Screw Human Rights Watch. I've already said why I wouldn't give them the time of day. Ask a Belarussian if he/she thinks Lukashenko is an oppressive disctator.
>From: Michael Pugliese <debsian at pacbell.net>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Lukashenko & Belarus
>Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 08:06:05 -0800
>
><URL: http://www.hrw.org/europe/belarus.php >
>Republic of Belarus
>Violations of Academic Freedom
>This report by Human Rights Watch details how President Aleksandr
>Lukashenka's government has suppressed research on controversial topics,
>re-centralized academic decision-making, and maintained a ban on political
>activity on campuses. At the same time, a systematic crackdown on political
>dissent on campus has targeted outspoken students and lecturers who are
>threatened with expulsion, often for their off-campus political activity.
>Since President Lukashenka's election in 1994, the government has hounded
>or disbanded opposition political parties and nongovernmental
>organizations, and has stripped independent lawyers of their accreditation.
>His regime has also harassed and arrested peaceful political activists, and
>has severely curtailed the independent media. State university authorities
>issue reprimands and warnings to politically active lecturers, independent
>historians, and other academics. University employees who challenge the
>status quo are told to curtail political activities or change the focus of
>their academic enquiry. July 1, 1999 Report
>Purchase online
>ISBN: D1107
>
>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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>View only HRW reports on this country
>
>
>
>Overview of Human Rights Developments
>
>2002
>2001
>2000
>1999
>1998
>1997
>
>
>
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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
>
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