INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 4, No. 18
May 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

- Opposition politicians join forces for presidential campaign
- Authorities intensify harassment of opposition candidate
- Grodno police detain fifteen Labor Day marchers
- Freedom of press is still dream in Belarus
- Reporters Sans Frontiers criticized lack of journalistic freedom in Belarus
- Opposition demands truth about political disappearances
- AI calls for immediate actions to end political disappearances
- Another attack on OSCE
- Debates on new law on religion postponed until September
- Iraq and Belarus sign accord on economic and air links

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS--

OPPOSITION POLITICIANS JOIN FORCES FOR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

On May 3, five Belarusian opposition members, Mikhail Chigir, ex-Prime Minister; Pavel Kozlovsky, former Defense Minister; Vladimir Goncharik, chair of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB); Semyon Domash, a deputy of the 13th Supreme Soviet [the disbanded parliament], chair of the Grodno Initiative and the Coordination Council of Belarusian Regions; and Sergey Kalyakin, leader of the Party of Communists of Belarus (PCB) in opposition to the government; announced their intention to challenge Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential election later this year and to unite behind the candidate with the best chances for victory, reported Belapan. The candidates told reporters that they would each try to register as a candidate, but would be ready to withdraw their candidacy and urge their supporters to vote for the candidate with the best chances of beating the authoritarian Belarusian ruler. "This year we all have to make a choice: living the old way, in poverty, fear and injustice, or changing our lives for the better with a new president," the Five said in a statement. "We have joined forces to ensure that a new president take the helm of the country this year and will end its international isolation," said Sergey Kalyakin. No date has been set for the election yet, but according to the Belarusian law, it must be held before September 27, 2001. (Belapan, May 3)

AUTHORITIES INTENSIFY HARASSMENT OF OPPOSITION CANDIDATE

Ahead of the presidential election, the government backlash against the potential candidates from the opposition has grown more fierce. On May 2, the Leninski District Court of Grodno opened hearings in an eviction case initiated against Semyon Domash and his family, reported Charter 97. The trial was postponed upon the request of Domash's attorney, Olga Kutz, to provide him with extra time to study the case materials. In her opinion, the case is politically motivated and the judge is pressured by the government. In 1994, the Domash family purchased an apartment in Grodno. In 1997, upon personal orders from Alexander Lukashenko, the legitimacy of the purchase was questioned by the Grodno Regional Court, but the investigation failed to produce any evidence of unlawful activities. On March 20, 2001, Miroshnichenko, deputy chair of the Belarusian Supreme Court, sent a letter to the presidium of the Grodno Regional Court, ordering the resumption of the legal prosecution of the opposition presidential candidate. The presidium satisfied his request and forwarded the case to the Leninski District Court of Grodno.

Commenting on the case, the League noted that such harassment suits appearing on the eve of elections are typical of post-Soviet leaders throughout the CIS who bully their opponents, and have been a particularly frequent feature of Belarusian political life. Faced with such techniques, independent politicians have difficulty mounting a legal defense. Under the Lukashenko regime, judges owe their positions to the president. The Constitution 1996 provides Lukashenko with the right to appoint and dismiss judges from the Supreme Soviet Court and the Constitutional Court all the way down to lower-level judges. Judges receive their salaries and housing through local government offices dependent on the executive branch. In addition, the president can appoint and dismiss the Prosecutor General and various ministers, such as those of interior and justice. This centralization of power in the president's hands diminishes the independence of the judiciary. "Telephone justice," the practice of executive and local authorities dictating to the courts the outcome of trials, is widely used. The jury system has not been introduced. Courts' activities are tightly controlled both by the state justice bodies and the KGB, working under the president. All "political" cases, as well as cases dealing with the administrative violations of the participants in protest actions, are followed with special attention. (Charter 97; ILHR, May 3)

OPPOSITION CANDIDATE SLANDERED BY STATE TV

The heavily biased state-controlled media continues an aggressive propaganda campaign against the potential presidential candidates from the democratic opposition. On April 28,
Yury Azarenko, host of "Politics: Hidden Strings," a notorious analytical program broadcast by the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company, referenced excerpts from an article " Zigzags of Semyon Domash" in a program designed to denounce the independent politician. "Zigzags" was published in Narodnaya Gazeta, a state-owned newspaper, on December 17, 1996, and contained slanderous information about Domash. On May 2, Domash sent a letter to Viktor Chikin, director of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company, demanding refutation and free air time on the state television and radio to make up for the false accusations. The deputy insists that the facts cited in the article were disproved in court in February 1998, and therefore, the journalist should make a public refutation and apologize to Domash. (Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta, May 2)

GRODNO POLICE DETAIN FIFTEEN LABOR DAY MARCHERS

The May 1 Labor Day demonstration [the International Day of the Solidarity of Workers in the Soviet era], organized by "Your Choice," a coalition of Grodno-based youth democratic NGOs, which was recently formed to coordinate the opposition activities ahead of the presidential election, resulted in mass arrests, reported BPF Adradzhenne press service. A few hundred opposition activists and members of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions and the Belarusian Free Trade Union marched through Lenin Square in downtown Grodno, holding the white-red-white flags and demanding that the government release political prisoners and hold free and fair presidential election. To prevent the opposition from staging the rally, the police cordoned off the square early in the morning. Vadim Saranchoukov, chair of the Grodno branch of the Malady Front, and Dmitry Ivanovsky, activists of the local branch of the BPF Adradzhenne, were arrested prior to the demonstration and taken to the Leninski District Internal Affairs Directorate. Law enforcers also detained fifteen opposition activists and journalists from independent media, including Valentin Askerka, chair of the local branch of Maladaya Hramada, and his deputy Svetlana Nekh, Mikhail Potreba, leader of the Grodno branch of Narodnaya Hramada, or the Belarusian Social Democratic Party, Valery Kisel, Veronica Bistritskaya, Andrei Meleshko, all members of the BPF Adradzhenne, Andrei Stepura, activist of the Malady Front, Mikhail Airapetyan, member of the Belarusian Free Trade Union, Pavel Mazheiko, a journalist of Pahonya, a newspaper of the BPF Adradzhenne, and Mikhail Karnevich, deputy editor-in-chief of Birzha Informatsyi (Information Exchange), a Grodno-based non-state newspaper. All detainees were brought to the Leninski District Internal Affairs Directorate and released two hours later after given a written explanation of their activities. Valentin Askerka was charged with violation of Art. 166 (disobedience to the police) and Art. 156 (petty hooliganism) of the Administrative Offenses Code. On May 2, the court held first hearing of his case. (BPF Adradzhenne Press Service, Nasha Svaboda, May 1 - 4)

FREEDOM OF PRESS IS DISTANT DREAM IN BELARUS

On May 3, the international community celebrated World Press Freedom Day. But in Belarus, freedom of the press is a distant dream and journalism remains a dangerous occupation. The regime claims to recognize the Belarusian citizens' right to freedom of speech and freedom of information. But it openly assigns to those freedoms a role that makes them meaningless and exposes those who try to put them into practice to the greatest dangers. The intolerance of the Lukashenko government toward news that escapes its control sometimes reaches absurd proportions. For example, media companies have been prosecuted for talking about official reports by international organizations like the United Nations, the OSCE and the Council of Europe. The regime did nothing to investigate the case of Dmitry Zavadsky, cameraman for the Russian television network ORT, who has been missing since July 7, 2000, and to bring to justice those involved in his abduction. Apart from censorship by disappearance, the government uses monopoly on newsprint, arbitrary tax inspections and withdraw of licenses, to muzzle the journalistic freedom. Government officials avail themselves of libel laws. Often their handling of public criticism as personal insults means nothing more than destruction of the corrective function of the media through the personal misuse of libel laws, both civil and criminal. On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, Freimut Duve, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, reminded the Lukashenko government of its commitment undertaken 1999 at the OSCE Istanbul Summit: "to ensuring the freedom of the media as a basic condition for pluralistic and democratic societies." (ILHR, May 3)

REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERS REPORT LACK OF JOURNALISTIC FREEDOM

On May 3, the international journalists' organization Reporters Sans Frontiers (Reporters Without Borders) released its annual Freedom of Press Report, which indicates that in the first year of the century, the Belarusian government continues to take tough measures to stifle press freedom. Many journalists has been threatened and harassed. Legal amendments adopted in 1999, effectively banned publication of statements by political parties or organizations unauthorized by the Justice Ministry. Fines amounted to 100 times a journalist's monthly salary. The postal service increased by between 400 and 600 per cent the cost of distributing independent newspapers, while costs were reduced for state-controlled papers. The full text of the report can be found at: http://www.rsf.fr/uk/home.html

OPPOSITION DEMANDS TRUTH ABOUT POLITICAL DISAPPEARANCES

The United Civic Party (UCP) plans to hold a series of pickets within the "We Want to Know the Truth" Campaign in Minsk and thirty other Belarusian cities, starting June 7 to protest against political disappearances in the country, to demand a thorough investigation into the disappearance of Dmitry Zavadsky, and to account for the whereabouts of Yuri Zakharenko, the former Minister of Internal Affairs, founder of an independent officers' organization critical of the Lukashenko government, who disappeared on May 7, 1999, and of Victor Gonchar, a 13th Supreme Soviet deputy chair and a high profile antigovernment politician, who disappeared along with his business associate, Anatoly Krasovsky, on September 16, 1999, reported Nasha Svaboda, an independent newspaper. The main action is scheduled for June 18, when about 2,000 people are to form a human chain on both sides of Skaryna Avenue, Minsk's main thoroughfare, demanding an accounting by the regime for the whereabouts of the vanished opposition politicians. "We want to know the truth and to keep reminding Belarusians about the crimes of the Lukashenko regime," Anatoly Lebedko, UCP chair, said during a May 2' press conference in Minsk. According to a recent survey, only about 50 percent of Belarusians heard about the abductions of prominent opposition leaders in the country. Seventy percent of those who knows believe that the regime should bear the responsibility for the crimes. (Nasha Svaboda, May 4)

AI CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE ACTIONS TO END POLITICAL DISAPPEARANCES

Erik Kissing and Jan van der Meulen, members of Amnesty International group NL 549 from the small town of Nootdorp (Netherlands), who since June 2000 have been working on cases of Yury Zakharenko, Victor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovsky, and Dmitry Zavadsky, sent a letter to Svetlana Zavadskaya, Dmitry's wife, to offer her moral support and to inform her about the results of their work and plans for the future. Every month, the group writes a letter to Alexander Lukashenko to remind him that he is personally responsible for the lack of progress in the investigation into the disappearance of his political opponents and regularly informs the press about latest developments into the cases of vanished Belarusian opposition politicians. The group also plans to air the documentary titled "Wild Manhunt," produced by Pavel Sheremet, head of special projects at ORT, about Zavadsky's abduction, to draw attention of the European community to fragrant violations of freedom press in Belarus. (Charter 97, May 3)

ANOTHER ATTACK ON OSCE

The Belarusian authorities continue to hinder the activities of the OSCE AMG in Minsk. Mikhail Khvostov, Belarusian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, said after a meeting with Alexander Lukashenko that the Belarusian leadership is concerned with the escalation of the OSCE AMG's "subversive activities" in Belarus ahead of the presidential election. He also said that the mission's "interfering in the country's internal affairs is unacceptable and will not be tolerated." On numerous occasions, the regime has been accusing the mission of colluding with the opposition and carrying out anti-constitutional and illegal activities in the country. (Charter 97, May 3)

-RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN BELARUS-

DEBATES ON NEW LAW ON RELIGION POSTPONED UNTIL SEPTEMBER

On April 10, Galina Bochkova, first deputy director of the National Legislative Center of the Lukashenko Administration, issued a statement saying that the first draft of a new version of the law on religion will be discussed at a session of the Belarusian parliament this coming fall, reported Belapan. Earlier reports said that a new and more restrictive version of the law on religion would be debated in the parliament this spring (see Belarus Update Vol. 4, No. 15). The Lukashenko official said that the draft would not be made public until it is "finalized," adding that "a series of provisions warrant additional discussions with interested parties." She failed to explain which agencies or groups represent "interested parties." The Belarusian Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations was initially adopted on December 17,1992, a year after the country gained independence. Later, the law was amended and its democratic nature has been steadily eroded by numerous published and secret decrees and regulations. Followers of many non-orthodox Christian denominations fear that the revised law will make their activity even more difficult. (Keston News Service, April 24)

-AT HOME IN BELARUS-

FOREIGNER CHARGED WITH ESPIONAGE

Fulfilling the Lukashenko order, the Belarusian security services continue to piously fight "various extremists capable of destabilizing the situation in the country ahead of the presidential election." Fyodor Kotov, the chief spokesman for the Belarusian Committee for State Security, told reporters at a press conference in Minsk that the foreigner arrested in Belarus on April 18 on suspicion of recruiting Belarusians and obtaining secret information (see Belarus Update Vol. 4, No. 16), was officially charged with espionage under Art. 358 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, a crime punishable by a prison term of 7-15 years, reported Belapan. Kotov refused to give the name of the accused spy, to identify his home country or the country that he was allegedly spying for, or to say what kind of secrets he had been interested in obtaining. The KGB official said that the individual is held in the KGB pre-trial detention center. (Belapan, April 30)

-INTERNATIONAL NEWS-

U.S. FAILS TO WIN RE-ELECTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

A long-time backer of human rights and democracy in Belarus, the U.S. failed to win re-election to the Geneva-based UN Commission on Human Rights which probes rights abuses globally. France, Sweden and Austria were chosen instead. The U.S. had held the seat since 1947. (The Wall Street Journal, May 4)

IRAQ AND BELARUS SIGN ACCORD ON ECONOMIC, AIR LINKS

United largely by their anti-American leanings, Belarus and Iraq signed an accord on economic cooperation and a protocol to set up air links between the two countries. Vladimir Zametalin,
Belarusian deputy prime minister, said that his country's goal is to strengthen links with Iraq in all fields "despite the efforts of certain countries to block this cooperation." The deputy premier, who led an 80-strong delegation of officials and businessmen, met President Saddam Hussein on April 28 and delivered a message from Alexander Lukashenko. The aviation accord aims to start up regular flights between Minsk and Baghdad, said INA, Iraq's official news agency. Dozens of Arab and European planes have landed in Baghdad since the reopening of Saddam International Airport in August 2000, despite UN sanctions slapped on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. (INA, May 1)

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

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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 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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