About IFEX:

News by region:

IFEX Campaigns and Advocacy:

IFEX Email Products:

Opportunities and assistance:

POLICE ARREST DOZENS OF JOURNALISTS AND DEMONSTRATORS

On 25 March, over 30 Belarusian and foreign journalists were arrested by riot police at a demonstration organised by the opposition in Minsk, say the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Reporters sans frontières (RSF) based on reports from the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ). The demonstration commemorated the 82nd anniversary of the Belarusian National Republic in Minsk. According to BAJ, police destroyed equipment and exposed journalists' film, preventing the latter from reporting on the event. Police also illegally searched journalists, forbid journalists from contacting their offices or families while being detained, and gave no explanation for the arrests. Accredited journalists with Russian TV stations were treated with particular brutality, reports BAJ. 200 demonstrators, including three Polish parliamentary observers and a US OSCE representative, were also arrested.

On 27 March, Viktor Ivashkevich, the Vice-President of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, went to trial for his role in the demonstration, reports the International League for Human Rights (ILHR). He and other organisers, such as Anatoly Lebedko, were arrested just before the demonstration took place on 25 March. While in detention, the organisers were beaten and held in an overcrowded cell. Ivashkevich's trial has been postponed until 30 March and Lebedko awaits a trial scheduled for 4 April.

While most journalists were released within a few hours, some "were driven out of Minsk city limits" and left there, says BAJ. The actions of the Belarusian authorities violate the law "On Press and Other Mass Media", which states that "the journalist has the right to be present during acts of nature, disasters and catastrophes, military operations, in the areas where the state of emergency is declared, during meetings and demonstrations or other publicly important events and to transmit information therefrom."

Only days prior to the demonstration, Amnesty International (AI) demanded that Belarus' opposition groups "not be subjected to ill-treatment or detention during March 25's peaceful Day of Freedom march in Minsk," says ILHR. Additionally, AI stated that it would "consider any demonstrators who are detained for their peaceful protests as prisoners of conscience." In contrast, Belarus' Freedom March II, which took place on 15 March, was marked as an exceptional day. AI says that "it was the first large-scale demonstration in recent history in Belarus during which there were no reported arrests or allegations of police ill-treatment." This wave of arrests also occurs as Belarus approaches elections. Only two days before the arrests, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's Ad Hoc Working Group on Belarus urged the government "to continue efforts toward creating an inclusive, democratic political system." The OSCE also added that along with other international organizations, it is "willing to assist in the process of democratization in Belarus, but it is the responsibility of the Government to make this process meaningful."