News on the topic: political parties & movements
03.02.2009 Huge fines for anti-KGB rally
Activists of the Young Front and the Belarusian Christian Democracy have been fined millions of rubles for the rally staged against arbitrary actions of the KGB.
03.02.2009 Office of Prosecutor General leaves warning to Liabedzka and Pashkevich in force
The Office of the Prosecutor General upheld the official warning that had been issued by the deputy Prosecutor General Aliaksei Stuk to the leader of the United Civil Party and the leader of the UCP youth wing, Young Democrats, Mikhail Pashkevich, for having allegedly organized the printing of the newspaper Glotok Vozdukha.
03.02.2009 Homel: police detain participants of action against political dismissals
On 3 February in Homel the police detained three activists of Young Front and of the organizing committee the Belarusian Christian Democracy party.
02.02.2009 Youth protest against politically motivated drafts into the army
More than a dozen of activists of the unregistered organization Young Front held participated in the action of protest opposite the building of the Ministry of Defense. They stood there with the banner ‘No to political army drafting!’ and chanted ‘Freedom to Shyla! Freedom to Franak! Freedom to Khvedaruk!’
29.01.2009 Youth activist Shyla goes on strike
Deputy head of the Young Front youth organization Ivan Shyla has reportedly declared a hunger-strike. Shyla says he would stop the strike only after his conscription to the army was reviewed. He also demanded that harassment by the military officials and the Belarusian secret services be immediately stopped. ‘I am determined and self-confident. I have seen much, but these theatrics are something out of the world,’ says Shyla. Ivan Shyla was detained during a search in his apartment on 28 January and subsequently taken to the local military registration and enlistment office where he was declared fit for military service by a medical commission. Now he is awaiting departure for a military unit in Minsk region.
28.01.2009 Franak Viachorka sent to army
The BPF’s Youth leader Franak Viachorka has reportedly been escorted to a military unit in Baranavichy, after he had been violently drafted in spite of his poor health and medical examination results stating this. Belarusian human rights experts have repeatedly stressed that such means of persecution are evidence of politically-motivated discrimination.
28.01.2009 More Belarusian to be used on state TV
During his meeting with the leader of the Belarusian Language Society Aleh Trusau, head of the state-owned TV channel BT Aliaksandr Zimouski said Belarusian would be more widely used on air, including a number of daily and weekly programs in Belarusian and a monthly talk-show on the problems of the language status in Belarus.
28.01.2009 HRHF concerned about conscription of civil and political activists in Belarus
The Human Rights House Foundation (HRHF) sent a letter to the Defense Minister of Belarus today, expressing its concerns about the conscription of civil and political activits in Belarus.
26.01.2009 Opposition leader Franak Viachorka to join army, says court
According to Franak Viachorka’s lawyer, the activists was found fit for military service by Minsk Savetski Borough Court in absentia on 23 January, despite the fact he the hearing was due on 26 January. Vintsuk Viachorka, Franak’s father and vice-head of the BPF party, says the decision is the most blatant violation of judicial procedures over the Lukashenka years, since it was a closed trial in absentia (the defendant was misled by representatives of the court).
21.01.2009 Hrodna NGOs and opposition interrogated in connection with bomb threat
A number of Hrodna NGOs and political parties have received letters from the town police department urging to provide explanations concerning the 20 May 2007 bomb threat, the day when the For Freedom constituent assembly and an activity organized by Poland’s General Consulate in Hrodna, the latter having caused a diplomatic scandal, were stopped by the police due to ‘a phone bomb threat’. Captain Kalemeitsau demands to inform the police of the events that took place on 20 May, 2007 and to provide a list of persons that took part in those activities.
21.01.2009 Belarusian-language schools to become extinct in 5 years
According to the data, provided by the Ministry of Statistics, only 1.9% of Belarusian first formers go to Belarusian-language schools, which is 30 times less than in 1993. In total, there are 18.4% of Belarusian-speaking schoolchildren, the urban schools having as little as 1.9% Belarusian-language pupils.
19.01.2009 Open-air meeting?
According to UCP leader Anatol Liabedzka, the initiators of a campaign for introducing changes to the Belarusian electoral legislation do not have a place to hold a constituent assembly. ‘We have over 800 persons in the group. We have addressed 12 Minsk conference halls and have so far received 6 replies – all of them were negative,’ said Mr.Liabedzka.
19.01.2009 Implementation of the right to freedom of association in Belarus: 2008 analysis
In 2008 the situation in the field of the freedom of association in Belarus was extremely ambiguous. With the government expressing unfavourable attitude towards the activity of independent NGOs and opposition political parties, there emerged a number of new tendencies, dealing with the Belarus-EU and Belarus-US dialogue. The inner political situation was aggravated by a factor of foreign-policy, by making it even more multidimensional; the freedom of association is still controlled by the Belarusian government. The circumstances admit of no haste in taking evaluating the freedom of association and the situation with NGOs in 2008: one would not speak of any cardinal change, neither would one state the absence improvement in the field.
17.01.2009 Solidarity Day: Finkevich and Kastylenka detained
On 16 January, shortly after the end of a solidarity action plainclothes riot police officers detained leader of the Young Belarus movement Artur Finkevich and a YB activist Siarhei Kastylenka. The activists were distributing leaflets containing a list of kidnapped Belarusian journalists and politicians.
16.01.2009 Opposition activist awarded default judgment
On 15 December Kalinkavichy district court executor in a special letter demanded that United Civic Party activist Dzianis Rabianok pay a BYR 1,500,000 fine awarded to him by Elsk district court for ‘violations of electoral legislation’ in absentia.
