United States raps Belarusian authorities over human rights violations 11:34, 02/03/2005
Belarus’ human rights record "remained very poor and worsened in some areas" last year as the authorities continued to commit “numerous serious abuses," said the US State Department in its annual human rights report that was released on Monday. The document, which covers 196 countries, contains frequently aired criticisms of China and six states dubbed "outposts of tyranny" by the new US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice: Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Burma, Zimbabwe and Cuba.
The report says that the Belarusian authorities “continued to deny citizens the right to change their government through a transparent democratic process; opposition political parties and movements were subjected to increased pressure through both judicial and extrajudicial measures.”
“The authorities did not undertake serious efforts to account for the long term disappearances of well known opposition political figures and a journalist and continued to discount credible reports regarding the role of government officials in those disappearances,” it says.
The US State Department accuses Belarus’ law enforcement officials of arbitrarily arresting and detaining people for political reasons and using “excessive force against individuals peacefully protesting electoral and referendum fraud and also against journalists reporting on such protests.” It cites the detention of 70 people who were about to depart for Kiev to observe the Ukrainian presidential elections, the arrest of Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet and the arrest of 34 opposition activists during October’s street protests against the official results of the national referendum and parliamentary elections.
The authorities also come under fire for the failure to ensure a “fair trial” of Valery Levonevsky, Aleksandr Vasilyev and Mikhail Marinich.
“The Government took serious steps to stifle independent media. The Ministry of Information suspended 25 independent newspapers and interfered with the efforts of others to print and distribute,” the report says.
“It further restricted the activities of NGOs by using legal technicalities to de register them and subjecting them to frequent tax investigations and other forms of harassment.
It imposed restrictions on religious freedom. The Government shut down most major registered human rights NGOs, and state security authorities increasingly harassed those that remained,” it adds.
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