Book about 187 Belarusian political prisoners presented in Minsk

The Chronicles of Political Prisoners tell about 187 citizens of Belarus whom the authorities prosecuted or continue to prosecute on political motives.

The book was published in 2014 in Belarusian-Polish and English-Polish versions with the assistance of the Polish Foundation for the Development of Democratic Initiatives. Human rights defenders say the book was presented so late due to difficulties with bringing books into Belarus from Poland, BelaPAN reports.

“We brought two or three books at a time,” Zmitser Salauyou said at the presentation.

The Chronicles are a sort of a reference book, containing biographies and stories of 187 people who were prosecuted for their political and civil activities in Belarus.

“The book is in fact a printed version of our website,” Zmitser Salauyou said. “The website was launched in 2011 after the arrest of many participants of the post-election protests and the arrest of Ales Bialiatski. A group of volunteers began to collect information about the people who faced criminal charges for their public and political activities in Belarus' recent history.”

The book, as well as the website, covers the period from 1989, when artist Ales Pushkin was given a two-year suspended sentence for an anti-governmental exhibition and participation in the Freedom Day rally. “The book was published last year, so Yury Rubtsou was not included,” Salauyou noted.

The human rights defender stressed there were no clear criteria allowing to call a person a political prisoner in the 1990s. The authors used press materials of that time to determine if a particular criminal case contained political context.

According to Salauyou, the book is meant for foreign readers. The book was created “for decision-makers and those who influence relations between Belarus and other countries to understand that political prisoners is a system problem in Belarus”.

The books will also be distributed among Belarusian political prisoners.