The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for October 2011

05.10.2011 Belarusian government bans “mass inaction”

Members of the House of Representatives adopted amendments to the Law on mass events in two readings on 3 October. The amendments were worked out following successful mass silent actions. The draft law on mass events in the Republic of Belarus prepared by the Council of Ministers provides for asking for permission to hold mass actions and mass inaction.

04.10.2011 Two months have passed since the arrest of Ales Bialiatski

Today, on 4 October, there turns two months since the detention of the well-known Belarusian human rights activist, vice-president of the International Federation of Human Rights Ales Bialiatski.

04.10.2011 Foreign experience is inapplicable for Brest authorities

Brest activists of political parties received an answer to their collective appeal to the deputies of the House of Representatives, which dealt with improving the law on mass events.

04.10.2011 Hrodna police warn organizers of People’s Assembly

On 4 October Pavel Staneuski, deputy chairman of the Hrodna regional branch of the Belarusian Leftist Party “Fair World”, was summonsed to the police department.

04.10.2011 Homel: provincial offenders can spend 80-200 days in remand prisons

On 2 October Andrei Tsianiuta and Dzmitry Shauchenka were released from jail after serving 15 and 10 days of arrest respectively. Dzmitry Tsianiuta was punished for handing out leaflets with invitations to a “silent protest” action, and Andrei Tsianiuta – for leaflets inviting people to take part in the People’s Assembly on 8 October.

04.10.2011 Zmitser Dashkevich writes about his time in prison

The political prisoner needs his knee to be operated. He has written about that in his letter to his godmother Natallia Yasevich. In his another letter from prison the “Young Front” leader Zmitser Dashkevich tells about the danger he faces. He calls the last 9 months behind the bars the most difficult in his life. For the first time the political prisoner mentions he want to demand a knee surgery.

04.10.2011 Police struggle with abstainers

Police banned the initiative group “Temperance is easy!” to do weekly jogging in Gorky Park in Minsk on 2 October.

04.10.2011 People are prohibited to read our website at work

Participants of the 6th yearly conference “Business Internet”, held on 3-4 October in Minsk, were shown the so-called “black-list” of national web-resources, the access to which is blocked in all state institutions of the country.

04.10.2011 Homel: Andrei Tsianiuta detained again

The “Young Front” activist had been released from jail three days ago, after serving 10-day arrest for handing out invitations to the People's Assembly.

04.10.2011 Brest: first detentions for People's Assembly

Liavontsi Chypurnykh, the deputy chair of the Brest city department of the Belarusian Leftist Party “Fair World”, was detained in the evening of 3 October.

04.10.2011 Stop-petrol action: police evacuate parked vehicles

The protest action against the new rise of fuel prices and decrease in the life standards was scheduled for 7 p.m.

04.10.2011 Detained participants of picket on Svaboda Square got fined

About 20 people took part in the action that was held on 3 October in Svaboda Square. Nine of them were detained. The picket was organized by women who fell victims to grave crimes and who disagree with court decisions in their civil cases and criminal cases against their relatives. The picketers held posters “Officials must answer”, “Presidential administration is reliable guard from outrage in the country” and so on.

03.10.2011 Actions to immediately release political prisoners in Belarus discussed at the OSCE Human Dimension Conference

The parallel event “Ales Bialiatski: symbolical case of violation of political and political rights in Belarus after the presidential elections of 2010” took place within the framework of the yearly Human Dimension Meeting of the OSCE. It was organized by a coalition of human rights organizations including the Norwegian Human Rights Committee, Polish Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, World Organization against Torture, Amnesty International, Human Rights House Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Front Line, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Human Rights Center Viasna. It was attended by former political prisoner Aliaksandr Atroshchankau, presidential candidate Vital Rymasheuski and leaders of the democratic parties of Belarus.

03.10.2011 Andrei Tsianiuta appeals against arrest

Andrei Tsianiuta was arrested for 10 days in Homel for handing out invitations to the People’s Assembly which will take place on 8 October in Minsk and other towns and cities of Belarus.

03.10.2011 Babruisk authorities prohibit signing for construction of school and hospital

Activists of the civil campaign “Tell the Truth!” are collecting signatures for the construction of a new school in the Zakhodni suburb, the reconstruction of the road on Krylou Street and concerning problems in the polyclinics in Farshtat suburb in Babruisk.