Yuri Jibladze, member of Council of President of the Russian Federation for Civil Society Development and Human Rights, declared persona non-grata in Belarus
Juri Jibladze, a member of Council of President of the
Russian Federation for Civil Society Development and Human Rights, President of
the Center for Democracy Development and Human Rights, was informed about it by
Belarusian guards on the Lithuanian border. However, they didn't present any
official papers and didn't put any seals in his passport.
The human rights defender was going from Minsk
to Vilnius by train in order to take part in a
coordinative meeting of members of the Committee on International Control over
the situation with human rights in Belarus. Before this he met with
representatives of the Belarusian civil society in Minsk.
By the way, on 4 August 2011 Yuri Jibladze had been detained by police in Minsk. He was to have
delivered a speech at the press-conference held at the office of the Human
Rights Center Viasna concerning the presentation of the report of the
Committee on International Control concerning the events of 19 December 2010.
He was released quite soon. Some of his colleagues, who were detained as well,
received written prescriptions to leave the country within 24 hours and were
banned to enter Belarus
for 2 years.
Most probably, the entrance ban to Yuri Jibladze was also adopted at that time,
but wasn't given publicity for political reasons.
Starting from March 2011, 10 citizens of Russia
and Ukraine who take part in
the work of the Committee, including the head of its International Observation
Mission Andrei Yurov, were deported or weren't let in Belarus. The
Belarusian MFA didn't answer the inquiries about the reasons for such actions.
On his return to Moscow Mr. Jibladze stated that he would also file an official
inquiry with the Belarusian authorities, demanding to inform him about the
reasons for the entrance ban. He also intends to appeal this measure and counts
on an adequate reaction of the Russian MFA.
