Wake up Europe! Beautiful country of Belarus made into a prison by dictator - More pressure on Lukashenko

The New York Times (Europe) March 15, 2012 (!) Vitebsk Ві́цебск ♥ (video)
More pressure on Europe's last dictatorship - Öka trycket på regimen; tortyr pågår! (link) Kräv ett omedelbart frisläppande av alla politiska fångar; fd. presidentkandidater, valarbetare samt mänskorättsaktivister. Kräv fria val. Continue with sanctions. Viktigt fortsätta med sanktioner. It is extremely important with various sanctions, public condemnation of the unjust regime and consistently boycott by all practical means. Demand free votings!

NYT:

"In a move seemingly taken from a Soviet dictator’s handbook, the government of Belarus has apparently started barring opponents of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko from leaving the former Soviet republic.

Over the last week, at least 10 journalists, opposition political figures and human rights workers have been either prevented from crossing the country’s border with the European Union or informed that they are no longer permitted to leave Belarus.

Though the authorities have offered no explanation, the travel bans appear to be a response to new sanctions imposed by the European Union last month on Mr. Lukashenko’s government. Among other measures, the sanctions prevent top officials from entering the European Union. 

On Thursday, border guards refused to allow two independent journalists to travel to Poland to attend a conference of Belarussian non-governmental organizations. One of them, Mikhail Yanchuk, the head of the country’s only independent television station, said he was kicked off a train at the Polish border without explanation and given a stamp in his passport that will prevent him from leaving in the future. His colleague, Zhanna Litvina, the head of the Belarussian Association of Journalists, was stopped from boarding a flight.

“This fits in with other methods employed in the fight against civil society over the last 17 years, but it is certainly a new one,” Mr. Yanchuk said by telephone. “It is being carried out to make our lives just a little more difficult.”

Belarus’s embattled opposition appears to have become tangled in an increasingly intractable diplomatic conflict between the European Union and Mr. Lukashenko, who has ruled since 1994. Over the last year, European leaders have sought to steadily increase pressure on authorities in Belarus, imposing travel bans and asset freezes in response to the frequent harassment of government opponents. 

Mr. Lukashenko has responded by further cracking down. 

After crushing a large antigovernment protest against Mr. Lukashenko’s victory in December 2010 in elections apparently riddled with fraud, the authorities have moved to eliminate any remaining vestiges of dissent. Dozens of opposition figures have been jailed and many more have fled the country. 

Until this month, however, the authorities seemed more than happy to allow government opponents to leave rather than have them continue to inflame opinion within the country. 

Opposition figures have often taken advantage of their freedom to travel to visit with Western leaders and denounce Mr. Lukashenko from the safety of European capitals. 

It is unclear how the government could impose a complete ban on traveling abroad even if it wanted to. Though authorities can shut down the border with the European Union, people crossing into Russia are not subject to passport checks. 

Regardless, word of further repression are likely to further strain relations with the European Union, which recalled the ambassadors of all its member countries from Belarus in February and is expected to hold talks on expanding sanctions soon.

Some opposition figures worry, however, that any additional pressure on Mr. Lukashenko could ultimately complicate their own lives. 

More sanctions could give authorities an excuse to “barricade the country and further decrease the influence of Europe,” said Oleg Gulak, the director of the Belarus Helsinki Group.

Mr. Gulak, who is one of the few independent rights monitors left in the country, was also told this week that he was barred from traveling abroad." 

Michael Schwirtz

(Belarus bars critics from leaving the country) 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/world/europe/belarus-bars-critics-from-leaving-the-country.html?_r=2&ref=global-home


Revoke Belarus from hosting Ice hockey championship 2014:
http://www.change.org/petitions/iihf-suspend-the-2014-ice-hockey-championship-in-belarus?utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition&utm_term=friends_wall

More pressure on Europe's last dictatorship!

http://minkristnasamhllsblogg.blogspot.com/2012/02/more-pressure-on-europes-last.html  

Svenska regeringen samarbetar med KGB:

http://minkristnasamhllsblogg.blogspot.com/2012/03/svenska-regeringentelias-intressebolag.html


A martyr nation - hungerstrike:
http://minkristnasamhllsblogg.blogspot.com/2012/03/hold-on-kavalenka-please-eat-something.html

http://www.freebelarusnow.org/2012/03/kavalenka-weighs-only-51kg/

Diplomat and former presidential candidate Sannikov: "My usual prison service ended in september, then torture began":

http://minkristnasamhllsblogg.blogspot.com/2012/02/sannikov-my-usual-prison-service-ended.html

EU following situation i Belarus "very closely":
http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2012/3/16/49366/

Aftenposten:
Aftenposten: http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Nekter-journalister-og-opposisjonelle-a-forlate-Hviterussland-6786285.html#.T2NV7Hmnc4q


Vitebsk and Marc Chagall museum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLmq6E02NdY

"Varför belönar vi mördarstaten?":
lhttp://schmidtblogg.blogspot.com/2012/03/varfor-belonar-vi-mordarstaten.html


Dödsstraffet praktiserat i Belarus - utan opartisk domstol:
/http://www.infobelarus.nu/2012/03/kavaliou-executed-in-belarus/

"Most likely Kavaliou was innocent. During his trial there weren’t enough evidence against him and it is said that he admited the crime during questioning before the trial, where he was most certainly tortured. Even victims of the bombing criticized the court as they didn’t find it credible. The father of one of the victims was punished and sent to mental hospital after he had spoken out critically in court against both the lack of evidence and against the use of death penalty in Belarus."

http://www.charter97.org/en/news/2012/3/17/49399/


Killed - dödade:
(Via Eva N)
http://spring96.org/en/news/50878

"Two young men convicted for terrorist attacks were executed in Minsk yesterday, although their hasty trial did not show any conclusive evidence. they both confessed, but during the trial one of them pleaded innocent and gave evidence of forced confession. observers also noticed a number of cases of tempered evidence.

The death verdict was executed while Kavaliou’s complaint against the sentence was being considered by the UN Human Rights Committee, despite an official request not to give effect to the verdict."

 

 

"Minsk. Valko-Venäjä on teloittanut toisenkin Minskin metropommista tuomitun miehen.
Valtiontelevisio kertoi myöhään lauantaina Dzmitri Kanavalaun teloituksesta. Toisen pommi-iskusta tuomitun miehen, Uladzislav Kavaljovin, omaiset kertoivat tämän teloituksesta jo aiemmin."
http://www.hs.fi/msn/ulkomaat/Valko-Ven%C3%A4j%C3%A4+teloitti+toisenkin+metroiskusta+tuomitun/a1305558073515





Foto: KL Opposition's flag, Minsk, Belarus ♥ Martyr nation. ♥