Possible ''disappearances''

The trial of two former members of the elite Almaz police unit and two other men accused, among other crimes, of the abduction and murder of the Russian Public Television (ORT) cameraman, Dmitry Zavadsky, began at Minsk Regional Court on 24 October (see AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001). In contravention of various international human rights standards the trial was held behind closed doors. The authorities offered no credible reason for this decision. Repeated requests for access to the proceedings from domestic human rights organizations were rejected. Human rights monitors stated that they suspected high-level state involvement in the murder, an argument reinforced by incriminating statements made by two officials assigned to the case from the Prosecutor General's Office, who fled the country in June and successfully obtained asylum in the US.

International and domestic observers argued that, although the four accused men may have been involved in the murder, President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's immediate circle of appointees had organized this and other murders of prominent opposition figures. The attempts of the Prosecutor General's Office to investigate this alleged involvement resulted in the dismissal of several high-ranking state officials in late November 2000, including Prosecutor General Oleg Bozhelko, who was said to have interviewed suspects, who were later not brought to trial (see AI Index: EUR 01/001/2001). Concern has also been expressed that several or all of the accused will be convicted of the charges and then quickly executed in order to eradicate any evidence linking the President's administration to the crimes.

The presidential elections — continued harassment and intimidation

Presidential elections were held on 9 September, returning President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to power. The outcome of the elections was disputed by Belarus' opposition as well as many foreign governments due to serious doubts about their fairness. The International Limited Election Observation Mission (ILEOM)ILEOM comprises the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODHIR) and the Parliamentary Troika of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE/PA), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Parliament. stated that there were fundamental flaws in the electoral process including ''[a] political regime that is not accustomed to and does everything in its power to block the opposition''; ''[a] campaign of intimidation directed against opposition activists, domestic observation activists, opposition and independent media, and a smear campaign against international observers''; and ''[h]ighly biassed State-controlled media and censorship against the independent print media''.OSCE/ODIHR Limited Election Observation Mission - Final Report, Republic of Belarus Presidential Election 9 September 2001 - page 3.

These sentiments were reflected in a pre-election period marred by numerous accounts of arbitrary action on the part of the state, aimed at stifling the peaceful activities of the opposition, including the detention of human rights and pro-democracy activists and alleged police ill-treatment. The offices of election-monitoring organizations and independent newspapers were also targeted by the authorities in various police and tax raids, resulting in confiscations of valuable office equipment and election materials (see below).

A significant number of people who took an active part in the elections as election campaigners or election monitors, or had staged peaceful anti-government protests, suffered reprisals after polling day. The prominent Belarusian human rights organization, Spring-96, stated that peaceful anti-government protesters were fined or imprisoned for their activities, while the involvement of college and university students and workers resulted in expulsions and dismissals from their respective places of learning and employment.

Harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders and pro-democracy activists

During the run-up to the election various independent human rights and pro-democracy oriented non-government organizations (NGOs) were raided by the Belarusian authorities. At the start of September five police officers reportedly attempted to forcibly enter the press office of the Minsk-based human rights and pro-democracy organization, Charter-97. The organization's equipment reportedly only narrowly escaped being confiscated. Several weeks previously, around 20 state officials raided the Minsk office of the Belarusian Voters Club on 21 August, confiscating office equipment and materials. Officials had previously visited the offices of this election monitoring organization on 17 and 20 August demanding information about the equipment being used in its office. On 8 and 9 August officers from the Committee for State Security (KGB) raided an office being used by the GART youth centre in Gomel, on the Belarusian-Ukrainian border, confiscating office equipment and detaining several youth pro-democracy activists. GART later became one of the first Belarusian NGOs to be prosecuted with violation of presidential decree No 8, preventing foreign monetary and non-monetary aid being used for a broad range of pro-democracy activities (See AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001), when Gomel City Court fined it one million Belarusian roubles (approximately $630) on 27 December. In the period under review several other NGOs suffered the same fate.

In the run-up to polling day, Spring-96, received two official warnings from the Ministry of Justice on 27 and 28 August, threatening it with closure. Human rights organizations, like all other associations in Belarus, are subject to a system of official warnings which can result in their closure by the Ministry of Justice if two warnings are received in any one year period. The Ministry of Justice accused Spring-96 of distributing more than the regulationary maximum 299 copies of its publication Right to Freedom and of not supplying the ministry with the organization's list of election observers. AI has previously expressed concern that warnings are often issued for the most spurious of reasons and are designed to harass human rights defenders and restrict their activities (see AI Index: 49/005/2001). No official action had been taken against the organization at the end of the period under review.

Other organizations, like the Belarusian Students Association, were less fortunate. The Belarusian Supreme Court ruled to close this nationwide, independent association, which had been in existence since 1992, on 3 December after it had received two official warnings in June and September. The second warning, issued on 9 September, ensued after officials discovered a minor inconsistency in the association's official registration. The Belarusian Students Association considered that the real reason behind its closure was the involvement of some of its members in Belarus' pro-democracy movement.

Harassment and intimidation of the independent news print media

Belarus' small independent printed news media was also repeatedly targeted by the state authorities before and after the elections. On 17 August the authorities seized 300,000 copies of a special election issue of the independent newspaper, Nasha Svaboda, from the Magic printing house due to alleged inaccuracies in the printing house's financial records. On the same day Nasha Svaboda reportedly received a warning from the State Press Committee for publishing an article about members of President Lukashenka's government. Officials raided the office of Belarus' largest independent newspaper, Narodnaya Volya, on 23 August, reportedly confiscating 10 computers. The independent newspapers, Nasha Svaboda and Belaruskaya Delovaya Gazeta were also reportedly raided by officials the day previously. On 28 August 40, 000 copies of the newspaper, Rabochy, which favoured the main opposition presidential candidate, Vladimir Goncharik, were seized by state officials at the Magic printing house in Minsk.

The 4 September print-run of Grodno-based independent newspaper, Pagonia, was also seized for containing a series of articles about the possible falsification of the results of the presidential election. The contents of the 4 September issue resulted in Grodno's Regional Prosecutor's Office issuing the newspaper with an official warning on 21 September for slandering President Lukashenka. As a result of the warning and a warning the newspaper had received in November 2000, the Belarusian Supreme Economic Court closed Pagonia on 12 November. On 13 December Grodno's Leninsky District Court fined the newspaper's editor, Nikolai Markevich, approximately $300 dollars for taking part in an unsanctioned protest against Pagonia's closure three weeks previously, during which he and two colleagues were detained.

Prisoner of conscience

In the period under review AI received a letter of thanks from the member of the dissolved Belarusian parliament, the 13th Supreme Soviet, and prisoner of conscience Andrey Klimov, who remains imprisoned in the UZ 15/1 colony in Minsk (see AI Index: EUR 49/14/00). Andrey Klimov, who was sentenced to six years' imprisonment in March 2000 for alleged corruption, has served nearly four years of his sentence. Expressions of international concern about his imprisonment persisted. In mid-September the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which has closely followed his case, stated during its 169th session in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, that it ''[r]emains concerned at the continuing imprisonment of Mr. Klimov, particularly in view of the serious misgivings it has previously expressed about respect for the right to fair trial and the right to defend oneself, and the harshness of the sentence handed down on him, which it considers grossly disproportionate to the alleged offence''.

Death penalty

On 10 December the Deputy Prosecutor General, Alyaksandr Ivanovsky, reportedly stated that, in 2001, four prisoners were executed and a further four sentenced to death. The figures given contrasted with those offered by the Chairman of the Belarusian Supreme Court, Valyantsin Sukala, who stated in early 2002 that seven people were sentenced to death in 2001, five of whom were said to be waiting execution.