Concerns in Europe: January - June 2001
15
Amnesty International September 2001
AI Index: EUR 01/003/2001
In the morning of 18 May, police officers
reportedly detained approximately 30 protestors
outside the Palace of the Republic building in Minsk.
The protestors - who belonged to the Belarusian
Conservative Christian Party - reportedly carried
posters
of
the
men
who
have
apparently
“disappeared”. Other protestors reportedly held
placards and distributed leaflets contesting the
proposed union of Belarus with Russia. Plain-clothes
police officers are alleged to have used force to
disperse the peaceful protestors and ill-treated a
number of them, resulting in one man, Vladimir
Yukho, suffering a broken arm and another man
reportedly experienced severe heart problems.
Throughout the day and evening plain-clothes police
officers reportedly detained other peaceful protestors
from the Youth Front of the Belarusian Popular Front
and the United Civic Party. Both groups of protestors
lined Minsk’s main thoroughfare, Prospect Frantsysk
Skaryna, at different times of the day holding placards
of the missing opposition figures. The plainclothes
police officers reportedly detained around a dozen
protestors, seven of them youths, one of whom was
allegedly seriously beaten.
Possible harassment of opposition
family members
The sons of two of President Alyaksandr
Lukashenka’s political opponents were arrested in the
period under review. AI is concerned that the two men
may have been deliberately targeted by the Belarusian
authorities in order to put pressure on their families.
Former prisoner of conscience Mikhail Chigir’s son,
Alyaksandr Chigir, was arrested on 10 February,
accused of dealing in stolen motor vehicle parts.
Members of Belarus’ opposition have stated that the
arrest was to put pressure on Mikhail Chigir, who had
planned to stand as a candidate in the 2001
presidential elections. Since his arrest he has been held
in pre-trial detention, reportedly sharing his cell with
26-year-old Sergei Vinnikov, son of the former
Chairperson of the Belarusian National Bank, Tamara
Vinnikova, who escaped to Britain from under KGB
house arrest in April 1999. Her son was reportedly
charged with the possession of drugs on 21 March and
remains in pre-trial detention in Minsk.
Freedom of the media
AI continued to receive reports about the harassment
and intimidation of Belarus’ community of
independent journalists. The offices of several
independent newspapers were raided by the tax
officials, including Borisovskie Novosti on 16 March
and Nasha Svaboda on 19 June. The home of the Den
and Belarusky Chas journalist, Sergei Anisko, were
also raided by police on 20 June. Individual
newspaper vendors selling the independent press
reportedly suffered newspaper confiscations. In the
first six months of 2001 particular concern was also
expressed about the draft law, Law on Information
Security, which - if adopted in its draft format - would
confer on the Belarusian authorities a range of powers
by which to censor the media and stifle media
freedom.
B E L G I U M
Alleged ill-treatment of asylum-seekers during
deportation operations and in detention
facilities
There were further claims of asylum-seekers being
subjected to excessive force and assault during
deportation operations and in detention facilities.
Criminal investigations opened into such complaints
in previous years were often subject to long delays and
complainants were often at risk of deportation while
investigations were still under way.
In June AI wrote to the Minister of Interior to
express concern about allegations that federal police
officers had subjected Ibrahim Bah, an asylum-seeker
from Sierra Leone, to excessive force and physical
assault during several unsuccessful attempts to deport
him to Côte d’Ivoire. Between his arrival and
detention on 31 December 2000 and the end of May
there had been five separate attempts to deport him.
The allegations were made by Ibrahim Bah himself,
by
members
of
Belgian
non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and members of parliament
(MPs) who visited him during his detention in Saint-
Gilles prison between 10 April and 11 June.
According to these reports, on the fourth
deportation attempt on 20 April, police officers who
were escorting him by van to his flight kicked and beat
him, after tying his hands and feet together according
to the so-called méthode du saucisson. The
descriptions of this method of restraint indicate
individuals being placed face down on the floor in
restraints, with their hands and ankles bound together
from behind - sometimes for prolonged periods. AI
has noted with concern that these descriptions are
reminiscent of dangerous restraint techniques which
can lead to death from positional asphyxia. Ibrahim
Bah alleged that officers hit him in the face and ribs
and subjected him to threats and verbal abuse.
He also claimed that, on board the plane, officers
exerted heavy pressure on his body and carotid artery
and used their legs and a cushion to press down
heavily on his thoracic cage. He said that, after the
deportation operation was abandoned, he was
assaulted again while being transported away from the
plane.
A medical report issued on 3 May, by a privately-
hired doctor who had examined Ibrahim Bah in Saint-
Gilles prison the previous day, concluded that his
symptoms and injuries were consistent with his
allegations.
On 16 May the Ministry of Interior stated that the
procedures followed in each attempt to deport Ibrahim
Bah to date had been according to regulations, without
indicating the nature of the official steps taken to
investigate the allegations of ill-treatment or the
content of any relevant medical reports.