Post-Referendum Events -- November and December, 1997
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November, 1997
- Mensk, 3 November. "The European Union sees no grounds for
resuming tripartite consultations with the participation of
representatives of the Belarusian President's Administration,
the 13th Supreme Soviet and European bodies," said Louis Moreno,
head of the European Commission Delegation to Belarus, during
his visit to Mensk this past weekend. He added that after
another round of negotiations had ended in a failure, the EU
received a strong-worded letter from Belarusian Foreign Minister
Ivan Antonovich. According to him, the tone of that letter made
the EU Council of Ministers decide to refrain from replying to
Mr Antonovich. Mr Moreno pointed out that European organisations
had not come across such instances in the previous 15 years.
According to Mr Moreno, the EU will take very harsh measures
with respect to the official Mensk. In particular, it has
decided not to conclude a trade agreement with Belarus for 1998.
excerpts from BelaPAN (Mensk, Belarus); No. 4; Monday, November 3, 1997;
3:40 p.m.
- Mensk, 3 November. The Belarusian Helsinki Committee (BHC) has
presented its report on human rights situation in the country to
the UN Human Rights Committee which is considering Belarus'
official report presented by the country's government
delegation.
The BHC report says that Belarus fails to meet its international
human rights commitments. According to the BHC, the November
1996 referendum on constitutional changes was conducted with
violations of legislation and "deprived the people of the
Republic of Belarus of the rights to free expression of their
will; in fact eliminated the supremacy of the Constitution and
laws; gave unlimited powers to the president; removed
Constitutional checks and balances which ensured the balance of
branches of power; turned Parliament into a powerless
consultative body, and the Constitutional Court and the Supreme
Economic Court, the Prosecutors' Offices, the State Control
Committee, the Central Election Committee into governmental
entities dependent on the president."
The BHC's report says that the Belarusian authorities "hamper
activities of non-governmental associations, human rights and
trade union movements." According to the report, the number of
public associations in Belarus fell from 700 to 400 (as of the
beginning of 1997) as a result of the re-registration announced
by the Ministry of Justice. A new re-registration is expected to
be announced next January, the report says.
According to the report, "mass human rights violations in
Belarus were also indicated by members of the Belarusian Human
Rights Convention and international human rights organisations."
For instance, in its report on human rights situation in the
country during the first 6 months of 1997 the International
Helsinki Federation pointed on the most flagrant violations in
this field. The international human rights organisation the
Human Rights Watch/ Helsinki stated that "in his three years in
office, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has reversed
nearly all the advances in the field of human rights, freedoms
and democratisation that had marked the perestroika and the
post-Soviet period."
The BHC's report consists of 20 sections covering violations of
the rights of people to life; to freedom and safety; to freedom
from an arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; to fair public
trial; to presumption of innocence; to freedom of thoughts,
conscience and religion; to freedom of conviction and expressing
it; to freedom of peaceful assembly; to labour and free choice
of jobs; and the right to form independent trade unions; among
others.
A Belarusian government delegation presented its official report
to the UN Human Rights Commission on October 30. The committee
made its preliminary recommendations regarding the report, which
are to be taken into consideration when the committee makes its
final recommendations on November 7.
excerpts from BelaPAN (Mensk, Belarus); No. 4; Monday, November 3, 1997;
3:40 p.m.
-
December, 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, May and June, 1997
Web page
- Summary of Post-Referendum Events, July and August, 1997
Web page
- Summary of Post-Referendum Events, September and October, 1997
Web page
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Peter Kasaty : All Rights
Reserved. Last Updated: 1997/11/08
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