The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for November 2012

28.11.2012 Brest: people make a chain near to protect their house from unlawful construction works

In the morning of 28 November dwellers of the house #32 in Nabiarezhnaya Street in Brest, in the inter-column space of which a drugstore is being constructed, tried to prevent the construction works by lining in a row in front of the building.

28.11.2012 Belarusian paratrooper Eduard Lobau (video)

A mini-film dedicated to the political prisoner and member of the “Young Front” Eduard Lobau appeared on the web.

28.11.2012 “New Life” church is being evicted

The court ruling of the Supreme Economical Court was received by the believers on 27 November. According to it they must vacate the building by 5 November.

28.11.2012 Villagers protest against the storage of chemical waste in Mizgiry

Dwellers of the remote villages of the Slonim district – Sasnouka, Mizgiry, Balty, Hrynkoushchyna and Yarutsichy – stand against the storage of 4.000 barrels of chemicals in the village of Mizgiry.

28.11.2012 BCD activist Siarhei Malashonak intends to hold a rally in support of political prisoners in Navapolatsk

Siarhei Malashonak, an activist of the organizing committee of the party Belarusian Christian Democracy, applied to the Navapolatsk City Executive Committee for the authorization of a street action in support of political prisoners in Belarus.

28.11.2012 You can phone to “Viasna”

Despite the confiscation of the office, the Human Rights Center “Viasna” continues its work. Not a single direction of its activities has been abandoned.

28.11.2012 Belarusian Popular Front banned from holding a rally in Slutsk

The Slutsk District Executive Committee prohibited the BPF party to carry out a rally on 1 December on occasion of the anniversary of the Slutsk Uprising.

28.11.2012 Human Rights Chair concerned about closing of Viasna office in Belarus

COPENHAGEN, 28 November 2012 - Matteo Mecacci, chair of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly human rights committee, today expressed deep concern over the confiscation of property and closing off of the Viasna office in Minsk

28.11.2012 Further crackdown in Belarus: Office of Viasna confiscated and sealed

The Civil Solidarity Platform condemns the confiscation, on 26 November, of the office of its member in Belarus, the Human Rights Centre Viasna (Spring).

27.11.2012 Million-ruble fines in Svislach

On 27 November the cases of three civil activists were considered at the Svislach District Court.

27.11.2012 Salihorsk District Court has been refusing to issue a verdict for three months already

The case of the Salihorsk “Young Front” activist Andrei Tychyna has more than a six-month history. About six months ago the city authorities prohibited him to hold a bicycle race in support of the national symbols – the white-red-white flag and the “Pahonia” coat of arms.

27.11.2012 Even the covers of the complaint book are full of notes?

There is no complaint book at the Baranavichy District and City Court, that's what the businessman Mikalai Charnavus was told after asking to be provided with a copy of a court verdict on 26 November.

27.11.2012 Ukrainian student leader not let in Belarus

The president of the Ukrainian student self-government association Lizaveta Shchepetylnykova was not let in Belarus where she intended to meet with student activists.

27.11.2012 Baranavichy: private newspaper “Intex-press” denied information about conscription

Last week the correspondent of the private newspaper “Intex-press” Kanstantsin Litvin phoned to the head of the conscription department of the Baranavichy city military enlistment office Aliaksandr Barchankou to ask him about the pace of the conscription campaign.

27.11.2012 “Granit” becomes an unreliable enterprise

The Mikashevichy-based state enterprise “Granit” has been put on a list of suspicious enterprises by the International Labor Organization due to regular violations of rights of members of the independent trade union.