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Ales Byalyatski: Human Rights Activists Not To Let Regime To Get Away With Lies

Ales Byalyatski: Human Rights Activists Not To Let Regime To Get Away With Lies
ALES BYALYATSKI
PHOTO: SIARHEI HRITZ

Human rights defenders managed to reveal the information on the mass rigging of the “elections” in Belarus to the international organizations.

Belarusian human rights activists held a side event within the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting on September 22. The event was dealing with the results of the “parliamentary elections” held in the country on 11 September.

The head of the HRC “Viasna” Ales Byalyatski, the coordinator of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders for Free Elections” Uladzimir Labkovich, the ex-chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists Zhanna Litvina, the director of the Legal Transformation Center Lawtrend Volha Smalianka and the legal expert at the Assembly of Democratic NGOs Yury Chavusau presented their assessment of the situation on human rights in connection with the election campaign.

“We have discussed the situation that developed on the eve of the “election” and right after them. And our opinions matched in general. We came to the conclusion that the situation is difficult. In fact, after the lifting of sanctions in February the situation with human rights has been frozen and there was no improvements, and we have even noticed the worsening of the situation as there are new political prisoners, and the authorities are pursuing social activists by means of administrative detentions and fines in the same way as before. And the campaign itself was held in an unfavorable atmosphere, the candidates for deputies had unequal access to the media, and in fact the “elections” were falsified,” – Ales Byalyatski said following the event, the website spring96.org informs.

The human rights activist said that in fact the assessment of the election campaign by the domestic observers coincide with the assessment of the election campaign by the international observers:

“The elections were not transparent and democratic. Moreover, there is no evidence that the authorities have changed their attitude and methods of pressure on public activists and the control over the civil society in Belarus. The pressure is going on and it’s early to talk about liberalization or some democratic steps, albeit small ones.“

The meeting also touched upon the issues of the death penalty, freedom of assembly and freedom of association, and came to the conclusion that in general there had been no changes in Belarus.

“I think we managed to convey to the international community our concerns and anxieties, to bring first-hand information, and it was quite important. I think that the power fails to embellish the situation and make it better than it really is, because there is civilian control of the Belarusian human rights defenders and non-governmental organizations,” – Ales Byalyatski said.

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