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INTERNATIONAL
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VISIT
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Belarus
BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole
Vol.
4, No. 28
July 2001
IN
THIS ISSUE:
- U.S. Statement on Anniversary of Zavadsky's Disappearance
- Presidential Candidate Posses New Information About
Political Killings
- Three Human Rights Defenders Arrested for Picketing
KGB Office
- Opposition Activist Sentenced to Jail for Unauthorized
Picketing
- Journalists Demand Information About Disappeared Colleague
- CPJ: One Year Later, No Progress on Missing Cameraman
Investigation
- Four Youth Activists to Stand Trial for Graffiti
- Malady Front Leader Interrogated By Security Services
- Office of Local Newspaper Sealed, Equipment Confiscated
- Belarusian Helsinki Committee's Office Burglarized
- International Observation Mission to Presidential
Elections
- Another Presidential Hopeful Pulls out of Race
- Lukashenko Submits 100,000 Signatures Required for
Nomination
- Head of Local Lukashenko's Initiative Group Resigns
- Five Candidates Accused of Violating Election Regulations
- Candidate Accuses Regime of Harassing his Supporters
- Opposition Hopefuls Agree on Criteria of Choosing
Single Candidate
- Candidate Detained by Police for Collecting Signatures
- Former Aide Accuses Lukashenko of Holding Huge Secret
Accounts
- German Citizen Stands Trial on Espionage Charges in
Belarus
--HUMAN
RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS-
U.S.
STATEMENT ON ANNIVERSARY OF ZAVADSKY'S DISAPPEARANCE
On
July 11, the U.S. Department of State issued a statement
marking the one-year
anniversary of the unexplained disappearance of Dmitry
Zavadsky. Following is the text of the statement:
"Saturday,
July 7, marked the first anniversary of the unexplained
disappearance in Belarus of Dmitry Zavadsky, a Belarusian
cameraman for the Russian public television station,
ORT.
"The
United States remains deeply concerned by Zavadsky's
disappearance in light of a series of politically motivated
disappearances in Belarus. Former Interior Minister
and opposition figure Yury Zakharenko vanished while
walking home on May 7, 1999. On September 16, 1999,
former Central Election Commission chairman and opposition
leader Victor Gonchar and his associate, Yury Krasovsky,
also disappeared without a trace. To date, Belarusian
authorities have not provided any accounting of the
whereabouts of these individuals."
"On
July 3, Under Secretary for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky
and Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights
and Labor Lorne Craner, along with senior regional officials,
met with Dmitry Petrushkevich and Oleg Sluchek, former
investigators in the Belarusian Prosecutor's office.
The investigators reiterated their public allegations
that a death squad created by the Lukashenko regime
was responsible for all four of the disappearances of
opposition figures. Following the suspicious deaths
of one KGB investigator working on these cases, as well
as of a witness, the investigators concluded that they
were in danger and chose to flee Belarus and publicize
their conclusions about the death squad to the press."
"The
United States takes those allegations seriously and
calls on the Belarusian authorities to conduct a thorough
and transparent investigation into the disappearances
of Zavadsky, Zakharenko, Gonchar, and Krasovsky and
account for their whereabouts." (USIA, July 12)
PRESIDENTIAL
CANDIDATE POSSES INFORMATION ABOUT POLITICAL KILLINGS
On
July 13, Vladimir Naumov, Minister of Interior, told
press conference in Minsk that the kidnappers of Dmitry
Zavadsky, ORT cameraman who vanished one year ago, will
go on trial within two months. Valery Ignatovich and
Maksim Malik, both former officers of the Almaz (Diamond)
Special-Assignment Police Force, Aleksey Guz, former
student of the Police Academy, and Sergei Savushkin,
a former convict, are accused of committing seven premeditated
murders, five armed attacks, two abductions, including
Zavadsky's, and a number of other crimes, reported Pravda,
Russian daily. The minister said that "most likely"
the trial will be held behind closed doors, but added
that he asked Lukashenko and the Supreme Court to allow
representatives of ORT, domestic and international public
organizations to attend the hearing "to see for
themselves the objectivity of the investigation."
The
same day, Vladimir Goncharik, chair of the Federation
of Trade Unions of Belarus (BFTU) and potential presidential
candidate, told journalists that he posses photocopies
of documents that prove the regime's involvement in
murdering of Yury Zakharenko, Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly
Krasovsky, reported Belapan. Goncharik showed a photocopy
of a report from Gen.- Maj. Nikolai Lopatik, chief of
the Main Criminal Police Department, to Vladimir Naumov.
Dated November 2000, the report lists name of people
who were given orders to "neutralize opposition
politicians," as well as those who had executed
the orders. The BFTU leader said that he also have copies
of testimonies by witnesses and suspects, reports by
forensic experts, and a photograph of the gun used by
killers. Goncharik said that many facts mentioned in
the documents agreed with information provided by anonymous
e-mails and Petrushkevich and Sluchek. He said that
the documents do not provide any information about Zavadsky's
case. At a news conference on July 13, Naumov categoricaly
denied receiving any reports from Lopatik, who, he said,
in November 2000 was on a sick leave, and added that
Lopatik might soon have to resign for health reasons.
(Pravda/Belapan, July 13)
THREE
HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS ARRESTED FOR PICKETING KGB OFFICE
On
July 7, Igor Goyshun, Oleg Strizhenok, Oleg Markovsky,
members of the Public Legal Aid Association, a human
rights NGO denied national registration by the Belarusian
Ministry of Justice, were arrested near the building
of the State Security Committee in Minsk for staging
unauthorized picket marking disappearance of Dmitry
Zavadsky and holding a banner saying "Where is
Gonchar? Where is Zavadsky? Where is Zakharenko?"
regarding the disappearance of prominent figures. The
detainees were taken to a police station, where police
reports were filed on them. (Charter 97, July 7)
OPPOSITION
ACTIVIST SENTENCED TO JAIL FOR UNAUTHORIZED PICKETING
On
July 7, the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk sentenced
Ales Borodulya, activist of the Borisov, Minsk Region,
branch of Narodnaya Hramada, to ten days' imprisonment
for "participation in mass actions violating public
order" under Art. 167, par. 1, of the Administrative
Offenses Code. That day, Borodulya along with Sergei
Podsolka and Dmitry Fedorchenko staged an unauthorized
picket on Oktyabrskaya Square in Minsk to commemorate
the anniversary of Dmitry Zavadsky's disappearance,
reported Viasna Human Rights Center. The action lasted
less then forty minutes. The activists were taken to
the Tsentralny District Internal Affairs Directorate
for interrogation. Sergei Podsolka and Dmitry Fedorchenko
received summons to appear in court on July 16 and July
11, respectively, and released. Upon arrival to Borisov,
they were attacked on the street by unknown individuals
and beaten, suffering numerous bodily injuries, which
required immediate medical attention.
On
July 11, Dmitry Fedorchenko stood trial and was fined
a sum of 150 minimal wages (about $750). Earlier this
month, the Borisov City Court fined him 150 minimum
wages for holding an unauthorized picket on June 1,
2001, the International Child's Day, to draw public
attention to the authorities' negligence about children's
welfare and health. (Viasna Human Rights Center, July
9)
JOURNALISTS
DEMAND INFORMATION ABOUT DISAPPEARED COLLEAGUE
On
July 7, about 40 Belarusian journalists, wearing T-shirts
with a portrait of Dmitry Zavadsky marched through Minsk
expressing skepticism about the government's explanation
of Zavadsky's disappearance and demanding access to
specific information on his case, reported Charter 97.
The journalists held pickets outside the Interior Ministry,
the Prosecutor General's office and the KGB. Zhanna
Litvina, chair of the Belarusian Association of Journalists,
handed a petition signed by 300 journalists to Alexei
Taranov, head of the Prosecutor's General Office press
service, and Vitaly Grinkevich, deputy head of the department
of information and public relations of the Interior
Ministry, urging Viktor Sheiman, Prosecutor General,
and Vladimir Naumov, Belarusian Interior Minister, to
answer the question: "Where is Dmitry Zavadsky?"
(Charter 97, July 7)
CPJ:
ONE YEAR LATER, NO PROGRESS ON MISSING CAMERAMAN INVESTIGATION
On
the one-year anniversary of Dmitry Zavadsky's disappearance
in Minsk, CPJ, a New York nonprofit dedicated to defending
the rights of journalists world-wide, deplored the fact
that Belarusian authorities have made little or no progress
investigating the case, despite credible leads that
have emerged over the past year. "The absence of
concrete progress leads us to suspect that Belarusian
authorities are not interested in getting to the bottom
of this disturbing case," said Ann Cooper, CPJ
executive director, in a statement. She called on Lukashenko
to appoint an independent prosecutor with the authority
and political will to investigate the case and bring
the perpetrators to justice. The full text of the statement
can be found at: http://www.cpj.org
FOUR
YOUTH ACTIVISTS TO STAND TRIAL FOR GRAFFITI
On July 25, the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk will
start hearing the case of Anatoly Elizar, Sergei Koktysh
and Alexander Ermakov, all former students of the department
of journalism at the Belarusian State University, as
well as Aleksey Shydlouski, a student at the private
Institute of Modern Knowledge, who were arrested on
January 26 near the Partizanski District Executive Committee
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). On February 24, 1998, Alexey Shydlouski
was found guilty of criminal hooliganism for a similar
graffiti offense and served an 18-month prison term
in hard-labor colony. (Viasna Human Rights Center, July
9)
MALADY
FRONT LEADER INTERROGATED BY SECURITY SERVICES
Nasha
Svaboda reported that Pavel Severinets, chair of the
Malady (Youth) Front, was detained at approximately
11:00 a.m. on July 7 by three KGB officers and brought
for interrogation to the KGB headquarters on Komsomolskaya
Street in Minsk in connection with May 31's incident
at the Russian embassy in Minsk, when an unknown group
threw a hand grenade onto the grounds causing slight
damage to the building but no injuries. During an hour-long
detention, the KGB officers somehow forgot about the
blast, Severinets said. (Nasha Svaboda, July 9)
OFFICE
OF LOCAL NEWSPAPER SEALED, EQUIPMENT CONFISCATED
On
July 12, police in Krichev, Mogilev Region, raided and
sealed the office of Volny Gorod (Free City), local
independent newspaper, and seized all office equipment:
three computers, two of which are the property of the
U.S. Embassy, scanner, camcorder, TV, and VCR. During
the raid, a signature sheet in support of Semyon Domash
was confiscated and the newspaper's editor Sergey Nerovny,
Nikolai Matorenko, editor-in-chief of Nash Volny Gorod
(Our Free City), another independent newspaper, and
Sergey Borovikov were arrested. Borovikov was charged
with "petty hooliganism" under Art. 156 of
the Belarusian Administrative Offences Code. (Viasna
Human Rights Center, July 13)
BELARUSIAN
HELSINKI COMMITTEE'S OFFICE BURGLARIZED
The
Minsk office of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC),
a NGO affiliated with the International Helsinki Federation,
located on Libknekhta street across the High Police
School, was burglarized on July 9-10. The thieves entered
the office through the window, cut off electricity,
and damaged phone lines. As a representative of BHC's
press center told Charter 97, although there have much
more valuable stuff to attract the greedy eyes of an
ordinary criminal, the burglars only stole one monitor
and two computer system blocks, containing database
on the election observation and the draft report on
human rights violations in Belarus over the last six
months. [This was not the first criminal attack on the
organization. A similar incidents occurred in September
1998, and in December 1999, although police have still
not found those responsible.-Ed.]. (Charter 97, July
12)
-PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS NEWS-
INTERNATIONAL
OBSERVATION MISSION TO PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
On
July 5, representatives of the Parliamentary Troika,
the OSCE, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE AMG in Belarus, the
European Commission, the current EU Presidency (Belgium),
as well as the US-based National Democratic Institute
(NDI) held consultations in Paris to discuss on the
participation of an organized International Observation
Mission in the forthcoming presidential elections in
Belarus scheduled for September 9, 2001, with a second
round scheduled for September 23, 2001.
For
a number of years, the European Institutions have engaged
the authorities and the civil society of Belarus in
a manifold dialogue on the steps to be taken in the
country in order to ensure the conduct of presidential
and parliamentary elections in accordance with the OSCE
standards, wrote the participants in a statement. Assessing
the political development in Belarus, they noted with
concern a number of serious shortcomings in the democratic
development of the country and the significant deficits
in the framework conditions of the presidential elections:
the disregard of the political and social opponents
in the composition of the 160 territorial election commissions
and the ongoing acts of intimidation of citizens, who
actively support potential candidates or the domestic
observation structures.
The
European Institutions confirmed the importance of the
four criteria established in 2000 as the benchmarks
for free and fair elections and the main principles
of the ongoing democratization process in Belarus: transparency
of the election process, access of opponents to the
state-run mass media, non-discrimination of political
opponents, and meaningful functions and powers for the
current parliamentary body.
It
was decided to ask the ODIHR to organize a full-fledged
long- and short-term International Observation Mission,
which would closely co-operate with the Parliamentary
Troika if it decides to send its delegation to Belarus.
Invitations of the Belarusian authorities to the European
Institutions are expected in due course.
The
European Institutions appealed to the Belarusian authorities
to adopt a strict policy of non-interference in the
election process and of non-discrimination against potential
contenders and their supporters. The Institutions is
to follow closely further developments, especially in
the registration process. They deplored the current
Belarusian leader for adopting decrees with the power
of instantly effective laws which change the framework
conditions to the disadvantage of other potential presidential
candidates.
The
representatives of the participating Institutions considered
desirable to include experts from all neighboring countries
in the International Election Observation Mission. The
decision in favor of the participation of an ODIHR-based
Election Observation Mission will be reviewed, however,
in light of further developments in the election process,
with the registration of candidates constituting the
most sensitive phase of the process up to the actual
elections. (OSCE, July 9)
ANOTHER
PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL PULLS OUT OF RACE
Evgeny
Kryzhanovsky, director of Khristophor, Minsk-based theater,
decided to follow in footsteps of Natalya Masherova,
55, member of the House of Representatives of the National
Assembly, and withdrew from the presidential race, reported
Belapan. Kryzhanovsky said that his initiative group
suceeded in registering his registration certificate
solely by chance, because the Central Commission for
Elections and National Referenda overlooked the fact
that he was born in neighboring Ukraine and, therefore,
in accordance with the electoral law, can not run for
the Belarusian presidency. Kryzhanovsky said that Nikolai
Lozovik, Commission's secretary promised to address
the issue as soon as his group submits 100,000 signatures
required for his registration as candidate. Kryzhanovsky's
supporters have already collected 42,000 signatures,
but he believes that he will be denied registration
anyway and decided not to abuse his friends' loyalty.
He is to appeal to the Constitutional Court to annul
the discriminatory provision. On July 12, Kryzhanovsky
announced his intention to join the team of Leonid Sinitsyn,
another presidential candidate. (Belaruskaya Delovaya
Gazeta, July 11-13)
LUKASHENKO
SUBMITS 100,000 SIGNATURES REQUIRED FOR HIS NOMINATION
On
July 11, Nikolai Lozovik, secretary of the Central Commission
for Elections and National Referenda, informed journalists
that opposition's numerous complaints were groundless
and that the Commission's investigation proved that
the law has not been broken during the formation of
local election commissions. Lozovik said that Alexander
Lukashenko has already submitted over 100,000 signatures
required by law for his nomination as a candidate for
the country's ballot. He provided a list of 19 candidates
with a number in brackets indicating how many signatures
has been submitted for the nomination of the given candidate:
Sergei
Antonchyk, leader of Workers' Self-Aide, an unregistered
organization (58);
Mikhail
Chigir, Former Prime Minister (2,703);
Yury
Dankov, businessman, member of the Minsk City Soviet
(0);
Semyon
Domash, deputy of the 13th Supreme Soviet, chair of
the Grodno Initiative and the Coordination Council of
Belarusian Regions (11,156);
Sergei
Gaidukevich, chair of the Liberal Democratic Party of
Belarus (29,389);
Vladimir
Goncharik, chair of the Federation of Trade Unions of
Belarus (45,461);
Leonid
Kalugin, executive director of Atlant, Minsk-based refrigerator
plant (647);
Sergey
Kalyakin, leader of the Party of Communists of Belarus
(1,096);
Konstantin
Kononovich, unemployed engineer (0);
Pavel
Kozlovsky, former Defense Minister (2,305);
Valery
Levonevsky, a member of the Council of the Free Trade
Union of Entrepreneurs (0);
Mikhail
Marinich, Belarusian ambassador to Latvia, Estonia and
Finland (942);
Nikolai Mekeko, vise-president of the International
Human Rights Association (0);
Zyanon
Paznyak, exiled leader of the Conservative Christian
Party of the Belarusian Popular Front (2,106);
Valentin
Semak, businessman, former KGB officer (0);
Leonid
Sinitsyn, former head of the presidential administration
(3,303);
Sergei
Skrebets, member of the House of Representatives, lower
chamber of the National Assembly, director of BelBabayevskoye,
trading house (0);
Viktor
Tereshchenko, 13th Supreme Soviet deputy and director
of the Minsk-based private International Institute of
Management (265);
Alexander
Yaroshuk, leader of the Trade Union of Agro-industrial
Workers (786).
Under
current law, candidates for presidency can be nominated
by initiative groups , who must gather at least 100,000
signatures until July 21 to put their candidate on the
ballot. (Belapan, July 11)
HEAD
OF LOCAL LUKASHENKO'S INITIATIVE GROUP RESIGNS
On
July 8, Alexander Volchanin, former head of Lukashenko's
signature-collection group in Zhodino, Minsk Region,
resigned, protesting against pressure put on him by
the local executive authorities. He told journalists
in Minsk that Zhodino's mayor Valery Kashevsky expressed
discontent with a slow progress in signature-collection
campaign in support of the current Belarusian leader.
Volchanin responded that many people were unwilling
to give their signatures for Lukashenko and he can do
nothing about it. He said that after he had filed his
resignation, a KGB officer visited him at home to persuade
him to change his mind or abstain from making any public
statements. Volchanin was also forced to quit as deputy
director of the Zhodino Social Services Center. He is
to file a complaint with the Central Commission for
Elections and National Referenda, human rights and election
monitoring organizations. (Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta,
July 13)
FIVE
CANDIDATES ACCUSED OF VIOLATING ELECTION REGULATIONS
On
July 10, Lydia Yermoshina, chair of the Central Commission
for Elections and National Referenda, issued warnings
to Mikhail Marinich and Leonid Sinitsyn for breaking
election campaign finance regulations, reported Belapan.
The candidates were accused of using their private funds
to finance the signature-collection campaign. Sergei
Gaidukevich, Sergey Kalyakin, and Pavel Kozlovsky were
accused of distributing campaign materials before being
officially registered. Under a recent Lukashenko decree,
potential candidates may only use volunteer campaign
staff until they are formally registered. The candidates
denied wrongdoing, and Gaidukevich said he had been
framed by unspecified opponents. Yermoshina said the
candidates will be dropped from the race in case of
future violations. To be registered, each candidate
must collect 100,000 signatures of supporters, but is
banned from even covering signature collectors' travel
fees or paying for their stationery. After candidates
are formally registered, they are still barred from
using private funds for campaigning, and are restricted
to the government's subsidies. (Belapan, July 10)
CANDIDATE
ACCUSES REGIME OF HARASSING HIS SUPPORTERS
On
July 9, Alexander Yaroshuk, leader of the Trade Union
of Agro-industrial Workers, and one of the candidates
in the 2001 presidential elections, told journalists
in Minsk that about 30 percent of his signature-collection
group's members dropped their membership because of
the pressure put on them by the regime, reported Belaruskaya
Delovaya Gazeta. Yaroshuk believes that the Central
Commission for Elections and National Referenda released
the names of his initiative group's members to the executive
authorities. He said that KGB officers have been visiting
collective farms to warn managers who joined his group
about possible negative consequences of their pre-election
activities. Leonid Kunitsky, head of the Internal Control
Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and a member
of Yaroshuk's initiative group, was forced to resign
his membership at the request of Mikhail Rusy, Belarusian
Agriculture Minister. In his resignation letter Kunitsky
said that he stepped down "in the face of threats
of persecution on fabricated charges." "If
we do not draw everybody's attention to what is going
on, there will be no candidates by the moment of registration,
except those whom Lukashenko will choose himself as
his rivals," the candidate said.
Another
candidate Viktor Tereshchenko, 13th Supreme Soviet deputy
and director of the Minsk-based private International
Institute of Management, said that he has moved his
family from Minsk fearing that in order to win the vote,
the regime is ready to resort to extreme measures, including
the enforcement of martial law. (Belaruskaya Delovaya
Gazeta, July 9)
OPPOSITION
CANDIDATES AGREE ON SINGLE CANDIDATE CRITERIA
On
July 9, the five leading opposition candidates (Mikhail
Chigir, Pavel Kozlovsky, Vladimir Goncharik, Semyon
Domash, and Sergey Kalyakin), agreed on the criteria
for selecting a single presidential candidate for whom
the united opposition should campaign. He will be named
on the basis of public-opinion polls, candidates' ratings,
the efficiency of the signature-collection campaigns,
and strength of the support groups after all five potential
candidates will finish collecting the required number
of signatures.
On
July 10, the Organizing Committee of the Congress of
Democratic Forces, which is to be held in Minsk in late
July - early August, adopted a statement saying that
the nomination of a single candidate cannot be delayed,
considering the limited resources of the democratic
opposition to inform the voters about the single opposition
candidate, reported Nasha Svaboda. "The nomination
of several democratic candidates would inevitably split
the electorate and secure Lukashenko's victory,"
Yury Khadyka, deputy chair of the BPF Adradzhenne and
head of the Committee, wrote. If the five allied opposition
candidates fail to agree who of them will represent
the democratic opposition, the Committee is to welcome
an agreement between at least two candidates in favor
of one of them. The Congress organizers said that they
set July 15 as a deadline for the opposition candidates
to make their decision. (Belapan/Nasha Svaboda, July
9-10)
CHIGIR
VOWS TO LEAVE POLITICS IF DEFEATED IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
On
July 8, speaking to reporters in Mogilev, Mikhail Chigir,
Former Prime Minister and a potential presidential candidate,
said he would give up his political activities if he
does not win the elections. Chigir said regardless of
outcome of the vote he is not going to leave the country.
Commenting on the opposition's plans to nominate a single
democratic candidate, Chigir said such a candidate should
not be named before August 14, when the Central Commission
for Elections and National Referenda will finish registration
of all presidential hopefuls. (Belapan, July 9)
CANDIDATE
DETAINED BY POLICE FOR COLLECTING SIGNATURES
On
July 8, Valery Levonevsky, head of Grodno branch of
the Free Trade Union of Entrepreneurs, and three members
of his initiative group were detained by the police
while collecting voter's signatures on a parking lot
near the road police station on outskirts of Lida, Minsk
Region. "It took policemen more then an hour and
interference of the local high-ranking police officials
to check my driver's license," Levonevsky commented.
On July 13, Nikolai Lozovik, secretary of the Central
Commission for Elections and National Referenda, assured
journalists that the police were given an order from
Interior Minister Vladimir Naumov not to interfere in
the signature collection process. (Belaruskaya Delovaya
Gazeta, July 9)
PRESIDENTIAL
CANDIDATE LEAVES LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Nikolai
Mekeko, vise-president of the International Human Rights
Association and potential presidential candidate, has
resigned his membership in the Liberal Democratic Party
of Belarus (LDPB) [Belarusian variant of Zhirinovsky's
ill-named LDP of Russia-Ed.], after Party's chair Sergei
Gaidukevich informed the Central Commission for Elections
and National Referenda about the candidate's failure
to indicate his membership in the LDPB in the application
for registration. (Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta, July
10)
-AT HOME IN BELARUS-
FORMER
AIDE ACCUSES LUKASHENKO OF HOLDING HUGE SECRET ACCOUNTS
Ivan
Titenkov, 47, who served as the Lukashenko's property
manager for five years until his dismissal in 1999,
accused his former boss of accumulating huge funds in
secret private accounts, possibly from sales of Soviet-era
weapons. He also charged Lukashenko with ordering the
disappearances of prominent opposition leaders and suppressing
the investigations, as well as with organizing a massive
system for eavesdropping on Belarusians' telephones,
according to an interview published on July 10 in several
independent newspapers. Titenkov has been living abroad
recently, and the interview was allegedly taken in a
small Russian town. Earlier media reported that Titenkov
had asked for political asylum in Germany, but the German
Embassy in Belarus has refused to comment on the reports
(see Belarus Update Vol. 4, No. 27).
Echoing
earlier reports by opposition groups, Titenkov said
the funds that Lukashenko accumulated in secret accounts
exceed the republic's budget, though he did not specify
the amount and did not say where the money is located.
Titenkov said Viktor Sheiman, Prosecutor General, is
the only other person who has access to the accounts.
"I cannot specify the amount, but I think it was
about $20 million that has been spent recently on voice
recognition and eavesdropping equipment," he added.
Titenkov
also blamed Lukashenko for dismissing top security officials
to suppress the investigations into the disappearances
of prominent opposition political figures. The official
reason for the dismissal last November of Prosecutor
General Oleg Bozhelko and Vladimir Matskevich, the chief
of the Committee for State Security, or KGB, was a lack
of progress on the investigations. Commenting on the
forthcoming presidential elections, Titenkov said that
"Lukashenko will not give up power easily."
(Charter 97, July 7 - Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta, July
10)
GERMAN
CITIZEN STANDS TRIAL ON ESPIONAGE CHARGES IN BELARUS
On July 9, Col. Fyodor Kotov, spokesman for the State
Security Committee (KGB), told journalists that the
security service has completed an investigation into
the case of a German citizen suspected of espionage
and transferred the case to the country's military court
chaired by Pavel Lizunov, reported Nasha Svaboda. The
next day, the suspect, identified as Christopher Letz,
53, went on trial behind closed doors.
In
its December 15 issue, Stars and Stripes, U.S. military
newspaper, reported that Letz was a faculty member of
the George Marshall Research Center in the German town
of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Citing an anonymous sources
at the Center, the paper wrote that he, a former Polish
military officer who had defected to the West during
the Cold War, had been arrested in Moscow by the Russian
Federal Security Service on September 15, 2000, at request
from the Belarusian authorities, while doing independent
research, transferred to the KGB prison in Minsk and
charged with espionage, an offence punishable under
the Belarusian law by up to 15 years in prison or the
death penalty.
In
February, 2001, Russian media reported that Lukashenko
tried to swap Letz for Pavel Borodin, former secretary
of the Russia-Belarus Union, who at that time was detained
in the United States on Swiss money-laundering charges.
The Belarusian KGB dismissed the reports as "complete
nonsense." (Nasha Svaboda, July 11)
-UPCOMING EVENTS-
Valery
T. Tsepkalo, Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus to
the United States, is to speak at National Press Club
Afternoon Newsmaker Program on August 30 at 2 p.m. in
the Murrow Room of the National Press Club in Washington,
D.C. Amb. Tsepkalo will discuss the presidential elections
in Belarus including the programs of presidential candidates,
the stages of the presidential campaign, domestic and
international election observation and the political
and socio-economic situation. CONTACT INFO: Peter Hickman
of the National Press Club, 202-662-7593 or Sergei Rachkov
of the Embassy of Belarus, 202-986-1704
************************************************************************
For daily updates, visit our partners website, Charter
97, www.charter97.org with news in Belarusian, Russian,
and English.
************************************************************************
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.
***********************************************************
THE
LEAGUE HAS MOVED: PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS
ILHR
823 UN Plaza Suite 717
New York, NY 10017
tel. 212-661-0480
fax 212-661-0416
The
e-mail remains the same: belarus@ilhr.org
************************************************************
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