2004 press releases
U.S. Embassy Minsk Statement on Repressive Measures against Civil Society (December 2, 2004)
The United States of America views with growing concern the increasing attacks against independent civil society in Belarus. The U.S. has spoken out several times over the past two years against the systematic effort by the Lukashenko government to stifle independent voices in the country.
The situation since the October elections, themselves patently undemocratic, shows this repression is growing. While the Belarusian government couches its repressive acts in a legal framework, it is clear these actions are being directed against Belarus' few remaining independent voices for political reasons. Some of these acts include:
A number of newspapers or their staff have been suspended and fined, such as Birzha Informatsii, Barysawskiya Naviny, Mestnaya Gazeta, Nedelya, and Regianalnia Vedamosti. Other papers have received warnings.
Numerous people have been arrested and fined for simply passing out information. These include cases in Svislach, Gorki, Zhlobin, Minsk, Gomel, Borisov, Mogilev, Grodno, Baranovichi, and Bobruisk.
Others were arrested or fined for peacefully demonstrating, a right under Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Over 60 people have been arrested, some over a month after the fact, for peacefully gathering in Minsk in October.
Andrei Shantarovich, editor of Mestnaya Gazeta, was fined 1,200,000 rubles for staging a hunger strike, which the court deemed was an "unsanctioned demonstration."
Garry Pogonailo, deputy of the Belarus Helsinki Committee, faces up to five years in prison because he gave an interview to Sweden's TV 4 in which he repeated claims made by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that several high-ranking Belarusian officials were involved in political disappearances.
Unfortunately, these are just a few of the human rights abuses that have occurred in Belarus in the past two months. In contrast to the strict sanctions placed against independent civil society for attempting to peacefully exercise their basic human rights, the Government of Belarus made absolutely no attempt to bring to justice those, believed to be police officers, who savagely beat UCP Chairman Anatoly Lebedko and journalists Viktor Kuzmin and Konstantin Morozov on October 19, and journalist Pavel Sheremet on October 18.
These acts give Belarus one of the lowest ratings for media freedom in the world, and clearly violate Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right "to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media." The United States of America calls upon the Government of Belarus to uphold these internationally recognized basic human rights, and to abide by its commitments under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Ambassador
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