INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE
Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 5, No. 19
May 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

-UN HR Commissioner Concerned About Situation In Belarus
-U.S. Helsinki Commission Holds Hearing On Terrorism
-As Long As There Are Journalists, There Will Be Prison Cells
-Belarus Among World's Worst Places To Be A Journalist
-Third Anniversary Of Disappearance Of Yuri Zakharenko
-Belarus Suffers Economic Stagnation Under Lukashenko
-Belarus To Hold Military Maneuvers In June
-Three Adventist Churches Destroyed In Arson Attacks

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS-

UN HR COMMISSIONER CONCERNED ABOUT SITUATION IN BELARUS

The human rights situation in Belarus is poor and getting worse, UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson warned on May 3. "I am very concerned about the human rights situation in Belarus," Robinson told journalists at a meeting of the Council of Europe held in Vilnius, Lithuania. "We worry about the isolation and the fact that Belarus is not making progress, if anything the situation is worsening," she said. Robinson added that she had discussed Belarus with various officials at the Vilnius talks, including Algirdas Brazauskas, Lithuanian Prime Minister, who urged her to consider involving the country's neighbors in any attempt to renew dialog.

The Lukashenko regime was vigorously defended by Yevgeny Gusarov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister and the Russian envoy at the meeting, who urged that the country be allowed into the Council of Europe. "I think such a democratic state in Europe as Belarus must be allowed into the Council of Europe," he said, deploring its "artificial isolation" from many European institutions.

Walter Schwimmer, Council of Europe Secretary General, replied that it was the Belarusian authorities who have isolated their country from the world. "In my view the isolation of Belarus has not been imposed by the international community, but chosen by the authorities of Belarus themselves," he told journalists. Schwimmer added that Belarus would be welcome in the Council of Europe if it undertook a series of reforms to guarantee human and political rights. (COE, May 3)

HELSINKI COMMISSION HOLDS HEARING ON TERRORISM

On May 8, the U.S. Congressional Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) held hearing "International Cooperation in the War on Terrorism" to examine the OSCE's efforts to coordinate counter-terrorism activities.

Rep. Christopher H. Smith ( R-NJ), Co-Chairman of the Commission, who was chairing the hearing, referred to a Wall Street Journal Europe article on April 26 titled "Selling Guns To Terrorists From The Heart of Europe" written by Mark Lenzi, a Fulbright scholar based in Lithuania, about how Belarus, over the past year, has quietly become the leading supplier of lethal military equipment to the Islamic radical world. [The article can be found at: http://online.wsj.com/]. Senator Smith asked Antonio Martins da Cruz, Portuguese Foreign Minister and chairman-in-office of the OSCE, who attended the hearing as a witness, whether OSCE countries are going to force Belarus to cease its support for rogue states and terrorist regimes. Antonio Martins da Cruz responded that all OSCE countries are expected to respect the agreements in the OSCE framework and that the problem of Belarus's non-compliance with the Istanbul agreement will be discussed at the forthcoming June 12th meeting.

Commenting on the Belarusian government's refusal to accredit a designated new head of the OSCE mission in Minsk and to renew the visa of the interim chief, the Portuguese Foreign Minister said the following:

"In Belarus, we are currently facing the issue of the appointment of the Head of the Advisory and Monitoring Group (Amb. Eberhard Heyken). The Chairmanship has, since the beginning of its tenure endeavored all efforts to pursue a fruitful dialogue with the Belarusian Government and, to this effect, contacts have been maintained at various levels. We regret that such a co-operative spirit has not been reciprocated and that extreme positions have been preferred so far." Unofficial transcript of the hearing is available at: www.csce.gov (CSCE, May 8)

AS LONG AS THERE ARE JOURNALISTS, THERE WILL BE PRISON CELLS

On May 7, Mikalai Markevich, editor of Pahonia, an independent newspaper, who faces criminal charges for allegedly "defaming the president," applied to the Grodno City Executive Committee for permission to publish a new newspaper named Golas (Voice). Under the Press Law, prior to having a new newspaper registered with the Information Ministry, the publisher is required to obtain approval from the local authorities. After Pahonia's closure in November 2001, Markevich's requests for permission to publish a new periodical were denied twice.

A number of international human rights organizations urged the Belarusian authorities to take immediate steps to put an end to the harassment and intimidation of Pahonia's journalists Mikalai Markevich and Pavel Mazheika. The human rights advocates believe that it is wholly unacceptable to prosecute the two journalists solely for giving voice to widely held concerns and fears relating to the fate of the country's missing opposition leaders. The authorities should also take immediate action to ensure that they fulfil their obligations under various international human rights treaties, particularly those relating to the rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. Amnesty International announced that it will consider anyone imprisoned solely for exercising those rights as prisoners of conscience and will call for their immediate and unconditional release. The organization prepared a report on the ongoing trial of the Pahonia journalists, which can be found at: http://www.spring96.org/English/index.html (Vyasna, May 7)

BELARUS AMONG WORLD'S WORST PLACES TO BE A JOURNALIST

The Committee to Protect Journalists placed Belarus together with the West Bank, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Burma, Zimbabwe, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, and Cuba on the list of worst places to be a journalist. "In these countries press freedom is constantly under attack, journalists endure violent assaults, crackdowns by authoritarian regimes, danger from military operations, and harsh financial reprisals designed to bankrupt independent voices," said Ann Cooper, CPJ executive director. "Incredibly, in many of these places, journalists still manage to report the news - even under extremely difficult circumstances and at great personal risk," Cooper added.

Following are excerpts regarding Belarus from the CPJ's report released on May 3, World Press Freedom Day:

"A dogged group of journalists is doing its best to cover local news despite the efforts of President Alexander Lukashenko, who clings to power via Soviet-style repression. In the months prior to Lukashenko's controversial September re-election, tax officials seized equipment from media organizations, froze their bank accounts, and installed a senior government official as head of the publishing house that prints most independent newspapers in the capital, Minsk."

"Meanwhile, authorities made little progress investigating the disappearance of Dmitry Zavadsky, a television cameraman who vanished on July 7, 2000. Although two former members of the Belarusian special forces were recently convicted of kidnapping Zavadsky, his body has not been found and prosecutors have not pursued credible leads implicating senior government officials in the disappearance." The full text of the report is located at: http://www.cpj.org (CPJ, May 3)

THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF DISAPPEARANCE OF YURI ZAKHARENKO

May 7 marked the Third anniversary of the disappearance of Gen. Yuri Zakharenko, former Minister of Internal Affairs of Belarus. About 70 opposition activists, including Mikhail Chigir, former Prime Minister; Ludmila Gryaznova, a deputy of the 13th Supreme Soviet; Valery Schukin, a correspondent for Narodnaya Volya and deputy of the 13th Supreme Soviet; Alexander Dobrovolsky, deputy chair of the United Civic Party; Oleg Volchek, head of the Public Legal Aid Association; Yury Khadyka, deputy chair of the BPF Adradzhenne, held an unauthorized action "Chain of People Who Care" on Oktyabrskaya Square in Minsk to demand an impartial investigation into disappearance of prominent opposition activists and journalist Dmitry Zavadsky.

Mikhail Chigir held a photo of his son Alexander, who on March 6, 2002, was sentenced to seven years in a hard labor colony with confiscation of property under Art. 205, par. 4, of the Belarusian Penal Code (larceny committed by a group). His defense lawyers denounced charges as a fabrication based on testimonies of Alexander's alleged accomplices, which they gave as a result of torture and threats and later retracted. "General Zakharenko and my son are both victims of the regime. And the regime will have to answer for that," said Mikhail Chigir in an interview to Belapan. The police videotaped the action. Similar actions took place in Vilnius, Gomel, Vitebsk, Brest, Baranovichi, Pinsk, and Pruzhany. Anatoly Poplavny, activist of the Gomel branch of the Viasna Human Rights Center, was arrested by the police ant taken into custody for distributing a human rights bulletin titled "Pravo Na Svabody" [The Right To Be Free].

Witnesses who were discovered by an independent public commission have testified that on May 7, 1999, Gen. Zakharenko was forcibly detained at a location near his home, pushed into a car by several unidentified men and taken away. No trace of him has been found since then. His disappearance is believed to be associated with his criticism of Alexander Lukashenko and his efforts to start an independent Union of Officers, for which he was dismissed from the Ministry. His disappearance --like others in Belarus -- is a stark indication of the wholesale breakdown of the rule of law in Belarus.

Rather than investigate, the regime has targeted the missing general for personal attack, accusing him of fleeing the country or going into hiding to embarrass Lukashenko. Gen. Zakharenko's family was forced to seek asylum in Germany to escape mounting harassment by the authorities.

Once again, the International League for Human Rights condemns the failure of the government of Belarus to mount a serious, thorough and accountable investigation into the disappearance of Zakharenko, as well as the other prominent individuals associated with the opposition (Victor Gonchar, Anatoly Krasovsky, and Dmitry Zavadsky).

On May 17, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly will discuss the situation in Belarus, in which the relatives of missing persons will take part. (ILHR, May 7)

-AT HOME IN BELARUS-

BELARUS SUFFERS ECONOMIC STAGNATION UNDER LUKASHENKO

Lukashenko's attachment to Soviet-style economic practices is driving Belarus into an economic morass, local experts have warned. "The strategy of 'market socialism,' which Lukashenko has been enforcing seven years in a row already, is falling apart -- the economy is in stagnation, the people remain poor, even though he promised to double and triple salaries half a year ago," independent economist Yaroslav Romanchuk wrote.

By March this year, 1,098 Belarusian enterprises -- nearly half of all companies functioning in the ex-Soviet republic -- were unprofitable, according to the ministry of statistics. "The main problem is that the economy is still managed by a command-administrative approach inherited from the Soviet Union times, the productivity remains low due to the use of obsolete technology, and industrial giants are kept on simply to avoid open mass unemployment," expert Mikhail Zalesky said. "There is no small business in the country, and there will be no one to employ people laid off from the state-controlled enterprises," he added.

The World Bank reported in January that 10 years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Belarus's economy, was "one of the least reformed" among the 15 ex-Soviet republics. It grew by 4.1 percent in 2001, with industrial output up 5.4 percent primarily thanks to the investments pumped into inefficient sectors under the Socialist-style command economy, the World Bank said. Overall investment fell by six percent during 2001, even according to official statistics.

Alarmed by the gloomy data, Lukashenko unleashed a sharp attack on his government last month, slamming the policies of Prime Minister Gennady Novitsky and sacking the heads of four public enterprises as well as Health Minister Vladislav Ostapenko. "Lukashenko feels that he cannot cope with the economy, that he needs to change something. But he won't change anything," Stanislav Bogdankevich, former head of the National Bank, scoffed. "Belarus will continue its inefficient course and draw nearer and nearer to countries like North Korea and Cuba," Bogdankevich added. (AFP, May 8)

BELARUS TO HOLD MILITARY MANEUVERS IN JUNE

Belarus is to hold military maneuvers next month involving over 8,000 men from the regular armed forces, the interior and emergency ministries and the border guards corps, Pyotr Tikhonovsky, deputy chief of staff of the Belarusian Defense Ministry, announced on May 8. The exercises, code-named "Berezina-2002," will start June 2 in the north-west of the country and will aim at "improving coordination between the various participating corps." According to Tikhonovsky, Minsk had been particularly alarmed at the fact that neighboring Poland, Latvia and Lithuania are upgrading their armed forces in the hope of joining the NATO military alliance. Now, Belarus is actively revamping its army, a massive overhaul is due to be completed by 2005. (Belapan, May 9)

- RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN BELARUS-

THREE ADVENTIST CHURCHES DESTROYED IN ARSON ATTACKS

The Keston News service reported the results of its investigation concerning three Adventist churches destroyed in arson attacks in recent years. So far, the authorities failed to find and prosecute any suspects.

The Adventist church in Tolochin, a town north east of Minsk, was destroyed by fire on April 21, 2001. The local fire chief and police officers said they had no doubt the fire had been set by arsonists. The Tolochin church, originally built as a private house, had been purchased and remodeled by the 30-strong congregation several years earlier. Members landscaped the area around the building and erected a small sign with the name of the church. In early 2001, Alexander Shnerkevich, Tolochin's deputy mayor, told Pastor Andrei Volokhov to remove the sign, but because the Adventists believed it violated no city codes, members decided to leave it. According to several witnesses, Shnerkevich warned them that buildings such as theirs had been known to burn down.

Moisei Ostrovsky, Belarus's Adventist leader, told Keston on May 7 from Minsk that in the case of an attack on the church in Tolochin, the Adventists strongly suspect the involvement of the local authorities, which is vigorously denied by Mikhail Zavadsky, Tolochin deputy mayor. Interviewed by Keston, Zavadsky explained that a suspect has been arrested and is currently in custody awaiting the end of preliminary investigation. Zavadsky, who took over from Shnerkevich as deputy mayor, admitted to Keston on 8 May from Tolochin that Shnerkevich had warned the Adventists of the possibility of a fire but claimed this had been designed to help them prevent such an occurrence. "He didn't want a fire to happen," Zavadsky insisted. He said the warning had been issued because the building had not been registered as a place of worship. "There were no threats. Shnerkevich just pointed out the law that the building was registered only as a private house, so couldn't be used as a church." He described it as a "coincidence" that only a few months after the warning a fire had indeed taken place.

Zavadsky was unable to say what had caused the fire, but resolutely rejected Adventists' suspicions that the authorities had been involved. "I can tell you officially that the authorities had nothing to do with the fire. We are as troubled by the incident as were the Adventists." He commented that although no one lived in the building, an upstairs light was often left on and an electrical fault may have caused the fire. He then added that police had arrested a man in February for a series of alleged thefts and that the man had admitted to breaking into the church and starting the fire.

The two earlier arson attacks also remain unexplained to this day, Ostrovsky told Keston. In summer 2000, an Adventist church in Polotsk, Vitebsk Region, was damaged by a fire started with flammable liquids. Local authorities insist that the fire was set by Jehovah's Witnesses, allegations vehemently rejected by the Adventists. "It is not true the Jehovah's Witnesses were responsible," Ostrovsky told Keston, "we believe it was the work of Orthodox extremists, although nobody has ever been found." He said some of Orthodox Christians frequently visited the church and complained that the Adventists were a "sect" who should not be allowed in their "Orthodox town." Adventists rebuilt the Polotsk church, but three months later it was again destroyed by fire. Officials cited lightning as the cause.

The Polotsk church has since been rebuilt again, but Ostrovsky complains that the authorities do nothing to protect it from vandalism. "Earlier this year the watchman called the police after detaining an intruder in the middle of the night," Ostrovsky reported. "However, the police just let him go in the morning, apparently believing his preposterous story that he 'just wanted to talk to the pastor.'"

In autumn 2000, the Adventist church in the town of Bykhov, Mogilev Region, was burned to the ground. The city administration announced that homeless people had started the blaze. "No one has been found here either and the police are not looking for anyone," Ostrovsky complained. The Bykhov church is still meeting in private homes, but plans to try to buy a place for services.

Synagogues have also been regularly attacked and vandalized in Belarus. In the most recent incidents in late April, anti-Semitic graffiti was daubed on the walls of the synagogue in the southern town of Pinsk, as well as on the office of the future Jewish school. (Keston, May 11)

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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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