Pickets in support of Ales Bialiatski are still banned in Belarus
Baranavichy
Human
rights activist Siarhei Housha and social activist Viktar Syrytsa
received a letter signed by the deputy chairman of the Baranavichy
City Executive Committee, Dz. Kastsiukevich. They were informed that
the executive committee doesn't permit holding an informational
picket on 4 August 2013 in support of the imprisoned human rigths
activist Ales Bialiatski, who has spent two years in prison already.
The official believes that the applicants have violated the
decision of the Baranavichy CEC of 16 June 2009 No. 1497, "On
the order of holding public events in Baranavichy", according to
which Lenin Street is not a place for public events.
Previously,
we reported that the information event was planned in order to draw
public attention to the problem of political prisoners in our
country, which still holds 12 such persons.
“We planned to
hold the rally in the city center, not in the unfrequented old park
which was determined as the place for mass events by the executive
committee. By our picket we also wanted to emphasize that in Belarus
people are punished for their political views. And we intend to give
moral support not only to Ales Bialiatski, but also to all political
prisoners, which, we believe, were convicted illegally,” said human
rights activist Siarhei Housha.
The previous two applications
of the social activists to picket in support of Ales Bialiatski in
2012, weren't satisfied by the Baranavichy City Executive Committee
either.
Mahiliou
Mahiliou human rights
defenders Barys Bukhel and Aliaksei Kolchyn intended to hold an
event calling for the release of human rights defender Ales
Bialiatski 4 August in
the city center.
However,
in the answer signed by the manager of the Mahiliou CEC, Ihar
Ausenka, it is stated that the authorities determined the place for
public events, which is located on the
outskirts of the city, at the “Khimik”
stadium near house 64v in Chaliuskintsy Street, and that mass events
were to be held there, not in the center of the the city.
Human
rights activist Barys
Bukhel notes that the
the picket ban will be
appealed.
"We have already prepared the relevant
documents and will go to court, as we are
guided by the Constitution and international
legal acts in oour activities, not by some
local orders which let representatives of the
democratic forces of the city hold their
public events only in deserted places. We
plan to reach the UN Human Rigths Committee,"
says Barys
Bukhel.
Zhodzina
Zhodzina
activists intended to hold their picket at 6-7 p.m on 4 August near
the main concert venue of the City Park of Culture and
Rest.
One of the organizers, Aliaksei Lapitski, says that the
local continue deliberately and willfully continue making artificial
insurmountable obstacles in the realization of citizens'
constitutional rights and freedoms.
On 29 July the action
organizers went to the Main Post Office to receive a letter from the
city hospital, and were also given a letter from the Zhodzina City
Executive Committee. Both letters werre dated 27 July, but weren't
delivered earlier.
The Deputy Chief Physician of the city
hospital U. Tsyolta answered the application of the human rights
defenders for concluding a service contract, necessary according to
paragraph 5 of ruling No. 1020 of the Zhodzina City Executive
Committee about the order of holding mass events. The answer
contained a detailed calculation of the costs for serving the picket,
whose total sum is 370,000 rubles.
The administration of the
public utilities also gave an answer, noting their "incompetence
in drafting contracts for cleaning services after holding the public
event”.
As a result, the Zhodzina CEC banned the action, as
far as the documents, filed by the organizers, didn't correspond to
paragraph 5 of decision No. 1020 which requires entering into service
contracts with the police, public utilities and medics. The ban is
dated 25 July 2013 and signed by the first deputy head of the CEC on
ideology, A. Shara.
Aliaksei Lapitski immediately filed an
application to the Zhodzina City Executive Committee with the
proposal to consider the answers he had received from the police,
public utilities and medics as evidence of the impossibility to
fulfill these demands, properly consider the application for holding
the public event on 4 August and take a positive decision on it.