BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

16/08/2006

Dictatorship in Belarus - Hot Summer 2006

Michael Batiukov

On July, 21st this year Anton Taras (23 year-old, has 2-year old daughter Vera) - the translator, a member of the Belarus Association of Journalists has disappeared. That night he spoke with his parents on the phone and has told, that he was going a business-trip. Since then nobody knows where Anton is.

The railway ticket from Baranovichi to Kiev (passenger train Number 459 Riga-Vilnus-Simpheropol, 1-st car, a place # 9) was bought on Antons name but actualy nobody knows who had bought the ticket and if Anton was on that train. It can be a typical belorussian KGB cover-up. More information about Anton Taras is here: http://www.proz.com/?sp=partprof&eid_s=104427

Back in 1999 fourteen-year-old Anton Taras was arrested at the April rally commemorating the Chernobyl disaster, was allegedly forced by police to put on a gas mask he had worn symbolically during the rally. They then stopped the air supply until he began to suffocate, a torture method known as elephant. No investigations were known to have been carried out into allegations of torture or ill-treatment at that time. Following a peaceful demonstration on 25 April 1999 to commemorate the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, police reportedly arrested up to 40 demonstrators and allegedly beat some of them in detention.

http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aireport/ar99/eur49.htm

Also "Maidan" website reported back in March 2006: "The whereabouts at present of two more members of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Olena Lukrashevich and her son, Anton Taras, are not known. In the morning they set off for October Square. Their empty car was found parked on one of the adjoining streets." It turned out they were arrested and received 11 days sentences.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists (http://baj.ru/indexe.htm) reported that from 14 to 23 March 2006 20 journalists had faced charges involving administrative liability.The overwhelming majority have received sentences of administrative arrest.

http://eng.maidanua.org/node/561

So called president of Belarus Lukashenko, described by Washington as Europe's Last Dictator has been in power in his tightly controlled nation of 10 million since 1994, cracking down on political dissent and the independent media and squeezing non-governmental groups.

It's interesting that Belarus has got its independence from the Soviet Union in August 1991. A new constitution went into effect on March 30, 1994. The new document created the office of president, declared Belarus a democracy with separation of powers, granted freedom of religion, and proclaimed Belarus's goal of becoming a neutral, nonnuclear state.

The winner of the quickly organized election was Aleksandr Lukashenko. So, basically the first dictator and the first President of Belarus was elected in the first really democratic elections. How ironic and sad it is - dictator Lukashenko was elected democratically back in 1994. After that point any democracy in Belarus dissappeared. Lukashenko got rid of all the presidential candidates (they dissappeared before the elections) back in September 2001 and re-elected himself.

Also his re-election in March 2006 was condemned as fraudulent by the opposition and Western governments and his regime was slapped with U.S. and European Union sanctions.

Nevertheless on July 13, 2006 the former candidate for presidency, former rector of the Belarusian State University Alexander Kozulin has been sentenced to 5 and a half years in a minimum security prison. The politician was arrested during a brutal disband of a peaceful rally on March 25 this year.

Another four people in Belarus have been sentenced for the peaceful exercise of their human rights. Amnesty International considers them prisoners of conscience and calls for their immediate and unconditional release. Mikalay Astreyka, Enira Branizkaya, Alyaksandr Shalayka and Tsimafey Dranchuk, all of them in their twenties, were members of an independent election monitoring group, Initiative Partnership. They were sentenced on 4 August, 2006 to between six months and two years imprisonment for their intention to observe the presidential elections in March 2006.

More information about Belarus:

http://www.squidoo.com/FreeBelarus

Thank you for your support of Free Belarus!

Michael Batiukov

Source:

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=12535

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