Statement by a group of Azerbaijani human rights activists

25 October 2004                                                                                                      

Baku, Azerbaijan

We – a group of human rights defenders of Azerbaijan express our deepest concern at acts of violence, harassment and procedural irregularities that characterized the latest referendum poll in Belarus, resulting in the allowing the President Alexander Lukashenko to run for a third term in office and to remain as Europe’s last true dictator.

We strongly denounce the numerous irregularities that occurred on the Election Day and that were reported by international observers. Consequently, the controversial referendum in Belarus has approved the lifting of a constitutional ban on a third term for President Alexander Lukashenko, Seven million voters were also electing a new 110-seat parliament which the president had already vowed would not include a single opponent of his rule.
There have been abundant credible reports on widespread allegations of vote rigging with the EU and the United States voicing doubts on the poll´s validity.
The overall process reflected a lack of sufficient political commitment to implement a genuine election process. Pattern of intimidation of against opposition supporters overshadowed the political atmosphere. Access of opposition candidates to state and independent media, apart from free airtime, was severely out of balance. Opposition candidates were faced with serious restrictions on getting registrations and holding political rallies.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the referendum had been conducted in “a climate of fear”. The OSCE also said the vote – in which Belarusian’s also voted to fill the largely powerless 110-seat parliament – fell “significantly short” of democratic norms. The elections filled 107 parliamentary seats, but none of the opposition candidates made it into the house.
Opposition leaders said their observers were barred from some voting stations and denied the right to ensure no one tampered with ballot boxes from pre-election day voting. Observers witnessed serious irregularities, including inaccurate voter list, voter intimidation, ballot-box stuffing and serious irregularities in vote counting and tabulation.
Care should be given to a fact that, Belarus has become ever more secluded and isolated under Mr Lukashenko’s decade-long reign. His presidency has been characterised by the closure of opposition media outlets and the prosecution of opponents. With the next presidential election due to fall in 2006, he claims that a third term is for the good of the nation, but his opponents have accused him of trying to become Belarus´ leader for life.
We also deplore serious violence and wave of arrests of opposition activists just aftermath the poll. A large number of demonstrators were ruthlessly beaten up, wounded and detained by police. An opposition journalist, Veronica Cherkasova has been stabbed to death in the Belarus capital Minsk on Wednesday night in her apartment. Generally, the poll had been blighted by violence, intimidation, slanted media coverage and ballot rigging. 
Mr Lukashenko’s dictatorial regime has a terrible human rights record, and a long history of imprisoning, abducting and persecuting of opposition activists and NGO people, repressing of the independent and opposition-minded media, rigging elections and breaking up peaceful public protests with excessive violence.  Moreover, the authorities have refused to properly investigate serious allegations that high representatives of the regime were involved in the disappearance of opposition politicians and a critical journalist.
We urge the international community, particularly the CoE, OSCE, EU to take necessary and drastic steps to ensure that the individuals responsible for attacks and repression of demonstrators and opposition members are identified, subject to an independent trial, and punished according to national laws in force, and to cease immediately further attacks on peaceful demonstrators and to stop the persecution of opposition activists.

We also call on governments of democratic states and influential human rights organizations to undertake strong and immediate measures to stop the political repressions, arbitrariness and dictatorship in Belarus. The international community must not passively accept violently stolen votes and should immediately react to the anarchy in Belarus.
 


Statement was signed by:

1. Vugar Gojayev – Project coordinator for the emerging Human Rights House in Azerbaijan
2. Fuad Hasanov – Director of the “Against violence” human right centre
      (AVHRC)
3. Shahla Ismailova – chairwoman of Woman Association for Rational Development   (WARD)
4. Novella Jafaroglu – chairwoman of Association for the Protection of Women Rights after D. Aliyeva (APWR)
5. Nadir Adilov – chairman of Azerbaijan Young Lawyers Union (AYLU)
6. Eldar Zeynalov – chairman of Azerbaijan Human Rights Centre (AHRC)
7. Sahib Mamedov – chairman of the Committee for the Protection of the Labour Rights of Citizens
8. Anar Mamedly – director of Election Monitoring Centre
9. Ilgar Ibrahimoglu – DEVAMM centre, IRLA country coordinator
10. Avaz Hasanov – director of Centre for Humanitarian Research
11. Mirvary Gahramanly- director of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of Oil workers