The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for December 2010

06.12.2010 Spontaneous meeting of dwellers of Uruccha-2 suburb

On 3 December more than 300 dwellers of the Minsk suburb Uruchcha-2 held a spontaneous assembly against the construction of multi-stored houses on the children’s playground.

06.12.2010 Forced subscription to state-owned press continues

The subscription campaign has started in Belarus. The ideological departments of the district executive committees are again sending Plans of organizational measures to conduct subscription to printed mass media to state enterprises and institutions.

06.12.2010 Andrei Sannikau’s wife searched at Minsk airport

Journalist Iryna Khalip, the wife of Belarusian presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau, was detained at the Minsk-2 airport on 4 December night on her way from Budapest, where she had received a diploma of the Central European Initiative for her contribution in investigative journalism.

06.12.2010 Election of the President of Belarus 2010: Weekly Analytical Review (29 November – 5 December)

The CEC refused to allow observers to be present at the polling stations overnight during the early voting period, and once again dismissed the proposal to describe the process of vote count in detail, i.e. ignored those elements of voting process which are most vulnerable to potential falsifications.

04.12.2010 Biaroza District Executive Committee violates legal terms of answering to candidate's proxy

Anatol Sakharusha, a proxy of the presidential candidate Ryhor Kastusiou received an answer from the Biaroza District Executive Committee to his complaint concerning the failure of the Biaroza District Executive Committee to include the town of Malech (which has about 2,000 dwellers) in the list of the places where candidates and their proxies are allowed to hold canvassing events.

04.12.2010 Head of CIS observation mission in Brest region praises authorities

’Much has been done in Belarus for the future’, these words of the head of the branch of the CIS observation mission in the Brest region Bakhyt Dasanov were put in the title of an article of the district state-owned newspaper Drahichynski Vesnik.

04.12.2010 Pinsk: building of Belaya Rus turns into Lukashenka’s reception room

The official website of the Pinsk Town Executive Committtee www.pinsk.by published an article about the opening of a regional branch of the public reception room of President of the Republic of Belarus A.Lukashenka in the building of the local branch of the ‘state NGO’ Belaya Rus.

04.12.2010 Homel: somebody purposefully removes electoral posters of candidates

The electoral posters of the presidential candidate Andrei Sannikau disappeared from the informational stands of the Navabelitski district of Homel. ’In the morning all electoral posters at about 15 informational stands were at their places, but in 2 hours all of them were removed. Somebody must have purposefully torn them away,’ explained the democratic activist Viktar Kazlou.

04.12.2010 Hrodna: another detention on the border

The detentions of civil and political activists continue at the frontier points of the Hrodna region. In the evening of 2 December the border guards detained Vital Huliak at the frontier point Babrouniki-Berastavitsa.

04.12.2010 OSCE Election Observation Mission publised its Interim Report No. 1 on Belarusian election

The report of the Election Observation Mission of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, published on 2 December, covers the period of 15-24 November 2010

03.12.2010 Another dismissal for video clip

A week after the dismissal of Yauhen Shapchyts for a video trailer about an elderly woman, canvassing and passport (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36jGq6EeYkk), one of the main actors, Pavel Bandzich, followed his fate.

03.12.2010 Hrodna Region Court turns down review complaints of opposition parties

The Hrodna Region Court, headed by Aliaksandr Hrynkevich, predictably declined the review complaints of the Hrodna city organization of the Belarusian Popular Front and the Hrodna regional organization of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada against the non-inclusion of their representatives in the precinct election commissions of Hrodna.

03.12.2010 Homel: observer applies to Central Election Commission

Anatol Paplauny, an observer registered at the Homel Region Election Commission, applied to the Central Election Commission with a complaint about violation of requirements of the electoral legislation by activists of the Belarusian Republican Youth Union (BRSM).

03.12.2010 Hrodna: the regional court sides with a district court

On 2 December the Hrodna Region Court considered the appeal of Dzmitry Bandarchuk against the verdict of the Leninski District Court of Hrodna of 10 November 2010, according to which he was fined 700,000 rubles (about $230) for the alleged production and an attempt of distribution of the newspaper Prauda Niakliayeva.

03.12.2010 Maladechna: human rights defender Ales Kaputski dismissed from work

On 1 December the human rights defender from Maladechna Ales Kaputski, a long-term observer of the campaign Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections was dismissed from work. The administration of the private enterprise where he worked refused to extend his labor contract without offering any explanations.