Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in February 2010
In February, the conflict between the two Unions of Poles in Belarus, the union that is recognized by the Belarusian authorities and the union that is recognized by the Polish authorities, reached international scale. On 17 February the Valozhyn district court obliged Tereza Sobal, Chairperson of the Ivianets Polish House, to pass the building to the administration of the pro-governmental Union of Poles. Mass detentions of civil activists were conducted during the court hearings on the confiscation of the Polish House. The UPB leaders were punished by courts on charges in organizing an unauthorized action of solidarity in Hrodna on 10 February. An urgent counsel of the Polish MFA was summoned in connection with these events. It was decided that the officials involved in repressions against the Belarusian Poles would be banned to enter the territory of Poland.
Week of election campaign: numbers, events and comments
The last week completely discredited the myth about the 'liberalization' of the election process in Belarus. The results of one of the most important stages of the campaign, the formation of precinct election commissions, just confirmed the pessimistic prognoses of the country's democratic community: the authorities retain the control over the poll. The representation of the democratic community in the precinct election commissions is scanty.
Election campaign: numbers and tendencies of the week
As far as the well-known Stalin's principle 'votes doesn't matter, what matters is who and how counts them' is still actual for Belarus, the week past was very important for the election campaign, because this period was connected with the nomination of representatives to precinct commissions – those who count the votes. This stage of the elections ended on the last day of the week. Now the election committees will decide who to trust to count the poll. The week was also defined by the active nomination of candidates to deputies and presentation of the necessary documents to the appropriate territorial and constituency election commissions. This process will last till 15 March. These two simultaneous processes and the general political atmosphere against the background of which they were taking place were in the focus of attention of the Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections.
Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in January 2010
In January, the elections to the local Soviets of Deputies started in Belarus. According to Presidential decree #21 of 18 January 2010, the elections to the local Soviets were appointed on 26 April. It will be the first campaign carried under the amended Election Code. As soon as the decree was published, the Belarusian human rights defenders have started monitoring the electoral process all over Belarus within the frames of the campaign Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections. One of their aims is to analyze the practical implementation of the new provisions of the election legislation. According to these innovations, the subjects who nominate their representatives to election commissions received the right to appeal against their non-inclusion in the commissions by the appropriate state agencies. A number of public and political activists appealed against their non-inclusion in the commissions at court.
Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in December 2009
At the end of the year its results were summed up. On 22 December the leadership of the United Democratic Forces of Belarus held a press-conference at which it was stated that this year the situation for the opposition was no better than last year. The country again has political prisoners, the Ministry of Justice again denies state registration to political parties and NGOs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies accreditation to foreign media and their correspondents. Besides, democratic activists are kidnapped by unidentified persons and are arrested for participation in unauthorized peaceful street actions.
Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in November 2009
In Belarus November started with the population's panic caused by the epidemic of an acute virus disease that often brought such complication as pneumonia. On 4 November Liliya Ananich, the first Deputy Minister of Information, stated the ministry 'will stop any attempts to misinform the population of the country'. The same day Valiantsina Kachan, Deputy Minister of Health, voiced the data from which it followed that 19 people had died of pneumonia during the two last weeks. All of them were tested for swine flu and in seven cases the tests were positive. This was all official information. Meanwhile, for 2-29 November 170 819 cases of swine flu and acute respiratory viral infection were registered in Homel oblast alone. 44.2% of the ill were children and 55.8% – adults. 3.3% (5 825 persons) were hospitalized. As of 30 November quarantine was declared in ten educational establishments of the Homel oblast.
Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in October 2009
10 October is the World Day against the Death Penalty. The abolition of the death penalty or introduction of a moratorium on it is one of the priorities in the dialogue between the EU and Belarus. However, the Belarusian authorities show little progress in this issue. That's why in January 2009 the Belarusian human rights defenders launched the campaign Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty. They inform the population, collect signatures and distribute printed materials facing obstacles from the side of the state. In particular, the campaign activists from many regions of Belarus intended to hold pickets dated to the World Day against the Death Penalty. However, most of the actions weren't sanctioned by the local authorities. Besides, on 10 October in Navapolatsk, police detained human rights defender Zmitser Salauyou and the young activists Alina Kucharenia and Yury Palonski during an informational action.
Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in September 2009
September closed the additional six-month test period the Belarusian authorities were given for starting democratic transformations in the country. Meanwhile, no significant steps were made for improving the situation of human rights in Belarus. The fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom of consciousness remained restricted. On 24 September, at a briefing for representatives of international missions and journalists, the Assembly of pro-Democratic NGOs gave a preliminary evaluation to the activities of the Belarusian authorities on normalization of the situation of NGOs for the previous six months. Siarhei Matskevich, Chairperson of the Working group of the Assembly of NGOs, stated the absence of progress on the three points set for by the European Union: the abolition of Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code, the abolition of the death penalty, the resolution of the problem of non-registration of civil organizations and introduction of a reduced-price office rent tariff for them.
Brief description of the events that took place in Minsk on 9 and 16 September 2009
On 9 September several tens of people came to Kastrychnitskaya Square of Minsk to protest against the arrival of a military contingent of the Russian Federation in Belarus for participation in the joint Belarusian-Russian military trainings. The protesters were holding the banner ‘Russian Army Go Home!’ The action was peaceful. Its participants did not hinder the traffic and the movement of pedestrians. They were standing in the center of the square and did not interfere with the work of shops and normal vital activity of other citizens. Several minutes after the beginning of the picket people in mufti tired to tear the banner out of the hands of participants of the action, but did not succeed. Then, several minutes later, the riot police arrived and started detaining the present people with the use of physical violence. All in all, about 20 persons were detained that day. Some of them were detained by people in mufti preventively, before the action: the leader of the Young Front Zmitser Dashkevich, the member of the BPF Youth Siarzhuk Karpovich, etc. Such detentions took place when the activists were approaching Kastrychnitskaya Square. The majority of the detainees were guarded to Tsentralny district police department of Minsk. The reports about violation of Article 23.34 (violation of the order of organizing and holding mass events) of the Administrative Code were drawn up on them. A report about violation of Article 17.1 (petty hooliganism) was also drawn up on Zmitser Dashkevich. 17 detainees were locked up in the center for isolation of delinquents for the night. In the morning they were taken to the Tsentralny district court of Minsk.
Review-Chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in July-August 2009
A year passed since the celebration of the official Independence Day on 3 July 2008, at which more than 50 people had been injured after the explosion of a home-made bomb. A criminal case under the article 'malignant hooliganism' was brought on this fact. Aleh Piakarski, Chairperson of the organized crime department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, stated to Interfax that, 120 persons were considered as suspects in the explosion case since 3 July 2008 till 3 July 2009, but none of them proved to be guilty.
