minsk, found Julia Chigir, wife of Mikhail 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 related to a scuffle with police at the Minsk City Courthouse on May 19, 2000, when Mrs. Chigir bit a policeman's ear. Mrs. Chigir's attorneys argued that she was acting in self-defense when a policeman grabbed her by the arms and handled her roughly. Despite the preponderance of evidence and testimonies of a number of domestic and international observers present at 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 year 2001, which could then trigger the two-year sentence.

In her letter to Alexander Lukasheno, Catherine Fitzpatrick, Executive Director of the ILHR, expressed the League's concern that the arrest of the son of Mikhail Chigir could be politically motivated and could be designed to discredit Chigir as a worthy candidate. Furthermore, the League pointed out that the police search of the garage where the stolen parts were allegedly found was conducted with no independent witnesses present, and that undercover video tapes related to this case are apparently being broadcast on television. Since the charges do not involve allegations of a violent crime, the League urged the Belarusian authorities that Alexander Chigir, Vasily Bykov, and Sergei Koleda be immediately released on their own recognizance pending trial, and given their right to seek counsel of their choice, while an impartial investigation of their alleged offense is conducted. If they are not released, they must be permitted to have access to an attorney while in custody. (Belapan, Nasha Svaboda, ILHR, February 11-15)

POLICE BREAK UP ANNUAL VALENTINE'S DAY PROTEST IN MINSK

On February 14 in Minsk and thirty other Belarusian cities, about 1,500 young opposition activists took part in the fifth Valentine's Day protest called "Love! Freedom! Changes!" and staged by the Malady (Youth) Front, the United Civic Party, and Narodnaya Hramada, or Belarusian Social Democrat Party (BSDP), reported BPF Adradzhenne press service. In Minsk, after visiting foreign embassies, protesters gathered at Freedom Square in downtown Minsk, where they gave out Valentine's cards. Police and plainclothes agents videotaped the action. Several hundred police and soldiers were deployed in the courtyards of nearby apartment buildings. Empty buses were prepared for potential detainees. At about 5:30 p.m., the youth, chanting anti-government slogans, began heading down Lenin Street toward Skaryna Avenue. Near Kupalovskaya metro station, the crowd made an attempt to move along Skaryna Avenue, but were stopped by a cordon of policemen. Action organizers decided to lead the young protesters toward the final destination, Victory Square. But when the marchers reached the Victory Square metro station, the policemen prevented them from walking away and started manhunt. Several activists, including Mikhail Chizhik, Pavel Kosmach, both Front's members, Anatoly Lebedko, chair of the opposition United Civic Party, and Valery Shchukin, a journalist and deputy of the 13th Supreme Soviet, were arrested, but released shortly. Lebedko was charged with the "resistence an officer." According to witnesses, two minors were badly beaten by plain-clothed agents. At night, the police blocked the headquarters of the BPF Adradzhenne, and searched for Pavel Severinets, leader of the Malady Front. He was arrested two days later and accused of "organization and participation in mass actions which violated public order" under Art. 167 of the Administrative Offenses Code. (BPF Adradzhenne, February 15)

TRADE UNIONS RALLY IN MINSK

On February 14, about 3,000 people took part in an authorized rally organized by the Belarusian Federation of Trade Unions at Bangalore Square in Minsk under the slogans: "No to price rises", "No to workers' impoverishment," "No to unemployment!". No incidents with the police were reported. (Belapan, February 15)

NEW OPPOSITION MOVEMENT IN BELARUS ADOPTS BISON AS SYMBOL

On February 13, many Belarusian independent newspapers and news agencies were invited by e-mail to take part in a press conference organized by a new nationwide opposition movement called Zubr [the Belarusian word for "bison"], in the park near the Belarusian State Theater of Opera and Ballet, reported Nasha Svaboda, an independent newspaper. An unidentified young man stood up and read a statement at the action as follows:

"Belarus has become an authoritarian police state where human rights are routinely violated and the freedom of assembly, association and information blatantly disregarded. Political opponents are either exiled, imprisoned or made to disappear. The regime wants to eliminate the love for the native language and the centuries-old national symbols from the hearts of Belarusians. The organization has chosen "Zubr" as a symbol of power derived from nature, and will base its activities on non-violent resistance to dictatorship."

Several days later, the independent press was notified that Anatoly Elizar, Sergei Koktysh and Alexander Ermakov, students of the department of journalism at the Belarusian State University, as well as Aleksey Shidlouski, a student at the private Institute of Modern Knowledge, were arrested on January 26 near the Partizanski District Council of Minsk on charges of writing anti-Lukashenko graffiti and pasting "Zubr" stickers on walls. The youths are facing criminal charges under Art. 341 of the Belarusian Criminal Code (desecration and damage to property). (Nasha Svaboda, February 14)

OPPOSITION ACTIVISTS DETAINED IN MINSK

On February 8, Denis Zeiko, 22, and Valery Matskevich, 17, both members of the local branch of the Malady (Youth) Front, were detained by the police while pasting "Zubr" and "Action of Love" stickers, reported Viasna Human Rights Center. The activists were brought to the nearest police station and accused of violating public sanitation regulations under Art. 143, par. 3 of the Belarusian Administrative Code. A police report was filed on them. On February 12, Matskevich's mother was summoned to the Leninski District Internal Affairs Directorate and informed that her son's case will be considered by a juvenile commission. On February 10, Mikhail Chizhik and Timofei Atroshchenkov, both activists of the Minsk branch of the Malady Front, were arrested on Belsky Street in Minsk as they were pasting stickers "Love! Freedom! Changes!" The boys were taken to the Frunzensky District Internal Affairs Directorate and forced to write a statement explaining their actions. (Viasna Human Rights Center, February 13)

LOCAL OPPOSITION ACTIVIST FINED FOR DISRESPECTING COURT REGULATIONS

On February 14, Judge Tatyana Golub of the Borisov City Court accused Alexander Abramovich, chair of the local branch of Narodnaya Hramada, or Belarusian Social Democrat Party (BSDP), of showing disrespect for court regulations and fined him five minimal wages (about $15). On January 19, the opposition leader failed to show up in the court room because that day he was in charge of the picket held by local entrepreneurs, who demanded repeal of certain presidential decrees which stifle the entrepreneurial activity in the country. (Viasna Human Rights Center, February 14)

PROFESSORS STAND TRIAL ON BRIBERY CHARGES

On February 13, the Belarusian Supreme Court began hearing the case of several professors charged with bribery. Prof. Vladimir Revkov, who has already spent 19 months in a local pre-trial detention cell on bribery charges, is the former deputy rector of the Gomel State Medical Institute; Prof. Yury Bandazhevsky, ex-rector of the Institute, has been charged; and several other faculty members, reported Belapan. The hearing lasted for approximately 30 minutes and was postponed until February 19 due to Revkov's poor health. The criminal case against Revkov, and Bandazhevsky, scientists well-known in Belarus who have been studying radiation problems, 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 government's handling of Chernobyl issues. The scientists accused the government of neglecting and concealing the harmful impact of small radiation doses on people residing in contaminated areas. The commission headed by Bandazhevsky revealed numerous facts indicating that the funds allocated for combating radiation have been misused. Revkov was the first one to be arrested. Bandazhevsky was charged on the basis of the former deputy rector's testimony, which Revkov later retracted. In his letter to Lukashenko, Revkov wrote that his original testimony was a result of torture and threats. According to Revkov, investigators interrogated him for 14-16 hours in a row, denying him food and sleep, used psychotropic substances during the interrogations, and threatened to harm his wife and daughter.

On December 28, 1999, after six months in pre-trial detention center, Bandazhevsky was released on the condition that he not leave the city without permission from the authorities. He denies all the accusations made against him. Revkov, whose health has significantly deteriorated, remains in custody evidently because he does not want to confess to the charges. The former deputy rector suffers from a serious heart condition but does not receive adequate medical care in jail. Investigators claim Revkov is feigning illness. In violation of Art. 200 of the Belarusian 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. (Belapan, February 14)

ANDREI KLIMOV: THREE YEARS BEHIND BARS

February 11 marked the third year Andrei Klimov, a deputy of the 13th Supreme Soviet and businessman, was arrested. In March 2000, after more than two years in pre-trial detention and a controversial eight-month trial, Klimov was found guilty of large-scale embezzlement and forgery. The court ruled that Klimov's property be confiscated and barred him from assuming certain public offices for three years after the completion of his sentence. On December 13, 1999, the deputy was severely beaten by prison guards and then dragged into the courtroom in torn clothes and without shoes. The ill-treatment allegedly occurred after Klimov refused to leave his cell for the Leninski District Court, protesting that he was not receiving a fair trial. After Klimov was dragged into the courtroom, someone called for an ambulance, but the judge did not allow the defendant to be taken to a hospital. It was later determined that Klimov suffered significant bruising, possibly a fractured or dislocated arm, and concussion as a result of his ill-treatment by the guards. The international community considers Klimov a prisoner of conscience, who shares the fate of other politicians who have dared to challenge the authority of Alexander Lukashenko. The OSCE and its individual members among the Western democracies, including the U.S., have repeatedly demanded the deputy's immediate and unconditional release. Klimov was among the members of the 13th Supreme Soviet who did not recognize the results of the November 1996 referendum and put his signature on an impeachment motion against Lukashenko. Shortly before his arrest, he drew up a report recording violations of laws and the Constitution by the Belarusian authoritarian ruler. (ILHR, February 11)

U.S. OSCE ENVOY URGES FREE AND FAIR ELECTION IN BELARUS

On February 15, Amb. David Johnson, U.S. permanent representative to the OSCE, praised the work of the OSCE AMG in Belarus, and said opinion polls reveal that the citizens of Belarus want to elect their next president in a free and fair election. Johnson's remarks were prompted by a report of Amb. Hans-Georg Wieck, head of the AMG, submitted to a February 15 session of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna. "The United States and other democratic countries will recognize and accept the winner of a free and fair election. We urge the Belarusian authorities to create the conditions necessary for free and fair election," Johnson said. "To take its place in the Euro-Atlantic community of democracies, the Belarusian government must cease persecution of political opponents, account for the disappeared, release political prisoners, respect freedom of assembly and workers rights, grant the opposition access to the state media, cease harassment of the independent media, and implement a democratic electoral law and process," Johnson added. He agreed that the AMG's priorities in the coming months should be two-fold. First, to seek improvements in the electoral framework. Second, to monitor, in cooperation with the existing independent election framework, the actual process of the election. A transcript of Johnson's statement can be found at http://usinfo.state.gov/products/washfile/eu.shtml

LAW ON INFORMATION SECURITY - DIRECT ATTACK ON MEDIA FREEDOM

On February 13, Article 19, a global campaign for free expression, named after Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, issued a statement expressing extreme concern about the recent steps undertaken by the Belarusian authorities to introduce the Law On Information Security. Article 19 believes that the draft strengthens the existing range of laws and decrees in Belarus which seriously restrict the fundamental right to freedom of expression and information and is a blatant attempt to silence the remaining voices of opposition in Belarus. Its sweeping scope clearly originates from a desire to control the information circulating in all spheres of life. It not only seeks to control information in the public sphere, which in itself is unacceptable, but also in the non-state and private spheres. With a presidential election scheduled for this year, the effects of such legislation could totaly wipe out those few independent voices that remain after five years of the Lukashenko regime. Given that the law will be discussed by Lukashenko's hand-picked parliament this month, it will likely be adopted without any public discussion and debate. Specific comments on the draft law highlighting just a few of the fundamental flaws in the new legislation can be found at: http://www.article19.org/

MALADY FRONT ACTIVISTS HOLD PICKET IN GRODNO

On February 10, activists of the Grodno branch of the Malady Front held an unauthorized picket satirically dubbed "Let's Support the President!" The picketers held up a poster saying, "Don't blame Lukashenko, he's doing his best!" and passed out leaflets containing comparative data of the regime's generous funding of the law-enforcement agencies, the presidential administration, and pro-Lukashenko youth organizations. The activists collected about BYR1,000 to erect a monument to the illegitimate president, who has deprived the Belarusian youth of its future. No incidents with the police were reported. (Charter 97, February 12)

REGIME RESTRICTS OPPOSITION ACTIVITIES IN PROVINCES

The Lukashenko regime is taking action to suppress anti-presidential activity in the provinces. The Volkovysk City Council, Mogilev Region, sent out a circular ordering the administrations of local educational institutions to inform the authorities of any attempts of the local branches of opposition and human rights organizations to hold their actions in schools and universities. "The ideologists of the Belarusian opposition, funded by their foreign patrons, create and impose on young people various myths oriented toward weakening Belarusian statehood and undermining the state system," reads the document. "The extreme measures should be taken to withstand pressure from the West and to make sure that the youth will not fall victim of such propaganda." (Nasha Svaboda, February 14)

CLUB DIRECTOR FIRED FOR HOSTING OPPOSITION'S MEETING WITH VOTERS

Leakadia Vlasuk, director of the club-house of the Brest Association of Hearing-Impaired People, lost her job after hosting a February 3 voters' meeting with Semyon Domash, a deputy of the 13th Supreme Soviet, chair of the Grodno Initiative and the Coordination Council of Belarusian Regions, and a potential opposition candidate to challenge Lukashenko in the forthcoming presidential election. The Brest City Council accused Vlasuk of helping the opposition to violate public order and ordered the Association to fired her. (Charter 97, February 12)

OSCE CALLS FOR END TO CENSORSHIP BY KILLING

On February 14, during a press conference in Vienna, Freimut Duve, the OSCE's representative on freedom of the media, urged OSCE participating states to do more to put an end to the killing of journalists as a means of censoring them when harassment, kidnapping and torture have proven insufficient and bring to justice those who have been involved in these crimes. "It is people in power -- business, mafia, terrorists, or government and other administrative powers -- who try to silence the critical voices as soon as they realize these voices will be heard," he said, adding that the murder of a journalist in the OSCE region, an organization of declared democracies, must become a matter of the past. Duve noted that at about a dozen cases of "censorship by killing" are reported in the OSCE area every year and described several recent cases, where journalists have gone missing or were found dead in unexplained circumstances, including the case of Dmitry Zavadsky, a camera operator with the Russian television company ORT, who has been missing since July 7, 2000. The full text of the statement can be found at: http://usinfo.state.gov/

--BROTHER SLAVS-

PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY OF RUSSIA-BELARUS UNION MEETS IN MINSK

On February 16, the parliamentary assembly of the Russia-Belarus Union met in Minsk. Deputies lashed out at Western governments for allegedly attacking the Union's legitimacy, reported Interfax. "At the beginning of a new century, the West is carrying out an undeclared war against the union of Russia and Belarus, the desire of two brotherly Slavic countries to unite," Gennady Seleznyov, Russian Duma Speaker and Chair of the Union's Parliamentary Assembly told reporters. He said attacks included negative coverage in the press, the refusal of international recognition and the arrest of the union's president Pavel Borodin in New York in January. (Interfax, February 16)

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For daily updates, visit our partners website, Charter 97, www.charter97.org with news in Belarusian, Russian, and English.

-CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS-

March 5-7- the Parliamentary Troika of the Parliamentary Assemblies of the Council of Europe and the OSCE and the European Parliament is to visit Belarus ************************************************************************

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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