Dissidents will be classified as terrorists?

The concept of the fight against terrorism adopted by Belarus government.

The main terrorism trends and internal and external sources of the menace are described in it.

According to the concept, the geographical position of Belarus is the main external source of the terroristic threat. Groupings and criminal organizations consider Belarus as “a transit corridor”. The increasing number of migrants coming or passing Belarus is also a threat because there may be terrorists among them.

«Objects posing a potential threat to the environment» may also be a source of terrorism, the document says.

Internal sources of the terrorism threat are: «distribution of the terroristic ideology, separatism, national, racial and religious hostility, illegal activities of organizations, groups and people promoting the mentioned ideology and existence of destructive and pseudo-religious cults».

The government also considers «the weakening of patriotism and loss of traditional moral values among the youth due to the lack of development of the civil society, destructive information influence and social segregation trends» a potential threat.

A former counsel and current human rights activist Pavel Sapelka commented on the resolution for the charter97.org web-site.

«There is a trend in Belarus, when the aspiration to establish control over civil society de-facto meets the lack of certain legal norms or methods. In this case they have to establish some legal or pseudo-legal foundation for the «fifth column, etc» discourse. It seems to me, that due to that the government is trying to solve the issue exactly in this way: by adopting resolutions and other regulatory enactments, which broaden or make vague these or those concepts», - the lawyer highlighted.

The human rights activist noted, that a terrorist in the traditional perception is a «bearded or beardless man with a machine gun and explosives».

«But when they start manipulating these notions, then they add to that also the activities, which by definition cannot cause harm to citizens’ interests, protected by the law. Thus, these or those civil society institutes, known for their intolerance to tyranny, can be rated as terroristic or organizations, posing a potential threat. Manipulations with this document will also allow for proclaiming these or those political forces terroristic or posing a potential terroristic threat», - Pavel Sapelka is convinced.

We would remind that in June 2012 the House of Representatives adopted the amendments to the law «On fight against terrorism». They have changed the notion of terrorism, which is now explained not as an action, but a phenomenon:

«Terrorism – is a socio-political phenomenon, which includes ideology and the practice of using violence or the threat of violence for the purpose of influencing authorities in their decisions or preventing political or other public activities, the violation of public security, the intimidation of the population, the provocation of international conflicts, wars, the undermining of the constitutional order and the destabilization of the state’s domestic affairs».

The new wording is applied towards the whole scope of socio-political activities. Holding a strike or a street manifestation falls into the terrorism category according to it, because the authorities may interpret any unauthorized action as a «threat of violent actions».