INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

BELARUS UPDATE

Edited by Victor Cole

Vol. 5, No. 29

July 2002

IN THIS ISSUE:

- Bush Says Belarusians Still Denied Basic Civil Rights

- Lukashenko Threatens Press With New Crackdown

- Supreme Court Upholds Ruling Over Journalist's Abduction

- Parliamentary Committee Reviews Cases Of Two Belarusian Deputies

- Belarusian Social Democrats Unite

- Police Halt Hindu Procession; Detain Believers

- Lukashenko Declares Mass Amnesty To Cut Budget Expenses

- Iraqi Ambassador Denies Military Cooperation With Belarus

- Regime Seeks "Pragmatic Cooperation" With NATO

--HUMAN RIGHTS AND OPPOSITION NEWS-

BUSH SAYS BELARUSIANS STILL DENIED BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS

President George W. Bush has designated July 21-27 as this year's Captive Nations Week, a tradition that began during the Cold War that is still important today, he said. "In too many corners of the earth, freedom and independence are the victims of dictators driven by hatred, fear, designs of ethnic superiority, religious intolerance, and xenophobia," the U.S. President said in his proclamation. Some governments, Bush said, "such as those in North Korea, Iraq, and Iran starve their people, take away their voices, traffic in terror, and threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction. In many other places, from Burma to Belarus, Cuba and Zimbabwe, people are denied the most basic rights to speak in freedom, and their daily lives are haunted by the fear of the secret police." (USIA, July 18)

LUKASHENKO THREATENS PRESS WITH NEW CRACKDOWN

At a July 18 meeting with Viktor Sheiman, the Belarusian Prosecutor General, and Anatoly Tozik, chair of the State Control Committee, Alexander Lukashenko expressed concern that incidents where "high ranking officials are discredited by non-state media have become more frequent." He added, "This slandering campaign is orchestrated by the so-called opposition and is aimed at tarnishing the reputation of the governmental officials ahead of the local and parliamentary elections." Lukashenko urged law-enforcement agencies to "bring to justice" those journalists "who destabilize the situation in the country and violate the existing law." (Belapan, July 19)

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS RULING OVER JOURNALIST'S ABDUCTION

On July 16, the Belarusian Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the family of Dmitry Zavadsky, a Belarusian cameraman for the Russian public television station ORT, and upheld the conviction of Valery Ignatovich and Maksim Malik on charges of abducting the journalist. Zavadsky disappeared on July 7, 2000, when he failed to keep a scheduled late-morning rendezvous with his longtime friend and colleague Pavel Sheremet at Minsk-2 airport. Sheremet and Zavadsky had recently traveled to Chechnya to shoot a documentary about the war there. Zavadsky's body has never been found.

Ignatovich and Malik, both former officers of the Almaz Special-Assignment Police Force, were convicted in March 2002 by the Minsk Regional Court of kidnapping Zavadsky, murdering a businessman from Borisov and committing several armed assaults and robbery. Both received life sentences. Prosecutors argued that they kidnapped the journalist in reprisal for an interview he gave to the Minsk-based Belarusskaya Delovaya Gazeta. In the interview, Zavadsky alleged that certain unnamed Belarusians had fought with Chechen rebels against Russian forces.

Zavadsky's lawyer and family said the trial failed to examine credible allegations that the Belarusian authorities were also involved in masterminding Dmitry's abduction. Several false leads have surfaced regarding the whereabouts of the body but no further clues have been found. The trial was held behind closed doors. Journalists were only allowed into the courtroom for the reading of the sentence on March 14. Sergei Tsurko, a lawyer for Zavadsky's family, said Ignatovich and Malik are scapegoats and that real responsibility lies with the Lukashenko entourage. Igor Aksenchik, the family's original lawyer, lost his license to practice law after he accused the Belarusian leader of blocking the investigation into the case.

On March 25, 2002, the missing cameraman's relatives filed a petition with the Belarusian Supreme Court, claiming that prosecutors had not sufficiently proven that Ignatovich and Malik were responsible for kidnapping Zavadsky. The petition urged further investigation into his fate.

In June 2001, Dmitry Petrushkevich and Oleg Sluchek, two former employees of the Prosecutor General's Office, alleged that Alexander Lukashenko had deliberately derailed the investigation because of evidence linking a government-led death squad to Zavadsky's murder. They subsequently fled to the United States. Zavadsky's colleague Pavel Sheremet and local opposition groups have supported their claims, as have a number of former government officials who also fled abroad. (Charter 97/ BBC, July 16)

PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEE REVIEWS DEPUTIES' CASES

The Committee On Human Rights Of Parliamentarians of the Inter-Parliamentarian Union (IPU) considered the cases of Viktor Gonchar, the 13th Supreme Soviet deputy chair, chair of the national electoral commission, and a high-profile opposition politician, who disappeared on September 16, 1999; and Andrei Klimov, a 13th Supreme Soviet deputy who was finally granted release from imprisonment on parole in March 2002 and who will have to report periodically to the police for the remainder of his prison sentence. Klimov was originally jailed on charges of fraud declared as politically-motivated by OSCE and Amnesty International, evidently in retaliation for his efforts to impeach Lukashenko through parliamentary motion.

As no progress has been made in the investigation into Gonchar's disappearance and stressing the need to determine the fate of other disappeared politicians, the Committee supported the recommendation of the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe (PAC) to set up a commission of independent experts as a means of making progress towards establishing the truth in these cases. The Committee once again called on the Belarusian authorities to pardon Klimov so that he may have his full civil liberties restored, including freedom to travel abroad, and have decided to continue examining both cases at its next session in September 2002. The full text of the statement is available at: http://www.charter97.org/

BELARUSIAN SOCIAL DEMOCRATS UNITE

Stanislav Shushkevich, a former Belarusian head of state and a leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada, told reporters that three Belarusian social democratic parties have decided to merge, reported Interfax on July 18. The new party, which is likely to be called the United Social Democratic Hramada [Assembly], will unite the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada, chaired by Shushkevich; the Belarusian Social Democratic Party, led by Alexei Korol, and Nadzeya, the Belarusian Women's Party, headed by Valentina Polevikova. "The goal of the united party is to launch a strong social democratic movement, whose leaders would be able to successfully run in local elections in the spring of 2003," Shushkevich said. He also expressed hope that with election of Leonid Kozik as the new chair of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus, many trade union activists would also join the movement. [On July 18, addressing an Annual Worldwide Labor Officers' Conference, Lorne W. Craner, Assistant Secretary Of State, said that "trade unions are often the only institutions that give a voice to workers, whose circumstances are often neglected by those in power…More important still, sometimes they are the only mass-based organizations that stand against authoritarian regimes. Belarus, Ukraine, Zimbabwe, Venezuela are countries where trade unions are struggling for freedom and democracy," he added.-Ed]. Nikolai Statkevich, chair of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party or Narodnaya Hramada, another social democratic party in Belarus, did not participation in the new Shushkevich-led initiative. (Interfax/ USIA, July 19)

- RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN BELARUS-

HINDU PROCESSION HALTED; BELIEVERS DETAINED AND FINED

On July 13, a group of 19 Hindu followers were arrested by police in a park near the textile factory in Minsk. Wearing black traditional garments and holding ritual banners, the Hindus were walking peacefully toward a nearby park for a group meditation when police ordered the procession to stop. The Hindus were charged with staging an unauthorized demonstration, were forced into a police vehicle with their hands twisted behind their backs, and held at the Okrestina detention center for two days. In protest against the unlawful detention, the Hindus declared a dry hunger strike.

On July 15, Judge Vladimir Kornov of the Frunzensky District Court of Minsk, found 14 Hindus guilty of violating Art. 167, par. 1 ("participation in mass actions violating public order") of the Belarusian administrative Offences Code and fined them BYR 200,000 (about $115) each. The trials of Tatiana Akadanova, the group's leader, and Tatiana Zhilevich were postponed when police witnesses failed to appear in court. Akadanova was charged with organizing an unauthorized demonstration. Zhilevich was accused of violation of Art. 166 ("disobedience to the police") and Art. 167, par. 1 ("participation in mass actions violating public order"). "We were marching peacefully, singing Hindu songs and chanting our mantra," said Akadanova in an interview to Radio Racyja. "But, apparently, the police consider us a greater danger to the society than a group of rowdy drunkards who were shouting nearby. The new law on religion has not even come into force yet, but we are already feel its bite," Akadanova said. "We repeatedly have been denied registration by the local authorities. Without registration, we are unable to rent or purchase property to conduct religious services. It is a vicious circle," he added. (Radio Racyja/ Svaboda, July 15-18)

- AT HOME IN BELARUS-

LUKASHENKO DECLARES MASS AMNESTY TO CUT BUDGET EXPENSES

Interfax news agency reported on July 16 that Alexander Lukashenko set hundreds of state prisoners free under a wide-ranging amnesty. The presidential decree gave immediate freedom to 1,900 Belarusians serving time in state penitentiaries. Another 3,000 had their sentences reduced by a third, and some 25,000 had their sentences reduced by a year. Repeat offenders and persons convicted of violent crimes were excluded from the amnesty. Lukashenko ordered the measure to reduce government expenditures on incarceration by about $800,000, the report said. About 53,000 Belarusians are currently in jail, a number roughly 30 per cent greater than the prison system's capacity. (Interfax, July 16)

IRAQI AMBASSADOR DENIES MILITARY COOPERATION WITH BELARUS

On July 13-20, an Iraqi delegation, headed by Abdel Tawab Moulla Howeich, Iraqi Military Industrialization Minister, visited Belarus to meet with the country's officials and local businesses to boost trade and economic cooperation. Among the projects under discussion are plans to open a tractor factory in Iraq, to reconstruct a glass factory, and to assist Baghdad in build a power station. Nezavisimaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper, reported, that the sides also held negotiations about joint exploration of oil fields in the west of Iraq.

On July 16, Zaif Aboulmajid Ahmed, Iraq's ambassador to Belarus, said that Minsk has no military cooperation deals with Baghdad, denying press reports to the contrary. "There is no military cooperation between Iraq and Belarus. Reports published sometimes in the press on such cooperation are baseless. These articles are made to order and journalists are paid handsomely for them," the envoy told a press conference in Minsk. Bilateral relations are governed by the UN humanitarian program known as "oil for food" banning arms sales to Iraq, he added. [The German daily Die Welt reported last October that around 30 Iraqi army officers had begun a two-year training course in anti-aircraft defense at the Belarus military academy in Minsk. The paper said the officers would learn in particular about S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Western diplomats have complained about the violation of sanctions terms. Belarusian and Russian authorities have repeatedly denied the report. -Ed.]. (Belapan/ Itar-Tass/ Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 16-18)

REGIME SEEKS "PRAGMATIC COOPERATION" WITH NATO

Belarus wants to deepen its relations with NATO "on a pragmatic basis," Gen. Sergei Bulygin, a senior defense ministry official, said in an interview published in the July 14 issue of Vo Slavu Rodiny [To the Glory of Homeland], a military newspaper. "Belarus's attitude to NATO enlargement remains unchanged [i.e. negative - Ed.]. But this enlargement is a reality that you have to come to terms with. We want to avoid conflicts on our borders," Bulygin said. "Belarus should not isolate itself. Poland is already a NATO member, the Baltic countries will join it. No state is capable of guaranteeing its security alone," he added. Four days earlier, Alexander Lukashenko told KGB officials to re-evaluate Belarus' relations with the alliance in response to Russia's rapprochement with the bloc and the decision by Ukraine to seek membership. (Vo Slavu Rodiny, July 16)

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

September 9-29, 2002 OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in
Warsaw

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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 ECOSOC. The Belarus project was established to support Belarusian citizens in making their cases for the protection of civil society 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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