August 1997 Vol. 9 No. 8 (D)
REPUBLIC OF BELARUS
"What scares me most is to see how fragile our freedom turned out to be.
I used to think that the freedom we had achieved would never be taken away from us again."
Yury Drakokhurst, Belarusian journalist.
SUMMARY 3
RECOMMENDATIONS 4
A NOTE ON GEOGRAPHY AND DEMOGRAPHY 6
BACKGROUND 6
Weakening Parliament and the Judiciary 7
The Referendum 7
Legislative Powers of the President 8
The National Assembly (Parliament) 8
The Constitutional Court 8
Courts of General Jurisdiction 9
BELARUS AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY 9
U.S. policy 9
EU policy 10
Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe 10
Russian policy 10
MONOPOLIZING THE MEDIA AND INFORMATION FLOWS 11
Banning Plurality from State-owned Media 12
The Independent Media 13
Marginalization of the Print Media 13
Harassment and Intimidation of the Print Media 14
Attempts at eviction 16
The Broadcast Media 17
The Cases of Radio 2, Radio 101.2, and Cable TV Channel 8 17
Assaults on Journalists at Demonstrations and Restrictions on Media Coverage 18
Controlling the Foreign Broadcast Media 21
Stripping Journalists' Accreditation: The Cases of Aleksandr Stupnikov and Pavel Sheremet 21
Restrictions on the Import and Export of Information 23
Draft law on the Press 25
Censoring Telecommunications and the Internet 26
STRANGLING THE NGO COMMUNITY 27
Audits and Other Forms of Harassment 27
Deprivation of Financial Resources 30
Belarusian Patriotic Youth Union 30
THE SUBORDINATION OF LAWYERS 31
PREVENTING THE PREPARATION AND ORGANIZATION OF DEMONSTRATIONS 32
Preemptive Intervention 35
POLICE VIOLENCE AND ARBITRARY ARRESTS AT DEMONSTRATIONS 36
Atmosphere at Demonstrations 36
Excessive Use of Force by Police 37
Arbitrary Arrests 38
The Charging Process and Ill-treatment 40
Court Hearings and Penalties 42
Repercussions at the Workplace Schools, and Universities 44
HARASSMENT OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS 45
Anatoly Lebedko 46
Stanislav Shushkevich 46
Pavel Znavets 47
Vyacheslav Sivchik and Yury Khodyko 47
Aleksandr Bondarev 48
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 49
APPENDIX A 50
APPENDIX B 52
In his three years in office, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka has reversed nearly all the advances in the field of human rights, freedoms and democratization that had marked the perestroika era and the post-Soviet period. Indeed, with media forced to abandon critical expression, with public organizations harassed into closure, with the government's systematic attempts to stop public protests and to silence its political opponents, Belarus bears an eerie and increasing resemblance to Soviet society. By all indicators, the government campaign to control civil society is killing it. Freedom of expression has been restricted severely. The state-owned press, which has a near monopoly on disseminating information, no longer provides a forum for public discussion or even for a variety of opinions; rather, it allows only one view-that of the president-and presents it as the unqualified truth. Government print and broadcast media routinely vilify members of the political opposition, depicting them as enemies of the people, as well as critical journalists, independent activists, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), and their supporters, calling them spies, criminals or worse.
Government attacks on the independent media are slowly driving all such outlets out of business. Independent radio and television stations in Belarus have been closed by the authorities for political reasons, and independent print media have been marginalized and harassed. Russian television stations, which are widely received in Belarus and which are now the only source of critical information on President Lukashenka and the Belarusian government in the broadcast media, have come under attack. In March and July 1997, correspondents for Russian television stations were stripped of their accreditation because of their alleged "inobjective reporting." One of these correspondents, Aleksandr Stupnikov, was even expelled from Belarus. Finally, numerous journalists have been arrested and beaten while covering demonstrations.
Another facet of the government's attack on civil society is its campaign to control or destroy NGOs. Tax inspectorates have conducted questionable audits of other NGOs, and still others housed in government-owned buildings have faced questionable rent hikes. The imposition of a US$3 million fine on the Belarusian Soros Foundation can be interpreted only as an attempt to force the foundation to close its office in Minsk and, in consequence, to deprive numerous NGOs of their main source of financial support. These measures have created a climate of intimidation that has weakened NGO morale and caused many NGO leaders to fear imminent closure.
The government backlash aims not only at civic institutions but also at public protest and other forms of public expression, in particular peaceful mass demonstrations. A new presidential decree -formalizing the already established government practice of limiting freedom of assembly and expression-has imposed onerous and excessive restrictions on demonstrations. Given the lack of an independent judiciary in Belarus, the decree's vague wording permits participants and organizers of demonstrations to be punished using a system of heavy fines or administrative detention. This system appears to be purposefully designed to discourage people from organizing and participating in demonstrations.
Throughout the past year, police unjustifiably broke up various demonstrations, often using violence. Excessive use of force by the police at demonstrations appeared aimed at spreading terror among protestors and bystanders rather than at maintaining or restoring public order. Police beat demonstrators with batons, punching and kicking them, spraying mace in their faces, and arresting them en masse. In the first few months of 1997, police arbitrarily arrested hundreds of people at and around demonstrations, often charging them on the basis of false information, and providing false testimony at arrestees' court hearings. Courts have sentenced hundreds of people to exorbitant fines, or to three to fifteen days of administrative detention, in blatantly unfair trials. Police have often prevented defense lawyers from participating in these hearings, and a new presidential decree on lawyers may result in the exclusion of independent-minded lawyers from the court room.
Various demonstrators have been reprimanded at work, school or university for taking part in protests; they now fear expulsion from university or loss of their jobs. Many members of the disbanded Thirteenth Supreme Soviethave been arbitrarily arrested, fined and detained. In some cases they have also been beaten and threatened. Other political activists and opposition party members are regularly harassed by the police.
By employing these methods, President Lukashenka has all but made impossible a peaceful and constructive dialogue on policy among the government, the opposition, the public and NGOs. He has branded nearly every form of self-organization or independent thinking as "opposition," and he has sought to root out this opposition. Hence, President Lukashenka has-whether purposefully or unwittingly-politicized even the most moderate, apolitical organizations. Without a free media or independent institution in which to exchange views openly, both sides have grown increasingly entrenched.