BELARUS DIGEST

Amnesty International has welcomed the release of Yevgeny Yakovenko, a conscientious objector who had been sentenced to one year in prison for “evading military service”. He was released under an amnesty marking the 65th anniversary of the end of the World War II.

Earlier this year two other conscientious objectors have been acquitted. In what appears to be a positive trend Belarusian conscientious objector Ivan Mikhailau has been acquitted of the charge of “evasion of conscription measures.” On 4 May, Ivan Mikhailau’s case was heard for a second time by Minsk Regional Court and he was found to be not guilty. Amnesty International had been vocal on his case. This was followed on 31 May by another acquittal of a conscientious objector. Dzmitry Smyk, a Jehovah’s Witness who had been charged with avoiding mandatory military service was acquitted by central court in the Belarusian city of Homel. The judge commented: “Smyk’s actions do not constitute a crime.”

VB

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Ivan Mikhailov, Dmitry Smyk and Yevhen Yakovenko – the three young men convicted since late 2009 of refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience – separately told Forum 18 News Service* that they want the proposed new Alternative Service Law now being drafted to introduce a fully-civilian service, not of punitive length and open to all conscientious objectors, whether religious or not.

Mikhail Pashkevich of the group For Alternative Civilian Service insisted to Forum 18 that applicants for alternative civilian service should be able simply to inform the authorities of this decision without having to “prove” their entitlement. President Aleksandr Lukashenka’s instruction in February to draft Alternative Service Law came a decade after Belarus’ Constitutional Court ruled that introducing an alternative service was “urgent”.

BELARUS: Contradictory court rulings for conscientious objectors
By Felix Corley

Forum 18 News Service
28 June 2010

The three conscientious objectors to compulsory military service sentenced under the Criminal Code since such prosecutions resumed in November 2009 have faced different outcomes, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Messianic Jew Ivan Mikhailov was found guilty and imprisoned, but was freed days before the end of his three-month sentence. He was acquitted on retrial and the prosecutor’s appeal against this was rejected. He told Forum 18 he will seek compensation for his imprisonment.

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Sergey Yenin, a vice chairman of the LGBT Human Rights Group GayBelarus.By and co-organizer of the Slavic Pride in Minsk shares his first-hand experience.

Gay Pride March took place in Minsk on May 15. After some 200 meters, it was broken up by the riot police with twelve participants arrested after scenes of reported police violence.

According to UKGayNews*, these are probably the most dramatic 1,000 words written about a Gay Pride event anywhere in the world this year.

Arrested, Beaten, Threatened, Jailed and Sent for Trial Just for Taking Part in Slavic Gay Pride
…Yet PROUD of what we all accomplished in Minsk

By Sergey Yenin

MINSK, May 19, 2010 – This is an account of the most dramatic 48 hours in my life as a gay activist in Belarus.

There were four of us in the taxi. Myself, Logan (and Australian filmmaker), Jack (his boyfriend) and Chad (a photographer working on a project Walk with Pride). I couldn’t help shivering in anticipation of the upcoming Pride march and the possible extreme few hours that I would probably face. But I couldn’t let my friends worry as well. The taxi driver noticed that something was really wrong with the place he had to drop us off.

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Belarus Digest has prepared a compilation of misconceptions against Belarus which many Westerners share:

Is Belarus far from Europe?

Belarus is actually in the geographical center of Europe (Perhaps put in the coordinates because it really is right in the middle: The exact geographical centre of Europe is located in Polotsk 55°30′0″N 28°48′0″E. The closest European capital, Vilnius, is just two hours drive from Minsk, the center of Belarus. The capital of Belarus is less than two hours flight from Berlin, less than three hours from London and around one hour flight from Warsaw or Moscow.

Is the word “Belarus” translated as “White Russia”?

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Belarus is the only European country which has not signed the Bologna Declaration on the European Space for Higher Education. It still relies on a largely unreformed Soviet model of higher education. The main goal of that model was not to encourage creativity and ability to adopt to non-standard situations but simply to accumulate knowledge.

Science and technical disciplines such as computer science is still in a relatively good shape in Belarus because of heavy Soviet investments in these areas. However, many former students emigrate to the West to do their PhDs and stay there because of better opportunities and living conditions. The way in which humanitarian disciplines such as political science, management and economics are taught in Belarus is very unsatisfactory. Soviet traditions of teaching these disciplines does more harm than good.

In addition, Belarusian universities are insulated from the broader European academic community. There are very few foreign exchange students in the country except for some Chinese students. Belarusian students are effectively prohibited from traveling to other countries – they have to obtain special permissions each time they go abroad from the Ministry of Education. Those who are politically active and travel abroad without permissions can be expelled from their universities.

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According to GayRussia*, the city authorities have banned this weekend’s Slavic Gay Pride March, using an obscure law that says public events are not allowed near underground pedestrian crossings and metro stations.

On May 8, organisers received notification of the ban signed by the deputy head of Minsk City Executive Committee Mikhail Titenkov, who is notorious for banning all public events of LGBT community in Minsk.

And the co-organisers described the reason for the ban “absurd”.

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Washington-based think tank Freedom House was unimpressed by liberalization recently declared by Belarusian authorities.

Fair enough – Belarus does not have a single TV or radio station which would be critical of the its government. Poland did a good job in supporting Belsat, the only independent TV station broadcasting to Belarus, but its influence is still marginal. Watching Belsat requires a satellite dish or Internet – a luxury which most Belarusians cannot afford.

Although a few independent newspapers are still allowed to circulate, their impact is negligible. Government-tun newspapers are heavily subsidized and state institutions are required to subscribe to them and to force employees to do the same.

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On 26 April 1986, a human error and the Soviet equipment caused the Chernobyl disaster – the largest technological catastrophe ever. For many days Soviet authorities attempted to conceal the scale of the disaster. The Soviet Union admitted that an accident had occurred only after radiation levels set off alarms at the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden.

Instead of immediate evacuation, people were taken to the streets on the the May Day to celebrate the communist party with red banners and portraits of Lenin. Because of the wind direction, the bulk of contamination ended up in Belarus which suffered more than any other country from the disaster.

Chernobyl-type nuclear plants are more than just history. The territory of Belarus is literally encircled by Soviet-type nuclear plants. Just across the border are Smolensk and Kursk nuclear plants in Russia, Ignalina plant in Lithuania, and nuclear plants in Ukrainian Rivne and Chernobyl. The European Union authorities considered Ignalina unsafe and Lithuania had to close it down last year. The Russian authorities do not think that their Soviet-type plants are too dangerous and Ukraine perhaps lacks funds to replace its own.

The closure of Ignalina decreased energy dependence of Lithuania, which plans to build another nuclear plant on the border with Belarus. Russia also depended on Ignalina and plans to build a nuclear reactor in its Kalinigrad enclave. Vladimir Putin already signed a decree to begin construction. This will increase to seven the number of active and recently closed (but still dangerous) nuclear plants close to the Belarusian border. Belarus has none on its own territory.

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Below is an overview of position of Belarus in various international rankings. The overview suggests that although human potential of the country is relatively good, the country has serious problems with freedom. As a result, the realization of this potential is blocked.

Freedom

Freedom House measures freedom in its annual publication “Freedom in the World 2009″, which includes review of political and civil liberties in the world in 193 countries. Belarus is in the category of “not free” countries. In the category of “political rights” Belarus ranked the worst with 7 points, in the category “civil liberties” – 6 points. Overall assessment of democratic freedoms in some other countries included in the study of “Freedom House”: Czech Republic (2,18), Estonia (1.93), Lithuania (2,29), Moldova (5,07), Poland (2,25 ), Ukraine (4,39).

Economic Freedom

Heritage Foundation and the The Wall Street Journal – overview of economic freedom in the world in 179 countries.

As a result of 2009 Belarus received an overall assessment of 48.7 points and occupies the 150-th place. Among the worst post-Soviet countries behind Belarus are Uzbekistan (158), Ukraine (162) and Turkmenistan (171). The highest index of economic freedom in Europe is Ireland (81,3), which occupies the 5th place in the ranking. At the bottom of the ranking are Cuba, Zimbabwe and North Korea.

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In his article for the Jamestown Foundation the known expert on Belarus David Marples portrays Andrei Sannikau who recently announced his willing to run for the presidency.

Sannikau Throws His Hat in the Ring

The Jamestown Foundation
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 7 Issue: 56
March 23, 2010
By: David Marples

A key opposition leader in Belarus has declared his candidacy for the next presidential elections, scheduled for 2011. Andrei Sannikau, the leader of the civic movement European Belarus, held an interview with “bloggers” in mid-March to outline his policies and answer questions. His decision reflects long-term disillusionment with recent attempts by the United Democratic Forces (UDF) in particular to engage in dialogue with the Lukashenka regime and support Belarus’s membership of the Eastern Partnership Project. Ironically, Sannikau is also the most overtly pro-European of all the candidates to date, though he wishes to replace the Lukashenka regime with a completely new administration and state structure.

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The UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband singled out Belarus in his introduction to the Foreign Office’s Annual Report on Human Rights 2009. According to Mr Miliband, human rights defenders protest against injustice in Belarus and “we have a responsibility to applaud these efforts, and to support them by challenging the notion that human rights depend on culture and circumstance.”

Although not as comprehensive as the US State Department report, the Foreign Office summarises well the most pressing problems in Belarus such as detention of political activists, prosecution of unregistered organisations and pressure against journalists and Protestant churches. Unlike the US report, it highlights that Belarus is the only country in Europe which still applies death penalty.

What the British foreign service could borrow from their United States colleagues is making their report more user-friendly on internet. Currently, it is only available in English as one pdf file for all countries. This makes coping and sharing the report very difficult. The US Embassy usually promptly publishes Belarusian or Russian-version report on their web site while the Belarusian version of the website of the British Embassy in Minsk has not been updated since October 2009.

The Belarus section of the report is as follows:

The positive trend that began when Belarus released three political prisoners in August 2008 has continued, and there have been small but welcome improvements in the course of 2009. But the Belarusian authorities continue to harass civil society, NGOs, religious organisations and the independent media, using administrative powers to restrict their activities. In 2009, we continued our policy of engaging with Belarus through the EU. Belarus has played an active and constructive role in the multilateral part of the EU’s Eastern Partnership launched in May. The Partnership is a long-term programme designed to promote democracy and good governance; strengthen energy security; promote environment protection; encourage people-to-people contacts; support economic and social development; and offer additional funding for projects to reduce socio-economic imbalances and increase stability.

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The Belarusan-American Association starts a new campaign with compelling slogan “Are you proud you’re Belarusian? Identify yourself on the 2010 census form!”

In March 2010, every residence in the United States and Puerto Rico received a census form. The organization urges Belarusian Americans to complete the census form to ensure that their Belarusian ethnicity, background and cultural heritage are appropriately reflected in their response and counted.

“This is the only means for determining how many Americans have a Belarusian background,” said Viachaslau Bortnik of the Belarusan-American Association.

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