Amnesty International Report 1998 - Belarus

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)

Hundreds of peaceful demonstrators were detained, including prisoners of conscience. Torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials were reportedly widespread. At least 17 people were sentenced to death and some 30 people were reportedly executed.

President Alyaksandr Lukashenka exercised total control over most aspects of government. The main law enforcement bodies – the Committee for State Security (kgb) and Ministry of Internal Affairs (mvd) – were both answerable to the President. The President used his constitutional powers to issue a number of decrees which violated constitutional guarantees for the protection of human rights. Decrees issued in March, May and October seriously restricted rights to freedom of expression and assembly; imposed further restrictions on detainees' access to legal assistance and resulted in a number of lawyers active in the defence of human rights losing their licences to practise; and provided for incommunicado detention of suspects for up to 30 days, in violation of national and international law.

In November, following a court decision, the authorities closed down Svaboda, the largest independent newspaper in Belarus, allegedly for printing two articles critical of the government.

Military service remained compulsory. A draft law proposing an alternative service of three years – twice the duration of military service – had been introduced for discussion in parliament in 1994. There are no provisions for conscientious objection in the 1996 Constitution.

At the beginning of January the Bureau of the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly decided to suspend Belarus' status of special guest, stating that the 1996 Constitution was "illegal" as it "does not respect minimum democratic standards and violates the separation of powers and the rule of law".

In October the UN Human Rights Committee, examining Belarus' fourth periodic report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, noted that the human rights situation in Belarus had deteriorated significantly since 1992. The Committee expressed concern at the number of crimes for which the death penalty is applicable and the high number of executions; allegations of ill-treatment by law enforcement officials during peaceful demonstrations, during arrest and in detention; the frequent use of weapons by police and other security officials; the severe restrictions imposed on the rights to freedom of assembly and expression; and reports of persecution and imprisonment of human rights activists by the authorities.

Prisoners of conscience continued to be detained during the year. Tatyana Protko, head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (bhc), a human rights organization, was detained in October by Ministry of the Interior officials and charged with obstructing the police; she had reportedly asked them to identify themselves. She was reportedly detained for researching the case of an alleged victim of human rights violations, and to prevent her from participating in the Belarusian non-governmental delegation to the UN Human Rights Committee the following week. She was a prisoner of conscience. She stood trial the following day and was released after the charges were dropped for lack of evidence.

Pavel Sheremet, bureau chief of Russia's public television station, ort, Dmitry Zavadsky, a cameraman, and Yaroslav Ovchinnikov, the crew's driver, were detained in July in Minsk, the capital, for their professional, non-violent activities as media workers. All three were taken to a detention centre in Grodno, a town near the Lithuanian border. They were reportedly detained in connection with an unofficial visit they had made to the border between Belarus and Lithuania earlier in July, footage of which had already been shown on Russian television. The authorities had previously accused Pavel Sheremet of biased reporting. All three were released by 8 October. Two, Pavel Sheremet and Dmitry Zavadsky, were awaiting trial at the end of the year. According to reports, one of Pavel Sheremet's defence lawyers was stripped of his licence to practise, and the other withdrew because of threats to deprive him of his licence.

Hundreds of opponents of government policies, including prisoners of conscience, were detained and ill-treated during peaceful strikes and demonstrations throughout the year. Many of those detained were charged with administrative violations, fined and released. Others were released and were awaiting trial at the end of the year.

In March between 70 and 150 demonstrators were arrested following a peaceful rally against President Lukashenka in Minsk. Gennady Karpenko, Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Belarus, and Yury Zakharenko, former Minister of Internal Affairs, were detained and accused of holding an unauthorized demonstration. Among those arrested was Gregory Kijko, an artist, who was reportedly beaten by police officers. He was at liberty awaiting trial at the end of the year.

Others arrested in March following demonstrations in other parts of the country allegedly included elderly people and young children who participated in a protest against plans to send certain students to perform their community service in areas of the country affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident; and eight schoolboys reportedly arrested in the city of Kobrin and charged with organizing an unauthorized meeting after police broke up a peaceful march of a hundred schoolchildren protesting about a planned reduction in spring vacations

In October Nadezhda Zhukova, an observer for the bhc, was assaulted and threatened in Minsk by unknown men believed to be connected to the police. As she left the building of the Leninsky District Court, where she had attempted to obtain information about the trial of Pavel Sivirinets and Yevgeny Skochka, two demonstrators arrested the previous day during a peaceful protest, she was approached by two men in plain clothes who told her that the two detainees were in police cars nearby. According to reports, two men got out of a car, grabbed her, hit her in the stomach, held a knife at her throat and took her to a nearby courtyard. There they took her bhc identity card from her bag and made threats against her and against other members of the bhc. The government delegation to the UN Human Rights Committee claimed that a criminal investigation had been opened into the case and that anyone found guilty would be brought to justice. However, no investigation was known to have been initiated by the end of the year.

Torture and ill-treatment of detainees in police custody and in pre-trial detention by law enforcement officials were reportedly widespread. Vera Glebova claimed that she was beaten by law enforcement officials from the Leninsky Department of Internal Affairs in Minsk in June, after being detained on charges of illegally trading cigarettes. Following the incident she was hospitalized for two weeks with serious injuries

According to reports, the practice of press-camera (using prisoners, often those charged with or convicted of serious criminal offences, to control and ill-treat other prisoners) was common in a number of prisons and detention centres. Prisoner of conscience Pavel Sheremet stated that press-camera had been used in the pre-trial detention centre in the town of Grodno where he had been detained. No investigations were known to have been carried out into allegations of torture or ill-treatment.

According to official information provided to the UN Human Rights Committee, 17 people were sentenced to death in the first six months of the year. Among those sentenced to death were Igor Ganya and

F. Verega, both citizens of Moldova, who were convicted of premeditated, aggravated murder in June. According to reports, some 30 people were executed during the year and at least 24 petitions for clemency were turned down by the President. The President was reported to have pardoned only one person facing the death penalty since coming to power in 1994. All 38 people sentenced to death in 1996 had been executed by the end of 1997.

Amnesty International called for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, including any demonstrators detained solely for peacefully exercising their right to freedom of assembly, for prompt and impartial investigations into allegations of ill-treatment, and for anyone responsible to be brought to justice.

Amnesty International expressed concern for the safety of human rights defenders and called for them to be given all necessary protection.

Amnesty International called on the Government of Belarus to implement as a priority the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Committee. The organization urged the government to abolish the death penalty, and the Clemency Commission and the President to grant clemency and to declare a moratorium on executions.