The Human Rights Center “Viasna”

News for January 2013

14.01.2013 Ales Bialiatski wishes to Slonim activists to build the Belarusian home together

On the New Year eve members of the Slonim association of democratic forces sent greeting postcards to all political prisoners. Recently they have received an answer from Ales Bialiatski.

14.01.2013 Police raid LGBT parties

In the night of 12-13 January the police raided an LGBT-party of the human rights project "GayBelarus" in the "21st century" nightclub in Vitsebsk. At about 0.20 a.m. riot police assaulted the club. All participants of the party were lined up facing the wall – males on one side of the corridor, females – on the other.

14.01.2013 Night assault on "European Belarus" activist Yuliya Stsiapanava

At about 1 a.m. on 14 January two unidentified people assaulted an activist of the "European Belarus" Yuliya Stsiapanava. They threw her in snow and cut her hair.

12.01.2013 Brest: journalists are not admitted to the trial over their colleague

The judge of the Maskouski District Court of Brest Tatsiana Isayeva turned down the petition for admitting all interested people to the trial over the photo correspondent Milana Kharytonava.

12.01.2013 Customs officers ignore appeal of "Fair World" member Ilona Tkachova

The Zhlobin member of the Belarusian Leftist Party "Fair World" Ilona Tkachova hasn't received any answer to her appeal to the head of the border crossing point "Novaya Huta" concerning the detention of her family on 6 December 2012 and the confiscation of her laptop and photo camera.

12.01.2013 Trees still cut down in Salihorsk forest park

The defenders of the Salihorsk forest park have received another defeat in the struggle for a healthy environment.

12.01.2013 Yauhen Basareuski: "the court minutes were evidently fabricated"

The Zhlobin member of the Belarusian Leftist Party "Fair World" Yauhen Basareuski, sentenced to three years of imprisonment by the Zhlobin District Court for alleged abused of office powers, received a copy of the minutes of the court sitting.

12.01.2013 Law on Alternative Military Service can be made unreasonably severe and formal

Aliaksandr Lukashenka has approved the plan for preparing bills for 2013. One of them can be called sensational for the Belarusian reality – "On Alternative Service". However, there is a risk that this reform will take place without the participation of civil society.

11.01.2013 Activist of United Civil Party gets warned

On 11 January the Brest Region Prosecutor's Office issued a UCP activist Alina Litvinchuk with an official warning about the inadmissibility of illegal work for foreign mass media.

11.01.2013 Will state official be punished for illegal use of labor?

The head of the "Mahiliouablselbud" hostels Pavel Shyshou illegally used the labor of workers for repairs in his own apartment in Shmidt Street, 24 in Mahiliou during the working hours.

11.01.2013 "Belposhta" tells "Hazeta Slonimskaya" to distribute circulation on its own

On the New Year eve the national unitary enterprise "Belposhta" received a collective address with the request the request to include the private newspaper "Gazeta Slonimskaya" in the state sale network of the national unitarian enterprise "Belsayuzdruk".

11.01.2013 Political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok is allowed to have only one meeting and one parcel a year

The political prisoner Mikalai Dziadok has been kept in the cell-type facility of Mahiliou for over a month already. He was transferred there from the Shklou colony, allegedly for repeated violation of the prison regulations.

11.01.2013 "Spy" Haidukou's friend interrogated at KGB again

Since the end of December 2012, an activist of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party Illia Bahdanau has been the second suspect in the case of "high treason", initially brought only against the Navapolatski civil activist Andrei Haidukou.

11.01.2013 Mahiliou KGB reluctant to discriminate in the case of "Slavonic March" organization

The decision to authorize the "Slavonic March" is beyond our competence – this is the answer received by the deputy head of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) Ihar Barysau from the deputy head of the Mahiliou Region KGB Bureau Savienka.

11.01.2013 Lithuanian Foreign Minister: What is more important: human rights or freight traffic in Klaipeda?

Foreign Minister of Lithuania Linas Linkevicius presented his own opinion on the Lithuania-Belarus relations in an interview on Morning Topic programme on 10 January. The minister thinks that “Belarusians are our partners. Both Lithuania and the EU can and should talk to them.” “Only in this case we will be able to see changes,” DELFI new agency quotes Linkevicius.