Post-Referendum Events -- May and June, 1997
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May, 1997
- SUPPORTERS, OPPONENTS OF LUKASHENKA MARCH IN
BELARUS. Police in Mensk yesterday arrested Nikolai
Statkevich, the leader of the opposition Belarusian Social
Democratic Party, who tried to turn a pro-government
demonstration into a rally against President Alyaksandr
Lukashenka, RFE/RL's Mensk correspondent reported. More
than 20,000 people carrying portraits of Lukashenka and
hardline communists with portraits of Josef Stalin marched
side by side through Mensk to mark May Day. About 5,000
Lukashenka opponents marched separately and joined a
meeting with the communists and presidential supporters on
Independence Square, where Statkevich addressed the crowd.
He was detained for violating a decree by Lukashenka on
unsanctioned rallies.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 23, Part II, 2 May 1997
- SOROS FOUNDATION IN BELARUS FINED. Belarusian tax
officials have accused the Soros Foundation of violating the
status of a charitable organization and ordered it to pay
almost three million dollars in fines, foundation spokeswoman
Veronica Begun told journalists on 30 April. Tax inspectors
started an audit of the foundation in March, when the
government of Lukashenka barred the foundation's director
from returning to Belarus from a trip abroad. She said the
audit took issue with 19 grants the Foundation issued last
year, saying the projects did not correspond to their stated
goals. The U.S. yesterday voiced apprehension over Belarus's
handling of the Foundation. A State Department spokesman
told reporters that Belarus's stance in this matter would be a
sign of its attitude toward all non-governmental organizations.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 23, Part II, 2 May 1997
- BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER JAILED. Nikolai
Statkevich, the leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic
Party, was sentenced on 2 May to 10 days in jail for
violating a presidential ban on organizing unsanctioned
rallies, Belapan reported. Statkevich was arrested the
previous day after he persuaded participants in a trade
union rally to join an opposition march against President
Alyaksandar Lukashenka (see RFE/RL Newsline, 2 May
1997). It was the third time he had been arrested over the
past six months.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 24, Part II, 5 May 1997
- BELARUSIAN, ALBANIAN LEADERS AMONG "ENEMIES
OF PRESS." The U.S.-based Committee to Protect
Journalists says in its annual report that the leaders of
Belarus and Albania are among the world's top 10 "enemies
of the press," RFE/RL's Washington correspondent reported
on 3 May. According to the report, President Lukashenka
"bullies the press with Soviet-era tactics, tightening his
stranglehold by shutting down independent media and
publicly denouncing journalists." Albania's President Sali
Berisha was criticized for censoring the media, authorizing
the intimidation and beating of journalists, and insisting on
the seizure of publications critical of the government.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 24, Part II, 5 May 1997
- BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION LEADERS FINED. Semyon
Sharetsky, a former speaker of the disbanded parliament,
has been fined 5 million Belarusian rubles ($190) for taking
part in an illegal anti-government rally, Belarusian media
reported. Alexander Bragin, the chairman of the court that
fined Sharetsky, told journalists that Sharetsky said after
the verdict he does not feel guilty in front of his country
and the people. Scores of people were clubbed, beaten, and
detained during the 15 March demonstration in Mensk, which
was organized to mark the anniversary of Belarus's
constitution and to protest President Alyaksandr
Lukashenka's authoritarian rule. Opposition leader Valery
Shchukin, also a member of the disbanded parliament, was
recently convicted of organizing the rally. He was fined
22.5 million Belarusian rubles ($850).
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 30, Part II, 14 May 1997
- DEMONSTRATION IN MINSK OVER PLANNED UNION
WITH RUSSIA. Several hundred people demonstrated in
Mensk yesterday to protest plans for a union between
Belarus and Russia, Reuters reported. Among those
addressing the crowd was former parliamentary chairman
Semyon Sharetsk, who lost his post when the parliament
was disbanded by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka after a
controversial referendum last November. A period of
public discussion on the planned union ends tomorrow, and
a union charter is due to be signed by Lukashenka and
Russian President Boris Yeltsin on 23 May. Meanwhile,
Yeltsin said yesterday on Russian TV that he favors a
complete merger of Russia with Belarus as the culmination
of the integration process between the two Slavic states.
He remarked that union would mean the two countries
would be "very close," to the point of "being a single state."
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 31, Part II, 15 May 1997
- BELARUS SECURITY COUNCIL CHIEF MEETS WITH LEBED.
Belarusian Security Council Secretary Viktor Sheiman met
with former Russian national security chief Aleksandr
Lebed on 17 May, ITAR-TASS reported. Lebed was quoted
as saying that the proposed Russian-Belarus union is
"necessary" and "just" because it meets the interests of
both countries. The previous day, a spokesperson for
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said the
president opposes Belarus joining the Russian Federation.
Moscow has reportedly proposed Belarus become part of
the Russian Federation in recent talks, while Russian
President Boris Yeltsin recently suggested that the two
countries' planned union may result in their merger.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 33, Part II, 19 May 1997
- ANOTHER BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION POLITICIAN FINED.
Anatoly Lebedko, a member of the Belarusian parliament
dissolved last year by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka,
has been fined by a Mensk district court in connection with
a demonstration on 15 March, Belapan reported. The court
yesterday fined Lebedko the equivalent of $190 for
participating in the unauthorized demonstration. Lebedko
told reporters he may stage a hunger strike in the court
building. The same court earlier imposed large fines on two
Supreme Soviet members, Semen Sharetsky and Valery
Shchukin, for the same offense.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 34, Part II, 20 May 1997
- BELARUS SECURITY COUNCIL CHIEF MEETS WITH LEBED.
Belarusian Security Council Secretary Viktor Sheiman met
with former Russian national security chief Aleksandr
Lebed on 17 May, ITAR-TASS reported. Lebed was quoted
as saying that the proposed Russian-Belarus union is
"necessary" and "just" because it meets the interests of
both countries. The previous day, a spokesperson for
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka said the
president opposes Belarus joining the Russian Federation.
Moscow has reportedly proposed Belarus become part of
the Russian Federation in recent talks, while Russian
President Boris Yeltsin recently suggested that the two
countries' planned union may result in their merger.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE
Vol. 1, No. 33, Part II, 19 May 1997
- BELARUS MAY RESTRICT TELEPHONE USE. The Ministry of Communications may outlaw private telephone lines used "contrary to state interests and public order," Belapan
reported yesterday. Provisions for switching off such lines have been added to the ministry's set of regulations governing phone use. The ministry is currently reviewing the status of all phone lines in the country. Meanwhile, a conference on cooperation among law enforcement agencies of CIS members opened today in Mensk, ITAR-TASS reported. Among the participants are representatives of CIS Interior and Justice Ministries.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 24 May 1997
- NEW PARTY HOLDS CONGRESS IN MINSK. A new liberal political party called Yabloko held its constituent congress in Mensk yesterday, RFE/RL's correspondent in the Belarusian capital reported. According to its program, Yabloko favors democracy and a social market economy as well as the defense of civil rights over any state or religious interests. Seventy delegates from around the country attended the congress. The group has no affiliation with the Russian party of the same name, although a Russian Yabloko delegation headed by Grigorii Yavlinskii were among the guests at the congress.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 28 May 1997
- U.S. AMBASSADOR BACK IN BELARUS. Kenneth Yalowitz returned to Mensk yesterday one month after the U.S. recalled him to Washington to protest human rights abuses in the country, RFE/RL's Washington correspondent reported. But State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns told reporters that Yalowitz's return does not mean that Washington believes that an improvement is imminent in either the human rights situation or in U.S.-Belarusian relations. Burns said the U.S. regards the human rights record of President Lukashenka as "abysmal." He said Yalowitz would be carrying a "strong message" that the U.S. continues to have serious reservations about human rights in Belarus. He added that Yalowitz's return does not signal "business as usual."
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 30 May 1997
- BELARUSIAN ACADEMICS DEFEND POET ADAMOVICH. The Literature Institute of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences has urged a regional court to stop prosecution of poet Slavomir Adamovich, Belapan reported yesterday. Adamovich has been accused of inciting terrorist acts by publishing a poem entitled "Kill the President." The Viciebsk Regional court had asked the Institute to rule whether Adamovich's poem can be considered to apply to current President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. In a letter to the court, the institute said that a judgment could not be based on "literary analysis" and that "in civilized democratic countries," poets and poetry are not taken to court, regardless of the authorities' suspicions about them.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 30 May 1997
June, 1997
- Niels Helveg, Denmark's foreign minister and acting president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told journalists in Vienna on 30 May that Belarusian Foreign Minister Ivan Antonovich agreed the previous day to allow the OSCE to set up a mission in Belarus. The mission will advise the authorities on ways to promote democracy.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 2 June 1997
- BELARUSIAN DIPLOMAT ASKS FOR POLITICAL ASYLUM IN FRANCE.
Second Secretary at the Belarusian Embassy in Paris Vladimir
Polupanov has asked the French government to grant him political asylum, ITAR-TASS reported on 3 June. Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Poluyan told the agency that Polupanov quit his post about a month before seeking asylum.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 4 June 1997
- OSCE OFFICIAL POSTPONES TRIP TO BELARUS. Spenser Oliver, the secretary-general of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, has postponed a visit to Belarus, RFE/RL's Vienna correspondent reported on 5 June. Oliver said the visit, which was due to start on 6 June, was postponed because the agenda included meetings with parliamentary deputies loyal to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka but offered no opportunity to meet with
opposition politicians. A recent OSCE report says Belarus
appears to be headed toward totalitarianism. The report was
drawn up by an OSCE mission that visited Mensk in April and met with government members and supporters as well as
representatives of the opposition. Oliver said the Parliamentary Assembly remains "extremely interested" in examining the parliamentary situation in Belarus. He also emphasized that his trip had been "postponed," not canceled.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 6 June 1997
- COUNCIL OF EUROPE'S PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY CRITICIZES BELARUS. Leni Fischer, chairwoman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, told journalists in St. Petersburg on 9 June that Belarus must abide by the council's rules if it wants to join that body. Fischer made her comments after the CE Parliamentary Assembly held its first joint session with the Council of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Meanwhile, Belapan reported on 9 June that the CE Parliamentary Assembly has invited members of the Belarusian parliament that was dissolved last year to attend its opening session in Strasbourg on 23 June. The parliament was disbanded by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka following the controversial November 1996 referendum, which increased his executive powers and extended his term in office. The CE responded by suspending Belarus' guest status and criticizing the changes to the country's constitution.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 10 June 1997
- A Viciebsk court on 14 June convicted the poet Slavomir
Adamovich of writing and distributing a poem called "Kill the
President," Belapan reported Adamovich was sentenced to the
time he had already spent in prison and was thus freed after
sentencing.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 16 June 1997
- COUNCIL OF EUROPE DELEGATION IN MINSK. A team of experts from the Council of Europe arrived in Mensk on 17 June for talks with top government officials and opposition leaders. The team is expected to try to set up round-table talks involving President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the opposition.
The council has invited both opponents and supporters of
President Alyaksandr Lukashenka to a hearing this month in
Strasbourg. In January, the council's Parliamentary Assembly
suspended indefinitely Belarus' Special Guest Status at the body. Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Belarus Kenneth Yalowitz has sent a letter to Belarusian Foreign Minister Ivan Antanovich saying the U.S. government is worried about what it calls Mensk's misinterpretation of Washington's decision to suspend $40 million in aid as part of a joint program to reduce the threat of nuclear conflict. Yalowitz wants the Belarusian government to publicly renounce a statement by Lukashenka that the U.S. has backtracked on its commitment under a treaty on the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Belarus by refusing to finance the program.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 18 June 1997
- SOROS TO FIGHT BELARUSIAN AUTHORITIES. The Mensk office of U.S. philanthropist George Soros's Open Society Institute will appeal against a huge fine imposed by the Belarusian authorities, Soros told Ekho Moskvy on 19 June. Tax officials in Belarus imposed the $2.9 million fine in May, accusing
Soros's foundation of violating its tax-exempt status by becoming involved in politics. The Belarusian government expelled the foundation's director in March. Soros said he does not intend to close the Mensk office, even though the foundation's bank accounts there have been frozen. He accused the Belarusian authorities of harassment and of trying to squelch democracy.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 20 June 1997
- BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION MOVEMENT HOLDS CONGRESS. The Belarusian Popular Front (BNF) held its fifth congress in Mensk on 21-22 June. Zianon Paznyak, who fled Belarus in 1996
and now lives in the U.S., was re-elected leader of the movement. Lyavon Borshchevsky, who was arrested several days before the congress for his role in opposition protests earlier this year, was re-elected deputy leader. Borshchevsky was briefly released from custody to attend the congress and returned to jail on 22 June to serve the remainder of his five-day sentence. The BNF passed a declaration calling President Alyaksandr Lukashenka a "dictator" and denouncing his pro-Russian policies. In a videotaped address, Paznyak referred to Lukashenka's government as the "occupation regime" and criticized the president's efforts at reunification with Russia.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 23 June 1997
- OSCE OFFICE MAY BE SET UP IN BELARUS. A spokesman for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe told RFE/RL in Vienna on 23 June that Belarus has given preliminary permission for the OSCE to open an office in Mensk to help that country make progress toward democracy. The agreement was reached at a meeting on 20 June between
Belarusian Foreign Minister Ivan Antanovich and an OSCE envoy. The spokesman said more discussions will be required to work out the practical details. No date had been fixed for opening the office, which was the main recommendation of an OSCE mission that visited Belarus in April and later issued a sharply critical report. That report concluded the Belarusian authorities are constructing a system of totalitarian government. It said "there is no effective political structure in Belarus to oppose the descent into totalitarianism."
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 24 June 1997
- WORLD BANK REPRESENTATIVE CRITICAL OF BELARUS. Christopher Willoughby, the World Bank's representative in Mensk, told journalists on 24 June that Belarus continues to back away from reforms and is increasing state interference in the economy. The bank's Mensk office opened three years ago but is now moving to Kyiv, Ukraine, as part of a bank reorganization.
Willoughby said the main obstacle to reform is at the political level. He said economic restructuring has been "in reverse" since late 1995 and that, since then, the bank and the IMF have suspended their lending activities in Belarus. Willoughby is preparing a new memorandum of understanding between Belarus and the bank, which spells out the reforms the bank would require the country to undertake to resume lending. He told reporters, however, that the
situation in Belarus is worse than it was two years ago. RFE/RL's Washington correspondent reports that officials in the U.S. capital
say no new loans are being considered.
RFE/RL NEWSLINE 25 June 1997
- The Referendum of
November, 1996 web page
- Summary of Pre-Referendum Events web page
- Summary of Post-Referendum Events, through December, 1996 web page
- Summary of Post-Referendum Events, January and February, 1997
web page
- Summary of Post-Referendum Events, March and April, 1997
web page
- Summary of Post-Referendum Events, July and August, 1997
web page
- Summary of Post-Referendum Events, September, 1997, to present
web page
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