The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for April 2008

07.04.2008 Participant of 25 March action has broken rib

Doctors of Minsk hospital #3 diagnosed Andrei Babitski, activist of the civil campaign European Belarus, with ‘closed displaced fracture of eighth rib’. The youth activist and dozens of other participants of the demonstration on 25 March were beaten up brutally by riot policemen. Emergency brigade, called to the Savetski district police department, refused to help the oppositionist.

04.04.2008 Amnesty International: Demonstrators beaten during Freedom Day march

Amnesty International condemns the reportedly excessive use of force by Belarusian security forces against demonstrators who had gathered in the capital, Minsk, on 25 March 2008. Up to two thousand people had gathered in a square in the centre of the city to mark the ninetieth anniversary of the short-lived independence of Belarus in 1918, which is now referred to by the political opposition as Freedom Day. The authorities had not sanctioned the demonstration and President Alexander Lukashenka’s government had vowed to prevent any public action to mark the occasion.

04.04.2008 Homel: youth activist Mikita Bahrou expelled from university

28 March the third-year student, activist of youth democratic movement Mikita Bahrou was expelled from the state technical university of Homel.

04.04.2008 ‘Trial of 14’ to start 16 April

16 April at 10 a.m. the Tsentralny district court of Minsk (Kirau Street 21) will try the ‘criminal case of 14’. http://nn.by was informed about it by Andrei Kim’s lawyer Tamara Sidarenka.

04.04.2008 Video from Freedom Day action not returned to Lithuanian journalists

‘There’s still no answer from the Belarusian side to the demand of the Lithuanian national television (LRT) to return the video cassette with shootings of the Freedom Day action that has been confiscated by the police on 25 March and compensate the expenses for the repairs of the damaged video camera,’ stated the LRT correspondent Ruta Rybachauskene to the BAJ press-service on 2 April.

04.04.2008 Aliaksei Shcharbakou fined for participation in Freedom Day action

1 April the court of Baranavichy tried the administrative case against Aliaksei Shcharbakou, who was detained on 25 March at the Freedom Day action in Minsk. Shcharbakou is invalid, hard of hearing since childhood.

04.04.2008 Police keeping duty outside A.Bondar’s apartment

4 April, at 7 a.m., the police called to the apartment of an activist of the underground organization Initiative. They demanded that the relatives opened the door as they needed to guard Aliaksei Bondar to the prosecutor’s office. The relatives refused to do it and said that the activist was not there. Now two persons in plain clothes are keeping duty near the apartment door.

04.04.2008 Zhaleznichenka to serve in the army without oath

Zmitser Zhaleznichenka, expelled from Homel University after participation in oppositional movement became known, continues doing his military service, and as before refuses to take the oath for service.

04.04.2008 Foreign travel restrictions for Nasta Palazhanka

On 4 April, in the night, an activist of the Young Front Nasta Palazhanka was got off the train Minsk-Warsaw. At the Warsaw bridge border-crossing point frontier guards told her that she was put on a black list of persons restricted from leaving abroad, as a criminal case had been brought up against her.

04.04.2008 Vitsebsk: new action by legendary Miron

A white-red-white national flag appeared late night in Maskouski Avenue in Vitebsk on 3 April. It was hung out on the chimney of a boiler-house near the secondary school #11. As usual, a message from Miron was affixed to the flag.

04.04.2008 United Civil Party seeking premises for XIth session

The United Civil Party (UCP) can’t find a place for holding its XI session. According to the party leader Anatol Liabedzka, more than 20 various Minsk establishments refused to afford premises.

03.04.2008 Vitsebsk Oppositionists Indignant at Prison Conditions

The members of the Conservative-Christian Party Belarusian People’s Front Ales Pazniak and Yan Taupyha have been released from Vitsebsk pre-trial jail after eight-day of arrest for participation in the Freedom Day action on 25 March.

03.04.2008 10 Days of Jail for Picketing Russian Embassy

2 April youth activists (mainly representatives of the Jeans – For Freedom movement) attempted to hold a picket near the diplomatic mission of the Russian Federation in Minsk. They brought with them a white-red-white flag and a banner No to Russia – Yes to EU. The action was dedicated to the official Day of consolidation of the Russian and the Belarusian people.

03.04.2008 Kazulin Stays in Jail

25 March the administration of the Vitsba-3 prison refused to grant parole to the former presidential candidate, leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party Hramada Alexander Kazulin. The prisoner’s daughter Yuliya Kazulina was informed about it by the department of punishment implementation.

02.04.2008 Marachkin Wants His Paintings Back

1 April Aliaksei Marachkin, painter and public activist, chairman of the international organization World Association of the Belarusians "Batskaushchyna" addressed the Tsentralny district police department of Minsk for getting back the confiscated artworks. On 29 March he was released from jail. Marachkin was arrested for five days on charges in dirty swearing and resisting to the police.