Hockey championship in Belarus: Lukashenko puts activists on ice

08 May 14 | Belarus, News and features

(Photo: Ivan Uralsky / Demotix)

(Photo: Ivan Uralsky / Demotix)

Authorities in Belarus have been targeting human rights activists ahead of this weekend’s start of the International Ice Hockey Federation’s world championship in Minsk.

At least 17 political and civic activists were detained between 26 April and 6 May to prevent the organising of protests during the championship, which begins on 9 May. Another five are either in detention or being sought for questioning by police. All have been accused of minor hooliganism and sentenced to administrative detention of up to 25 days.

Such “preventive arrests” are common in Belarus. One of the activists, Pavel Vinahradau, who is known for his numerous detentions, opted to leave Minsk until the end of the championship. He had previously been summoned by the police: “They made it clear that either I go to Berezino (a small town 100 km outside Minsk) till 3 June, or I go to Akrestsina (a detention centre in Minsk). I choose Berezino,” Vinahradau wrote on Facebook.

A website called Totalitizator asks its visitors make predictions about which activists will be detained next, for how many days and on what charges. For people who follow political news in Belarus it is not difficult to make a choice.

Potential foreign “troublemakers” are also being kept away from the tournament. On Wednesday, Martin Uggla, a human rights activist from Sweden, was denied entry to Belarus when he was detained at Minsk-2 National Airport. According to temporary visa-free travel requirements, hockey supporters with valid game tickets do not require visa. Despite the fact Martin had one, border guards told him he was being prohibited from entering the country.

Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko is known for his love for hockey – and his unfulfilled desire of a real international profile. Consistent tensions with the Western democracies and an unwillingness to ease his authoritarian grip has deprived Lukashenko’s international relations of impact. Fifty-six of the president’s last 100 international visits were to Russia and Kazakhstan, though he has travelled to Turkmenistan, Venezuela, China and Cuba, as well.

The ice hockey championship in Minsk is set to become Lukashenko’s marquee performance on the world stage. That is why the government is rounding up activist voices. Lukashenko wants to present a calm, hospitable and prosperous country led by a wise and caring leader. The picturesque façade cannot hide the problems afflicting Belarus: An unsustainable economy hooked on huge Russian subsidies and a dismal human rights record.

Belarus remains the only country in Europe that still imposes the death penalty. On 18 April, 23-year-old Pavel Sialiun was, according to reports, executed. Sialiun’s case is still under review by the UN Human Rights Committee.

Nine political prisoners are still in jail in Belarus, including well-known human rights defender Ales Bialiatski, and former presidential candidate Mikalay Statkevich. A recent report by FIDH says they are in a critical situation. Many dissidents suffer regular restrictions to “their means of support, quality of food and medical assistance”, including being deprived of meetings with relatives and subject to limits on correspondence.

“Politically motivated persecution of civil society representatives and of the opposition is a general trend, and the limitations on political and civil rights of Belarusian citizens are pervading, both in national legislation and in practice,” says another statement by 12 human rights groups that represent the ice hockey championship participating countries.

But people who raise these issues are not welcome in Minsk these days. Even foreign journalists who are accredited for the championship are obliged to receive a separate accreditation at the Belarusian Foreign Ministry if they wish to cover issues other than hockey while in Belarus.

But many in the country fear the real issues to cover will appear after the championship is over on 25 May.

“Putin invaded the Crimea four days after the Sochi Olympics. Let’s see if Lukashenko will be that quick with another clampdown on civil society. But I am sure he will settle all accounts with us after the championship,” a leader of one Belarusian NGOs told Index in Minsk last week.

Next year, the country will vote in the presidential election. So there is more ice to come in Belarus after international hockey is gone.

An earlier version of this article specifically stated that both Ales Bialiatski and Mikalay Statkevich have been deprived of meetings with relatives and subject to limits on correspondence. While this may have been true in the past, we have not been able to confirm that this is currently happening to the pair.

This article was posted on May 8, 2014 at indexoncensorship.org

Lukashenko grounded as Olympics kick off

27 Jul 12 | Uncategorized

In Belarus there are only two positions that are officially allowed to have a title of “President”. The first one is the head of the state, the other one is the head of the National Olympic Committee. Both posts are taken by the same person — Alexander Lukashenko. But he is not coming to London in either of his roles. He is banned from entering the European Union over the fraud during the presidential election in December 2010 and the subsequent crackdown on the country’s civil society.

“The entry ban will remain in force during the Olympics and the decision on the matter will not be changed,” the UK embassy in Minsk told BelaPAN Information Agency.

Jacques Rogge, the head of the International Olympic Committee, said today his organisation respects the decision of the British Home Office to deny London Games accreditation to Lukashenko.

The ban hardly came as a surprise, and Mr Lukashenko, often referred to in Western media as “Europe’s last dictator”, fired back with his ideological response. During the opening ceremony of the Slavic Bazaar festival in Vitsebsk, Belarus, he claimed that event was much better than the Olympic Games.

“The Olympics clearly lack behind our Slavic Bazaar,” the Belarusian dictator stated as he accused the London Games of being politicised, while calling the festival he hosts “an island of freethinking and independence.” Well, he forgot to mention that outside the stages of this “freethinking island” there are his political opponents that are still in prison.

The annual Slavic Bazaar festival is often said to be one of the main mass cultural events in Belarus, which brings together a lot of artists, mainly pop stars from the former Soviet countries. The Belarusian president always uses it for his ideological purposes, and sometimes for dancing with Russian pop stars. It all is meant to add to his image of the great and caring “father of the nation”, who is close to his people and brings entertainment to them.

This year, however, this ideological message from the Belarusian version of “an island of freethinking and independence” was damaged. The troublemaker was pop star Loreen. The Swedish singer, who was invited to Vitsebsk as the winner of this year Eurovision song contest, clearly spoilt the president’s party as she delivered a strong message in support of human rights in Belarus.

Loreen met a group of Belarusian activists and journalists in Minsk, including Natalia Pinchuk, the wife of Ales Bialiatski, one of the most prominent Belarusian human rights defenders, who serves a term in prison.

“Without freedom of expression I would never have been a singer. I wish that there were no political prisoners in Belarus and that human rights defenders like Ales Bialiatski could continue their important work. He and his colleagues are sacrificing everything in the struggle for human rights and they deserve support from the outside world,” Loreen said in a press statement.

After the statements like this Loreen risks to become persona non-grata to the authorities in Belarus — as Lukashenko himself is in the European Union.

The dictator will stay home inventing “Slavic bazaars” to entertain himself, while pretending they are better than the Olympics.

Andrei Aliaksandrau is Index on Censorship’s Belarus and OSCE Programme Officer

Belarus: Journalist convicted of defaming Lukashenko loses appeal

21 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost

A journalist convicted of defaming the president of Belarus has lost his appeal. Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut from Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza was found guilty of the defamation of President Alexander Lukashenko in July, and the Hrodna Oblast Court in western Belarus upheld the verdict against him yesterday. Poczobut was given a three year prison sentence, suspended for two years. The journalist argued that his rights were violated during the trial by KGB investigators and the prosecutor’s office.  Poczobut said he would continue appealing the conviction throughout the system, up to and including the UN.