Republic of Belarus Turning Back the Clock President Aleksandr Lukashenka continues to steer Belarus back toward Soviet-era repression by leading a government that is engaged in violations of a broad spectrum of basic civil and political rights. His four years in office have witnessed the reversal of modest improvements in respect for human rights that followed the perestroika period and the break-up of the Soviet Union. In the past year alone, the government closed the only remaining independent daily newspaper in the country, was implicated in at least four assaults or threats on government critics, and detained scores of demonstrators, many of them minors. Together with restrictions on civic freedoms that have now been codified into law, these developments indicate that President Lukashenka is truly turning back the clock on rights. July 1, 1998 Report Purchase online ISBN: D1007
Human Rights Watch Demands Immediate Release of Pavel Sheremet Human Rights Watch/Helsinki today renewed its call for the immediate and unconditional release of Pavel Sheremet, a Belarusian journalist who has just declared a hunger strike. ·The case of Sheremet, Dmitry Zavadsky and Yaroslav Ovchinnikov is now our top concern in Belarus,º declared Holly Cartner, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki. Sheremet, a correspondent for ORT (Russian Public Television) Ovchinnikov, a cameraman, and Zavadsky, a driver, were arrested July 24 allegedly for illegal border crossing. ·His arrest signifies the Belarusian governmentµs total lack of respect for free expression and demonstrates its deplorable refusal to restore the rule of law.º August 11, 1997 Press Release
Republic of Belarus Crushing Civil Society In his three years in office, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka has reversed nearly all the advances in the field of human rights, freedoms and democratization that had marked the perestroika era and the post-Soviet period. Indeed, with media forced to abandon critical expression, with public organizations harassed into closure, with the government's systematic attempts to stop public protests and to silence its political opponents, Belarus bears an eerie and increasing resemblance to Soviet society. By all indicators, the government campaign to control civil society is killing it. By employing these methods, President Lukashenka has all but made impossible a peaceful and constructive dialogue on policy among the government, the opposition, the public and NGOs. August 1, 1997 Report Purchase online ISBN: D908
Cracking Down on Civil Society in Belarus In presenting Belarus: Crushing Civil Society at a press conference in Minsk, Jonathan Fanton, chair of the Human Rights Watch/Helsinki advisory committee is calling on the Belarusian government to cease its relentless attacks on free expression and association. July 31, 1997 Press Release
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Overview of Human Rights Developments
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On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 05:49:01 -0400, Chris Doss <itschris13 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> From: "Grant Lee" <grantlee at iinet.net.au>
>> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>> To: "lbo-talk" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>> Subject: [lbo-talk] Lukashenko & Belarus
>> Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 17:40:54 +0800
>>
>> Some people agree with you Chris...
>>
>>
>> "The Prague racket"
>>
>> (Subtitle: "Nato is now a device to exert control and extract cash.
>> Those
>> who resist, like Belarus, are punished")
>>
>> John Laughland
>> Friday November 22, 2002
>> The Guardian
>>
>> "The reasons given for the west's hostility towards Belarus are that
>> Lukashenko is authoritarian and a "dictator". This is an odd charge,
>> given
>> that the losing candidates in last September's presidential elections
>> conceded that the incumbent president had won more votes than them. It
>> is
>> also strange for the west to revile Lukashenko when it courts so
>> assiduously
>> President Putin, whose own election, like all those in Russia since
>> 1991,
>> was outrageously rigged.
> ---
> No kidding. Lukashenko is well-liked in Belarus. Belarussians live
> quietly and comfortably. Lukashenko-bashing at a time when the West is
> courting the leaders of the Stans is inane. Anyway, if Belarussians like
> Lukashenko, obviously he should be president, regardless of what some
> bonehead in the West thinks.
>
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-- Michael Pugliese
"Without knowing that we knew nothing, we went on talking without listening to each other. Sometimes we flattered and praised each other, understanding that we would be flattered and praised in return. Other times we abused and shouted at each other, as if we were in a madhouse." -Tolstoy