BELARUS DIGEST

BBC features Ivonka Survila, the President of the Council (Rada) of the Belarusian Democratic Republic in a special broadcast on governments in exile.

According to the program author, Clive Anderson, the Rada is the longest-serving government in exile in the world. The Belarusian Democratic Republic’s independence was declared on March 25, 1918 during World War I, when Belarus was occupied by the Germans according to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

After the Germans retreated from the territory of Belarus and the Russian Red Army started moving in to establish the Socialist Soviet Republic of Belarus, in December 1918, the Rada (Council) of the Belarusian Democratic Republic moved to Hrodna, which became the centre of a semi-autonomous Belarusian region within the Republic of Lithuania. During the subsequent 1919 Polish invasion, the Rada went into exile and facilitated an anticommunist struggle within the country during the 1920s.

The BBC program examines interesting examples from around the world, which vary from the serious to the apparently ridiculous.

Clive Anderson examines one of the potentially strangest corners of international politics, the lesser-known governments or rulers in exile – a paradoxical area of international relations and surreal part of international law.

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The chapter on Belarus was included in the Greenwood Encyclopedia of LGBT Issues Worldwide published earlier this year. The three volumes account for more than 1300 pages of important and timely information. This set has an ambitious scope with the goal of offering the most up-to-date international overview of key issues in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals. Eighty-two countries are represented. Belarus chapter was written by Viachaslau Bortnik, Belarusian human rights defender and LGBT activist.

Bellow we provide excerpts from the chapter.

Overview of LGBT Issues in Belarus

While homosexual activity is no longer considered a crime in Belarus, and the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual relations is equal, LGBT rights still remains a marginal topic in public discourse and does not play any role in national and or local politics.

Homophobia remains widespread throughout the country country, and instances of harassment and discrimination appear occur regularly. Many Belarusians believe consider homosexuality to be a disease, and some see it as a sin, but few consider it a legitimate sexual orientation.

President Lukashenka and members of Parliament parliament often make negative statements about homosexuals, which strengthens strengthening the homophobia in society.

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Belarus, a small post-Soviet state once hardly distinguishable from Russia and chronically misspelled in the Western press, has been making more and more headlines lately. And if the Russian-Belarusian military exercises with deployment of Russia’s most advanced S-400 air defense system weren’t enough, the 2010 Russian-Belarusian oil row is bound to make the West anxious.

Moscow and Minsk failed to close a new deal after Russian-Belarusian agreement on crude oil export tariffs expired on the New Year’s Eve. As the two states argued over pricing, Russia had briefly halted supplies to the Naftan and Mozyr refineries to show Minsk who the boss is.

Flows were restarted on Jan. 3. To pacify its customers in the EU, Russia promised that the export flow would continue with no further interruptions. Western Europe is slow to celebrate, however; it remembers that last January similar steps preceded a complete shutdown of gas flow through Ukraine. The dispute has already pushed oil prices up to $81 a barrel, their highest in nearly 15 months.

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The article by Iryna Chalip (Irina Khalip) gave a freezy reminder of late 1990s when Belarusian opposition politicians have been abducted and presumably killed.

The story around US lawyer Emanuel Zeltser is quite mysterious because one can hardly find a motivation for Belarusian KGB to act in the interests of the exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky and assist him in getting hands on the legacy of the Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili by again threatening the well-known investigative journalist Iryna Chalip. It seems an other story where we’ll know the truth not earlier than the Belarusian KGB opens its archives years from now.

One sad thing the whole story makes clear is that freedom of press still remains only theory for Belarus, just as five or ten years ago.

An investigative journalist in Belarus says she has received anonymous threats linked to her publication.

Irina Khalip says she has received the threats by e-mail, telephone and in a telegram. She said Wednesday that the believes the security agency still going under its Soviet name KGB was involved in the threats.

The agency refused to comment on her claim.

Khalip said the threats were related to her article in the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta about the disputed legacy of late Georgian billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili.

// Taiwan News

See also relevant reports in

The Moscow Times

Charter’97

Belarusian civil society groups around the world, including here in Washington, commemorate the Day of Solidarity every month on the 16th.  This day is meant to remind about the disappearance in Minsk in 1999-2000 of Yury Zakharenka, Victar Hanchar, Anatoly Krasouski and Dzmitri Zavadski.

In 2004, the Council of Europe prepared a special report on disappeared persons in Belarus. It is the most comprehensive independent study of this problem, which sheds light on what had really happened. Below is the report’s summary and its full text:

The report presents the results of the investigatory work carried out by the Rapporteur and the ad hoc sub-committee to clarify the fate of four well-known persons who disappeared in Minsk in 1999 and 2000. The conclusions which are drawn gravely impugn certain high representatives of the Government of Belarus. The draft resolution and recommendation call on the Council of Europe and its member and observer states to follow up on these findings, including by sanctions against the Belarusian authorities until they take the measures that must be taken against those responsible.

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WASHINGTON — In the annual ranking of economic freedom in the world of the Wall Street Journal and the Washington-based Heritage Foundation Belarus ranked as the worst economy in Europe. Being 43 of 43 in Europe, Belarus is number 167 in the world, just behind the Republic of Congo, but ahead of Iran. Belarusian authorities recently vowed to liberalize its economy. But it remains to be seen whether this time the promises will translate into real reforms needed to improve the country’s image in the world.

Belarus’s economic freedom score is 45, making its economy the 167th freest in the 2009 Index. The persistence of Soviet-era policies and practices continues to deny Belarus the benefits of economic freedom now enjoyed in most other former Soviet republics. Its already low score underwent another deterioration of 0.4 point due to reckless and inefficient government spending that overshadowed gains in trade and business freedom. Belarus is ranked last among the 43 countries in the Europe region.

The majority of Belarus’s 10 economic freedom scores are significantly worse than the world average, though moderate tax rates and low tax revenues put its fiscal freedom score in the top half. Weak economic institutions create major barriers to development. Financial freedom, investment freedom, property rights, and freedom from corruption are 20′40 points below the world average. The government controls many financial institutions, either directly or partially. Foreign investment in all sectors faces hurdles ranging from outright restrictions to bureaucratic incompetence. Weak rule of law allows for significant corruption and insecure property rights. Large state-owned enterprises still generate considerable output, and privatization lags well behind other countries in the region.

Read full report at heritage.org.