INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 4, No. 45
November 2001

IN THIS ISSUE:

- Regime Escalates Persecution After Elections
- Belarus Democracy Act Introduced in US Senate
- IMF Declines Support To Regime
- Belarusian Inmates Die From Tuberculosis

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS-

POLICE CLASH WITH DEMONSTRATORS AT KURAPATY

Late on November 8, OMON, the Belarusian riot police, led by Col. Abakunchik, acting chief of the Minsk Region Internal Affairs Directorate, and assisted by road builders, tore down a camp set up by activists of the Malady Front, the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, the Belarusian Party of Freedom, and other opposition political groups and NGOs at Kurapaty, a woody place just off the Minsk Beltway where thousands of political prisoners were executed and buried during Stalin's repressions in the 1930s.

Several vanloads of OMON and a few trucks loaded with sand arrived at the site and started dumping the sand on both sides of the road, smashing down about 300 wooden crosses erected by volunteers during their month-and-a-half-long efforts to defend the mass grave from the expanding Minsk Beltway. [The activists hoped that officials would not dare to touch crosses because destroying a cross is widely regarded by the Orthodox Christians as a sin.- Ed.]. A bulldozer leveled the remaining crosses. Before tearing down one of the tents, the police threw in a tear gas can. One of those inside lost consciousness and had to be taken away in an ambulance, Ales Getman, a member of the Belarusian Party of Freedom, told Belapan.

Those who tried to defend the crosses were severely beaten with rubber clubs. Sergei Lisichonok, who suffered serious head injury, unmercifully beaten Nastia Karpovich, and another activist with a first name Gleb, were also taken to the hospital. Yaroslav Steshik, who tried to cover the cross with his body, was thrown to the ground and numerously kicked. Then the law-enforcers covered his face with a hood, put handcuffs on his wrists, and forced him into a police vehicle. Vladimir Yukhno, activist of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, who started screaming: "Fascists," was hit with clubs and also dragged to the police van. Among detainees were also Ryhor Kiyko, Alexander Atroschenko, Yury Volodko. They all were taken to the Minsk Region Internal Affairs Directorate.

The next day the clashes continued. When about 50 policemen came to the site accompanied by bulldozers and backhoes, they were confronted by a chain of activists. The police broke up the chain and arrested ten demonstrators, including Vyacheslav Sivchik, deputy chair of the Belarusian Popular Front. The heavy equipment began filling some of the grave sites with soil.

"This violence at Kurapaty was ordered by the same man who ordered the expansion of the Minsk Beltway, by Alexander Lukashenko," commented Maya Kleshtornaya, leader of the Martyrs of Belarus Society. "This resembles the night of April 12-13, 1995, when he threw the 13th Supreme Soviet members out of the Parliamentary Chamber. This Beltway reminds me of the Gulag, where remains of innocent victims marked every meter of road."

"This brutality against the defenders of Kurapaty was totally unmotivated," said Vyacheslav Sivchik. "The regime that destroys crosses are Satanists, not Christians. We will not let the year 1937 repeat itself in Belarus. Today's events prove Lukashenko to be a direct heir of Stalin. If he was given a free hand, he would unleash mass murders in Belarus."

On November 6, two days prior to the clash, the Malady Front and the Belarusian Party of Freedom set up the Youths for Kurapaty Committee, which appealed to the international community to express support to the Belarusian youth's efforts to
protect the Stalin-era memorial and to join their protest against the authorities' plans to desecrate the site of mass graves. "The current regime will not let victims of political oppression rest in peace," the activists said in the appeal, adding that Lukashenko ordered to build the Minsk Beltway on the bones of thousands of victims of political repressions.

On November 4, about 80 people took part in a rally organized by the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front in the Loshitsky Park in Minsk, the site of mass executions of political prisoners in the 1930s, to commemorate Dzyady, the ancestors' remembrance day, and to mark the International Day of Memory of Victims of Political Repression. Addressing the rally, Valery Buyval, one of the party's leaders, said that Lukashenko has increasingly clamped down on dissent and his government has downplayed the severity of Stalin's mass executions. U.S. President Bill Clinton visited the Kurapaty site in 1994. A small granite memorial given by the United States to commemorate the victims was wrecked by vandals in July 2001. (Belapan/Nasha Svaboda/Viasna Human Rights Center, November 5-9)

SEN. JESSE HELMS INTRODUCES BELARUS DEMOCRACY ACT

On November 7, introducing to the U.S. Senate the Belarus Democracy Act of 2001, aimed at providing the promotion of democracy and rule of law
in Belarus and the protection of the country's sovereignty and independence, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), made the following statement:

"Mr. President, on top of the mayhem and slaughter in New York and at the Pentagon in Washington last September, a travesty against democracy occurred again- in Belarus. Alexander Lukashenko, the dictator controlling this country, stole through intimidation and repression, the presidential elections that took place on September 9."

"Tragic as the events in our own country were and as serious an undertaking as the war against terrorism will continue to be, we must not overlook the brutality and injustice of a regime such as the one led by Lukashenko - especially in the heart of Europe. For this reason, I am introducing today the Belarus Democracy Act of 2001, the purpose of which is to support the people in Belarus who are struggling, often at great peril to their lives, to revive democracy, and to reconsolidate their country's declining independence and sovereignty."

"Democracy has been crushed in Belarus by a fanatical dictatorship that can only be described as a brutal throwback to the Soviet era. Alexander Lukashenko is an authoritarian obsessed with recreating the former Soviet Union which he believes he will ultimately lead. Because of Lukashenko, Belarus has emerged as a dark island of repression, censorship, and command economy in a region of consolidating democracies."

"Belarus has tragically become the Cuba of Europe. Nonetheless, the people of Belarus have not succumbed to Lukashenko. Independent newspapers struggle to publish. The leadership of the parliament he unconstitutionally dismissed refuses to concede legitimacy to his sham regime. Scores of non-governmental organizations fight to promote the rule of law and to protect fundamental human rights. The vibrancy of Belarus's struggling civil society has been made evident by the Freedom Marches that have attracted literally tens of thousands of Belarusians to the streets of Minsk and countless other anti-Lukashenko demonstrations elsewhere in Belarus."

"Their agenda is the promotion of a free, independent, democratic and Western-oriented Belarus - a sharp contrast to Lukashenko's efforts to reanimate the former Soviet Union.
This is an agenda not without risk. Those who have dared to take a stand against Lukashenko have disappeared. Yuri Zakharenko disappeared soon after he resigned his post as Lukashenko's Minister of Interior and began working with the opposition. Opposition leader Victor Gonchar and his colleague, Anatoly Krasovsky, vanished just hours after Lukashenko, in a drooling rage broadcast on state television, called upon his henchmen to crackdown on the 'opposition scum.'"

"Other opposition leaders such as Andrei Klimov, have been imprisoned under harsh conditions simply for expressing their opposition to Lukashenko's regime. This regime has tried to crush opposition marches with truncheon-wielding riot police. The independent press and non-governmental organizations promoting democracy, rule of law and human rights in Belarus are subject to constant government harassment, intimidation, arrests, fines, beatings and murder. Dmitry Zavadsky, a cameraman for Russian television, known for his critical reporting of the Lukashenko regime, disappeared under mysterious circumstances."

"If passed, this bill will impose sanctions against the Lukashenko regime. It will deny international assistance to his government. It will freeze Belarusian assets in the United States. It will prohibit trade with the Lukashenko government and businesses owned by that government. It will also deny officials of the Lukashenko government the right to travel to the United States."

"And, if Lukashenko continues to surrender Belarusian sovereignty, this bill will strip his government of the diplomatic properties it currently enjoys in the United States. Indeed, if he is successful in his warped effort to recreate the Soviet Union, the Government of Belarus will sadly have no need for these properties."

"This bill supports our nation's vision of Europe that is democratic, free and undivided. That vision will never be fulfilled as long as Belarus suffers under the tyranny of Alexander Lukashenko. It is our moral and strategic interest to support those fighting for democracy and freedom in Belarus and the return of their country to the European community of free states."

"To ignore this struggle for democracy and freedom and to turn an indifferent eye upon Lukashenka's effort to reconstruct the former Soviet Union would be a grave error. Not only would it be immoral, it would be strategically shortsighted."

"Allowing Moscow to reabsorb a state that was once independent and democratic would only whet Moscow's appetite to restore the old Soviet borders. That would set a precedent that would only jeopardize the security of Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Indulging antiquated Russian imperial pretensions would also undercut the prospects for democratic reform in Russia."

"For these reasons the Belarus Democracy Act of 2001 authorizes $30 million in assistance to restore and strengthen the institutions of democratic government in Belarus. It specifically urges the President of the United states to furnish assistance to political parties in Belarus committed to those goals. It expands the resources available to support radio broadcasting into Belarus that will facilitate the flow of uncensored information to the people of Belarus."

"Mr. President, the September elections in Belarus were stained by the Lukashenko regime's cruel suppression of democratic and human rights. Let the Belarus Democracy Act be America's response to Europe's last dictator, Alexander Lukashenko."

The bill promotes assistance to the people of Belarus in regaining their freedom and to enable them to join the international community of democracies; to restore and strengthen institutions of democratic government in Belarus; to encourage free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections in the country, conducted in a manner consistent with internationally accepted standards and under the supervision of internationally recognized observers; to sustain and strengthen international sanctions against the Lukashenko regime.

Activities that may be supported by assistance include democratic forces, including political parties, committed to promoting democracy and Belarus' independence and sovereignty; democracy building; radio and television broadcasting to Belarus; the development and support of nongovernmental organizations promoting democracy and supporting human rights both in Belarus and in exile; the development of independent media working within Belarus and from locations outside of Belarus and supported by nonstate-controlled printing facilities; international exchanges and advanced professional training programs for leaders and members of the democratic forces in skill areas central to the development of civil society; and the development of all elements of democratic processes, including political parties and the ability to conduct free and fair elections.

The sanctions against the Lukashenko regime shall apply until the U.S. President determines and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the Government of Belarus has made significant progress in meeting the following conditions:

- the release of all those individuals who have been jailed for their political views;

- the withdrawal of politically motivated legal charges against all opposition figures;

- the provision of a full accounting of those opposition leaders and journalists who have disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and the prosecution of those individuals who are responsible for those disappearances;

- the cessation of all forms of harassment and repression against the independent media, non-governmental organizations, and the political opposition;

- the implementation of free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections.

In accordance to the bill, the Secretary of the Treasury shall instruct the United States executive directors of the international financial institutions to oppose, and vote against, any extension by those institutions of any financial assistance (including any technical assistance or grant) of any kind to the Government of Belarus, except for loans and assistance that serve basic human needs. All property and interests in property, including all commercial, industrial, or public utility undertakings or entities, that are owned in whole or in part by the Government of Belarus, or by any member of the senior leadership of Belarus, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, including their overseas branches, will be blocked.

The entry into the United States of any alien who holds a position in the senior leadership of the Government of Belarus; or is a spouse, minor child, or agent of a person inadmissible will be suspended.

If passed and made law, the bill will also prohibit export to Belarus of computers, computer software, goods intended to manufacture or service computers, technology intended to manufacture or service computers. No loan, credit guarantee, insurance, financing, or other similar financial assistance may be extended by any agency of the United States Government (including the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation) to the Government of Belarus.

The bill stipulates that if an undemocratic and illegitimate Government of Belarus, enters into a union with the Russian Federation that results in the loss of sovereignty for Belarus, the United States will immediately withdraw any and all privileges and immunities under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations enjoyed by the personnel and property of the Government of Belarus and demand the immediate departure of such personnel from the United States.

Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, and every year thereafter, the President shall submit a report to the appropriate congressional committees reporting on:

--assistance and commerce received by Belarus from other foreign countries during the previous 12-month period;

--the sales of weapons and weapons-related technologies from Belarus during that 12-month period;

--the relationship between the Lukashenko regime and the Government of the Russian Federation; and the personal assets and wealth of Alexander Lukashenko and other senior leaders of the Government of Belarus. (Congressional Records, November 8)

MALADY FRONT ACTIVISTS STAND TRIAL IN MINSK

On November 2, the Moskovsky District Court of Minsk sentenced Pavel Severinets, chair of the Malady Front, unregistered youth wing of the BPF Adradzhenne,
to ten day imprisonment on charges of violating Art. 167, par. 1, of the Administrative Offenses Code (participation in mass actions violating public order). Due to Pavel's poor health, the judge allowed him to report to the detention center on November 16. The activist had just been released from jail after serving his ten days' imprisonment on charges of violating Art. 167, par. 1, of the Administrative Offenses Code for holding an unauthorized protest On October 2 outside the Minsk Automobile Factory. Oleg Lobaty, and Vladimir Pubinchik, both members of the Malady Front, were sentenced to three days in jail each on the same charges. Ales Nischik was fined 150 minimal wages (about $750).

On October 26, twenty five activists of the Malady Front, gathered near the detention center on Volodarsky Street in Minsk to hold an unauthorized action "Youth Against Fascism." Holding lighted candles, flowers, and pictures of Kiril Trusov, Vladimir Scherbatsevich, and Maria Bruskina, all members of the Minsk youth underground resistence organization who were executed by Nazi invaders on October 26, 1941, the activists planned to march toward the Minks Yeast Factory located on Kastrychnitskaya Street, where the patriots were shot. OMON, the Belarusian riot police, detained thirteen demonstrators. Eight of them (Pavel Severinets, Alexsey Shein, Alexsey Cherniyaev, Ales Panteleev, Maxim Vinyarsky, Ales Nischik, Oleg Lobaty, and Vladimir Pubinchik) spent about 60 hours in detention. The activists reported physical and verbal abuses by law-enforcers. On October 29, Judge Antanovich of the Moskovsky District Court of Minsk reprimanded Volynets and sentenced Cherniyaev and Panteleev to three day imprisonment on charges of violating Art. 167, par. 1, of the Administrative Offenses Code. (Malady Front press service, November 4)

SEVEN TRADE UNION ACTIVISTS DETAINED IN MINSK

On November 9, at approximately 10:30 a.m., the police dispersed an unauthorized meeting organized by the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions near Oktyabrskaya metro station in Minsk. Seven activists, including Victor Babayed, president of the Association of Independent Trade Unions, Makarchuk, and Fomin, were detained and taken to the nearest police station, where the police reports were filed. The trade unionists are to stand trail soon. The organizers petitioned the Minsk City Executive Committee with a request to permit the gathering, but the authorities failed to respond.
(Viasna Human Rights Center, November 9)

LUKASHENKO NOT INVITED TO CONFERENCE ON TERRORISM

On November 6, U.S. President Bush pressed the U.S. case for global action against terrorism during a satellite address to a conference on combating terrorism hosted by Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski and attended by 20 Central and East European leaders. "No nation can be neutral in this conflict, because no civilized nation can be secure in a world threatened by terror," said Bush in the address. Francis Taylor, the U.S. State Department's top counter- terrorism official, gave a short presentation, in which he warned of an increased risk of chemical, biological, nuclear and cyber-terrorism. He urged the region to tighten visa and document security, and crack down on illegal arms trading.

Alexander Lukashenko was not invited to take part in the gathering and sent to Warsaw Ural Latypov, his chief of staff, who wrote his Ph.D. thesis on international terrorism. Separately, media reports continue to link the Belarusian authorities with terrorists. On October 31, the DPA news agency quoted unidentified CIA sources alleging that Belarus is a key supplier of arms to Islamic extremists. The information was echoed by the Russian Internet publications http://www.gazeta.ru, http://www.utro.ru, and by the Belarusian service of RFE/RL, which said earlier this year that the Lukashenko government had signed contracts with Palestinian and Albanian Islamic extremists for the delivery of $500 million worth of weapons. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry dismissed the allegations as a "complete fiction." Moscow News wrote recently that Belarus had played a nasty trick on its neighbor Russia by buying the latest models of Russian weaponry on the cheap only to re-export them to Libya. And what was even more galling, these weapons subsequently fell into the hands of Chechen separatists.

According to an anonymous source, at the 56th session of the UN General Assembly Security Council members were shown a document which chronicled the deals transacted by the Lukashenko regime on the world arms market. Most of the deals were for arms deliveries to countries sponsoring the international terrorism. Mikhail Kasyanov, Russian Prime Minister, told Minsk in no uncertain terms it had better bring the movement of Russian weaponry on its territory under effective control.

Meanwhile, stories have been getting round that the "Iraqi cadets," who are now being trained at the Belarusian Military Academy, include Palestinians and citizens of some other Islamic countries.

On November 6, Lukashenko vehemently denied media speculations that Belarus continue to supply arms to Iraq and other rogue states in violation of UN sanctions. Speaking at a meeting in Grodno, the Belarusian leader insisted that the information about Belarus selling weaponry to the Middle East is "a blatant lie." "Not a single cartridge has been supplied to those countries," Lukashenko said, adding that the opposition media try to compromise his government with a made-up stories about in the eyes of the world community "at a time when the world is focused on the fight against terrorism." He admitted that the arms systems produced in Belarus are successfully exported, but only to those countries to which it is not forbidden by international organizations. Lukashenko promised his compatriots that in order to boost revenues to the state budget, he will restore Belarus's defense industry in the next 2-3 years. (Interfax/Moscow News/RFE/RL, November 7)

-INTERNATIONAL NEWS-

IMF DECLINES SUPPORT TO THE LUKASHENKO REGIME

The IMF has declined to grant Belarus financial aid and further cooperation with Minsk is under question, John Odling-Smee, Director of IMF's European II Department, who heads a delegation monitoring the implementation of agreements between Belarus and the fund, said on November 6. "We cannot make the decision to give Belarus financial assistance," he said, adding that the further cooperation between the fund and Belarus is not guaranteed, since "the government has so far failed to come up with an (economic) program that we could support." (Interfax, November 6)

EU COMPLETES PROJECT ABOUT NUCLEAR DISASTER CONSEQUENCES

On November 4, officials of the European Union's TACIS program said they have completed a TACIS project aimed at informing the public in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia about the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The project included a collection of scientific information about the catastrophe's aftermath that was then distributed with the inclusion of new statistics and recommendations on how to survive in affected areas. Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, when its reactor No. 4 exploded and caught fire, sending a radioactive cloud over vast areas in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. (Belapan, November 4)

-AT HOME IN BELARUS-

BELARUSIAN INMATES DIE FROM TUBERCULOSIS

On October 31, the Leninski District Court of Minsk finished the hearing of the case initiated by Natalya Kopacheva against the Belarusian Interior Ministry's Committee on Execution of Sentences. In February 2001, her only son Yury, 24, died from tuberculosis after being placed in the same cell with the convicts suffering from severe form of the disease. In 1997, Yury Kopachev was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment and on August 14, 1997, arrived to UZ-15/8 hard-labor colony to serve his term. On April 29,1999, during a routine examination, Kopachev was for the first time diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis and twice underwent treatment at the tuberculosis hospital of UZ-15/12. By July 28, 2000, when he was released from prison due to poor health, Yury was unable to walk.

Natalya Kopacheva, represented in court by Oleg Gulak, Leonid Markhotko, and Oleg Romanovich, lawyers of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, accused the authorities of failing to provide inmates with appropriate medical treatment and prison facilities where healthy prisoners would be held separately from those affected by AIDS and tuberculosis.

During the proceedings, which were closed to the public because the case was deemed classified, the court determined that frequency of tuberculosis in prison is 30 times higher than among the rest of the population (in 1999, among 4,5 thousands of prisoners there were 225 men suffering from active form of tuberculosis). (Viasna Human Rights Center, November 7)

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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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