Latest

After elections 19th of March Central Electoral Committee (CEC) of Republic of Belarus announced Alexander Lukashenko as the reelected president of the country. Opposition did not accept these results and called its adherents for the termless peaceful protest rally. About 20000 people went out to Minsk streets. Up to date about 250 protesting persons were arrested by police.(22-MARCH-06) 

The Belarusian Association of Journalists expresses solidarity and support to all its colleagues, including the foreign ones, who have met difficulties with access to information in the Republic of Belarus and are facing restrictions of their professional activity.(16-MARCH-06)

The electoral campaign in the Republic of Belarus started more than three weeks ago. During this time the police detained more than 300 persons. More than 40 of them (including Valiantsin Viachorka, the chair of the BPF Party and the proxy of the candidate to the presidential position Aliaksandr Milinkevich) were sentenced to 15 days of arrest by ‘fair and independent courts’. (13-MARCH-06)

On the 6th of March Belarusian population had a rare chance to get  to alternative information by listening an appeal of the candidates to the presidential positions on the radio. But republican  radio station illegally cut some parts out of these speeches  while broadcasting oppositional appeal to Belarusian electorate.(09-MARCH-06)

For the Belarusian weekly Zhoda the publication of some of the infamous Mohammed caricatures may have dramatic consequences. Last week Belarusian prosecutors opened a criminal probe into the newspaper that is accused of having incited religious hatred by printing the cartoons. But according to Zhoda’s editor-in-chief the case is politically motivated. (01-MAR-06)
 

On the first of March, a criminal case against the chairman of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC), Tatiana Protko, because of tax evasion, was resumed. During the prosecution the last republican Human Rights association might be liquidated and BHC leaders are threatened with seven years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. (04-MARCH-06)

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 Republic of Belarus. (23-FEB-06)

The Central Election Committee of Republic of Belarus  registered 4 Presidential Candidates on January 17.  A. Milinkevich, A. Lukashenko, A. Kazulin, and S. Gaidukevich got the certificates of Presidential Candidates. The agitation stage started on the same day.  The incumbent President declared equal opportunities for all the participants of the election campaign.  (21-FEB-06)

The wave of arrests all over the country witnesses the aggravation of repressions on the eve of the presidential election in the Republic of Belarus. Human Rights Centre “Viasna” applies to representatives of the Belarusian public and urges them to express solidarity with the arrested activists of youth democratic movements and their families and give to them the necessary support. (15-FEB-06)