(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an ARTICLE 19 letter addressed to President Lukashenko expressing the organisation’s alarm over the disappearance of government critics and actions taken against non-state press: **Updates IFEX alerts of 6 October, 28 September, 21 September, 23 July, 31 May, 27 May, 21 May, 14 May, 13 May, 19 April, 16 […]
(ARTICLE 19/IFEX) – The following is an ARTICLE 19 letter addressed to
President Lukashenko expressing the organisation’s alarm over the
disappearance of government critics and actions taken against non-state
press:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 6 October, 28 September, 21 September, 23 July, 31
May, 27 May, 21 May, 14 May, 13 May, 19 April, 16 March and 18 February
1999**
President Alexander Lukashenko
President of Belarus
House of Government
Minsk
Belarus 220020
By fax: +375 172 23 58 25
11 October 1999
Dear President Lukashenko
ARTICLE 19 is alarmed by the reported disappearance of several prominent
critics of your government and the recent closure of nine non-state
publications by order of the Belarus authorities. These developments can
only heighten international concern about the extent of state repression in
Belarus.
We urge you, as a matter of the utmost urgency, to order a thoroughgoing,
independent inquiry into the disappearance of the following well known
critics of your government who have vanished in recent months raising fears
that they may be secretly detained or subject to other human rights abuses
at the hands of Belarusian security authorities:
* Victor Gonchar, Vice-Speaker of the Thirteenth Supreme Soviet, who has not
been seen since 16 September 1999;
* Anatoly Krasovsky, head of the Krasika publishing house, who also
disappeared on 16 September 1999;
* General Yuri Zakharenka, a former Interior Minister, who has been missing
since May;
* Tamara Vinnikova, former chairperson of the national bank, who went
missing on 8 April while under house arrest.
We urge you to intervene personally in order to ensure that the situation of
these individuals – particularly whether they are now being, or at any time
since their disappearance have been, held by Belarusian authorities – is
clarified without delay. If they are being held, they should be released
immediately and unconditionally unless they are to be brought to trial
promptly and fairly on recognizably criminal charges, and any officials
responsible for breaching their human rights should be identified and
brought to justice.
We are concerned too by the continuing imprisonment of former Prime Minister
Mikhail Chigir, who was due to be released on 30 September after some six
months in pre-trial investigative detention. We urge you to order his
immediate release and to take disciplinary action against the officials
responsible for preventing his release from custody on 30 September.
ARTICLE 19 is also deeply concerned about your government’s latest action
against the non-state press. We understand that Viktor Guretsky, Director of
the State Committee on the Press Licensing Board, cancelled the registration
of nine Minsk-based publications on 4 October, ostensibly on grounds that
they had failed to obtain local authority approval to open their offices.
This requirement was introduced in 1998 as Article 10 of the Law on Press
and Other Mass Media, one of a number of amendments to the Law which ARTICLE
19 criticised. International standards provide that the right to freedom of
expression and information includes the right to publish a newspaper,
periodical or other publication without government approval, and that
authorities should not have the power to refuse registration or ban
publications on the grounds of content or political motivation.
However the Belarusian authorities may seek to disguise it as an aspect of
administrative formality, the closure of these media will be widely seen
for what it is – a deliberate and politically-motivated act of censorship
aimed against media associated with critics and opponents of your
government. In this connection, we note that:
1. In order to escape banning, the publications are required to
‘re-register’, but in doing so would incur such high costs – US$8,500 (4.5
billion Belarusian roubles) – that the original banning is tantamount to
enforced closure.
2. Article 8 of the Law on Press and Other Mass Media, also introduced in
1998, prohibits founders of newspapers or periodicals which have been banned
from establishing any other media entity for the following two years. This
will obviously silence those affected by the order of October 4 and will be
yet another obstacle to the dissemination of information in the
parliamentary elections, due to be held next year.
3. Despite the leave to appeal within one month, it has been reported that
the banned publications have been forced out of their rented premises and
they are not allowed to register at their founders’ residence. Again, this
seems to show that the real motivation behind the state authority’s action
is a political one, not a question of administrative formalities, as it has
been presented.
This most recent attack on the non-state media, including Nasha Svaboda,
came directly after the closure of Naviny, the newspaper’s predecessor,
which in turn replaced the banned Svaboda. Following your speech on 16
September, law officers seized property belonging to Naviny, and that of
the author of an allegedly defamatory article, without a court order.
Subsequently, State Security Secretary Victor Sheyman was awarded damages
totalling US$52,000 (15 billion Belarusian roubles – equivalent to more than
19 months of profits for the newspaper) for defamation – a wholly exorbitant
amount. On 28 September law enforcement officials seized yet more of the
newspaper’s property in an apparent attempt to close it down, despite the
possibility that the fine could be paid if the paper was allowed to continue
publishing and the paper’s intention to appeal the decision to the Supreme
Court.
ARTICLE 19 remains greatly concerned about the continued targeting of those
who exercise their legitimate right peacefully to demonstrate or participate
in political life in Belarus. Examples of the abuse of power by the
authorities in this respect are the filming and detention of protestors
participating in an event organised by the Belarusian Party of Freedom on 7
September 1999, including journalists who were reporting the event. One
youth, Iawhen Asisnski, was apparently held in detention for some 38 days
after the demonstration, during which time he was beaten and ill-treated in
other ways. An opposition leader, Iury Khadyka, has also complained of
considerable harassment, including being fined as the result of a court
procedure which was carried out without his knowledge, depriving him of the
right to defend himself.
It has also been reported that on 28 September riot police attempted to
break into the headquarters of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union. On
the same day, three plainclothes police officers attempted to search the
headquarters of the opposition United Civic Party and Civic Forum,
apparently on the pretext of looking for the Molodyozhny Prospect newspaper.
This catalogue of events highlights the urgent need for action to safeguard
the rights of Belarus’s citizens, whatever their political affiliation. The
forthcoming elections make it particularly important to ensure that the
opposition have fair access to the media, and that non-state media are
allowed to operate without constant harassment and fear of closure.
We urge you to give full attention to these matters.
Yours sincerely
Andrew Puddephatt
Executive Director
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be sent to:
Appeals To
President Alexander Lukashenko
President of Belarus
House of Government
Minsk, Belarus 220020
Fax: +375 172 235825
E-mail: infogrp@president.gov.by
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
