Is tribunal over Belarusian political criminals possible?

Belarusian human rights activists say if it happens, special attention of the Belarusian tribunal will be given to militia officers and judges, who arrest political and civil activists on falsified reports, and officials, who gave orders to rig the results of elections.

Concerning the trial over former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic in the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in the Hague, human rights activist Valyantsin Stefanovich noted in an interview to Euroradio, a possibility of similar tribunal over the Belarusian political criminals is unclear.

The human rights defender believes that hopes on national legal system should be set.

Radovan Karadzic appeared before the court in The Hague on the last day of July, the same day General Wojciech Jaruzelski, accused of execution of protests of workers and imposing a martial law in 1980ies, faced trial in Poland. The present Belarusian ruler and created by him system is accused of usurpation, political coup in 1996, using of legal system and law enforcement bodies to organise mass repressions, he is also suspect of organising of politically motivated disappearance and murders of people. Will Belarusian officials, involved in political crimes, face international tribunal?

Euroradio asked human rights activist and lawyer Valyantsin Stefanovich about it.

– The Hague tribunal was created to judge war criminals in former Yugoslavia. The same court was formed for Ruanda. What concerns Belarus, there is a principle of international jurisdiction that covers only some countries. For example, Belgium had the right to instigate criminal cases regardless to place of crimes. This principle also acts in Germany, but it has complicated juridical procedures. We tried to clear this issue via the International Helsinki Federation, but we haven’t succeeded yet. I think, we should speak here about national juridical system, which must, firstly, consider issues of politically motivated disappearances and murders. These crimes have no term of limitation according to international law. At least, there are experiences of Poland and Germany. Policemen, executed strikers in mine were convicted in Poland.

Valyantsin Stefanovich reminded that officials of Pinochet’s (Chile) and Fujimori’s (Peru) regimes were tried by national courts. He thinks that special attention of the Belarusian tribunal will be turned to given to militia officers and judges, who arrest political and civil activists on falsified reports, and officials, who gave orders to rig the results of elections.

In 2006, the political council of the democratic forces of Belarus supported an initiative “On creating of the court tribunal for investigation of crimes of Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s regime”. initiators enlisted the support of Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were supposed to taker part in the initiative. According to Anatol Lyabedzka, the Lithuanian MPs offered that the court should work in the frames of the Council of Europe. Anatol Lyabedzka didn’t exlude that the there were enough materials for the international tribunal. Lyabedzka told in an interview to Euroradio that an idea of international court is still topical.

“A political moment is unfavourable now: OSCE, PACE and other international institutions hope for liberalisation of the regime, they hope something will change in Belarus after the election. It will be cleared out that is an illusion and an idea of public or international tribunal will become topical again,” Lyabedzka thinks.

The acting head of Belarus and his inner circle is accused of organisation of state coup to seize power in 1996 and organising politically motivated disappearances and murders. “these crimes have no term of limitation,” lawyers say.