When: Sunday, 19. June 2011 15.00-19.00
Where: London, National Theatre, South Bank, SE1 9PX
More info: www.englishpen.org/events/penevents/dayofactionforbelarus/
To mark the anniversary of the crackdown, on Saturday 18 June English PEN will be joining other members of the Belarus Committee to raise and maintain awareness of the current situation for our Belarusian colleagues. We are delighted that the National Theatre has offered to host the event, by providing a stand in the main entrance of the theatre. The stand will include information about all our current cases of concern, and we will be encouraging theatre visitors, passers-by, and special guests to take a couple of minutes out of their weekend to write a message of support on a postcard, and to write letters to MP’s and MEP’s calling for action.
Our colleagues from Free Belarus Now will also be continuing their Million Person Pledge, which seeks to record one million people from all around the world expressing their support for the political prisoners of Belarus and calling for change.
Please join us to show your support for our brave Belarusian colleagues, and to help us in sending a strong message that they have not been, and will not be, forgotten.
Even if you are unable to join us on 18 June, please do take a couple of minutes to take action for our cases of concern. Further details below.
UPDATE ON ENGLISH PEN’S CASES OF CONCERN (from 26 May 2011)
The sentencing of writers and journalists detained in Belarus on 19 December 2010 following demonstrations against the flawed presidential elections has taken place. Dimitri Bondarenkowas given a two year prison term, while Irina Khalip, Vladimir Neklyaev and Aleksandr Fiaduta were all given two year suspended sentences for alleged participation in riots. Pavel Severinets was sentenced to three years “restricted freedom”. While PEN welcomes the releases on suspended sentences, we regret that these were not unconditional, and continue to call for all restrictions to be lifted. We also call for the immediate release of Dimitri Bondarenko, who is apparently in very poor health.
The five aformentioned writers are among a number of opposition supporters and activists who have been tried for their involvement in the demonstrations and who have received prison terms and suspended sentences. Other cases of concern include Andrei Sannikov, a former deputy foreign minister and co-founder of the Charter 97 group who was sentenced earlier in May to five years in prison. He was considered the most prominent of the seven opposition candidates who stood for election. Two other former presidential candidates, Mikalay Statkevich and Dzmitry Vus, were sentenced today, 26 May, to six and five and a half years in prison respectively.
Dimitri Bondarenko, a journalist with Charter 97, and member of the opposition leader Andrei Sannikov’s campaign team was sentenced to two years in prison on 27 April. Originally charged with ‘organisation of riots’, this was subsequently changed to a charge of ‘participation of activities that disrupt the public order’ (under Article 342 of the Belarusian Penal Code). He was also ordered to pay a fine for damages to public transport. He had admitted taking part in the mass demonstrations but denied the other charges against him. His wife, Volha Bondarenko, recently expressed alarm about his physical well being after visiting him in jail, fearing that he may be confined to a wheelchair unless he gets urgent medical attention.
Pavel Severinets, an opposition activist, author of several books, and a member of Belarus PEN was sentenced on 17 May 2010 to three years of restricted freedom without being sent to a correctional institution (so-called “chemistry”).
On 15 May 2011 Irina Khalip was given a two year suspended sentence for her involvement in the demonstrations. She is a journalist for the Russian Novaya Gazeta and is married to Andrei Sannikov. Khalip was severely beaten and arrested by police when giving an interview to the Russia radio station Echo Moskvy on 19 December 2011 and detained in isolation by the KGB for one month. She was charged with ‘organising and participating in mass disorder’.
Vladimir Neklyaev, a writer, poet, former president of the Belarus PEN Centre, and the Tell the Truth party’s candidate in the 2010 presidential elections, was also given a two year suspended sentence on 20 May 2011. He was arrested on 19 December 2010 and charged with ‘organisation of riots’. This charge was subsequently downgraded to ‘participation in activities that disrupt the public order’ (under Article 342 of the Belarusian Penal Code) for which he was convicted.
Alexsandr Fiaduta, an author, literary critic and member of Belarus PEN and a member of Vladimir Neklyaev’s Tell the Truth party, was also charged with ‘participation in activities which break the public order’ and given a two year suspended sentence.
For previous PEN alerts on this case, please click here.
For detailed coverage of events in Belarus visit:
Office for a Democratic Belarus
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
TAKE ACTION
BLOG FOR BELARUS
Our colleagues at Free Belarus Now (www.freebelarusnow.org) are looking for writers that are interested in contributing to their blog – an ideal platform for individuals keen to comment on the current situation in Belarus. Blogs should be up to 500 words long, in any language, and with pictures if possible. Blog posts can be about anything relating to Belarus, even indirectly – we therefore ask that they be written and posted in the writer’s individual capacity, rather than as a representative or member of PEN. To be able to post items on the Free Belarus Now website, you simply have to sign up here. As well as featuring on the website, we would also recommend that posts be distributed via other websites, blogs, and social media, in order to raise further awareness of the situation, and to help draw more traffic to the website.
SEND LETTERS OF APPEAL
Appeals should continue to be sent to the Belarusian authorities:
– Welcoming the releases of Irina Khalip, Vladimir Neklyaev, and Alexsandr Fiaduta while expressing concern that their sentences were suspended and that they remain under threat of re-arrest;
– Protesting the two year sentence against Dimitri Bondarenko, accused of involvement in the demonstrations, on the grounds that the charges are considered to be based on unfounded evidence and politically motivated;
– Similarly protesting the “restrictive freedom” levied against Pavel Severinets;
– Adding alarm at reports that Dimitri Bondarenko is at risk of permanent physical disability and seeking assurances that he is receiving appropriate medical attention while he remains in detention;
– Urging that all writers and journalists held by the authorities and under other forms of restriction for the peaceful practice of their rights to freedom of expression and association be freed immediately and that all charges against them be dropped;
– Calling for a full and proper investigation be held into reports of ill treatment during the arrests in December 2010.
Send your appeals to:
President of the Republic of Belarus
Alyaksandr G. Lukashenka
Karl Marx Str. 38
220016 g. Minsk
Belarus
Fax: 375 172 26 06 10 or 375 172 22 38 72
Email: pres@president.gov.by
Also via the Belarus government website:
http://www.president.gov.by/en/press10650.html
Similar appeals should be sent to the Belarusian Embassy in the UK:
His Excellency Dr. Aleksandr Mikhnevich
Embassy of the Republic of Belarus
6 Kensington Court,
London
W8 5DL
Fax: 020 7361 0005
Email: uk@belembassy.org
SEND MESSAGES OF SUPPORT
Messages of support for our Belarusian colleagues should be sent via the PEN Centre in Belarus:
Belarus PEN
Post box 218, 220050,
Minsk, Belarus
The Belarus Committee
English PEN is part of The Belarus Committee which seeks to help the people of Belarus chronicle violations of international law and universal human rights and campaigns at home and abroad to end them.
The Committee seeks to provide a platform and coordination for joint action of association organisations. Together we will be pressing the government of Belarus to meet international human rights standards, in particular on the rights to free speech and free association. We believe that the people of Belarus must be free and unfettered to choose their own destiny through immediate free and fair elections according to international standards and declared by international monitors, and that all Belarusians must be allowed fair and equal opportunity to campaign in the new elections.
The Belarus Committee aims to ensure that:
a) All prisoners of conscience currently held in Belarus are immediately released without condition;
b) Prisoners have access to appropriate medical care, legal assistance and justice;
c) There is support for the families of those imprisoned;
d) There is an end to threats against those helping prisoners of conscience;
e) There is international solidarity with the families of those detained, Belarusian non-governmental organisations, lawyers and civil society;
f) There is international awareness abroad about the current situation in Belarus through media work and public action.
The committee is comprised of representatives from Anglo-Belarusian Committee, Association of Belarusians in the UK, Amnesty International, ARTICLE 19, English PEN, H20 Lawyers, Index on Censorship, International PEN, alongside Sir Tom Stoppard and Irina Bogdanova on behalf of the families of those detained.
