HOMEL AUTHORITIES: BELARUSIANS MUST NOT KNOW ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN RUSSIA

Homel authorities did not let participants of the European bus tour campaign “Justice for All“ speak about human rights violations in Russia.
The bus tour through a number of Eastern and Central European countries arriving in Homel on September 22 was organized by Swiss Amnesty International. The goal of the campaign was to inform people about human rights violations in Russia and urge them to sign a petition addressed to the Russian President.
Materials prepared by members of Swiss Amnesty International contain evidence about tortures and severe treatment of prisoners, violence against women, ethnic discrimination and murders in Chechnya. There are numerous evidence that hundreds of thousands former Soviet citizens are rejected Russian citizenship. According to the information of the human rights activists, these people will be deported from the country after December 31, 2003, when Soviet passports become invalid.
Homel authorities prohibited the campaign participants speak about these facts in Homel.
According to Viachaslaw Bortnik, leader of Homel initiative group promoting activities of Amnesty International, the authorities let them hold an action in the city outskirts but limited the topics to the speech on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bortnik admitted the campaign participants had to agree to such conditions to be able to hold the event.
On September 24 International Amnesty bus will head to Minsk making a stop in Babruisk. The tour will continue in Lithuania finishing in Russia in the beginning of October.

Press Service
Assembly of NGOs