INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 5, No. 11
March 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

-Two Members Of Ignatovich Gang Sentenced to Life
-U.S.: Civil Society In Belarus Under Attack
-Brest NGO Liquidated
-Freedom Of Expression Price Tag: 100 Minimal Wages
-Independent Journalists To Stand Trial
-Kurapaty Defender Receives Heavy Fine
-New Law To Fight Terrorism Restricts Civil Liberties
-KGB: Belarus Is Reliable Partner In Arms Trade
-State Newspaper Attacks Protestant Groups

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS-

TWO MEMBERS OF IGNATOVICH GANG SENTENCED TO LIFE

On March 14, Valery Ignatovich and Maxim Malik, both former officers of the Almaz Special-Assignment Police Force, were convicted by the Minsk Regional Court of kidnapping journalist Dmitry Zavadsky, murdering a businessman from Borisov and committing of several armed assaults and robbery. Both received life sentence. Aleksei Guz, former student of the Police Academy, and Sergei Savushkin, a former convict, were not found guilty of abducting Zavadsky, and were handed terms of 25 and 12 years, respectively, for the murder, armed assaults, and robbery. The four were initially charged with a total of seven murders, two abductions, and five armed assaults. The panel of judges found Ignatovich, Malik and Guz guilty of killing a businessman in Borisov in 1999. The prosecution said they tortured the victim in the presence of his wife and children, then killed the man and took his money and gold jewelry.

The prosecution insisted that Ignatovich and Malik also killed Zavadsky, who worked as an ORT cameraman in Belarus, in revenge for the journalist's alleged hint in an interview with Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta (BDG) that some Almaz officers, who had been hired by Russia to fight against Chechen rebels, had also collaborated with the Chechen separatists as instructors. In the interview with BDG, Zavadsky had not mentioned any names.

During the trial, Ignatovich, seen as the leader of the group of four defendants, was adamant that he was not involved in the disappearance and the murders. "I am guilty of nothing. We did not kill anyone," he declared in the court. "All this is a farce, we are not guilty." Malik concurred. Ignatovich was on hunger strike and listened to the court verdict while lying on a bench. The parents of Malik and Ignatovich said their sons would appeal their sentences.

Dmitry Zavadsky is feared dead, though his body has never been found, and the trial shed no light on what happened to him after the abduction. Sergei Tsurko, a lawyer for Zavadsky's wife, Svetlana, said that the trial was a sham, scape-goating Ignatovich and Malik for a series of state-sponsored murders of political opponents. "We are going to contest the conviction as we think that the evidence was obtained in violation of the penal code procedure," Tsurko told AFP. "Dmitry's fate is not clear and we are not certain that those who have been condemned are really those who abducted him," he added.

Anatoly Lebedko, leader of the opposition United Civic Party, also cast doubt on the fairness of the proceedings. He believes that the regime pinned the crimes on Ignatovich and his group in order to completely silence speculation about the government's complicity in the disappearances of opposition leaders and the journalist in 1999-2000. "Since the beginning of this trial, there has been a feeling that the authorities were trying to find people on whom they could nail Zavadsky's disappearance," Lebedko said.

Both international and domestic observers have argued that, although the four accused men may have been involved in the murder of Dmitry Zavadsky, Lukashenko's immediate circle of appointees had organized this and other murders of prominent opposition figures. High-level state involvement has been also alleged in disappearances of Yury Zakharenko, the former Minister of Internal Affairs, founder of an independent officers' organization critical of the Lukashenko government, who disappeared on May 7, 1999, Viktor Gonchar, a 13th Supreme Soviet deputy chair and a high profile opposition politician, and his associate Anatoly Krasovsky, a businessman. Investigations into these disappearances have been cloaked in controversy, eliciting domestic and international criticism relating to a perceived lack of transparency, impartiality and good-faith effort to make progress on the investigation.

Pavel Sheremet, a colleague of Zavadsky at ORT, commented that the trial did not "mark the end of the investigation." "It is true that [the sentenced] officers are murderers but their involvement in Zavadsky's disappearance has not been 100 percent proven, Sheremet said. "Lukashenko's entourage has also been involved in the disappearance of Zavadsky and others," he reiterated. Recounting his conversation with Oleg Bozhelko, former Prosecutor General, Sheremet said that Zavadsky was tortured and then killed. "They tortured him, broke his backbone, and eventually killed him to hide all evidence of the crime," Sheremet said. "They wanted to find out how much he knew about the Belarusian authorities' secret operations in the Caucasus and Chechnya," he added. Sheremet also expressed concern that the four convicted men may become victims of an "unfortunate accident" while in serving their terms in a hard labor colony which will eradicate any evidence linking the Lukashenko administration to the crimes.

In contravention of various international human rights standards, the trial was held behind closed doors. The authorities offered no credible reason why the trial should not be open to public scrutiny and repeated requests for access to the proceedings from domestic human rights organizations were rejected.

The state prosecutors requested the death penalty for all four members of the Ignatovich group, while the defense maintained their guilt had not been proved and cited numerous procedural violations during the investigation. On March 9, Walter Schwimmer, Council of Europe Secretary General, issued a statement saying that the death penalty is contrary to all acceptable standards of human rights and urged the prosecutors to refrain from it once and for all. The Secretary General stressed that Belarus would never be considered for the Council of Europe membership as long as it has capital punishment. Amnesty International and other human rights groups called for non-application of the death penalty, due to their general campaign against the use of capital punishment and also fear that evidence of the real culprits in Zavadsky's death might be buried. (Belapan/ Nasha Svaboda/ AFP, March 9- 14)

U.S.: CIVIL SOCIETY IN BELARUS UNDER ATTACK

On March 7, in a statement delivered to the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, Stephan M. Minikes, the U.S. ambassador to the OSCE, said that the civil society in Belarus is under attack again. "A pluralistic civil society unfettered by harassment and intimidation is central to the development of democratic institutions. Protection of civil society is enshrined in OSCE commitments. Yet, once again, we find civil society in Belarus under attack," said Minikes in the statement.

As evidence for this assertion, he described to the Permanent Council a recent incident in which ten political and non-governmental leaders were detained and searched by Belarusian border guards as they were driving to a conference in Lithuania organized by the Institute of International Relations and Political Sciences of Vilnius University with the title "Prospects of Cooperation with Belarus" (See Belarus Update Vol. 5, No. 10). "This conference represented an effort of governments, including a number around this table here, as well as non-governmental institutions, to gather all sides of Belarusian society together for a constructive exchange with the international community of interested observers," he said.

Amb. Minikes said the conference was to provide the kind of dialogue "critical to resolving the obstacles that impede democratization in Belarus" but that instead of embracing this opportunity the Belarusian authorities seized the occasion to continuing persecuting civil society. "However, instead of embracing this opportunity, once again the Belarusian authorities seized the occasion to harass and intimidate, both physically and emotionally, prominent members of Belarusian civil society," said Minikes. "This action is emblematic of the kind of attacks civil society, the independent media, and the labor movement have come under in the aftermath of September's presidential election," he continued.

The Ambassador called upon the Belarus authorities to meet the commitments they have made in OSCE documents and its Memorandum of Understanding with the OSCE to support the development of civil society. He also called on the Lukashenko regime to work with the AMG and a new Head of Mission to prevent this kind of incident in
the future." The full text of the statement can be found at: http://usinfo.state.gov

BREST NGO LIQUIDATED

The Brest Regional Court sustained the petition of the Department of Justice of the Brest Regional Executive Committee to shut down Vezha [Tower], a Brest-based information center, on the grounds that the organization received two warnings within one year under the associations law. On September 13, 2001, Vezha was warned for "engaging in activities that are not listed in the organization's by-laws" for conducting in August-September, 2001, an opinion poll ahead of the presidential elections and allowing Dzedzich, an unregistered citizen's initiative group, to act on behalf of Vezha. On October 5, 2001, the organization was warned for the second time. This time for the "use of an unregistered name and address." The Brest Regional Executive Committee disliked Vezha's use of the word "Berasteisky" in its letterhead, which is the Belarusian language equivalent of the Russian adjective "Brestsky," and the translation of the name of the street "Savetskih pamezhnikau" (the Soviet Frontier Guards Street) instead of the Russified Belarusian "Savetskih pahranichnikau." The human rights defenders believe that this is in gross violation of the commitments undertaken by Belarus to uphold international standards for freedom of speech and assembly. (Charter 97, February 22)

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION PRICE TAG: 100 MINIMAL WAGES

On March 14, the Shklov District Court, Mogilev Region, fined Mikhail Kiselev, Denis Senokosov, and Dmitry Shalashkov, all activists in Zubr (Bison), a youth protest movement, 100 minimal wages (about $600) each for allegedly "publicly insulting the president" under Art 368, par. 1, of the Belarusian Penal Code. Alexander Pavlovich and Maksim Potupchik will have to pay 20 minimal wages (about $120) in fines each. On August 14, the activists performed street theater, wearing mustaches and suit jackets, satirizing Lukashenko. They urged the workers to vote for the incumbent president in exchange for promise to increase average monthly salary to $100. (Charter 97, March 14)

INDEPENDENT JOURNALISTS TO STAND TRIAL

On March 13, Vladimir Anisko, Deputy Prosecutor of the Grodno Region, filed a slander suit against Mikalai Markevich, editor-in-chief of Pahonia, an independent newspaper, and Pavel Mazeika, a journalist at Pahonia, who on February 13-14, 2002, were indicted by the Grodno Regional Prosecutor's Office for alleged defaming of the Belarusian President under Art. 367, part 2 of the Belarusian Penal Code. The investigation ignored the results of three expert affidavits that concluded that Pahonia's journalists can not be accused of defaming Lukashenko. If found guilty, the journalists face up to five years in prison. On March 14, the Advisory Council of the Opposition Political Parties urged the authorities to stop criminal persecution of journalists working for independent newspapers. (Viasna Human Rights Center/ Belapan, March 13)

KURAPATY DEFENDER RECEIVES HEAVY FINE

Vladimir Plotnikov, a member of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, was charged with violation of Art. 166 (disobedience to the police) and Art. 167, par. 1 (participation in mass actions violating public order) and fined 150 minimal wages (about $900) for taking part in a November 9 protest against expanding Minsk Beltway over the mass grave of Stalin's victims in the forested area on the outskirts of Minsk known as Kurapaty. (Charter 97, March 14)

NEW LAW TO FIGHT TERRORISM RESTRICTS CIVIL LIBERTIES

In late February, the Belarusian parliament adopted the Law "On the Fight Against Terrorism." The Law contains a number of provisions that constitute an unjustifiable restriction on the right to freedom of expression. Art. 13 of the Law grants the state authorities the power "to use for official purposes means of communication belonging to citizens, state agencies and organizations regardless of their form of ownership." The final paragraph of Art. 13 states: "The head of the operational headquarters [head of the counter-terrorism operation] shall regulate the activities of media representatives in the area of conduct of the counter-terrorism operation."

Art. 15 of the Law seriously restricts legitimate and crucial public debate on matters of great public interest including, for example, discussion of the motives behind a terrorist attack. It is also open to abuse on political grounds, potentially being used by the authorities to silence political opponents.

In an open letter to Alexander Lukashenko, Andrew Puddephatt, Executive Director of Article 19, an international freedom of expression watchdog, wrote that the provisions of Art. 13 confer an open-ended power on the state authorities to assume control over the media. "These powers are unnecessary and are not found in the laws of other states," Puddephatt wrote. "Similarly, there is no need to regulate the activities of media representatives, over and above general controls on the movement of people for their protection or to prevent interference with the operation," he said in the letter.

Puddephatt believes that the powers granted to authorities under these provisions are extremely broad and hence potentially subject to abuse. The broad nature of these powers is exacerbated by the loose definition in Art. 3 of "terrorist activity," which would include political demonstrations where some acts of violence occur, he said. The powers conferred under Art. 13 therefore constitute a serious restriction on the right to freedom of expression which cannot be justified, even in the context of counter-terrorism operations. The Article 19 urged the Belarusian leader to respect the international guarantee of freedom of expression, in particular by taking the necessary steps to amend the Law. (Nasha Svaboda, Belapan, Article 19, February 22- March 15)

- AT HOME IN BELARUS-

KGB: BELARUS IS RELIABLE PARTNER IN ARMS TRADE

On March 13, Stepan Sukharenko, first deputy head of the KGB, said that the accusations of violations of international regulations of arms trade against Belarus were a "well-planned campaign aimed at breaking the Belarusian leadership's will to pursue independent foreign and domestic policies." "There was a purely pragmatic purpose behind this information attack: to discredit Belarus as a reliable partner in the arms trade."

Sukharenko told reporters that the Belarusian authorities have even stopped supplies of some goods which can be used for civil as well as military purposes," He did not comment on which countries were banned from receiving the goods, but said the country sold the majority of its arms to Sudan, Algeria and Angola on condition they did not re-export them. According to Sukharenko, after the KGB had received evidence that Belarusian trucks sold to Pakistan were re-equipped for military use, the country had stopped such sales. The KGB also plan to launch an Internet Web site to make arms sales more transparent, he said.

On March 14, Mikhail Khvostov, Belarusian Foreign Minister, reiterated that the Belarusian leadership is not involved in illegal arms smuggling. "Belarus is not involved in the illegal arms trade," Khvostov said during his visit to the Ukraine. "We do not provide specialists to armed groups or to countries that pose a problem," he told Ukraine's Inter TV channel.

Steven Pifer, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, who visited Belarus in February, said the United States obtained evidence of arms smuggling and that Belarus had trained Iraqi military personnel. Belarus has denied the charge. The country does not produce its own arms but it manufactures weapons guidance systems and related optical products. The country has also inherited weapons from the former Soviet Union.

Meanwhile, the forth session of the joint Belarusian-Iraqi commission on trade and economic cooperation was held in Minsk on March 14-19. The Lukashenko government agreed to help Iraq to build a plant to assemble Belarusian trucks and to manufacture tires, electrodes and diesel engines. (Belapan/ Interfax, March 13-15)

- RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN BELARUS-

STATE NEWSPAPER ATTACKS PROTESTANT GROUPS

State-owned mass media continue its attacks on minority faiths. On March 7, Sovetskaya Belorussiya, a state-owned and published newspaper, carried an article titled "The Charisma Trap." Its author, Tatyana Shchedrenok, stated that Protestant groups present a threat to the country, its psychological health, and needed to be banned from the country. She called the followers of the evangelical religions the children of neo-cult trends, the members of the destructive sects and agents of the West, who have nothing in common with either Christianity or Protestantism.

Alexander Velichko, spokesman for the Belarusian Union of Evangelical Christians, called the article mendacious and aimed at manipulating public opinion ahead of the forthcoming debate about amendments to the country's law on religion which are to be held in the House of Representative, lower chamber of the Belarusian National Assembly.

The League notes that Protestant faiths, although historically small in comparison with Orthodoxy, have been active in the country for hundreds of years. During the Soviet period, a number of Protestant faiths were placed forcibly under the administrative umbrella of a joint Pentecostal-Baptist organization. The two largest Protestant groups are registered under separate Pentecostal and Baptist unions. A significant number of Protestant churches, including charismatic and Pentecostal groups are refused registration because they do not have a legal address; however, they are refused property that could qualify as a legal address because they are not registered. The Full Gospel Pentecostal churches regularly are refused registration in this way. According to independent estimates, as many as 70 percent of Protestant churches have been denied registration, have lost their registration in a recent government-imposed re-registration exercise, or have not attempted to register.

Art. 272 of the Belarusian Civil Code states that property may only be used for religious services once it has been converted from residential use; however, the authorities decline to issue permits for such conversions to unregistered religions. Religious groups that cannot register often are forced to meet illegally or in the homes of individual members. Several charismatic and Pentecostal churches have been evicted from property they were renting because they were not registered as religious organizations. (Belapan, March 12)

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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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