2003 a terrible year for Belarus press freedom, NGOs - rights advocate :: Charter'97 :: News

Last year in Belarus saw an all but total elimination of press freedom and increased repression against NGOs, a leading human rights advocate in the impoverished former Soviet republic told a press conference late Friday. "That year saw a final `purge` of independent media," including Russian television channels reporting from Belarus, said Lyudmila Gryaznova, of the leading local human rights defense association Human Rights Alliance.

A correspondent for the Russian TV channel NTV was expelled from Belarus, and a number of Russian radio or TV stations were banned from broadcasting in all or parts of the country she said.

"The past year was also marked by serious blows to NGOs," Gryaznova added, saying that a number of leading NGOs were banned by justice.

"I am sure that this year (2004), it will be the turn of political parties to be terminated. This is a deliberate policy, (so as) not to allow the development of a civil society, of democracy," she said.

Belarus remains in isolation between east-central Europe and European Russia, with human rights groups and governments condemning authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko`s treatment of opposition figures and independent media, which are being shut down.

However, Lukashenko Thursday amnestied 3,880 prisoners and reduced prison sentences for some 14,000 others.

A statement from the Belarus leader`s press office said the amnesty was linked with the 60th anniversary of the end of Nazi Germany`s occupation of the former Soviet republic during World War II, and that many of those amnestied had served in the war.

Belarus has attempted to establish a union with neighboring Russia, but even that relationship is falling through, with officials in Moscow growing increasingly concerned about Lukashenko`s unpredictability and authoritarianism.