INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 4, No. 39
September 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

- Opposition contests election results
- Independent observers agree election rigged
- Crackdown on independent press continues
- Kurapaty site in danger
- Workers strike in Minsk
- Vinnikova son goes on trial
- Lukashenko reshuffles government
- Russia buys Belarus

OPPOSITION CANDIDATE CONTESTS ELECTION RESULT IN SUPREME COURT

On September 24, Vladimir Goncharik, chair of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus and opposition presidential candidate, petitioned the Belarusian Supreme Court to annul the election's result because of the "gross violations of Belarusian laws and international standards," during the poll. "The declared voting results have nothing to do with the true will of the Belarusian people," the opposition candidate said in the petition. "Observers detected thousands of violations, ranging from the denial of entry to election commissions for representatives of political parties and NGOs, to the use of state newspapers, radio and television to campaign for one candidate and to removing and replacing the ballots during the vote. The petition, which includes a comprehensive list of reported election violations, is similar to the one that has been already rejected by the Central Election Commission. (Nasha Svaboda, September 26)

BHC CHARGES AUTHORITIES WITH UNFAIR VOTE

On September 21, speaking to reporters in Minsk, Tatyana Protko, chair of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, said that the authorities had failed to ensure equal access to the media for all candidates and harassed the opposition representatives during and after the election campaign. Protko noted that despite the constitutional requirement that the president must be elected by a secret ballot, up to 60 percent of the voters at rural polling stations had no alternative but to vote openly. An overwhelming majority of those who voted at home cast their ballots for Lukashenko out of fear, the BHC's president said. "It is very upsetting that people who violated the election law will be rewarded," she added. The Committee filed a 1000-page report, which includes analysis of the current Belarusian electoral legislation, violations of law during forming of electoral commissions, registration of the candidates, early voting, elections and tabulation of its results, and appealed to the Belarusian Supreme Court to annul the results of the elections. (Belapan, September 22)

INDEPENDENT OBSERVERS VICTIMIZED AND PROSECUTED

On September 21, Ales Beliatsky, chair of the Viasna Human Rights Center and a coordinate of the group "Belarus Initiative/Independent Observation," told journalists that Alexander Lukashenko resorted to massive election fraud to produce an illusion of his support by a majority of the Belarusians. According to Beliatsky, while election officials were rather cautious in falsifying the results in towns, in rural areas, where independent observers were not admitted to polling stations, the authorities manipulated the results of the vote very heavily. "Flaws in electoral legislation and in the organization of the election allowed the authorities to carry out a large-scale falsification of the vote," Beliatsky said, adding that precinct commissions' refusal to show the lists of voters to observers, the intentional hiding of the results of early voting evidenced massive election fraud.

Beliatsky noted that many people have been victimized and prosecuted for taking part in the opposition election campaign in capacity of independent observers. Andrei Alekhnovich, independent observer from the Kroupki District, Minsk Region, and Alexander Nikitin, group's coordinator from the Cherven District, Minsk Region, lost their jobs due to active involvement in the opposition election campaign. Oleg Metelitsa, coordinator from the town of Belinichi, Mogilev Region, spent 15 days in jail for training observers at his apartment. Ales Galich, coordinate for the Sovetsky District of Minsk, and Pyotr Migursky, coordinator for the Shklov District, Mogilev Region, are to stand trial soon. Sergei Malchik, Vladimir Khilmanovich, and Vladimir Kiselevich, all independent observers from Grodno Region, may face criminal charges.
(Belapan/ Viasna Human Rights Center, September 24-25)

PACE: BELARUSIAN ELECTION RIGGED

Two Belarusian delegations took part in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) session recently held in Strasbourg. The opposition delegation consisted of Anatoly Lebedko and Elena Skrigan, both deputies of the 13th Supreme Soviet, and Yaroslav Romanchuk, deputy chair of the United Civil Party. A delegation of the National Assembly was led by Vladimir Konoplyov, deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Belarusian Parliament.

On September 24, Lord Russel-Johnston, President of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, said that he has no doubts that the results of the presidential election in Belarus were rigged. "The treatment of mass media and opposition was terrible. I think that we are to re-evaluate the effectiveness of our actions in Belarus. I know there is a plan to review the state of affairs in the Political Committee and to decide if we should go on with the same policy or to change it in some way. While I do not want to speculate, I believe it will be right for the Political Council to review its plans after the election," he said in his interview to RFE/RL.

Belgian MP Stefan Goris, who led the PACE delegation to monitor the Belarus's September 9 vote, said that the elections failed to meet international standards, but spoke against isolating Belarus. "Although PACE observers consider presidential elections not democratic, they tend to believe that the policy of isolation has proven wrong," said Goris. "Even though the election did not meet the standards of the Council of Europe, the organization should review its approaches to cooperation with this country and develop contacts both with civil society and with the Parliament and the government," he said. (RFE/RL, Charter 97, September 24-25)

On September 26, Vladimir Novosad, a deputy of the House of Representatives, of Representatives and a delegation's member, told Belapan that the PACE is ready to restore the country's special guest status if the Belarusian authorities are to give meaningful functions and powers for the current parliamentary body and to abolish the death penalty. Alexander Lukashenko supported development of the "constructive cooperation" between his hand-picked parliament and the PACE and promised to ensure further development of the democratic institutions in Belarus. The Belarusian leader expressed eagerness to cooperate with the European Union and the United States on the "basis of mutual respect."

On September 27, Pavel Latushko, Foreign Ministry spokesman, expressed hope that the PACE will soon renew special guest status to Belarus. [On January 24, 2001, the PACE expressed profound concerns that Belarus continues to fall short of the Council's standards with respect to free and fair election, rule of law, and human rights. For those reasons, the Assembly has decided not to restore guest status to Belarus, which was granted on September 16, 1992, as the first step to the country's admission to the COE. -Ed.]. (Belapan/ Interfax, September 26-27)

OSCE DEMANDS INVESTIGATION INTO DISAPPEARANCES OF POLITICIANS

On September 24, wives of victims of the Lukashenko regime addressed the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw to protest the Lukashenko government inaction to resolve their cases. Ludmila Karpenko, wife of Gennady Karpenko, 13th Supreme Soviet Deputy Chair, who died under reportedly mysterious circumstances on April 6, 1999, Irina Krasovskaya, wife of businessman Anatoly Krasovsky, who was a close friend of Victor Gonchar, 13th Supreme Soviet Deputy Chair (both of whom disappeared on September 16, 1999), Svetlana Zavadskaya, wife of Dmitry Zavadsky, a Belarusian cameraman for the Russian public television station ORT who disappeared on July 7, 2000, and Tatiana Klimova, wife of Andrei Klimov, 13th Supreme Soviet Deputy, who has been imprisoned since February 1998,
told about the political assassinations in Belarus. [A new web-site dedicated to the fate of journalist Dmitry Zavadsky is located at: www.geocities.com/free_belarus/Zavadsky.-Ed.]

Ludmila Gryaznova, 13th Supreme Soviet deputy, told the participants of the meeting about the egregious violations of the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly by the regime, which enable Alexander Lukashenko to falsify the results of elections.

The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) urged Belarusian authorities to conduct a thorough independent investigation into disappearances of well-known politicians and civil activists.

On September 25, the United States strongly urged all members of the OSCE to comply with their freely undertaken OSCE commitments and remove undue restrictions on freedom of association and the right to peaceful assembly," Douglas Davidson told the Meeting. Davidson, a member of the U.S. delegation, added that governments "should not stop people from freely and peacefully gathering in order to express their views. They should permit the functioning of political parties and NGOs [non-governmental organizations]. They should cease persecuting those who exercise their rights to freedom of association and assembly and remove onerous constraints or repeal decrees clearly designed to inhibit the activities of political parties and civil society." The full text of his statement can be found at: http://usinfo.state.gov/

CPJ DENOUNCES HARASSMENT OF INDEPENDENT MEDIA DURING ELECTION

On September 21, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) denounced the Belarusian government's crackdown on independent media during the presidential election. Online versions of major opposition newspapers, including Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, Nasha Svaboda, and Belarusskaya Gazeta, could not be viewed on September 9. The Internet sites of the independent Belapan news agency, Radio Racyja, the Belarusian Service of the U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Charter 97, Independent Monitoring, and the site of Vladimir Goncharik, Lukashenko's main opponent, also experienced unexplained service interruptions on election day (see Belarus Update Vol. 4. No. 37). Independent media consistently criticized Lukashenko and publicized credible allegations made by former government officials implicating the Lukashenko government in the murder of Dmitry Zavadsky, a cameraman with the Russian public television network ORT who has been missing since July 7, 2000. "Free and democratic elections require the unfettered circulation of ideas and exchange of information," said Ann Cooper, CPJ executive director. "By censoring and harassing the independent and opposition media during this election, President Lukashenko has once again shown his contempt for democracy."

In the weeks prior to the election, local and international NGOs documented numerous incidents where government authorities restricted newspaper distribution, in some cases by seizing the technical equipment and print runs of independent and opposition newspapers. In addition, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry denied entry to CPJ, Article 19, and some OSCE representatives in order to prevent them from monitoring press freedom and electoral conditions prior to the September 9 vote.

CPJ expressed its concern about independent media's bleak future in the country. Several hours after the polls closed on September 9, Alexander Lukashenko announced plans to ban TV-6, Russian channel, which has been critical of the Belarusian leader, from operating in Belarus.
The next day, correspondents from Narodnaya Volya, Belarusian independent newspaper, Belapan news agency, and Diyena, a Latvian newspaper, were denied access to a presidential news conference. At the press conference, Lukashenko promised to "support journalists the way I supported them before." http://www.cpj.org/

ESCALATION OF KGB ACTIVITIES UNDERMINE MEDIA FREEDOM IN GRODNO

On September 22, the Grodno Region Prosecutor Office issue a written warning to Pahonya, Grodno-based independent newspaper, for slandering the Belarusian president under Art 367, part 1, of the Belarusian Penal Code, reported Nasha Svaboda, an independent newspaper. On September 12, the Grodno Region Prosecutor Office seized 8,132 copies of the issue #36 of the newspaper. A reason for confiscation was an article titled "I promised, I promise, I will promise!" about Lukashenko's re-election. On September 5, the criminal proceedings were launched against the newspaper. The issue #37 of the newspaper was also confiscated.

In May 2001, all Pahonya's employees were summoned at least once to the anti-terrorism unit of the local KGB office for questioning in connection with an article entitled "Integrationists will not come to Grodno" published in the newspaper's 10 May 2001 issue. This article included a statement by a hitherto unknown organization, the Council of Commanders of Belarusian National Self-Defense, which contained threats against members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russia-Belarus Union, due to meet in Grodno later that month. During the interrogations, KGB agents questioned the journalists on the source of the above statement, as well as on the structure and operation of the newspaper. Further, on August 7, a KGB officer summoned Pahonya journalist Pavel Mazeika for an interrogation, during which the agent allegedly tried to recruit the journalist. The agent apparently warned the journalist that although the closure of a newspaper does not lie within the competence of the KGB, there are other relevant bodies which can do that. On August 8, Nikolai Markevich, Pahonya's editor-in-chief, was summoned to the regional Deputy Prosecutor's office and informed that Pahonya was to be closed.

The KGB activities are in clear breach of Article 48 of the Law on Press, which forbids "encroaching upon freedom of information by means of interference in the activities or violation of professional independence" of a newspaper or journalists. They also run counter to Belarus' international obligations under Article 19 of the ICCPR, establishing everyone's right to freedom of expression, including the "freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print." (Nasha Svaboda, September 26)

INDEPENDENT DAILY WARNED

Brestsky Kuryer (Brest Courier), an independent daily, was warned by the State Press Committee for publishing an appeal called "Stop Persecution of Democratic Candidates!" signed by representatives of local opposition organizations and trade unions some of which are not registered with the authorities. After two warnings, issued according to Art. 5 of the Press Law, a newspaper may be closed by court decision. (Charter 97, September 27)

BOARDER GUARDS CONFISCATE OPPOSITION PRINTED MATERIALS

On September 24, the boarder guards in Brest searched Nikolai Antipovich, a member of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, and confiscated 50 copies of Belarusian Vedamasty (Belarusian News) and two books of poems of Zyanon Paznyak, exiled Party's leader. The activist was returning home from Warsaw, where he had a meeting with Paznyak. (Nasha Svaboda, September 26)

PUBLISHING OF INDEPENDENT WEEKLY RESTORED

On September 24, the publishing of Svobodnye Novosti, an independent weekly, was restored
following talks between Alexander Ulityonok, the newspaper's editor-in-chief, and Mikhail Podgainy, chair of the State Press Committee. On September 18, the printing was suspended as Sergei Atroschenko, the newspaper's major shareholder, contested the newspaper's support of the opposition and its active involvement in the opposition's election campaign. Atroschenko, who owns 60 percent shares in the weekly, announced plans to remake the newspaper into "a non-political, family reading" and appealed to the authorities to suspend publishing. The Svobodnye Novosti's staff accused Atroschenko of foul play, charging him with trying to silence yet another opposition newspaper to please the Lukashenko regime. (Belapan, September 24)

CASE OF DISAPPEARED JOURNALIST TO GO ON TRIAL IN OCTOBER

On October 24, Judge Alexander Simonov of the Minsk Region Court will hear the case of 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, who are accused of committing seven murders, five military assaults, and two abductions, including the kidnapping of Dmitry Zavadsky. The trial will be held behind closed doors. The defendants pleaded not guilty. (Nasha Svaboda, September 26)

KURAPATY IN DANGER

Since September 22, the activists of the Malady (Youth) Front and the Belarusian Party of Freedom hold a 24-hour vigil in Kurapaty, protesting the authorities' plans to broaden a local highway, which they say will desecrate the site of mass graves of thousands of victims of the Stalinist purges in the 1930s. (Nasha Svaboda, September 28)

SON OF FORMER BANKER WILL BE TRIED BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

On September 26, Judge Petr Kirkovsky of the Centralny District Court of Minsk announced that in accordance with Art. 23 of the Belarusian Penal Code the trial of Sergei Vinnikov, 26, who on March 23, 2001, was charged with drug trafficking under Art. 328, para 3 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, an offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison, will be held behind closed doors. Vinnikov and Yonas Arlauskas were arrested on March 21, 2001, in Minsk while trying to sell five grams of heroin. Sergei is a younger son of Tamara Vinnikova, a former chair of the Belarus National Bank who now lives in exile in Great Britain. She believes that her son's arrest was a provocation and the KGB's revenge. (Nasha Svaboda, September 28)

WORKERS STRIKE IN MINSK

On April 27, a spontaneous strike broke out at the Minsk-based Tractor Plant. About five hundred people left their work stations and blocked traffic on Dolgobrodskaya Street, demanding that the administration repay all wage arrears, reported Belapan. Nikolai Erokhov, deputy of the Minsk mayor, personally arrived at the place for negotiations. In an attempt to persuade the protesters to disperse, Leonid Krupets, the Plant's deputy director, promised that if all wage arrears will not be paid off in the nearest future, he would personally join the strikers. "The protest has shown that the working class has not yet degraded completely. In the current conditions, striking is the only effective method for workers to defend their rights," commented . Alexander Bukhvostov, chair of the Belarusian Trade Union of Automobile and Agricultural Machinery Workers. (Belapan, September 29)

DRIVE FOR "SMALLER GOVERNMENT" CONTINUES

On September 24, Alexander Lukashenko approved a new government structure and new composition of the Council of Ministers. The government has been sliced by almost a half, of 44 ministries there will remain only 28. Instead, seven committees will be established under the Council of Ministers. In total, the state management apparatus will be reduced by 10-15%. (Nasha Svaboda, September 26)

JURASSIC PARK CREATURES EVOLVING

After Lukashenko's re-election in the September 9 vote, Belarus, which foreign correspondents like to compare to Jurassic Park, is headed for serious changes, wrote Boris Kagarlitsky, a Moscow-based sociologist, in September 25's issue of The Moscow Times, an independent daily. Wide-scale privatization is under way in Belarus. The Belarusian bureaucracy has formed an alliance with Russian transnational corporations such as Gazprom, LUKoil and Sibal. These and other corporations, enjoying a stable exchange rate and being flush with petrol-dollars, are hungry for expansion and have been buying up a lot of Belarus's industrial assets. The closer Belarus gets to Russia, the more bourgeois the elite becomes and the stronger becomes the position of Western corporations operating through their Moscow subsidiaries.

Noting that western capital is entering Belarus via Russia, which is the last thing that anyone expected, Kagarlitsky, an avowed socialist, speculated that Russian and Western capital, once established in Belarus and divvied up the country's best assets, will seek to install its own president. Most likely "capital" will achieve this by selecting a liberal successor to Lukashenko from among members of the current economic establishment. In anticipation of this, Lukashenko has begun reshuffling the government and giving former favorites the boot. Anyone in the administration who has political weight can, at best, expect a transfer to some backwater.

Kagarlitsky admonished that Lukashenko realizes that the real threat to his authority comes not from the opposition but from his own entourage. One day, Lukashenko will wake up to discover that there is no such thing as an eternal president. (Based on article in Moscow Times, September 25)
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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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