July 5, 2009
Two days ago, on 3 July, Belarusians celebrated that is was 65 years since the liberation of Minsk from the Nazis. However, as the Charter ´97 Press Center states, there is a dispute around the calling of the 3 July the Independence Day for Belarus, which is something proclaimed by Lukashenka.
There was still fighting going on after the 3 July, and on 27 July 1944 the Declaration on State Sovereignty of Belarus was signed and is thus be considered the real Independence Day by some.
July 3, 2009
The controversy regarding three jailed entrepreneurs in Belarus keeps on.
Charter ´97 Press Center reports that activists from European Belarus has been brought to court charged with disorderly conduct after hanging up a banner saying: “Freedom to Autukovich”.
Apparently the activists have now been charged with sham offenses with the help of a sham witness.
Mikalai Autukovich is currently on hunger strike since April 16, demanding that his case gets tried fairly or that he is released.
May 21, 2009
The Charter ´97 News Center reports that work in cooperation between the Central Election Commission of Belarus and OSCE has been done, to try and change the electoral laws in the country.
However, the chairwoman of the CEC claims that there will be no great changes. “Only some electorial technologies and organizational issues will be changed,” says chairwoman Lydzia Yarmoshyna.
The proposal which is the outcome of the talks betwen the CEC and the OSCE is to contain some suggestions for making the campaigning easier for all candidates, such as permission to fund any candidate and easier access to mass events.
However, Yarmoshyna also says that the proposal is to be sent to the ministries of Belarus and no actual draft of a new law will be started until there is an order to do so.
May 19, 2009
In the middle of many bad news for Belarus, there are some news that make many Belarusian proud. And that is the Norwegian victory in the Eurovision Song Contest is also connected to Belarus.
The 23-year old Alexander Rybak was born in Minsk, of Belarusian parents who moved to Norway when Rybak was 5.
May 15, 2009
Charter ‘97 News Center report that there has been an attack on their website with a malicious code embedding itself into the website script. Therefore they recommend all readers who have been in there since at least 14 May to scan their computors for viruses.
Charter ´97 claim that they believe the attack can have been planned in advance as a consequence to their reporting from the “For Independence” rally yesterday.
May 14, 2009
The Belarusian organisation Third Way recently held a congress called New Belarusian Leader’s Forum: Renaissance Generation in Strasbourg, France and came to declare, among other things, the realisation of the importance of the Eastern Partnership and also the importance of Belarusian presence in the Partnership.
However, the declaration also stated clearly that Third Way and the congress urged other European countries to “stronlgy encourage” the implementation of certain steps toward increased human rights etc.
The participants of the congress also made two appeals the Belarusian authorities to 1) reconsider the nation’s current nuclear politics, and 2) to release the arbitrarily detained civil activists and entrepeneurs Mikalai Autuchovitch, Yury Lavonau and Uladzimer Asipenka.
For the declaration and appeals in their whole, along with videos and photos from the congress, please visit:
May 13, 2009
The Swedish telecompany Telia has through an affiliated company Turcell bought the Belarusian company BeST.
For Swedish liberals this means that Telia, which is partly owned by the Swedish state, is indirectly aiding the Belarusian government to tap and jam the phones of the opposition.
However, Telia will not take responsibility for the possible human rights violations that they will contribute to. On May 11 in Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish), communication director Cecilia Edstrom claims that since Telia is not in majority in the Turcell board they will take no responsibility for the buy-up.
Edstrom also defends Turcell saying that it is a transparent company that is accepted to the point of being listed on the stock exchange market in New York.
May 12, 2009
Nikolay Khalezin, playwriter for Free Theatre Belarus, and his family was victimized by a “spetsnaz” officer on May 10 on their way to see Khalezin and his wife off to London.
Khalezin writes (translated by Charter 97 News Center) that both he himself, his brother and his 70-year old father-in-law professor Andrei Kalyada recieved blows from the upset officer, who later claimed that he was upset from dropping off his sister at the train station. Apart from Khalezin’s wife their oldest daughter witnessed her father, uncle and grandfather being beaten.
Khalezin has for long felt that telling the media everything has been the best protection for him and his family, but seems to reconsider after this event.
April 21, 2009
For Swedish speaking readers Martin Uggla, who heads Östgruppen and works for Forum Syd, is writing about Belarus in his blog http://vitryssland.wordpress.com/.
Also there is a campaign up in Sweden for informing about Belarus, and the responsible liberals are twittering as FreeBelarus.
April 17, 2009
Swedish politican Urban Ahlin considers the European Partnership as a good opportunity for Minsk to prove themselves and their will to democratize – to the European community.
According to Ahlin Belarusian officials have a lot to gain from learning and interacting with EU officials that have a different political culture and “could not have negative impact on democratic processes in Belarus”.
However, Ahlin does feel that it is necessary to keep the visa sanctions for those Belarusian officials that are suspected of implication in human rights violations.
On the other hand, banning president Lukashenka from the European Partnership is not on Ahlin’s mind since he thinks that a policy like that should not exclude but be based on mutual communication.
