Summing up the results of 2009 Belarusian human rights defenders and third sector representatives underlined that one of the main antidemocratic articles of the Belarusian legislation, 193.1, still exists. And it is so even despite the promise of the highest state officials to revoke it.
It is worth mentioning that in September last year during the OSCE conference the Ministry of Justice official made a statement promising to cancel the infamous articles. However, this January it became a public knowledge that the Parliament was not going to consider any changes or amendments to the Criminal Code. The head of the parliamentary national security commission Vikatar Huminski stated that “The House of Representatives (lower chamber of the Parliament) has no intentions to consider abolishing Article 193.1 in the near future.”
At the same time the Stop 193.1 campaign continues amongst human rights and independent organisations. The Democratic NGO Assembly issued a call for action in the name of the Stop 193.1 campaign. In their address they mentioned the urgent necessity to abolish Article and, as a consequence, the need of a public resonance and of the campaign support by ordinary citizens and other, not yet affiliated, organisations.
“It is obvious that the Belarusian authorities are in fact using this article to exert pressure on activists of unregistered NGOs in preparation for the presidential election next year (and there are several hundreds of unregistered organisations in Belarus!). It is well known that Article 193.1 was invented and introduced specifically for the previous election campaign. Several people were prosecuted according to this article and spent up to 6 months in jail,” said the NGO Assembly address.
Registration is not a panacea
Neverthelss, the official registration does not guaranty that organisation activists will not be harassed.
On 3 February the Union of Belarusian Writers (officially registered with the Ministry of Justice) issued a statement about persecution of its members. In the last several days, UBW members, those working in state owned institutions, were called by their superiors. They demanded to cancel of the UBW membership, otherwise its members would be fired.
As a result at least two writers announced their official exit from UBW. It appeared that state institutions received a letter from the Presidential Administration where UBW was called “a destructive organisation” and its membership “was not compatible with state work.”
Anatol Astapenka, UBW member, scholar and publicist, was also under pressure from one of the state universities, his place of work. He was ordered to “resign by his own will” and got not explanation as to why.
“While talking with the department chair it came out that they want to sack me because I was a UBW member and this organisation is “an alternative one.” I asked what was so bad about it? They replied that UBW was “destructive.” And I refused to sign my resignation,” shared Mr Astapenka with the independent Naša Niva newspaper.
The university lecturer is not going to give up and will defend his rights with the help of lawyers.
“I already wrote to the rector about an illegal conduct towards me. I named all the superiors who were pressuring me to resign. We shall see what happens with it. I am not going to give up. I will try to start a new semester if they don’t use police to prevent me from entering a lecture hall. I am preparing lecture notes already. My colleagues are also being pressured. The department chair asked me to resign for his sake since the authorities are promising to throw him out as well.”
