Freedom in the World 1999 - Belarus

1999 Scores

Status: Not Free
Freedom Rating: 6.0
Civil Liberties: 6
Political Rights: 6

Trend Arrow ↓

Belarus receives a downward trend arrow due to disappearances of key democratic leaders, the closure of independent media, and stronger attempts to remove domestic opposition to the planned union with Russia.

Overview

Harsher media restrictions, more repressive tactics against key opposition figures, and movement towards a tight union with Russia all marked the 1999 rule of President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Since assuming power in 1994, Lukashenka has harassed and expelled dissidents, repressed the news media, reintroduced a command economy, and obtained passage of a constitution to strengthen his one-man rule.

Belarus was part of the realm of medieval Kievan Rus'. After a lengthy period of Lithuanian rule, it merged with Poland in the 1500s. It became part of the Russian Empire after Poland was partitioned in the 1700s and became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union in 1922. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the democratic leader Stanislaw Shushkevich became the head of state. A pro-Russian parliament ousted Shushkevich in 1994, and the newly created post of president was won by Lukashenka, a former state farm director and chairman of the parliament's anticorruption committee. After his election, Lukashenka gradually introduced an authoritarian regime. In 1996, Lukashenka extended his term and amended the country's constitution by referendum. Parliament was restructured into a bicameral legislature consisting of a house of representatives with 110 deputies and a senate, with the president appointing one-third of the senators.

In 1999, Russia and Belarus continued to move towards a federal union of both countries with a joint head of state, a single currency, military integration, unified customs and border controls, and dual citizenship. Movement towards institutionalizing the union is likely to lead to wide civil unrest.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

The citizens of Belarus cannot change their government democratically, although Lukashenka has promised free parliamentary elections in the year 2,000. Although his term in office was extended in 1996 to 2001 no country, apart from Russia, recognized him as the legitimate Belarusian leader after July 20 1999 when his term in office legally ran out. A demonstration by 5,000 on July 21 calling upon him to step down was broken up, and 70 were arrested. On the same day, the legitimate Supreme Soviet met in secret and declared its chairman, Syamyon Sharetsky, to be henceforth head of state under the 1994 constitution. The United States, the European Union, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe (CE), from which Belarus's special guest status was suspended in 1996, no longer officially recognize Lukashenka as the legitimate ruler of Belarus. The EU, OSCE, and CE are promoting dialogue between the legitimate Supreme Soviet and the authorities in order to improve the political climate for the year 2000 parliamentary elections. The opposition to Lukashenka laid down five conditions: define the role of any future parliament, hold free elections using a mixed majoritarian-proportional system, grant access to the state media, release political prisoners, and halt repression.

Freedom of the press is strictly curtailed, and in 1999, greater restrictions were placed on the media. In April a government memorandum banned government officials from passing official documents to nonstate media, and forbade state enterprises to place advertisements in opposition publications. The State Committee on Television and Radio controls broadcasting. A number of small, local, privately owned television stations broadcast entertainment programming. The State Press Committee (SPC) has warned and interfered with a number of independent publications – Nasha Niva, Belaruskiye Vedemosti, Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta, Krynitsa, Imya, and Belaruskaya maladzyozhnaya. The SPC repeatedly threatened the newspaper Naviny with closure; formerly entitled Svaboda, it was closed in 1997. Naviny is expected to resume under a third name, Nasha svaboda.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed by law, although the Belarusian Orthodox Church (BOC), which comes under the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, is the de facto state church and an ally of President Lukashenka's Pan-Slavic ideology. Roman Catholics and Jews have complained of governmental delays in returning church property and synagogues. Both indigenous Belarusian churches (Greek Catholic and Autocephalous) are subjected to state discrimination because they are linked to opposition political parties and oppose the BOC.

Even though 78 percent of the population is ethnic Belarusian, the Belarusian language educational system is being dismantled. Russian was restored as a second state language after a referendum in 1995. Five hundred Belarusian-language schools have been closed since 1994, and the last remaining Belarusian language high school in Minsk was merged with a Russian school in 1999. Few books are published in Belarusian, and Belarusian has disappeared from radio and to a great extent from television.

In 1999 the opposition Party of Communists and the Peasant Party were both denied legal registration. Public rallies and demonstrations require government approval. A 1999 presidential decree "on measures to prevent emergencies during mass events" restricts where opposition rallies and meetings can be now be held. After the September bomb blasts in Russia, allegedly undertaken by Chechen terrorists, additional security measures were enforced in Belarus. Charitable organizations have faced government pressure, and arbitrary and contradictory tax policies have led several international humanitarian groups to cease operations in Belarus. In October the militia raided without a search warrant the offices of Visna-96, a human rights organization, and removed publications and office equipment.

Opposition supporters are often subjected to beatings and torture in detention. Former Prime Minister Mikhail Chyhir still sits in prison after being indicted on trumped up corruption charges in March 1999. This same year the authorities resorted to a new tactic of kidnapping high-ranking opposition figures (Tamara Vinnikava, Yuriy Zakharanka, Viktar Hanchar, and Anatol Krasouski), who then disappeared. The Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Belarusian Service reported that many Belarusians increasingly believe the victims to have been murdered. To prevent his disappearance when he became Belarus's legitimate head of state, Sharetsky moved to Lithuania on July 22, 1999. Uladzimir Nyaklyaeu, chairman of the Writer's Union, requested political asylum in Poland when he was threatened with arrest after protesting state discrimination of Belarusian language and culture.

The judicial system is essentially the same three-tiered structure that existed during the Soviet era. Judges continue to be influenced by the political leadership, and lawyers were disbarred in 1999 after defending political prisoners. The president appoints the chairman and five other members of the constitutional court. The remaining six members are appointed by the Council of the Republic, which itself is composed partly of presidential appointees and partly of loyalists chosen by the Minsk City Council and six oblast councils, which are pro-government.

The constitution guarantees property rights, but land ownership, with few exceptions, is not allowed. There are no legal restrictions on the participation of women in government, business, or education.