Jacek Protasiewicz, voorzitter van de Delegatie voor betrekkingen met Wit-Rusland van het Europees Parlement, spreekt naar aanleiding van de voortdurende intimidatie van vooral jongeren zijn zorg uit voor de situatie in Wit-Rusland.
Brussels, 9 December 2009. In my capacity of a Chairman of the European Delegation for Relations with Belarus, I observe with deep concern a regress in human rights situation in Belarus, namely – the recent intensification of politically-motivated intimidations of youth activists for their political and civic activities.
To my knowledge, over the past year and especially over the last three months a number of leaders and activists of Belarusian youth organizations and movements including Artur Finkevich (kidnapped on 17 October 2009), Nasta Palazhanka and Dzianis Karnou (on 25 March 2009), Uladzimir Lemesh (on 27 November 2009), Zmitser Dashkevich (on 05 December 2009) and Yauhen Afnahel (on 06 December 2009), have been repeatedly kidnapped by representatives of security and law enforcement agencies in Belarus. In most cases they are detained or captured, deprived of all communication means, taken outside their cities and left in woods or in other far-reachable places. All the cases, even though arbitrary, seem to be aimed at harrasing and pressuring the civilians for their civil and political activities.
The most recent case of another form of harassment is the case of Tatsyana Shaputska, Belarusian student, who was expelled from the Belarusian State University on 3 December 2009 for her participation in the Civil Society Forum of the Eastern Partnership on 16-17 November 2009 in Brussels. This fact is outragous amid the usual practice of expelling politically active students from Belarusian Universities by the Belarusian authorities. The Eastern Partnership is an initiative of the European Union, officially accepted by the Belarusian government, the representatives of which also took part in the forum alongside civil society representatives. Nothing to mention, in addition to this one, the cases of forceful dismissals from jobs, phone threats, KGB intimidations as well as persecutions for allegedly avoiding of military service of students (over 20 now) expelled from universities for their civic stance and or being forced to acquire education abroad.
In regards to the above mentioned, I would like to make a special reference to the latest GAERC decision to re-engage into EU-Belarus dialogue and to give the Belarusian government the other 12 months. One of the most essential conditions of such a dialogue is the progress to be made in human rights area in Belarus and therefore I find it intolerable to exert any kinds of harassment on political opponents, youth activists and students and, in this context, I strongly urge the Belarusian authorities to review their practices and initiate an unbiased and comprehensive investigation into the cases of kidnapping youth activists as well as to make necessary legislative reforms in order to let everyone enjoy their political rights and freedoms freely as in any democratic state.