INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 5, No. 14

April 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

-Two More Freedom March Activists Sentenced To Jail

-Belarusian Authorities Threaten To Expel OSCE Mission

-Prosecutor General Office Warns Independent Newspaper

-Another Newspaper Warned By Information Ministry

-Six Activists Arrested In Grodno For Demanding Press Freedom

-Writers' Committee Urges Dictator To Respect Freedom Of Press

-Russian TV Crew Detained In Belarusian Capital

-Prominent TV Producer To Stand Trial

-CPJ Calls For Inquiry In Journalist's Disappearance

-Authorities Open Criminal Case Against Human Rights Advocate

-Local Activist Detained For Distributing Opposition Stickers

-Belarusian Foreign Minister Visits Iran

-UN Official: Chernobyl Disaster Area Still Needs Aid

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS-

TWO MORE FREEDOM MARCH ACTIVISTS SENTENCED TO JAIL

Trials of activists arrested during the Freedom March continued March 29-April 2 The charges stemmed from unauthorized actions staged in March in many Belarusian cities to mark the 84th anniversary of the Belarusian National Republic. The Tsentralny District Court of Minsk sentenced Timofey Dranchuk to ten days' imprisonment under Art. 167, par. 2 ("participation in mass actions violating public order"). Dmitry Bondarenko, coordinator of Charter 97, and Levon Achepovsky were fined 20 minimal wages (about $120) and 150 minimal wages (about $900), respectively. Eduard Zaikovsky, Anna Sivchik, Vladislav Ignatovich, and Oksana Okhremchuk received warnings.

Judge Tatyana Pavluchik based her decision to punish Dranchuk and Bondarenko on police reports and the testimony of two OMON (riot) officers. She ignored the evidence (pictures, video tape made by NTV, the Russian private television network, testimony of witnesses) which proved that both men attended the Freedom March as reporters.

In total, Judges Natalya Voitsekhovich and Tatyana Pavluchik of the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk punished 33 activists. Four people were sentenced to jail, 16 were fined, and the rest received warnings. A number of Freedom March demonstrators reportedly lost their jobs as a result of their opposition activities.

The Leninsky District Court of Grodno issued warnings to Mikhail Patreba and Roman Romashka. Sergei Malchik, leader of the Grodno branch of the BPF Adradzhenne, was sentenced to ten days in jail. Protesting the court's decision, the activist went on hunger strike. According to Alexander Antonyuk, head of the Grodno branch of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, who was allowed to visit Malchik in jail, the activist drinks two liters of water daily with a lemon if his friends are lucky enough to get a personal permission from the chief of the Grodno Region Internal Affairs Directorate to send the fruit. He shares the cell with only one other detainee and even has the luxury to take a shower and smoke once a day in the morning.

Dmitry Dashkevich, a member of the Malady Front, and Victor Kaveshnikov, activist of the Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian Popular Front, both Freedom march protesters who served ten days in jail at the detention center of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of the Minsk City Executive Committee on Okrestina Street, told journalists April 3 about harsh jail conditions. "First there were seven people in a small cell, later three more were squeezed in," said Kaveshnikov in an interview to Belapan. "The cell became so crowded that we had to sit on our plank beds all day long." The activists said that they were locked in a "concrete box" and not allowed to go for a walk outside. Dashkevich and Kaveshnikov served their terms along with Pavel Severinets, leader of the Malady Front, and Vyacheslav Sivchik, deputy chair of the BPF Adradzhenne, who were sentenced for 15 days' imprisonment each. (Belapan/ Nasha Svaboda/ Viasna Human Rights Center/ RFE/RL, March 29- April 5)

BELARUSIAN AUTHORITIES THREATEN TO EXPEL OSCE MISSION

On March 28, Foreign Minister Mikhail Khvostov once again threatened to expel the OSCE AMG from Belarus unless it changes its mandate. In the latest spat between the Lukashenko government and the Europe's leading security and rights watchdog, Khvostov told journalists it would be easy for Belarus to throw out the OSCE. "If the group's mandate is not reviewed, we will raise the question of stopping the OSCE's activities. How? It's a simple process," the Lukashenko official said. "Belarus will never agree to the OSCE having a political presence. The task for such a group is to look at the situation and write reports to its managers," he said. "The group does not have a future with its current mandate and the Belarusian government is not going to support its presence in the country," Khvostov said.

The foreign minister accused the OSCE mission of being preoccupied with a political agenda and of not respecting the terms of its presence in Belarus. "The OSCE mission is not a political organization, its role is to monitor the situation in the country and submit reports," Khvostov said.

Before last year's presidential election, the authorities accused the OSCE of training spies. Last month, the Foreign Ministry denied entry visa to Ebergard Heyken, the OSCE AMG's new designated head, saying it had to re-evaluate the group's mandate. Heyken was due to replace Hans-George Wieck who left Belarus in December 2001. (Belapan, March 28)

PROSECUTOR GENERAL OFFICE WARNS INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER

Nasha Niva, an independent newspaper received a written warning signed by Mikhail Snegir, Deputy Prosecutor General of Belarus, for alleged violation of the Law on Press.

Nasha Niva allegedly violated the law by publishing in its January 4th issue an article titled "Where should be," which informed the reader about an upcoming religious service by the Saint Cross Autocephalous parish. Another article titled "The Christmas Greetings from Father Ivan Spasyuk," published in the newspaper's January 11's issue, mentioned the religious services performed by the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. The Prosecutor General Office insisted that both the Saint Cross Autocephalous parish and the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, are not registered with the Belarusian authorities, and therefore, the newspaper violated Art. 5 of the Press Law, which states that the mass media are not allowed to publish any information coming from unregistered public organizations.

The Prosecutor General Office also accused the newspaper of violating Art. 32 of the law, which provides for the Belarusian public's right to receive truthful information about the activities of public organizations through the media. The authorities claim Nasha Niva failed to mention that Father Ivan Spasyuk had been excommunicated from the priesthood by the decision of the Synod of the Belarusian Exarchate dated December 18, 2001.

On April 2, protesting against persecution of Nasha Niva, Archbishop Emigidiusz (Jerry Ryzy), informed the Belarusian authorities that the American World Patriarchates was registered with the U.S. government in August 1972, and that the Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox National Church was founded on September 11, 1995 by the American World Patriarchates Synod in Belarus. "By publishing information about any group's activities, a newspaper does not take any particular position in favor or against those facts stated in its articles. The mission of publishers is to bring the facts to the reader truthfully and honestly in the shortest time possible," wrote Archbishop Ryzy in a letter to the Prosecutor General. "It is absurd and impossible to persecute the reporters who publish the information about the church activities and events. No independent newspaper should ever be closed for that reason," he said. (Nasha Niva, April 2)

ANOTHER NEWSPAPER WARNED BY INFORMATION MINISTRY

The Information Ministry issued a warning to Narodnaya Volya, an independent newspaper, for "distribution of unfounded statements about the president." On March 20, ithen an article titled "The Big Laundry," the newspaper wrote that during his recent trip to Austria, Alexander Lukashenko laundered money from illegal arms smuggling and lucrative privatization deals that are handled by his administration. The Ministry accused the newspaper of violating Art 5 and Art. 32 of the Press Law because the article "defames the president and misleads the Belarusian citizens." Narodnaya Volya's staff is to appeal the warning in the Supreme Economic Court on the grounds that the article was not written by the newspaper's journalists but reprinted from the RFE/RL web site. (Belapan, April 2)

SIX ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN GRODNO FOR DEMANDING PRESS FREEDOM

On April 1, eight opposition activists held an unauthorized picket in front of the Grodno Regional Executive Committee in support of Mikalai Markevich, editor-in-chief of Pahonia, an independent newspaper, and Pavel Mazheika, 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 picketers held up posters saying, "Mazheika, Markevich…Who Is Next?" "Hands Off Pahonia!". After about twenty minutes, six protesters, including Dmitry Antonovich, Dmitry Dulko, Stas Pachobut, Pavel Mutny, Ales Denisov, and Ilya Pyachinin, were arrested by the police and taken to a police station. On April 2, all activists received warnings from the Leninsky District Court of Grodno. (Viasna Human Rights Center, April 2)

WRITERS' COMMITTEE URGES DICTATOR TO RESPECT FREEDOM OF PRESS

On April 2, Eugene Schoulgin, chair of the Writers in Prison Committee of the International PEN Group, a world association of writers, wrote an open letter to Alexander Lukashenko, urging the Belarusian leader to close the criminal investigation launched against Pahonia's journalists, who face imprisonment in a direct violation of their right to freedom of expression. Art. 367 of the Belarusian Penal Code (defamation of the President) is a "clear and direct abuse of the right to free expression, and is frequently used to gag criticism of Your Excellency," wrote Schoulgin in the letter.

"While not wishing to negate the need for some form of reparation to individuals whose reputations have been damaged by malicious or false reports, we would like to stress that criminal libel laws are widely acknowledged as bearing inappropriately heavy penalties," he wrote.

The Committee reminded the Belarusian leader that the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights considers the use of criminal libel laws against government critics as a means of silencing dissent. The Commission sees civil law proceedings as being more suitable for such cases. "In democratic societies, leaders do not resort to criminal courts to penalize their critics, recognizing that they have at their disposal full and special access to their national media to dispute those claims," wrote Schoulgin in the letter. (PEN, April 3)

RUSSIAN TV CREW DETAINED IN BELARUSIAN CAPITAL

On April 2, at approximately 12:00 p.m., a crew of NTV, the Russian private television network, was detained near the colony No. 15/1 on Kalvariyskaya Street in Minsk. According to Pavel Silin, director of NTV Minsk office, he, along with cameraman Konstantin Morozov, and assistant Dmitry Davidenko was conducting an interview with Galina Bandazevskaya, wife of Yuri Bandazhevsky, former rector of the Gomel State Medical Institute, when an official with the last name Los (first name not known), the deputy head of the colony, approached the group and ordered the cameramen to turn off the camera, on the pretext that no one is allowed to videotape the high-security facility without special permission. When the journalists responded that the cameraman was filming the opposite side of the street, Los took their identification papers and called the Frunzensky District Internal Affairs Directorate of Minsk for assistance. The journalists were taken into custody and released an hour later after giving a written explanation of what they were doing near the colony.

In June 2001, Yuri Bandazhevsky was sentenced to eight years in a hard-labor colony with confiscation of property under Art. 430, par. 2 of the Belarusian Penal Code on charges of taking bribes from college applicants. Bandazhevsky's attorneys, who believe that their client is innocent and that the trial was flawed with numerous procedural violations, petitioned the Belarusian Supreme Court with a request to review the sentence. The court turned down the petition, following Lukashenko's negative reaction.

Local observers say the case against Bandazhevsky and Vladimir Revkov, deputy rector of the same institute, is connected to their frequent public criticism of the Lukashenko government's policy regarding regions contaminated by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The European Union's leadership considers Prof. Bandazhevsky a prisoner of conscience.

Belapan reported on April 3 that the Office of the Prosecutor's General completed a criminal investigation into the case of Prof. Yury Yankelevich, former head of the department of neurology and neurosurgery of the Gomel State Medical Institute, and sent it to court. The investigation alleges that in July 1997 Yankelevich accepted bribes from the parents of perspective students and shared them with Bandazhevsky. Yankelevich was arrested in January 2002 and remains in custody. (Interfax, Nasha Svaboda, Belapan, April 2-3)

PROMINENT TV PRODUCER TO STAND TRIAL

Judge Zaitseva of the Pervomaisky District Court of Minsk will soon hear a criminal case filed against Ruslan Zgolich, a producer of the Belarusian State Television and Radio Company (BTR), who is charged with a large-scale theft for allegedly stealing seven out of eight tapes of his unfinished movie titled "Guests," which cost about $30,000. Zgolich was arrested on December 5, 2001, and severely beaten by police in Minsk suffering numerous bruises and a head injury. In January 2002, he was charged with a criminal offence which is punishable by up to 15 years in jail and forcefully taken in handcuffs to Navinki, the national hospital for mentally ill patients on the outskirts of Minsk.

Andrei Bitov, Andrei Voznesensky, Bella Akhmadulina, Fazil Iskanderov, Arkady Vaksberg, and other famous members of the Russian PEN Center called the authorities' decision to place the talented Belarusian filmmaker in a mental asylum "an attempt to take a revenge on him for his active civil position." "It reminds us of Soviet era practices, when free thinkers were treated with psychotropic drugs," they said in a statement.

Zgolich pleaded not guilty and said he is preparing to address the court with his vision of radical reforms needed to improve the quality of programs on the Belarusian Public Television, which is mainly used by Lukashenko and his entourage to brainwash their compatriots. (Svaboda, April 5)

CPJ CALLS FOR INQUIRY IN JOURNALIST'S DISAPPEARANCE

On March 28, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New Yorkbased, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to the defense of press freedom worldwide, called for an independent, international inquiry into the July 2000 disappearance of Belarusian cameraman Dmitry Zavadsky. Although two former members of the elite Almaz special forces unit were recently convicted of kidnapping Zavadsky, local observers view the convictions as scapegoating. The state prosecutors failed to investigate allegations that high-level government figures were involved in Zavadsky's disappearance. Zavadsky's body has not yet been found, and no serious effort has been made to determine his fate.

"This trial failed to examine credible allegations of a government role in Zavadsky's disappearance, or to clarify the journalist's fate following his abduction," said Ann Cooper, CPJ Executive director. "We believe that only an independent, international investigation can determine what happened to Zavadsky and who is responsible for his disappearance.

The human rights organization called on the Belarusian authorities, in cooperation with the Zavadsky family and their lawyers, to invite a panel of international and regional human rights experts to conduct an independent investigation of this case with full access to all relevant evidence. "The expert panel should be mandated to produce a report containing specific recommendations for future legal actions to be taken in connection with the Zavadsky case, in accordance with Belarusian and international law," Cooper said. For more information about press conditions in Belarus, please visit our Web site at www.cpj.org.

AUTHORITIES OPEN CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE

On March 27, an employee of the Partyzansky District Internal Affairs Directorate telephoned Vera Stremkovskaya, head of the Human Rights Center, to inform her that the Belarusian Military Prosecutor's Office petitioned the Partyzansky District Court of Minsk to open a criminal case against her. Stremkovskaya believes that the case was initiated by Mikhail Ardyako, Chairman of the Minsk City Court, and the Belarusian Military Prosecutor's Office, in retaliation for her decision to represent Yury Chetverikhin, whose wife was recently hit by a car driven by Ardyako's son. Ardyako also sent a letter to the Minsk Bar Association with the request to disbar the prominent Belarusian civil rights lawyer. (Viasna Human Rights Center, March 29)

LOCAL ACTIVIST DETAINED FOR DISTRIBUTING OPPOSITION STICKERS

On April 2, Ales Monich, an activist of Zubr, a nation-wide youth opposition movement, was detained by the police in his hometown Borisov, Minsk Region, while pasting stickers with the information about the forthcoming opposition action "It is Impossible To Live Like This!" The action will take take place on April 19 in many Belarusian cities. The activist was brought to a police station and charged with violation of Art. 143, par. 3, of the Belarusian Administrative Offences Code (littering). The boy was set free after his parents arrived to pick him up. (Viasna Human Rights Center, April 3)

- INTERNATIONAL NEWS-

FROM LUKASHENKO TO KHATAMI WITH LOVE

On March 31- April 1, Mikhail Khvostov, Belarussian Foreign Minister, visited Iran at the invitation of Mohammad Khatami, Iranian President. Khvostov delivered to Khatami a personal message from Alexander Lukashenko. The message stressed the importance of advancing the top-level dialogue between the two countries and invited Khatami to visit Belarus. (Interfax, April 1)

UN OFFICIAL: CHERNOBYL DISASTER AREA STILL NEEDS AID

On April 4, Kenzo Oshima, U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs,
visited two villages in Belarus that were affected by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. His mission was to promote a new policy that focuses on economic development, rather than emergency aid to Chernobyl victims. Before his visit, Oshima urged the international community not to abandon the affected region, even though the power plant no longer poses a major radiation threat. He supports a U.N. proposal calling for a new, 10-year aid program that shifts the focus of Chernobyl assistance from humanitarian and technical measures to sustainable socio-economic development for the effected region's residents and for more than 200,000 people who took part in cleanup efforts. (Interfax/ Reuters, April 1-4)

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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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