The Human Rights Center Viasna appeals  on the international community and human rights organizations and lodges its strong protest against the unprecedented tide of pressure and intimidation against civil society activists, which occurred on 21 February 2006 in many cities of Belarus. (23-FEB-06)

HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER VIASNA URGES INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO USE ALL POSSIBILITIES TO STOP REPRISALS AND POLITICAL TERROR IN BELARUS
A P P E A L
on the international community and human rights organizations

The Human Rights Center Viasna lodges its strong protest against the unprecedented tide of pressure and intimidation against civil society activists, which occurred on 21 February 2006 in many cities of Belarus.
KGB and police searched privately-owned apartments and offices of public activists in Novopolatsk, Brest, Mogilev, Zhlobin, Minsk and other cities of the country. As they did so, they confiscated computer equipment, data media, printed materials and documentation.
The formal ground for the mass searches and detentions of the civil society activists was the Resolution of the Minsk City Procurator’s Office within criminal proceedings instituted by terms of part 1 Article  367 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus (The libel on the President of the Republic of Belarus, contained in a publicly delivered statement, or in a printed or publicly shown work, or in the mass media). Dozens of public activists nation-wide were detained and interrogated as witnesses by KGB agents. Unconcealed moral and psychological pressure was exerted against the people.
The large scale action aimed by the Belarusian authorities at intimidating Belarusian society is occurring against a background of deceitful, tendentious materials about the representatives of the Belarusian democratic opposition and civil society in the state media of the country.
Since Stalin times Belarusian society has not known such psychological terror.
The Human Rights Center Viasna views these actions by the authorities as a nation-wide action of intimidation and pressure against the country’s citizens before the presidential elections.
The Human Rights Center Viasna urges the representatives of the international community, human rights organizations to use all possible international mechanisms and exert influence on the official authorities of Belarus so that they stop their repressive machine.
Human Rights Viasna
Minsk, 21 February 2006.
More information: VIASNA