Republic of Belarus Turning Back the Clock
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July 1998 Vol. 10 No. 7 (D) REPUBLIC OF BELARUS TURNING BACK THE CLOCK SUMMARY ...............................................................................................................................................................3 RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................................................................4 A NOTE ON GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY...............................................................................................6 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................................6 Belarus and the International Community ...................................................................................................10 DEMONSTRATIONS..............................................................................................................................................12 Restricting the Right to Demonstrate...........................................................................................................13 Arbitrary Arrests and Police Brutality at Demonstrations............................................................................14 Shidlovsky-Labkovich Trial ...........................................................................................................14 March 22, 1998 Demonstration ......................................................................................................15 April 2, 1998 Demonstration ..........................................................................................................15 April 25, 1998 Demonstration ........................................................................................................17 State Response to Police Brutality at Demonstrations .................................................................................18 Irina and Uladzimir Khalip.............................................................................................................18 Vladimir Yukho..............................................................................................................................20 CONTINUED HARASSMENT OF THE MEDIA ..................................................................................................21 Depriving Information to the Non-state Media............................................................................................22 Amendments to the Law on the Press and Other Mass Media.....................................................................23 Sanctions and Warnings against Newspapers: Svaboda and Imya ..............................................................24 Sanctions against ORT: The Cases of Pavel Sheremet and Dmitri Zavadsky..............................................25 ASSAULT AND HARASSMENT BY PLAINCLOTHES STATE AGENTS .......................................................28 Yury Khashchevatsky ..................................................................................................................................28 Oleg Bebenin ...............................................................................................................................................29 Nadezhda Zhukova ......................................................................................................................................30 Ina Pimenava ...............................................................................................................................................31 GOVERNMENT CRITICS AND OPPOSITION UNDER FIRE ............................................................................32 Criminal Sanctions.......................................................................................................................................32 The Trial of Vadim Labkovich and Alexei Shidlovsky ..................................................................32 Pavel Syverinets and Dmitri Vaskovich..........................................................................................34 Viktor Gonchar and Andrei Klimov ...............................................................................................36 Non-Criminal Sanctions ..............................................................................................................................37 Repercussions at University and Schools........................................................................................37 Disbarments....................................................................................................................................41 The Anti-terrorism Decree...........................................................................................................................44 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................................47 APPENDIX A ..........................................................................................................................................................49 APPENDIX B...........................................................................................................................................................51 It may sound a little immodest, but I have enough brains to rule a state in a sound way, without resorting to a stick or fist. Belarus is in the very center of Europe, it is surrounded by democratic states, and believe me, it is not the kind of state which can be ruled by authoritarian means. President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenka Russian NTV television, Moscow, cited in World News Connection (WNC) April 28, 1998. SUMMARY President Aleksandr Lukashenka is steering Belarus back toward Soviet-era repression by leading a government that is engaged in violations of a broad spectrum of basic civil and political rights. His four years in office have witnessed the reversal of modest improvements in respect for human rights that followed the perestroika period and the break-up of the Soviet Union. In the past year alone, the government closed the only remaining independent daily newspaper in the country, was implicated in at least four assaults or threats on government critics, and detained scores of demonstrators, many of them minors. Together with restrictions on civic freedoms that have now been codified into law, these developments indicate that President Lukashenka is truly turning back the clock on rights. Government control over the state media, restrictions on the circulation of the independent press and the lack of independent broadcast media that dare carry programs critical of the president or of government policy gave street demonstrations greater significance as a forum for the public expression of opposition sentiment. The government has since introduced rules on demonstrations that necessitate cumbersome and onerous bureaucratic hurdles that must be overcome to hold even the smallest public gathering. Indeed, in February 1998 a solitary demonstrator with a placard was imprisoned for fifteen days for breaking such rules. In addition, the government has sought to intimidate peaceful demonstrators through arbitrary mass arrests, beatings and prison terms. Lawyers have been stripped of their licence to practice law, students expelled and school teachers and university lecturers warned or fired for organizing or participating in opposition demonstrations deemed to have violated stringent government rules. Such rules permit the authorities to change the time, location and even the number of participants of a given demonstration. Even the symbols to be used by demonstrators must be registered to avoid government sanctions. President Lukashenka=s government has sought to control the content, access to, distribution, and even the personnel of independent newspapers, magazines and the broadcast media. The largest independent newspaper was closed in November 1997 while others operate at great risk of closure should they publish articles that openly criticize the government. An informal policy of non-disclosure of official information to the independent press is now brazenly enforced, following a confidential government memorandum that was leaked to the press in April. State-owned newspapers= content is also tightly controlled, with recalcitrant editors facing dismissal. Out of fear of punitive sanctions and fines, the independent broadcast media no longer carry news programs. Plainclothes state security agents have been implicated in the beating, kidnaping and/or threatening of a number of journalists, members of non-governmental organizations and those connected with the opposition. Victims have attempted to bring the perpetrators of such crimes to justice, often with clear evidence of state involvement, yet Human Rights Watch is not aware of a single instance in which these assaults has resulted in a prosecution. This failure by Belarus law-enforcement agencies reinforces the supposition that they are carried out by state agents operating in plainclothes with complete impunity. Individuals affiliated with opposition political groups have been systematically intimidated and punished: this pattern has encompassed politically active youth, prominent and active demonstrators, lawyers who defend demonstrators or work on politically sensitive cases, and deputies to the disbanded Thirteenth Supreme Soviet. Human Rights Watch 4 July 1998, Vol. 10, No. 7 (D) Measures employed by the