Authorities use blast to strengthen political terror against opposition
- 11.07.2008, 13:52
Human rights activists are indignant at mass arrests of figures of the democratic community allegedly on suspicion of their implication in bomb blast in Minsk on 4 July. “the recent events in country can’t be named other than political terror, launched by the authorities against the political opponents,” human rights activist Ales Byalyatski, vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, said today at a press conference in Minsk.
Relatives of the arrested democratic activists gave a press conference today in an office of the Belarusian Popular Front party, where they commented on a wave of mass detentions of opposition figures in the connection with the bomb blast on 4 July.
“After the bomb had exploded, the leaders of the political parties addressed Lukashenka calling on him not to use this situation against the opposition, not to look for rats among the political opponents. Lukashenka stated officially he wouldn’t do it. However, it evident now that the authorities have decided to benefit from the tragedy of 4 July to dispose of the opposition and human rights defenders,” the human rights activist believes.
Byalyatski also noted the authorities had turn the country into a police state, where the law enforcement agencies had learnt to tap telephones, fight against the youth and the opposition politicians, but are not ready to combat terrorism. “The militia has chosen the simplest and most primitive version, which begins to take features of civil terror,” Byalyatski thinks.
In this connection the human rights activist reminded that a political campaign under the name “parliamentary election” has started in the country. “But how can the “free and fair” “election” be held in the conditions of repressions and intimidation?” Byalyatski wonders.
Palina Kuryanovich, sister of the arrested activist of the “European Belarus” civil campaign Paval Kuryanovich confirmed the human rights activist in this question. “The parties must stop immediately this so called election game with the authorities. What is the sense of some opposition figures in the “house of representatives”, if dozens of activists, most of them the youth, who has faced a real war from the authorities, will be in prisons,” Palina Kuryanovich said.
The girl also told how her brother was arrested. “At 6 in the evening yesterday my brother phoned and said there had been a search, nothing was seized, but he would be taken to jail. He managed to say me a phone number of a KGB investigator, who said me later he didn’t want to explain anything, and he would have questions to Paval more than my brother could answer. That is why I am sure the KGB is going to fabricate the case, accusing the opposition of blasts. In this connection we should demand an independent international investigation of this case to be carried out,” Palina Kuryanovich said.
Human rights activist Valyantsin Stefanovich noticed there arises more and more questions, the authorities don’t answer to, in the situation around the events in Minsk on 4 July. “I’m surprised by the reaction of the authorities. There was a bomb explosion, but the concert went on. What if there were some blasts? Moreover, it is unclear, how many blasts there were. According to a militia report, an explosive device detonated partially near house 23 on Winners Avenue at 11.00 pm. What a device was it? The one, found by people earlier, or a third one? How many explosive devices were found in fact?” the lawyer wonders.
Stefanovich also drew attention to the fact the case over blast in Minsk , instigated under article “Hooliganism” , is investigated allegedly by the Ministry of Internal Affaires, but all detentions are carried out by KGB officers. The Ministry of Internal Affaires doesn’t give any comments on the case, while the events are actively commented by KGB head of Minsk and the Minsk region.
A human rights activist of the human rights centre “Viasna” Valyantsin Stefanovich believes that in the circumstances concerned, human rights activists doubt that rights of the arrested would be respected. “According to our knowledge, lawyers offered to the detained by the state, offered to collaborate with the investigation and answer all questions, and then they would be allegedly released. But according to information we have, investigators are primarily interested by political activities of the detained. As long as the term of detention for most of them has been extended to 10 days, we are convinced that the investigators had been assigned a mission to level official charges against them over this period,” Valyantsin Stefanovich believes.
But, as said by him, the most terrible thing is that there are no motives which could justify detention in the order under which people are detained. “It is not stated there that somebody looks like a facial composite, for instance, or there is some material evidence, which could be connected to the blast in some way. All of them are detained on some abstract “suspicion” which is not reasoned by anything”, the lawyer said.
“The KGB says about possible participation of the detained in “destructive organisations”. But it is known that “Bely Lehiyon” (White Legion) was engaged in physical training of the young. But why investigators are not interested in the Belarusian Republican youth Union then and other pro-regime organisation, which also organised different camps for their activists?” told Nina Shydlouskaya, commenting on the arrest of the former members of the “Bely Lehiyon”, and among them her husband Miraslau Lazouski.
Nina Shydlouskaya believes that secret services cannot trace real terrorists, that is why they are detaining oppositionists to imitate activity and to accuse them of the blast falsely.
As we have informed, the blast in Minsk took place in July 4 during a concert dedicated to the official Independence Day. 57 persons were injured. At the moment about 35 persons are staying in the hospitals of Minsk, some of them in a grave condition. Most of the wounded have minor injuries. A criminal action was brought up on charges relating “hooliganism”. Starting from July 7, 13 persons have been detained as suspects in implication in the crime. Most of them are representatives of youth organisations and oppositional political parties. They are Syarhei Chyslau, Viktar Lyashchynski, Ihar Korsak, Miraslau Lazouski, Tatsyana Pikun, Syarhei Vysotski, Anton Kojpish, Paval Kuryanovich, Alyaksandr Serhiyenka, Mikhail Pashkevich, Vital Stazharau, Kiryl Paulouski and Illya Bohdan.