Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in September 2010
The beginning of
autumn was rich in socio-political events, which was partially connected with
the approach of the presidential electoral campaign. September was marked with
forced dispersals of peaceful street actions, mass detentions, an ongoing
crackdown on freedom of expression, judicial persecution of social and
political activists, and linguistic discrimination. The untimely death of the
journalist of the web-site charter97.org Aleh Biabenin, throwing of
Molotov cocktails at the Russian Embassy and the delinquents' isolation center
in Minsk and the repeating arrests of a number of youth activists contributed
to creation of a tense atmosphere. The month ended with a human rights week in
Vilnius that included three important events – an annual meeting of the network
of Human Rights Houses, the international conference on human rights in Belarus
and the Baltic countries and the Belarusian Human Rights Forum II.
A new curriculum year started on 1 September and thousands of Belarusian
children went to school, but very few of them have the possibility to learn in
the Belarusian language. According to statistics, there are 1,900 secondary
schools with the Belarusian language of instruction in Belarus. However, these
are predominantly small rural schools, and just 18,6% school-children received
education in Belarusian last year. Only Mikola Pushkin, son of a well-known
artist Ales Pushkin, started learning in Belarusian in the town of Bobr in the
Krupki district. Yalinka Salauyova became the only pupil of the
Belarusian-language form in Mahiliou. A pupil of the fifth form Alesia Buka had
to refuse from learning in a prestigious gymnasium in Hlybokaye and learn in
the secondary school where there was a form with the Belarusian language of
instruction.
On 10 September in Minsk representatives of the Belarusian civil society
presented a monitoring of the situation in Belarus in November 2008 – September
2010. The document was worked out by experts of the Belarusian Helsinki
Committee (BHC), the Human Rights Center Viasna, the Belarusian
Association of Journalists, the Assembly of NGOs, the Committee to Protect the
Repressed Solidarity, etc. Two days before it, on 8 September, the
monitoring was presented to EU officials in Brussels. A peculiarity of this
document is that its authors evaluated the progress according to a number of
criteria: the situation of independent media, freedom of peaceful assemblies,
freedom of association and the situation of the civil society in general. The
main criterion was the consecutiveness of the changes that were introduced by
the legislation. The authors of the monitoring expressed the opinion that the
policy of the European Union towards Belarus needed to be effective and urged
the European Union not to abolish the visa sanctions towards high-rank
Belarusian officials, but just suspend them. They also recommended the European
officials not provide financial support to such repressive institutions as the
Belarusian KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
In September, the traditional Solidarity Day which is held on the 16th
day of each month ended not only with detentions, but also with a real fight
near the police station. This action is usually held in Kastrychnitskaya Square
in Minsk. However, this September it was transferred to the ground near St.
Joseph's Church in Svabody Square in connection with a campaign that was
launched by the Belarusian Christian Democracy for returning the church to
believers. 19 people were detained before the action. They were guarded to the
Tsentralny District Police Department of Minsk and released in three hours
without receiving any charges. The continuation of the action on 20 September
was even more brutal. Police didn't let the defenders of the church come to the
building. 12 people were detained preventively. Some of them were severely
beaten on the way to the Tsentralny DPD. In particular, policemen smashed the
face of the leader of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Pavel Seviarynets and
kicked the leader of the Young Front Dzmitry
Dashkevich in the chest. The detainees weren't presented any official charges
again and were soon released.
On 14 September a special session of the Chamber of Representatives adopted a
ruling about the appointment of the presidential election. As far as
presidential elections are an important event in the political life of the
country and the background situation was quite complicated, on 16 September
representatives of the Human Rights Center Viasna
and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee declared the beginning of the
election observation campaign Human
Rights Defenders for Free Elections. Long-term observation was conducted by
80 long-term observers, and the voting was observed by 600 short-term observers
at 300 precincts in different regions, which let the human rights defenders
make a conclusion about the scope of transparency and democracy of the
election.
Participants of the annual meeting of the Human Rights House Network that took
place on 22-23 September in Vilnius urged President Belarus Aliaksandr
Lukashenka to take urgent measures to implement international standards in the
sphere of human rights in Belarus. As it is stated in their address, Belarus
didn't implement the EU conditions for acceding to the support program Eastern Partnership despite the ongoing
dialogue between the Belarusian government and the European Union. In
particular, Belarus ignored the demands to release political prisoners, ensure
freedom of the media, continue the cooperation with the OSCE for reforming the
electoral legislation, to improve the conditions for the activity of NGOs and guarantee
the right to peaceful assemblies and political associations.
The 15th session of the UN Human Rights Council took place in Geneva
at this very time. On 23 September its participants considered and adopted the
concluding report of the Universal Periodical Review on human rights in
Belarus. The Belarusian government ignored the recommendations to abolish
Article 193.1 (which penalizes activities on behalf of unregistered public and
political groups), the recommendations concerning the respect of freedom of
peaceful assemblies, the electoral legislation and freedom of expression.
1. Persecution of public and political activists
On 2 September Professor Aliaksandr Astrouski, his wife Aksana, their children
and human rights defender Uladzimir Khilmanovich came to Lenin Square in Hrodna
and unfurled banners with slogans in front of the windows of the city executive
committee to protest against violation of the right of Belarusian pupils to
learn in the Belarusian language. A week later the police charged them with
holding an unauthorized action. The trial was scheduled for 23 September, but
wasn't conducted. Judge Natallia Kozel informed the activists that the trial
wouldn't take place because of additional study of the case materials by the
police.
In the beginning of September the police detained activists of the civil
campaign Speak Truth! for coming to
football and hockey matches in T-shirts with the inscription Truth will Win! The first incident
happened on 7 September in the Dynama stadium,
right before the football match Belarus-Romania. Police asked the people to
unbutton their coats at the entrance of the stadium. About 50 people who were
dressed in T-shirts of the Speak Truth! campaign
were guarded to the police station.
On 9 September 12 activists of Speak
Truth! were detained at the sportive complex Minsk-Arena before a hockey play between the Minsk Dynama and the Russian Torpedo (Nizhniy Novgorod). They were
taken to the Tsentralny District Police Department of Minsk. Police not only
videoed and fingerprinted the detainees, but also mocked at them – they tore
away or cut T-shirts with the campaign logos and ordered the people to stand
facing the wall and spread their legs far apart. The detained activists filed complaints with FIFA, UEFA and CHL against
violation of their rights as fans by police. 7 persons applied to the Leninski
Disrict Procuracy of Minsk and some more – to the Tsentralny District
Procuracy.
About 50 people were detained in Minsk on 8 September for an attempt to hold a
pillow fight that hadn't been permitted by the Minsk authorities. The action
was dated to the 496th anniversary of the Battle of Orsha, which is
celebrated as the Belarusian Military Glory Day by the opposition. Police
started detaining potential participants of the action before its beginning.
Nevertheless, youth activists managed to hold pillow fights in two places.
Those who were detained were fingerprinted, mugged and videoed. Their passport
data were put down as well. In some time all of them were released without
getting any charges. Some minors were passed to their parents and some were
released without this procedure, which is a formal law violation. Moreover,
police had no right to take fingerprints and make photos and videos of
under-age persons without permission of their parents. In addition, the actual
time of detention was more than 3 hours as police counted it not from the
moment of the detention, but from the moment when the detainees were taken to
the DPD.
The attempt to mark the Day of Military Glory at the Krapiuna field (where the
battle of Orsha had taken place) was accompanied with arrests as well. Concerts
of folk singers have been conducted there since 1992. In 2010 festivities were
to have taken place on Saturday, 11 September. However, on the eve of the
action its organizer Yury Koptsik was taken to the Orsha District Police
Department where he was informed that the festival was banned and was warned
that he would be punished if he decided to conduct the event anyway. On
Saturday morning the police blocked the roads to the Krapiuna field. Then they
started detaining those who walked to an alternative place that was proposed
for the action. Some people were detained even at railway stations. A total of
15 people were taken to the local police station where they were kept for four
hours and released without receiving any charges.
On 3 September the police detained seven anarchists on
suspicion in the arson of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Minsk. All
detainees were put in the delinquents' isolation center in Akrestsin Street. On
8 September a member of the unregistered Belarusian Freedom Party Siarhei
Papou, a member of the Right Alliance Ihar
Chapiha and ecologist Uladzimir Valodzin were detained on suspicion in throwing
Molotov cocktails at the delinquents' isolation center. According to the law,
they could be detained without any charges for three days only. However,
instead of being released they were detained again several times, allegedly on
suspicion in relation to some other criminal cases, which contradicts to the
criminal process legislation. As a result the activists spent several three-day
detention terms behind bars, though almost no investigative measures were
conducted.
On 13 September the ecological organizations of Belarus, Lithuania and Russia
adopted a joint address to the Belarusian authorities demanding to immediately
release U.Valodzin. However, Chapiha and Valodzin were released only on 17
September, and Papou was set free even later.
On 15 September the Vaukavysk District Court tried civil activist Mikalai
Kavalchuk for unauthorized installation of a memorial board in honor of the 100th
anniversary of poetess Larysa Heniyush on the wall of the house where she had
been born. The court ruled that the activist should be fined 70,000 rubles
(about $23), but the board should be returned to him.
On 20 September, Judge of the Tsentralny District Court of Homel Maryia
Damnenka found an activist of the Young
Belarus Ivan Zaitsau guilty of using obscene language and insubordination
to the police and fined him 1,750,000 rubles (about $583). Zaitsau was seized
by three people in mufti on 11 September for raising a white-red-white flag at
the concert on the Day of Minsk. At the trial he explained that he had really
resisted to these people as he hadn't known that they were police officers.
Bear in mind that the activist was kept in custody till 13 September, when the
first court sitting took place.
On 24 September, Judge of the Petrykau District Court Siarhei Brahinski found a
Homel activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Kanstantsin Zhukouski
guilty of using obscene language and insubordination to the police and
sentenced him to 10 days of arrest. Testimonies against the defendant were
given by policemen Auchynnikau and Hramkou who had beaten him at the festival Call of Palesse in the village of
Liaskavichy in the Petrykau district on 17 September. As a result of the
beating Zhukouski got to the district hospital, but was signed out in 2.5 days
and continued receiving medical treatment in Homel. The judge ignored the
medical diagnosis, but ‘trusted' the testimonies of the policemen. The
defendant declared a hunger-strike of protest in jail.
2. Politically motivated criminal cases
On 7 September the secretariat of the Union of Belarusian Writers adopted a
statement concerning the imprisonment of Mikhail Bashura.
According to the statement, Bashura was forcedly detained more than a month
ago, on 6 August 2010. The investigation charged him with an ‘economical crime'
– forgery of financial documents with the aim to facilitate the receipt of a
bank loan by his wife. Ignoring the presumption of innocence and the
possibility of a mistake, they charged Mikhail Bashura with forgery of a
certificate from the place of his work.
Prior to his arrest, Mikhail Bashura took an active part in the civil campaign Speak Truth! and was repeatedly detained
for it. During the last detention and search the police confiscated from him
thousands of signatures for naming a Minsk street in honor of the Belarusian
writer Vasil Bykau.
The secretariat of the Union of Belarusian Writers stated that the restraint
chosen for Mikhail Bashura was extremely inadequate to the crime he was charged
with, and demanded his immediate release from custody in conformity with the
Belarusian legislation.
However, Bashura was still kept in the Zhodzina pre-trial prison and the
petition of his lawyer for changing the restraint to his client was dismissed.
3. Freedom of speech and the right to impart information
On 14 September a democratic activist from Salihorsk
Andrei Tychyna was fined 1,225,000 rubles for distribution of the independent
press. He and a local entrepreneur Tatsiana Kuchynskaya were arrested by the
police at the city market on 31 August for handing out the private
socio-political newspaper My i Rynak and
the unregistered Hazeta Niakliayeva. Kuchynskaya was tried on 23 September and
fined 1,4 million rubles (about $467).
On 13 September the private newspaper Narodnaya Volia received the fourth warning, this time for an
alleged violation of Article 4 of the Law On
Mass Media that obliges newspapers to impart only information that
corresponds to reality. Bear in mind that if a newspaper or its founder receive
two warnings within a year, the issue of the newspaper can be suspended by
court.
On 14 September the ministry also issued a warning to Brestskaya Gazeta,
for publishing information that could also be found in Zarya (the printed organ of the Brest Region Executive Committee
and the Brest Region Council). According to the Deputy
Chairperson of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Andrei Bastunets, the
Ministry of Information issued the warnings to Narodnaya Volia and Brestskaya
Gazeta without trying to discriminate in the situation, although Articles
42-44 of the law On Mass Media present
a detailed description of the order of correction of inaccurate information.
On 15 September, Judge of the Navahradak District Court Vasil
Aliakhnovich fined activists of the Speak
Truth! campaign Ivan Dziashuk and Natallia Katsmayer 700,000 rubles (about
$233) for handing out the unregistered printed edition Prauda Niakliayeva.
On 15 September the Supreme Economic Court turned down an
appeal of the private socio-political weekly Nasha Niva against the warnings that had been issued to it by the
Information Ministry for articles concerning the Russian documentary Godfather that contains ‘undesirable'
information about the life and activities of Aliaksandr Lukashenka and other
high rank state officials.
On 16 September one of the oldest Belarusian NGOs, the
Belarusian Association of Journalists, celebrated its 15th
anniversary. In 1995 the organization was co-founded by 38 people, whereas
nowadays it has more than a thousand members and five regional branches. In
1997 the Belarusian Association of Journalists became an associate member of
the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). On the day of the
anniversary the Belarusian Association of Journalists stated that it will
continue to defend the interests and rights of its members and other Belarusian
citizens including the right to receive and impart information, and will try to
protect freedom of expression as a fundamental democratic value.
4. Freedom of association
The third constituent assembly the Belarusian Christian
Democracy took place on 12 September. On 17 September the package of the
documents that are required for registration of the party was passed to the
Ministry of Justice. According to co-Chairperson Pavel Seviarynets, the documents
were filed at this very time on purpose, because in a month the EU would decide
the question of extending the visa sanctions towards high-rank Belarusian
authorities.
On 15 September the Assembly of NGOs adopted a statement
to express its concern with the increased pressurization of NGOs with the
approach of the presidential election. The statement stresses that the
dissolution of the existing NGOs by court and the refusals of the Ministry of
Justice to register the NGOs that still had no state registration let the
authorities make use of unconstitutional Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code,
which penalizes activities on behalf of unregistered organizations.
On 22 September, on the eve of the 15th session
of the UN Human Rights Council, representatives of the Assembly of NGOs, the
Human Rights Centre Viasna, the BPF
Youth and other democratic NGOs held a performance in costumes of the popular
cartoon characters Shrek near the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus. This satirical action was a response to
the hypocritical stance of the authorities who kept promising to abolish
criminal punishment for activities on behalf of unregistered organizations.
However, on 15 September the Belarusian Foreign Ministry sent UN a document
titled The opinions and responses of the
Republic of Belarus on the conclusions and/or recommendations made for further
consideration by the competent authorities within the Universal Periodic Review
on 14 May 2010. As it follows from the text of the document, the
authorities evaded from solving fundamental issues and continued claiming there
were no serious human rights problems in Belarus. For example, the opinion
states that ‘Belarus does not accept the recommendation for the repeal of
Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code. This article is aimed at cessation of
activities of extremist groups and organizations in Belarus...'.
On 29 September the Brest Region Court held a preliminary
hearing on the lawsuit of public human rights association Brest Spring concerning the refusal of the main bureau of the Brest
Region Executive Committee to register the organization. The official reason
for the registration denial was allegedly inaccurate information in the
documents submitted for registration, namely – the number of the house of one of
the founders. In fact, the address was correct and the mistake was made by the
regional department of internal affairs, which provided incorrect information
about the place of residence of one of the founders: house 13 instead of 12. As
the attempts to resolve the dispute over the registration gave no result, human
rights defenders had to go to the law. The trial was scheduled for 12 October.
5. Death penalty
In early September, representatives of the international
human rights organization Amnesty International
Heather McGill and Aisha Jung visited Belarus within the guidelines of
the campaign against the punishment of criminals with death. They met with parents of the death convicts,
representatives of various NGOs, the Orthodox Church, Chairperson of the
Working Group of the National Assembly on Death Penalty Mikalai Samaseika and
representatives of various NGOs.
On 14 September the Mahiliou Region Court issued another
death verdict. Aliaksandr Sychou and Ihar Mialik were convicted of a series of
violent crimes committed by their gang in the Mahiliou region. The former was
sentenced to life imprisonment and the latter – to death.
On 17 September the Supreme Court of the Republic of
Belarus dismissed the appeals of Hrodna residents Andrei Burdyka and Aleh
Hryshkautsou against the death verdicts that had been issued to them for a
triple murder.
On 18 September the world-famous singer Sting supported
the struggle of the Belarusian human rights defenders for the abolishment of
the death penalty. He met with them before his concert in Minsk in order to
sign the petition against the capital punishment within the guidelines of an
appropriate campaign of the Human Rights Center Viasna, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and Amnesty International. ‘It's time to change this,' said Sting in
his video address.
On 23 September, the working group of the National
Assembly of the Republic of Belarus on the death penalty took part in a round
table held by the Council of Europe. ‘The abolition of the death penalty must
be accompanied by introduction of an adequate prison system and acceptable
alternative punishments,' stated representatives of the Council of Europe. ‘The
abolition of the death penalty will bring Belarus closer to the European human
rights standards'.
6. Freedom of conscience
On 16 September the Belarusian
Christian Democracy launched an indefinite campaign to protect the Bernardine
Monastery and the Church of St. Joseph in Minsk. Civil activists and
believers gathered near the cult buildings at 7 p.m. every day. They have been
trying to make the authorities return the building for five years already. A
Catholic parish was registered at St. Joseph's Church on 7 August 2001. In
early 2007 the military commandant's office vacated the monastery, but the funds
of two state archives were still kept in the church. In 2007, Christian
activists collected more than 30,000 signatures under an appeal to return the
monastery, but the situation remained the same. In spring the authorities
started the reconstruction of the monastery into a hotel complex.
