Crackdown on independent media and daily protests – Belarus civil society digest
For almost 50 days Belarusians continue daily protests against the illegitimacy of the 6th presidential term of Lukashenka, including weekly Saturday’s Women Marches and massive Sunday rallies. This week, Belarusians flooded the streets after a “secret” inauguration ceremony on September 23, which resulted in police’s use of water cannons, tear gas, stun grenades and detention of over 380 people during post-inauguration protests.
The daily solidarity and protests actions do not fade away across the country – up to 10% of the population participated in the street post-election protests. Peaceful resistance includes hanging national flags, restoring graffiti, releasing public appeals (mothers of large families, doctors, athletes), creating patriotic flags of districts, student chains of solidarity, quitting government service (the MFA head’s son left his position at MFA), etc. The IT volunteers developed an artificial intelligence that unmasks riot police.
Civil society. The new Mara (Dream) bot-assistant aggregates information about all types of civil society’s assistance, professional and local chats, opportunities for volunteers, etc. Press Club launches new emergency support services for journalists. The BY_help initiative has helped over 800 victims of repressions and their families. In total, over $6.3 million have been raised locally to support Belarusians.
Coordination Council. The health of one of the Council leaders, lawyer Maksim Znak, has deteriorated following the 8-day hunger strike in jail. Maria Kalesnikava’s lawyer was detained in connection with supposed administrative offense. The Council’s leaders in exile addressed the European Parliament. The New York Times uncovers Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s story about her improbable rise from stay-at-home mom to a revolutionary icon.
Repressions. The authorities continue mass detentions of protesters and targeted repressions against activists. The number of the detained since the start of the elections is close to 13,000 people, an anti-record for Eastern Europe’s police repression. Over 250 criminal cases have been opened. The leaders of strike committees are under ongoing harassment. 72 political prisoners remain in jail, including 2 new political prisoners, a human rights activist and active Minsker, this week.
. Since the beginning of the year, over 300 cases of violations of the journalists’ rights are recorded. Nasha Niva chief editor was detained as a suspect in a criminal case. Nasha Niva will be fined for the situation when riot police shot their journalist – the case is interpreted as a “work-related injury.” Four Belsat journalists remain in jail. Media monitoring: State-run TV drives the wedge deeper into society.
Economy in recession. The EDB forecasts that the GDP will fall by 2.3% in 2020. The industry is in a state of bad debts. Belarus is on the verge of downgrading its sovereign credit rating. The draft of the 2021 national budget remains deeply deficient. Over 30% of Belarusian IT specialists say that their companies are ready to relocate them abroad. The IT country is rolling back by at least 5 years.
International reaction. Western countries, including the U.S., EU, all Belarus’ neighbors (except Russia), in response to the 6th inauguration of Lukashenka, reacted by not recognizing him as president-elect. Mikhail Gorbachev, the first president of the USSR states that “Belarusians [protesters] are doing great.” The official Minsk responds that the “multi-vector policy does not ensure the necessary external conditions for Belarus’ favorable development anymore.”
COVID-19. For the first time since July, over 300 new daily cases are registered in Belarus. Almost 77,000 Belarusians positively tested for and 807 died due to COVID-19.
Belarus Digest prepared this overview on the basis of materials provided by Pact. This digest attempts to give a richer picture of the recent political and civil society events in Belarus. It often goes beyond the hot stories already available in English-language media.
Daily protests and repressions, international reaction, Coordination Council – Belarus Civil Society Digest
For over 40 days, starting from August 9th, Belarusians continue daily peaceful protests. The most massive rallies on Sundays continue to gather hundreds of thousands of people in Minsk, despite the increasing brutality by the police. Lukashenka keeps pushing a rhetoric of Belarus’ destruction by external aggressors. Independent experts agree that Belarus is passing through the most dramatic political crisis in its history, as well as the foreign policy default and human rights catastrophe.
- The daily protests and solidarity actions across the country continue in various forms – hanging white-red-white flags and ribbons, repainting city objects in national colors, art products, neighborhood evening parties, cyber partisans, public appeals by lawyers, university graduates, parents of students, musicians, and football players, quitting the GONGOs, singings flashmobs, dismissal of officials (e.g., head of the state Institute of Sociology), etc. In response, the authorities use new forms of pressure – bills for flag removal and warnings parents against taking children to rallies.
- Strikes. Amid intimidation and dozens of new arrests of strike committee leaders, the state enterprises continue an Italian strike and other “guerrilla”/hidden forms of protests, including anti-records in fulfilling monthly plans at Belaruskali and BelAZ. The Norwegian company Yara, a buyer of Belarusian fertilizers is concerned over the situation with Belarusian workers and visits Soligorsk this week.
- Economy in recession. Currency withdrawal by population accelerates to $30 million per day. However, the currency rate is falling slightly, which is explained by the continued sale of gold and foreign exchange reserves. The total debts of large and medium-sized enterprises amounted to $60 billion – that is more than the size of the Belarusian economy.
- Civil society continues monitoring, financial and other support to victims of repression – e.g., so far, the Probono platform that unites over 500 volunteers and 250 organizations has helped in solving over 2,500 issues. The initiative to help the resigned police officerscontinues. The new campaign Honest University will help students to be heard. To the moment, the BY_help initiative has paid $400 thousand to 650 victims of violence. In total, aid funds to support Belarusians have raised $6.2 million.
- Coordination Council. MEPs welcome the Coordination Council as an “interim representation of the people demanding democratic change”. Two out of seven leaders of the Coordination Council remain at large in the country – Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich and the representative of the strike committees Sergei Dylevsky, released after 25 days of arrest. Others are arrested in criminal cases or forcibly taken abroad. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in her address to the UN Human Rights Council reiterates the readiness for a dialogue with the authorities.
- Repressions. The authorities continue mass detentions to bring down a wave of protests – over 770 people were detained during the last Sunday protests. It became known that the formal reason why Belarusian Catholic Church Head was banned to return to Belarus: his passport was declared invalid. TUT.BY releases a document with the data of over 1,100 people who sought medical treatment during street events. 70 political prisoners remain in jail, including 12 new political prisoners this week. The opposition compiles “Taraikovsky’s List” (by the name of the first protester killed) with those who torture and beat people.
- Crackdown on independent media. Eight journalists are in jail for administrative cases. Two photojournalists were sentenced to 11 days of arrest each, independent media react with blank front pages.
- International reaction. The EP resolution indicates the non-recognition of Lukashenka as president of Belarus when his term expires in November. OSCE launches the Moscow Mechanism to examine human rights violations in Belarus. IIHF will review hosting the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championship in Minsk. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine does not recognize the Belarusian election. Poland wants the EU to pledge 1 billion euros to stabilize Belarus. Putin promises a $1.5bn loan to Belarus. Lukashenka threatens to close the borderswith Poland and Lithuania, but so far it remains rhetoric.
- COVID-19. This week the number of new infections exceeded 200 daily cases. Over 75,000 Belarusians positively tested for and 773 died due to COVID-19. Lukashenka got the Ig Nobel Prize for “using the COVID-19 to teach the world that politicians can have a more immediate effect on life and death than scientists and doctors can”.
Belarus Digest prepared this overview on the basis of materials provided by Pact. This digest attempts to give a richer picture of the recent political and civil society events in Belarus. It often goes beyond the hot stories already available in English-language media.
