August "Operetta" :: Charter'97 :: News

The presidential election in Belarus this year is carried out with violations of civil rights – the guarantee of the inviolability of person, of civil freedoms, of the right to change the rule. The attitude of the state towards international investigations of human rights violations is not as it should be in a civilized state.

In August new testimony about connection of Belarusian authorities to political assassinations of Viktor Gonchar and Anatoly Krasovsky were revealed. A former head of the Minsk pre-detention center Oleg Alkaev in his interview to “Belarusian Business Newspaper” validated that the reports and examination records are authentic. This documents show that the gun used for execution of death sentences was given away under order of Yuri Sivakov, on the days that coincide with the dates of prominent people’s disappearances. Oleg Alkaev validated that the report was written by him. The examination record was written by the interrogator, but after the words of Alkaev, as said by him.

Another piece of evidence was a video tape, where an unknown former member of SOBR (special unit of quick response) gives the details of Gonchar and Krasovsky’s abduction. A few new names of the participants of the crime were named. Few days later a KGB officer Gennady Uglianitsa and “Kraj” activist Andrei Zhernosek confirm the statement of the former SOBR officer. They do not conceal their faces on the tape, and name those who had connection to the assassination of Gonchar and Krasovsky, show their photographs.

And finally, in the end of August Pavel Sheremet, ORT TV reporter, declares that Oleg Alkaev’s testimony is true: “His every word is validated by the documents. I saw all the documents with my own eyes.”

Despite these pieces of evidence, the authorities have not undertaken any investigation. Moreover, they charge the opposition with these abductions. The Public Prosecutor’s Office made a statement that the leaders of the United Civil Party could have transferred people through the border and than claim that they had been abducted by the authorities.

Human rights organization Amnesty International gave the following evaluation of the situation in Belarus: “People are abducted not only during war, but are frequently used by the authorities to make opposition politicians and independent journalists silent”.

According to Charter’97 press center, in August 2001 the following facts of ill-treatment and brutality of the state towards its citizens took place. Valery Schukin, the Supreme Soviet deputy, who is serving a three-month detention in Zhodino confinement center, is deprived of information. The correspondence is prohibited for him, and he can read only one, pro-governmental newspaper “Zvyazda”. He cannot listen to the radio. His requests to confess and receive communion were refused.

On August 14 in Mogilyov an inhuman beating of the picketers protesting against abductions of prominent politicians happened. An old passer-by, a disabled person was dragged on the ground and his head was hit against the sidewalk. One of ZUBR activists was hit against the car with his head, his arm was dislocated.

Andrey Klimov, former Supreme Soviet deputy, serves is fifth year in prison an unlawful sentence. His ‘transgression’ was of purely economical nature and according to the law is punished by a fine.

In August mass arrests of opposition activists continued. 12 United Civil Party members were apprehended in Soligorsk and Vitebsk for their part in picket reminding of the missing. Three ZUBRs were detained for their desire to make a present (clothes) to Minsk police. Vasily Zhakov, ZUBR activist, was arrested for graffiti and released after 8 hours of imprisonment. 12 people were detained for a musical picket in Soligorsk, nine of them spent a night in prison. 17 ZUBR members were detained in Moilyov for the protest with the pictures of the missing. Eight United Civil Party activists were detained for the picket “We want to know the truth”. 12 ZUBRs were detained at the meeting with the deputy head of the district Liudmila Shipay for having T-shirts with ZUBR logo on. One of them, Igor Suld, spent 22 hours in the pre-detention center in the Okrestino Street without a court sentence and later was fined 15 thousands roubles. Three ZUBR activists were arrested for three hours for their attempt to give a bag of stickers to the Lithuanian Embassy representatives. In Schklov, native town of the president, a criminal case was brought against five ZUBR members for a performance in the street.

In August the pressure on the independent mass media continued. The journalists were invited for confidential ‘conversations’ with KGB officers. The Pagonya newspaper journalist Pavel Mozhejko regards this conversation as “an attempt of usual recruiting or indirect intimidation”.

The restrictions of the editorial offices’ activities are getting severe. The Justice Department of the Brest Regional executive committee charged the Brest Courier newspaper with spreading of the information on the activities of the unregistered organizations. The State Committee for Press issued an official warning for the Nasha Svaboda newspaper for the article “The Dictator Is Betrayed By His Entourage”, allegedly for the information on the establishment’s plot against the president. The Minsk State Public Prosecutor’s Office brought a criminal action on charges relating the slander of the incumbent president. The article “Thief Must Be Imprisoned” in the special issue of the Rabochy newspaper, telling about the facts of corruption of the highest officials, was an alleged reason for the action. As a final point, censorship, which is forbidden according the Belarusian Law on Press, was introduced. The State Committee for Press deputy chairman Vladimir Gushakov plays the role of censor. His actions led to the arrest of all the Rabochy newspaper copies, and to publishing a special issue of the “Predprinimatelskaya Gazeta” with two blank spots.

But the authorities employ even more crude methods. The accounts of the independent private publishing house “Magic” are arrested. The computers of the Nasha Svaboda editorial office were sealed up, the police officers with machine guns arrived for intimidation the staff. The equipment of the publishing house “Magic” was arrested. Computers of the independent newspaper ‘Kutsejna” from Orsha were confiscated. 10 computers of the editorial office of the newspaper Narodnaya Volya were confiscated as well. All the copies of the special edition of the Rabochy newspaper about the united democratic candidate were confiscated. Only 12 thousands instead of 45 thousands copies of the next in turn issue of the Narodnaya Volya were published because of the Magic printing press arrest. 24 thousand copies of Narodnaya Volya newspaper were confiscated from the members of the Uinted Civil Party. The state newspaper stalls in Glybokae refuse to sell the registered independent newspaper “Volnae Glybokae”, earlier Molodechno and Novopolotsk printing presses refused to publish this newspaper.

The authorities shun publicity and do not allow observers Emma Grey, a consultant of the British branch of the Journalists Defense Committee, and Diana Maxi, the member of the OSCE Department for Mass media Freedom in Europe, to enter the country. As Diana Maxi commented, “the situation in the mass media before the election has become even worse. It has never been good. But the way it is now is absolutely beyond my understanding”.

The right of citizens for non-state organizations is also being suppressed. As harsh regulations on non-state organizations are adopted in the country, unregistered civil initiatives emerge. The Justice Ministry discriminates against them. For example, the “Independent Observing” (Nezalezhnae Naziranne) is outlawed. The Justice Ministry is going to abolish the unregistered human rights defending center “Vyasna”.

The intimidation actions are carried out against the members of the non-governmental organizations as well. 15 members of the “Youth Front” were interrogated by KGB on the case of grenade explosion by the Russian Embassy. The KGB officers called Ivan Tomashkevich from the Youth Front the main suspect in the case. ZUBR activist Ales Masiuk was summoned to the Slonim KGB department for interrogation on the same case.

The number of raids in the offices of the non-state organizations has increased. Gomel center “Gart” has been seized twice. The ZUBR press secretary Roman Palaschenko was detained during the first break-in. In Mogilyov for seven hours the police was trying to enter forcibly the headquarters of the single democratic candidate. 15 policemen raided the private house of Mikhail Rudko, a coordinator of the democratic candidate’s headquarters in Brest. In August a wave of confiscations of the non-governmental organizations’ office equipment took place. The police is checking the activities of the Volkovysk human rights center “Aslona”. The police in Lida, on the order of the Interior Ministry department in Grodno, is cheching all the office equipment of the local non-governmental organizations. The report on confiscation of the equipment of the resource center “Vilenschina” has been drawn. Six computers of the non-governmental organization were confiscated by the search of the house of Viktor Kornienko, the head of the association “Civil Initiatives” in Gomel. In the office of the four youth organizations “the UCP Youth”, “Young Christian-Social Union”, “Belarusian Association of Young Politicians”, and a headquarters of the mobilization campaign “Choose!” all the office equipment was confiscated. The youth association “Gart” was left without its computers too. The equipment of the “All-Belarusian Voters Club”, belonging to the AMG OSCE. In Gomel the criminal action against ZUBR activists is brought for spray painting.

The right of the citizens for changing the rule is not welcomed by the authorities, to put it mildly. During the presidential election nearly always the arbitrariness of the state institutions prevails. The opposition and the rights of independent observers and voters are suppressed.

As for the state, the facts of its arbitrariness in during August are the following. The Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union, organization supported by the state, distributed calendars for the year 2002 with Lukashenko’s picture as a president, and tore off the posters of Vladimir Goncharik. The organization “Citadel” from Brest started agitation for Lukashenko before he had been registered. Several thousands of higher officials from all levels of the executive institutions are included into the headquarters of Lukashenko. CEC has elaborated such forms of the election records, which are easy to falsify. CEC refused to issue the credential of Syamon Domash trustee written out for Valery Schukin. Evgeny Novikov, a presenter of the state TV channel BT, slandered Vladimir Goncharik with impunity. The head of the Central Electoral Commission Lidia Yermoshina finds it normal that 99 percent of the “Soviet Belorussia” newspaper’s space is dedicated to only one candidate. The constituency commissions were instructed that a certain quantity of voters should participate in the early voting (up to 30 per cent in Minsk, up to 40 per cent in provinces), the per cents of the votes for Lukashenko are also predetermined. All the central state newspapers are to publish the complete Lukashenko’s platform. Lukashenko receives 81% of the coverage on Belarusian TV. The local election commissions deliberately reduce the number of the constituency members. The falsifiers from the local commissions are promised to receive high posts and valuable gifts. The local commissions are taught to “fight” with the independent observers. And the main thing is that the authorities arranged the early voting for rigging the election. Besides, the long-awaited credit of 30 million dollars was received from Russia.

The opposition was given many stabs in the back during the last month. Vladimir Zametalin charged the opposition with the plans to rig the election. In Domash’s headquarters in Grodno all the equipment was seized. The Ministry of Justice called the agreement on the single candidate contradicting the Constitution. The opposition candidates are refused the live coverage on TV. One of the leaders of the single candidate’s headquarters, Vitaly Malashko, got into a car accident. The Vladimir Goncharik’s meeting with voters in Mogilyov was considered as an unsanctioned assembly. The headquarters of Vladimir Goncharik are eavesdropped by secret services. The former deputy Secretary of the Security Council, Valery Kez, who turned into the opposition member, was beaten up by the unknown persons. In Mogilyov the headquarters of the single candidate was stormed by the police officers. CEC is threatening Goncharik to cancel his registration as a candidate, regarding the distribution of free independent newspapers as bribing the electorate. The compromising materials about Vasily Leonov are obtained through the arrest of businessman A.Smantzer. The house of the single candidate headquarters’ member in Brest was raided. The authorities try to stop the tour of rock musicians “Rock for Changes”. The Grodno executive committee did not allow Goncharik to held a meeting with voters in the Lenin Square.

Independent observers – both internal and external – are not welcomed by the authorities. “Independent Observation” was called unlawful. The equipment of the “All-Belarusian Voters’ Club” was confiscated. The authorities issued visas for ODIHR OSCE monitors two weeks later the last term. The key observers have not received visas at all. The mission was proposed to substitute these observers. The authorities introduced unprecedented measures restricting the activities of the foreign observers: they are not allowed to held press-conferences until the end of the election, on the day of election they cannot approach the tables where voters are given ballots, they cannot watch the votes count. The ODIHR OSCE mission was forced to carry out only limited observation.

The observers on the whole and different categories of them are not respected by the authorities. The teachers of the school #2 of the town of Radun (Grodno region) were given their salary only after they supported Lukashenko in special questionnaires. The people are mystified by the military maneuvers. The students of the Vitebsk region have to vote beforehand because of agriculture works. The workers of the metal casting plant in Soligorsk were threatened with sack for participation in Vladimir Goncharik’s meeting. The bank employees are forced to agitate for Lukashenko.

The attitude of the authorities towards the international investigation of the possible human rights violations became hysterical. In a response to the numerous declarations of AMG OSCE, USA Embassy, EU, PA CE, US State Department, Amnesty International, Helsinki Committee, International HumanRights Watch, International League fro Human Rights, ODIHR OSCE mission, Article 19, Reporters without Borders, Committee for the Journalists’ Rights protection, International Association for Human Rights, International Helsinki Federation the reaction was the following. Lukashenko charges the USA with working out the computer system of the election falsification. The equipment belonging to the USA and OSCE is confiscated. The blame for the people abductions is laid on the West. The international observers are not let in the country. The regime makes threats the US State department and the OSCE. A trial court against the US citizen Charles D. Periello commenced in Minsk. The US citizen Robert Fielding was deported from the country. The employee of the German-American Marshall Center Christopher Letz was sentenced to the seven years of the detention.

This is the weird setting of the election operetta, which the Belarusian authorities have chose to call the presidential elections-2001, naming them fair and free, waiting for recognition of the sophisticated public.