Review-chronicle of human rights violations in Belarus in September 2008

On 2 September the presentation of the report Incarceration conditions in the Republic of Belarus, prepared by the International Federation for Human Rights with the aid of the Belarusian human rights activists, took place in Minsk. The report was composed on the basis of an international research mission and is a valuable source of information about the incarceration conditions in Belarus, as there is almost no reliable information on this issue due to the absence of supervision over the penitentiary system in Belarus by any national or international agencies and institutions. During the presentation the FIDH secretary general Louis Peres welcomed the release of the last political prisoners by the Belarusian authorities, but stated that the situation of human rights in Belarus was still disturbing and the incarceration conditions in the country were extremely unsatisfactory and could be considered as forms of inhumane treatment, which is prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

On 28 September the elections to the Chamber of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus of the fourth convocation took place. The elections were accompanied by human rights violations. The fundamental freedoms, such as the freedom of peaceful assemblies and associations, remained considerably restricted. The authorities continued persecuting their opponents, which did not let to create an atmosphere of trust and confidence. Despite numerous promises of the officials to hold free and democratic elections, the OSCE recommendations that had been made during the previous elections were not implemented. The Central commission for holding of elections and republican referenda refused to hold negotiations with representatives of the United democratic forces concerning the improvement of the conditions for the election campaign.

According to the official information, the turnout was 75,3% and all 110 MPs were elected in the first vote. According to the head of the Central election commission Lidziya Yarmoshyna, about two billion rubles were saved as a result. These means will be mostly spend on bonuses to members of electoral commissions. The list of the deputies voiced by Lidziya Yarmoshyna was almost the same to the list that had been sent to an independent newspaper Narodnaya Volia by an anonymous official and published several days before the elections.

263 candidates participated in the electoral race. According to the UDF, 66 representatives of the opposition were left during the last stage. There were no oppositional candidates in about 30 constituencies. Non-alternative election took place in 16 constituencies. After calculation of votes the Central electoral commission received 24 complaints with the requirement to find the elections invalid. The results of the elections are disputed in 20 constituencies, but the CEC refused to consider the complaints and forwarded them to constituency electoral commissions.

Human rights activists conducted long-term monitoring of the election at 86 constituencies. They conclude that the procedure of forming of constituency and precinct election commissions was performed with grave violations, people were forced to vote during the five days of early voting, the registration of candidates lacked transparency, the elections were closed and correspond neither to the standards of the Copenhagen OSCE document, nor to the Belarusian legislation. Violations of the rules during calculation of votes made it impossible for the observers to really watch this procedure and gives reasons for mistrust to the officially declared results.

Early voting started on 23 September. Among the typical violations on this stage, which were registered by members of the campaign Human rights activists for free elections, there are concealment of all kinds of information from domestic observers by members of election commissions (for instance, the observers were not told the number of the ballots received by precinct commissions from constituency commissions, the number of the persons included in the list of legally registered voters and the turnout). On the first day of early voting at some precincts the ballot boxes were sealed without being examined by members of precinct election commissions.

Numerous cases of forced early voting were registered all over the country at enterprises and educational establishments. Printed calls to early voting were placed in shops, hairdressers’, saunas, etc and hostels. Besides, the authorities consciously concealed it from the electors that according to the law the right to vote early could only be used if an elector had no opportunity to stay in his place of residence on the Election Day. Public and political activists were detained. Agitation materials were confiscated. On 23 September Yury Dziadzinkin, a journalist for Narodnaya Volia, was prohibited to make a photo at precinct #398 in Minsk. The commission members referred to an appropriate ruling of the head of the commission. Later the secretary of the Central election commission Mikalai Lazavik explained it with the journalist’s failure to establish good relations with the commission’s members. Facts of violence were registered as well. On 28 September at 8 p.m. unidentified persons beat Uladzimir Bazan, editor of the non-state newspaper Kurier iz Vitebska and an observer at precinct #34 of Vitsebsk Kastrychnitskaya election constituency #20. An independent candidate Andrei Levinau was also beaten in the porch of his house. Both cases took place in Vitsebsk.

The international observation mission of the OSCE concluded that the Parliamentary elections in Belarus did not correspond to the democratic standards and stated that there were many violations and falsifications. The USA did not recognized the results of the elections either. Only the mission of CIS observers declared the elections in Belarus free and democratic.

Oppositionists and independent observers declared that the results of the election were forged and the turnout was overrated. On 28 September a peaceful action of protest against the rigged elections took part in the center of Minsk. The minister of interior Uladzimir Navumau called it a rude violation of law and order and threatened that a ‘legal evaluation’ would be given to it.

1. Fines and arrests

In September Kletsk district executive committee adopted ruling #886 On empowering the duty officials of Kletsk district executive committee to compose reports of administrative violations.

The local dwellers were warned about it by means of a publication in the local state newspaper Da Novykh Peramoh, where it is written that from now on a special sheet with an official’s name and the numbers of articles on which he/she was empowered to impose fines would be inserted into his/her certificate. The workers of the district executive committee will also receive blanks for such reports.

By this ruling Kletsk district executive committee also obliges all village executive committees on the territory of Kletsk district to adopt similar rulings and empower their workers to fine their fellow villagers: for throwing litter in the streets, using foul language and insulting the officials during visits to their offices. The total number of ‘fine’ articles is more than 45.

On 5 September Savetski district court of Minsk punished a youth activist Vadzim Khaniauka with 15 days of arrest for ‘petty hooliganism’. After his release from jail Vadzim told about the details of his detention. ‘As soon as I entered the garage where there were some materials related to the Boycott campaign, a police car with riot policemen arrived. They must have been watching me. They knocked me down and started beating. Then they drove me to Savetski district police department and composed a false report,’ he said.

On 5 September the police also detained an activist of the Young Front Dzianis Karnou. The police and KGB officers conducted a search in his apartment. Some hours later Karnou was released from the police station.

On 13 September, during the official celebration of the City Day activists of the Young Front raised a white-red-white flag in front of the eyes of the authorities. The police seized Andrei Tsianiuta, knocked him down and started beating him. As a result he got a knee injured and a finger dislocated. At the police station they drew several reports in which he was accused of dirty swearing and resistance to the police. Andrei spent the night in a small room, on a concrete floor. In the morning he demanded that a doctor was called. The medics diagnosed him with pneumonia. Nevertheless, the Young Front activist was set free only after 15 hours.

In the night of 14-15 September the youth activists Mikhail Iliin and Yauhen Skrabets were detained for the Boycott! graffiti. In the morning, after an expertise determined that the inflicted hard did not qualify for a criminal case, the police drew a report under article 17.1 (petty hooliganism). Maskouski district court of Brest punished the guys with five days of jail.

On 23 September Andrei Tsianiuta was set down from a train to Minsk. The police accused him of evasion from trial. Andrei was again locked in an isolation ward for the night. The following morning Chyhunachny district court of Homel sentenced Tsianiuta to seven days of jail and fined him 700 000 rubles (about $325).

On 29 September the commission on affairs of minors of Salihorsk district executive committee considered the administrative cases against participants of a picket against the war in Georgia that had been conducted near the Russian Embassy in Minsk on 11 August. The action was violently dispersed by the police. The commission delivered a warning to 16-year-old Illia Shyla and his elder brother Ivan was fined 875 000 rubles (about $400).

2. Tortures and other kinds of cruel and inhumane treatment

On 1 September the police detained and beat Yana Paliakova, a member of the electoral team of a candidate Volha Kazulina. Three policemen guarded her to the police station, where the woman felt bad, after which an ambulance, under the police surveillance, guarded her to the hospital. The medics registered bodily injures on one hand and both legs. Yana Paliakova addressed the procuracy with the request to hold a check-up concerning the abuse of official powers by the police officers.

On 7 September Yury Panasiuk, a member of the youth wing of the United Civil Party, told human rights activists about the illegal actions of officers of secret services including tortures. They approached him in the street and one of them hit him in the chest without saying anything. Two others seized him by the hands, handcuffed him and then threw on the back seat of their car. Then they started asking him about the explosion that had taken place in Minsk on 4 July. Suddenly one of them took out a knife. Trying to protect himself from it, Panasiuk cut two fingers on the left hand. He was hit in the head several times and then was thrown out of the car. Yury considers it as an attempt to intimidate youth activists.

3. Freedom of expression and the right to disseminate information

On 9 September Iuyue district court considered the suit of the head of Hrodna oblast KGB office I.Siarhiyenka, in which he demanded that issue #127 of an independent newspaper Svaboda (14-27 August 2008) was confessed extremist. Judge A.Toustsik agreed that the newspaper contained materials that propagated extremist activities and genocide of the Osetian people by the Georgian authorities, and ruled that the whole circulation of the newspaper which had been detained on 19 August had to be destroyed. It was the first of a number of similar trials concerning ‘extremist materials, which were started on the initiative of Hrodna KGB office.

On 18 September a preliminary meeting of sides on the civil case On confessing of informational materials as extremist took place at Kastrychnitski district court of Hrodna. The case was brought on the initiative of Hrodna oblast KGB department. As it was found at the trial, nine persons from whom ‘potential extremist’ production had been confiscated during the recent years were defendants in the case: Barys Haretski, member of the United Civil Party Uladzimir Laryn, Zmitser Malchyk, Yury Martsinovich, journalist Andzhei Pisalnik, human rights activist Valer Shchukin, Yauhen Skrabutan, Aliaksei Trubkin and Stanislau Yodka. Among the ‘extremist materials’ there is also the Review-chronicle of Human Rights Violations in Belarus in 2004 (prepared by HRC Viasna) which was confiscated by the customs officers from Aliaksei Trubkin. According to the court verdict, the book ‘contains a considerable number of photos from mass unauthorized protest actions in the Republic of Belarus (Freedom Day, Chernobyl Way, Dziady) and anti-Belarusian direction, and materials with traits of calls to seizure of state power in a non-Constitutional way and organization of mass riot’.

Only three out of nine defendants came to the court. After a separate talk with each of them the judge Alexander Sitsko said that that case would be consider in October. No journalists and human rights activists were allowed to be present during the ‘conversations’.

On 11 September unidentified persons robbed a distributor of independent press Barys Khamaida. Several hundreds of copies of the newspapers Narodnaya Volia, Nasha Niva and Kurier iz Vitebska, five copies of the Arche magazine and five copies of Selection of Lukashenka’s quotations by Uladzimir Padhol were stolen from a friend’s garage, where Khamaida stored it all. He thinks that most probably the thieves picked up a key, as the lock was not broken. Barys Khamaida thinks that this theft is not occasional and is connected with the parliamentary elections.

On 15 September judge of Pukhavichy district court Liliya Rukhlevich rejected the suit of the dwellers of settlement of Druzhny against Pukhavichy district executive committee. By this verdict the citizens are prohibited to familiarize with documents of Pukhavichy district executive committee related to the planned construction of a chemical plant by a Russian private company Avgust-Bel. ‘Apart from ecological information these documents witness that the local population protests against construction of this plant. That’s why it very necessary for us to receive them. We are trying to prove that the people expressed their negative attitude to such plans, and that the authorities lie about it,’ said Nastassia Rysiavets. According to her, on 3 September Pukhavichy district court held a preliminary meeting with the plaintiffs. On 10 September the court requested from Pukhavichy DEC documents concerning construction of the plant, but on 12 September only the judge and the prosecutor familiarized with them.

On 14 September a Young Front activist Andrei Tychyna was detained at the central market of Salihorsk for distribution of an independent newspaper Svabodny Salihorsk. The police handcuffed him and guarded to the police station. There 40 copies of the newspaper were confiscated from him and an appropriate report was composed. In an hour the youngster was let go.

4. Right to peaceful assemblies

On 12 September the vice-head of the Young Front Nasta Palazhanka addressed Minsk city executive committee with the request to authorize a picket, which the opposition intended to hold on 28 September in Kastrychnitskaya Square in order to inform the Belarusian society about falsifications and repressions during the electoral farce. The city’s authorities answered with a refusal. Moreover, on the eve of the action its organizers were called to the police and procuracy, one by one. All of them were warned about possible criminal punishment.

On 15 September activists of Polatsk branch of the Young Front were refused in authorization of the picket Boycott 2008, which they intended to hold on 20 September. The official reason for the refusal is that a children’s movie would be shown in the nearest cinema and the action could hinder watching it. ‘It is an evident law violation, that’s why we have already applied Polatsk town executive committee, the procuracy, the local election commission and the Central election commission’, stated an activist of the Young Front Ales Krutkin. Bear in mind that several days before it the secretary of the Central election commission Mikalai Lazavik said that it was not prohibited to agitate for boycott of the parliamentary elections.

The authorities of Barysau banned a festival of Christian music, organized by representatives of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant confessions. About a hundred of musicians and singers from different parts of Belarus were to have taken part in it. The festival was to have lasted from 16 to 21 September. About 1,5 thousand people gathered for the action. However, ten minutes prior to its beginning a representative of the ideological department of Barysau stated that the permission for holding the action ‘lost its legal force’ and the festival was prohibited. She explained that the organizers did not agree the program of the festival with the authorities. They also allegedly did not solve the security issues and did not organize the cleaning of the territory after its end.

5. Right to association

On 30 September Rechytsa district court started considering the preliminary suit of the independent Belarusian trade union of radio electronic industry against Rechytsa district executive committee concerning the refusal of the latter to register a district trade union unit. Judge Anatol Strelchanka requested the appropriate documents confirming the admission of new members to the trade union and the legality of the creation of the territorial unit. It is expected that several members of the trade union will be summonsed to the next court sitting and that the court will deliver its verdict on 6 October.

By the way, it is already the second trial in Rechytsa concerning non-registration of new units of the trade union by the local authorities. In summer the same judge rejected a similar suit of the trade union. He stated that it was an argument of two subjects of economy and it was not in his powers to consider such cases.

6. Politically motivated dismissals from work and expulsions from high schools

In the beginning of September a first-year student Rastsislau Pankratau was expelled from Mahiliou State University. The official reason is poor academic progress, but the activist considers it as revenge for his public and political activities. Before being expelled, he was many times visited by KGB officers, who threatened him with expulsion.

A member of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Tatsiana Shambalava, who participated in the electoral campaign as a pretender for candidate from the United democratic forces, was also expelled from Mahiliou State University.

An activist of the Young Front Mikola Dzemidzenka was expelled from Polatsk State University. Before the expulsion he was several times detained by the police for distribution of agitation materials and Boycott stickers.

Katsus Zhukouski, Homel coordinator of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party, was fired after a visit of unidentified persons to the director of his enterprise. After a conversation with them the director advised Zhukouski to revoke the application for registration of his initiative group. The activist refused. Then the director told him to write an application for quitting on his own will. The head of Zhukouski’s initiative group Alexander Sivakou was also fired after his boss advised him to stop his electoral activities.

On 29 September the administration of the Central clinical hospital, where Ivan Bedka, head of the electoral headquarters of an oppositional candidate Ivan Sheha, was working as an orderly, broke the working contract with him before the expiry of the contract term. No explanations were offered to Bedka. An hour was left for Bedka to his pension. ‘I am going to appeal against the dismissal in court, as employment contracts can be stopped when at least three years are left to pension’, said the activist.

7. Freedom of consciousness

In the evening of 10 September, during a regular prayer for returning of the building of Minsk St. Joseph church to the believers, the head of a department of the Committee on national and religious affairs Alexander Kalinau met with the people. He promised that the temple would be returned to the believers and called them to stop the termless fast by which they tried to get the building returned.

8. Capital punishment

In 2008 in Belarus only one person was sentenced to death. It was stated by the head of the Supreme Court Valiantsin Sukala at the press-conference in Minsk on 9 September. According to the official, this number witnesses that death penalty is used very rarely and there is almost a moratorium on it. He also pointed that the introduction of such a moratorium was in the competency of the president and the legislative authorities, but the judges are psychologically ready to it. ‘On the other hand’, Sukala stated, ‘we mustn’t forget about the results of referendum 1996, at which the majority of citizens of Belarus supported the use of capital punishment’.