The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

20.04.2011 Members of International Observation Mission still deported from Belarus

The Kyiv human rights defender Maryna Tsapok was going to Belarus to help the International Observing Mission of the Committee for International Control over the situation with HR in Belarus. She is one of the initiators of the civil campaign For Open Entry to the Republic of Belarus in Ukraine.

09.03.2011 Member of International Observation Mission denied entry to Belarus

Today, on 9 March 2011 at 3:20 am, while crossing the border by train Kyiv - Minsk, the assistant to the Representative of the International Observation Mission of the Committee on International Control over the Situation with Human Rights in Belarus, member of the “Foundation for Regional Initiatives” (organization – participant of the Committee), citizen of the Ukraine Maxim Kitsyuk was denied entry to the territory of the Republic of Belarus.

16.07.2010 Incmaculada Gonzales: ‘Guy lost 40 kilos of weight in prison’

late at night on 15 July, Guy Francois Toukam, the goalkeeper of the Norwegian futsal team IOF, got to Spain. The 1,5-month absurd imprisonment of a person who hadn’t done anything wrong finally came to an end.

13.07.2010 Is Guy Francois Toukam being deported?

According to unconfirmed information, on 13 July afternoon people in the uniform of Belarusian border troops lead out of the delinquents’ isolation center in Akrestsin Street in Minsk a black man who resembled the Cameroonian citizen Guy Francois Toukam, goalkeeper of the Norwegian futsal club IOF.

12.07.2010 Girlfriend of arrested Cameroonian intends to come to Minsk to picket prison in Akrestsin Street

Spanish citizen Inmaculada Gonzales whose boyfriend, Cameroonian Guy Francois Toukam, was detained by the Belarusian border guards more than a month ago, is going to Minsk. She has been driven to such desperation by the inaction of the duty officials of different agencies that she seriously considers holding a picket near the prison in Akrestsin Street, where the goalkeeper of the Norwegian futsal club IOF is still kept.

05.07.2010 Goalkeeper of Norwegian football club kept in Minsk jail on suspicion in passport forgery

The citizen of Cameroon was detained by the migration service of Minsk-2 airport before the match, allegedly for having a forged passport. The Human Rights Center Viasna received a letter from the detainee’s girlfriend, Spaniard Inmaculada Gonzalez, who asked the human rights activists to clear up the fate of the Cameroonian.

09.05.2010 Brest: detentions for action in memory of Yury Zakharanka

On 7 May, the Brest human rights defenders Raman Kisliak and Andrei Sharenda were detained for handing out the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. The action was dated to the 11th anniversary of the abduction of Yury Zakharanka, a former Interior Minister and opposition politician.

11.02.2010 Zmitser Dashkevich and Aliaksei Shein detained on the border

On 11 February in the morning, Zmitser Dashkevich, leader of the Young Front, Aliaksei Shein, co-Chairman of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party, were detained on the Belarusian-Latvian border for five hours.

28.12.2009 Three Polish priests to be deported from Belarus

Three Polish Catholic priests will have to leave Belarus by the end of the year, Polskie Radio reports, quoting the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. The official reason for the deportation is their use of the Polish language during masses.

17.08.2009 Russian journalists arrested and deported from Belarus

An NTV film crew was shooting a film in Minsk about the disappeared politicians.

Aleksey Malkov and Yury Babenko were detained on August 14 in the hotel of the International Education Center (IBB) where they had stayed.

As the website www.charter97.org learnt that officers of secret services in mufti got the journalists out of the room at 7:00 p.m. The people signed Malkov and Babenko out. According to the preliminary information, the journalists were guarded to the Maskouski district militia department.

30.07.2009 ENEMO issues statement on parliamentary election in Moldova

ENEMO (European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations) has issued a statement on the pre-term parliamentary election in the Republic of Moldova. ‘The ENEMO International Observers’ Mission in the Republic of Moldova officially declares that it withdraws its international monitoring mission of the parliamentary election in the Republic of Moldova. The mission would like to declare that, under the conditions created by the authorities, it is absolutely impossible to perform an adequate monitoring. Besides opposition by the official authorities, the observers received threats from unknown persons of criminal appearance. In this situation, the mission cannot guarantee the security of its observers and will have to stop its activities,’ says the statement.

30.06.2009 Babruisk: deportation of missioner from Nigeria

On 23 June the police arrested the preacher Simon Milongo after a service in Slova Nadzei Evangelic Church.

08.06.2009 Yauhen Skrabets appeals against forced medical examination

The activist of Brest branch of the Young Front Yauhen Skrabets has been released from hospital in the evening on 5 June. Bear in mind that several days ago the police and officers of the military enlistment office detained him near the entrance of his house and forcedly took to Brest oblast hospital for medical examination.

02.02.2009 Union of Poles under Surveillance?

On 31 January the citizens of Poland, teachers Piotr Borania and Galina Zajkowska were deported from Belarus. The official reason is that their having moved to a new apartment.