US Santa's Present for the Collective-Farmer Dictator Lukashenko

 

Wow! Suddenly Lukashenka has got a Christmas present from none other than the US.

US Secretary of State John Carry called the violent treatment of peaceful demonstrators in Kyiv "disgusting".

The American Department of State clearly expressed its support for the people of Ukraine and their rightful demands. The world community insists that the violent crackdown on peaceful Ukrainians is investigated and those behind it are punished.

Three years after the assaults on peaceful demonstrators on December 19, 2010, mass arrests and prison terms, envoy from the same State Department of the US Eric Rubin arrived in Minsk to offer a constructive cooperation to the dictator. Moreover, he promised that the US will assist Belarus in getting new loans from the IMF, in case the situation with human rights improves - in other words, if hostage trade resumes. 

Suddenly Lukashenka has got what he has been working for since December 19, 2010: if the West resumes this kind of human trafficking, he can take new hostages and trade them for money, a scarce resource for maintaining the work of punitary institutions.

Initially, the visit of the Deputy Assistance Secretary was scheduled for October, before the summit in Vilnius. The visit was postponed in order to wait for the outcome of the summit. The rebellion in Ukraine is directly connected to the summit in Vilnius. Ukrainians do not wish to be ruled by liars and fight for their European future. Belarusians want the same. The US has shown solidarity with the Ukrainian nation, and at the same time it sent a high official to Minsk for contacts with the illegitimate powers guilty of using violence against the peaceful demonstration of December 19, 2010, as well as other crimes.

Suddenly, the dictator has got a Christmas gift from non other than the US, the leader of the free world. The Belarusian people have also received a peculiar present, right before the anniversary of the violent break-up of the Square on December 19th, 2010 when more than 700 people were arrested
 including SEVEN (!) ex-presidential candidates. One of them - Mikalai Statkevich is still in jail for nothing since that time:
 http://freebelaruspress.blogspot.com/2013/12/heating-is-turned-off-in-mikalai.html

At the end of this article I would like to remind my readers that On October 6, 2004 US Congress passed the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 (H.R. 854)  sponsored by Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and others, to fund a broad range of measures to support democracy in Belarus. Although this is a beginning, the executive branch and Congress need to do more. Specifically, they should:

1. - Denounce publicly Lukashenko's violations of the constitution and electoral procedures, and the State Department should amplify its criticism of Belarus' flawed political system.

2. - Declare, with the EU, that the referendum, parliamentary and presidential elections are illegitimate if observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe find election falsification or other violations.

3. - Use domestic and international law enforcement agencies, such as Interpol, in cooperation with EU members, to coordinate criminal investigations into homicides, money laundering, and illegal arms trading linked to the Lukashenko´s regime.

4. - Investigate the disappearances of Lukashenko's political opponents, provided there is a jurisdictional nexus to the U.S. and/or Europe. Both the U.S. Justice Department and its European counterparts can do so. Moreover, Europe and the U.S. could initiate criminal proceedings against those in the president's circle who ordered and participated in the murder of opposition politicians and journalists.

5. - Seize assets of Lukashenka and his inner circle through criminal proceedings against illegal arms sales and money laundering operations if Belarus violated U.S. or international sanctions. The U.S. and EU would be entitled to enforce such sanctions even if the violations did not occur in America or Europe.

6. - Fund, together with the EU, an international broadcasting operation by opposition radio and television stations from countries around Belarus, and expand people-to-people and educational exchanges.

7. - Consult with Russia regarding possible political changes that would make Belarus more democratic and predictable. Such a coordinated effort would benefit Russia by making the transit route for Russian gas to Europe less prone to Lukashenko's interference and would eliminate the need for Russia to support the Belarusian economy with subsidized natural gas at a cost of over $2 billion per year.

Almost TEN(!) years have passed since the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004 was adopted and stayed only on paper with NO or little actions. 

Meantime fascism is rising steadily in Belarus in the heart of Europe.


AS & MB

Mikalai Statkevich Who is in Jail is Re-Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison

It is just a carte blanche to lawlessness, permissiveness and impunity.

It is not enough anymore for the Belarusian regime to put people in jail, they want to destroy, to kill political opponents.

What caused that Statkevich who is in jail already to be re-sentenced to 3 years in prison? Why did the authorities are in no hurry to release political prisoners? The answer is simple. Andrey Sannikov and Mikalai Statkevich were two most promising presidential candidates. And Aleksandr Lukashenko knows about it. He got only 38% in the first round of the election and all opposition candidates got 42%. Sannikov and Statkevich were the most promising candidates with about 15-20% of votes.

That's why he hates them so much! Because if it was a real democratic honest second round of presidential election back in December 2010 he would be kicked out from his post in no time by Sannikov or Statkevic. Because both of them have got support of most of the Belarusian people. That's why a bloodthirsty dictator Lukashenko wants to kill them in 2012 one way or the other and crash all the rest of the political prisoners.

What is different this time, this year is that dictator Lukashenko is not alone in his bloodthirstiness. He has an eldest son and his name is Victor Lukashenko. Almost nobody knows nothing about this young dictator. He is 36 and he is appointed as an Assistant to the President of Belarus on National Security. And this year 2012 the position of Victor Lukashenko was strengthened by the KGB and the Border Committee, then through the Information Analysis Center (or Cyber Security Center), and now through the Investigation Committee which was created in November last year. So everything is now passing into the hands of Viktor Lukashenko and his team.

That's why on January 12, 2012 a former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich stood trial in a penal colony in Shklou and was re-sentenced to 3 years in prison.

An initiative of the colony authorities to toughen confinement conditions for the former presidential candidate was heard at the trial. Colony authorities say Mikalai Statkevich does not mend his way and that's why he should be transferred to a facility with stricter confinement conditions - a closed prison.

An official ground for accusing Statkevich was absence of a label with his number on his clothes and failure to include handkerchiefs in the list of his personal possessions, the wife of the politician said.

The real cause for toughening confinement conditions was principled position of Statkevich, who did not admit his guilt and does not want to apply to Lukashenko for a pardon.

Last spring, the former presidential candidate was found guilty of organizing mass disorders on December 19, 2010 (which is a total lie) and sentenced to 6-year imprisonment.

Mikalai Statkevich looked good during the trial and took the sentence bravely with a smile.

His wife, Maryna Adamovich, says the decision of the judge was unfair, but she expected it. The woman says she did not hope for a better decision. "Justice died long time ago in Belarus," she said. The trial was conducted by Judge Volkau from Shklou.

Human Rights Activist Harry Pahanyaila gave his comment on transferring former presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich from a penal colony in Shklou to prison No. 4 in Mahillou.

"There have not been cases of transferring an inmate from a penal colony to a prison. The case of Mikalai Statkevich is the first one. Medium and maximum security penal colonies differ from a prison only by confinement conditions. A prison supposes limited number of meetings, restrictions in correspondence. An inmate has the right to spend one basic unit of money per month, he cannot receive parcels. Calls to relatives are allowed only in exceptional cases. Confinement conditions are tougher than in ordinary penitentiaries. As a rule, prisons are for persons, who repeatedly violated prison rules and regulations, or for dangerous special criminals for the first five years of imprisonment," Radio Svaboda quotes Harry Pahanyaila.

Harry Pahanyaila says the prison has cells for two, three or four inmates, but there are not strict rules. "They may hold a prisoner in solitary confinement. It depends on availability of cells and the prison authorities. Confinement conditions are tougher, daily routine is strictly regulated there. Any disobedience is punished. To be short, conditions there are definitely worse," the human rights activist summed up.

As the member of the Human Rights Center "Spring" Valentin Stefanovich noticed: "If you look in general at what is happening with political prisoners in Belarus, we regard it solely as a pressure on the prisoners for their possible greater isolation and deteriorating terms of punishment. We are very concerned that the authorities can use the Article 411 against political prisoners when people who are still prosecuted can be punished with a new prosecution for minor violations of the regime in jail. What is happening with Sannikov, Dashkevich, Bondarenko, Statkevich, shows that for the dictatorship is not enough anymore just to put people in jail. Lukashenko's regime wants to destroy them physically and mentally. This is very serious and ufortunately opportunities to help the political prisoners are quite limited. Authorities, for example, blatantly do not allow lawyers to see Andrey Sannikov. It's just a carte blanche to lawlessness, permissiveness and impunity."

According to the leader of the "Just World" Sergei Kalyakin, a new sentence to Statkevich is a revenge of the authorities (and Lukashenko personally) for what he said during the presidential election back in 2010 and then behaved bravely in prison, and the government was unable to break him.