Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, formerly known by its Russian name Byelorussia or Belorussia, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe bordered by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Over 40% of its 207,600 square kilometres (80,200 sq mi) is forested. Its major economic sectors are service industries and manufacturing. Until the 20th century, different states at various times controlled the lands of modern-day Belarus, including the Principality of Polotsk, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire.
The President of the Republic of Belarus is the head of state of Belarus. The office was created in 1994 with the passing of the Constitution of Belarus by the Supreme Soviet. This replaced the office of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet as the head of state. The tasks of the president include executing foreign and domestic policy, defending the rights and general welfare of citizens and residents, and upholding the Constitution. The president is mandated by the Constitution to serve as a leader in the social affairs of the country and to act as its main representative abroad. The duties, responsibilities and other transitional clauses dealing with the presidency are listed in Chapter Three, Articles 79 through 89, of the Constitution.
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko is a Belarusian politician serving as President of Belarus since the office was created on 20 July 1994. Before launching his political career, Lukashenko worked as director of a collective farm (kolkhoz) and spent time with the Soviet Border Troops and the Soviet Army. He was the only deputy to vote against the independence of Belarus from the Soviet Union.
The Central Election Commission of the Republic of Belarus is the body responsible for conducting national elections and overseeing local elections in Belarus.
Alexander Lukashenko: incumbent, in office since 1994, not associated with any party.
Alaksandar Uładzimieravič Milinkievič is a Belarusian politician. He was nominated by the leading opposition parties in Belarus to run against incumbent Alexander Lukashenko in the 2006 presidential election.
The United Democratic Forces of Belarus ; is a coalition of political parties participating as the main opposition group during the 2006 presidential election. The group chose Alexander Milinkevich as their candidate in an attempt to defeat the incumbent Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian president since 1994.
Sergei Gaidukevich was the Liberal Democratic Party candidate in the 2001, 2006, and 2015 elections for the office of President of Belarus. He was defeated in all attempts, since incumbent Alexander Lukashenko received overwhelming majority of votes each time. Gaidukevich has higher military education and served as an officer in the armed forces. Later he was a government functionary associated with various military issues.
Both the European Parliament and United States Congress issued warnings that Belarus may expect more sanctions and similar punitive actions in the case of violation of human rights during the elections. The United States already has sanctions on Belarus due to past election issues, as stated in the Belarus Democracy Act of 2004, which also allows it to provide assistance to political parties and NGOs.[3] The CIS observer mission at the Belarusian presidential elections commented that "the negative statements made in the EU and the United States are attempts to create predetermined negative sentiments in the international community toward elections results in Belarus. Such actions towards a sovereign state hardly comply with standards of international law," according to the same election monitoring body.[4] The OSCE have also sent monitors to Belarus to observe the elections and to make sure the elections are free from any irregularities.
The European Parliament (EP) is the only parliamentary institution of the European Union (EU) that is directly elected by EU citizens aged 18 or older. Together with the Council of the European Union, which should not be confused with the European Council and the Council of Europe, it exercises the legislative function of the EU. The Parliament is composed of 751 members (MEPs), that will become 705 starting from the 2019–2024 legislature, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world.
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the Federal Government of the United States. The legislature consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Human rights are "the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled" Examples of rights and freedoms which are often thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, freedom of expression, pursuit of happiness and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in science and culture, the right to work, and the right to education.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
On 2 March 2006, opposition candidate Alaksandar Kazulin attempted to enter the third meeting of the All Belarusian People's Assembly, which was hosted by President Lukashenko. Security officers arrested and beat Kazulin, who was charged with disorderly conduct, and then held in custody for eight hours.[5]
The All Belarusian People's Assembly is a general meeting of the Belarusian Government with industry leaders and other top officials from every sector of the government.
In the build-up to the elections, several Georgians who were part of the OSCE observer team were intercepted by the Belarusian Frontier Guard and placed under custody. Lukashenko also announced that protests similar to what occurred during the Orange, Rose and Tulip revolutions will not take place in Belarus and states that "force will not be used" to claim the presidency.[6]
Results
On 19 March 2006 exit polls showed Lukashenko winning a third term in a landslide, amid opposition claims of vote-rigging and fear of violence.[7] The EcooM organization gave Lukashenko 84.2% of the vote and Milinkievich just 2 percent, while the Belarusian Committee of Youth Organizations gave Lukashenko 84.2% and Milinkievich 3.1 percent. The Gallup Organization has noted that EcooM and the Belarusian Committee of Youth Organizations are government-controlled and both released their exit poll results before noon on election day, although voting stations closed at 8 p.m.[8]
Lukashenko was sworn in for his third term on 8 April 2006.
Reaction
Belarusian authorities
Belarusian authorities initially vowed to crush unrest in the event of large-scale protests following the election.[9] Since then, however, they have decided to use more subtle methods of attrition to subdue protesters.[10] Lukashenko declared victory and defeat of "The Jeans Revolution", promising not to jail Milinkevich and Kozulin.[11]
On 23 March the Constitutional Court of Belarus[12] rejected the opposition's appeals. Lukashenko will be inaugurated on Monday.
On 24 March Belarusian police broke up[13] days of protests in central Minsk against President Lukashenko's re-election, detaining about 460 demonstrators in an early hours sweep. The demonstrators had rejected police calls to leave the square, focus of the protests. They had erected tents and kept protesting round the clock despite sub-zero temperatures at night. One of the detained protesters called Reuters by mobile phone and said they were being taken to a pre-trial detention centre in the capital.
On 25 March riot police clashed with protesters, forcing demonstrators back and hitting several with truncheons.[14] One of the protesters was killed in the fight. Four explosions were heard, apparently percussion grenades set off by police. Many protesters were detained, including one of the opposition leaders, Alexander Kozulin, Russian news agencies reported. The main opposition leader, Alexander Milinkevich, denied reports by Russian news agencies that he himself was detained.
On 29 March Gazeta.ru reported that opposition leader Kozulin is arrested and can get up to 6 years in jail for organizing riots and hooliganism. Milinkevich can get 15 days for hooliganism.[15]
According to Moscow News,[16] two journalists of the Belarus state television channel allegedly beaten by opposition forces during an unsanctioned rally in Minsk are currently in hospital with severe injuries, RIA Novosti said Monday. Reporter of First Belarusian State Channel Mikhail Kristin has suffered a concussion, and cameraman Dmitry Chumak has a spine injury. Both are in hospital, the Belarusian State Television company said. The journalists were injured during the Saturday unrest in the Belarus capital. Members of opposition called it a lie.
The crowd of demonstrators rallying after the election - estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 [17] - was the biggest the opposition had mustered in years. The next day a tent camp was erected on October Square in downtown Minsk. The number of participants in the opposition rally varied from 300 in the morning to 5,000 in the evening. The main opposition leaders had called for the protests to keep up until Saturday, when a major rally is expected, coinciding with the anniversary of the creation of first independent Belarusian republic in 1918.[18] Despite this, on Friday night riot police were dispatched to the site of the protest and 377 (460, according to other sources) participants and journalists were arrested, effectively dismantling the demonstration.[19] Most of the arrested people were sentenced to between 5 and 15 days in prison. There were Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Canadian, and Georgian citizens among the arrested. The protests were documented in the movie "Kalinovski Square" by filmmaker Yury Khashchavatski.[20]
On Saturday tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, as the police had closed off October Square. Opposition leader Alaksandar Kazulin was arrested. One of the demonstrators was killed when the riot police dispersed the crowd.
Western countries
The official OSCE report released on March 20, 2006, concluded that the presidential election failed to meet OSCE commitments for democratic elections. The OSCE, of which Belarus is a member, stated that Lukashenko permitted State authority to be used in a manner which did not allow citizens to freely and fairly express their will at the ballot box, and a pattern of intimidation and the suppression of independent voices was evident.[21]
On 21 March the United States stated that it believed that the election was rigged. In the words of White House spokesman Scott McClellan, "The United States does not accept the results of the election. We support the call for a new election."
Czech President Václav Klaus decided not to congratulate Lukashenko on re-election as president as "the course of the presidential elections on Sunday confirmed his fears for democracy in Belarus". Klaus previously criticized "very disputable circumstances of the parliamentary elections and the changes in the constitution that allowed Lukashenko to run for the post again after two election terms" in his open letter to Lukashenko last year. Czech Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda proposed inviting opposition leader Alyaksander Milinkevich to the EU summit. As his proposal did not succeed he initiated invitation of Milinkevich to the European People's Party meeting that will take place prior the EU summit.[22]
According to the Czech News Agency, Jan Rybar, reporter of the Czech daily Mlada fronta Dnes, was attacked and beaten up at the opposition demonstration in Minsk. He said in his opinion he had been beaten up by agents of the Belarusian secret police KGB, but has no direct piece of evidence to prove it.[23][24]
On 23 March American diplomats evacuated[25] Vyacheslav Sivchik, one of the organizers of the opposition meeting, from Oktyabrskaya Square.
On 24 March EU leaders agreed at a summit to impose sanctions on Belarus leaders, including a possible travel ban on Lukashenko,[26] after his victory in a disputed presidential election on Sunday. Officials said Lukashenko had won more than 80% of the vote. A statement from the 25 leaders called the country "a sad exception ... on a continent of open and democratic societies" and said the election had violated democratic norms. "The European council has decided to take restrictive measures against those responsible for the violations of international electoral standards, including President Lukashenko," the Austrian foreign minister, Ursula Plassnik, said after the EU summit. She gave no details, but EU officials said measures being considered included visa bans on those accused of allegedly rigging the poll and possible asset freezes, but not economic sanctions against the former Soviet republic.
Lukashenko was banned from entering the 25 nations of the EU - including Belarus' neighbours, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania - and from the US.[27] The EU Council has passed a list of Belarusian officials targeted by sanctions.
Russia
Russia considered the election results acceptable; the Russian Foreign Ministry declared the election fair, and Russian president Vladimir Putin called Lukashenko to congratulate him on his victory.[28]
The Russian Foreign Ministry condemned alleged OSCE bias, saying "The biased verdict of the OSCE, Europe's main election monitoring organization, on the presidential election in Belarus highlights the need to improve the process of observing polls, an official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. "We believe that the biased nature of the verdict of the monitoring mission has again confirmed the importance of beginning, at last, focused work to correct shortcomings in the election monitoring practice," Mikhail Kamynin said referring to a decision made by foreign ministers of the 55-nation security grouping in December last year.[29] On 24 March Sergey Lavrov accused OSCE of instigating tensions during the parliamentary election campaign in Belarus, claiming that "long before the elections, the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights had declared that they (the elections) would be illegitimate and it was pretty biased in its commentaries on their progress and results, thus playing an instigating role."[30] It was one of many Russian criticisms of the trans-Atlantic group's vote monitoring activities.
Pro-government press and organizations lauded the outcome as a defeat of "orange" political technologies,[31] whereas the liberal opposition traditionally condemned Lukashenko's actions. On March 26, about ten people from liberal movements and parties, joined by occasional passers-by, attempted to carry out an unsanctioned demonstration in support of the Belarusian opposition near the building of the Ministry of International Affairs, but were quickly dispersed by authorities.[32]
Reflecting a widespread belief among journalists, Russian commentator Piotr Parhomenko wrote in lenta.ru [33] that Lukashenko's decision to allow the opposition demonstration was a move calculated to divide the opposition, as Kozulin wanted to stop the protests while Milinkevich called for them to go on indefinitely.
Belarusian President's comment
According to a Belarusian news portal, Lukashenko himself stated that the "last Presidential elections were rigged; I already told this to the Westerners. [...] 93.5% voted for the President Lukashenko [sic]. They said it's not a European number. We made it 86. This really happened. And if [one is to] start recounting the votes, I don't know what to do with them. Before the elections they told us that if we showed the European numbers, our elections would be accepted. We were planning to make the European numbers. But, as you can see, this didn't help either."[34]
Zubr was a civic youth organization in Belarus backed and funded by the United States and western powers in opposition to President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The organization drew inspiration from Otpor! student movement which contributed to the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in 2000, and from Gene Sharp's writings on nonviolent action. Zubr became noticed internationally in 2005 when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was visiting Lithuania, met their leaders –, who risked imprisonment upon their return. Some reporters have credited Zubr's leaders with the idea of a 'Denim Revolution', which, they hoped would attract popular support as Ukraine's Orange Revolution and Georgia's Rose Revolution. But, Lukashenko had said:“In our country, there will be no pink or orange, nor even a banana revolution.”
Anatoly Lebedko is a Belarusian politician and the head of the United Civil Party of Belarus.
Belarus elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The National Assembly has two chambers. The House of Representatives has 110 members elected in single-seat constituencies elected for a four-year term. The Council of the Republic has 64 members, 56 members indirectly elected and eight members appointed by the president.
The Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Assembly) is a social democratic political party in Belarus, that opposes the government of president Alexander Lukashenko.
The Conservative Christian Party of the Belarusian People's Front is a political party in Belarus, that opposes the government of president Alexander Lukashenko. It was de facto formed after the split of the Belarusian People's Front in 1999.
The State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus is the national intelligence agency of Belarus. Along with its counterparts in Transnistria and South Ossetia, it is one of the few intelligence agencies that kept the Russian name "KGB" after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, albeit it is lost in translation when written in Belarusian.
Alyaksandr Kazulin is the former leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party and one of the candidates who ran for the office of President of Belarus on 19 March 2006. He was a rector of the Belarusian State University from 1996 to 2003 and a government minister serving under Belarus President Lukashenko but later fell out of favor. He holds a PhD in mathematics and pedagogy.
The Jeans Revolution was a term used by Belarus' democratic opposition to describe their protests following the 2006 Belarusian presidential election.
Euro-Belarusian relations refers to relations between the Republic of Belarus and the European Union (EU). Mutual relations were initially established after the European Economic Community recognised Belarusian independence in 1991.
Human rights in Belarus have been described as "poor". The Belarusian government is criticized for human rights violations and its persecution of non-governmental organisations, independent journalists, national minorities, and opposition politicians. In a testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice labeled Belarus as one of the world's six "outposts of tyranny". In response, the Belarusian government called the assessment "quite far from reality". As at 2017, the Viasna Human Rights Centre lists two political prisoners, down from 11 in 2016 currently detained in Belarus.
A Lesson of Belarusian is a 2006 documentary film by Polish director Mirosław Dembiński. It follows the activities of several Belarusian pro-democracy youth activists in the four weeks running up to the highly controversial presidential re-election of Alexander Lukashenko on March 19, 2006. The film has won multiple festival prizes.
A presidential election was held in Belarus on 19 December 2010. The election was originally planned for the beginning of 2011. However, the final date was set during an extraordinary session of the National Assembly of Belarus on September 14, 2010.
Andréi Olégovich Sánnikov is a Belarusian politician and activist. In the early 1990s, he headed the Belarusian delegation on Nuclear and Conventional Weapons Armament Negotiations, also serving as the Belarusian diplomat to Switzerland. From 1995 to 1996, he served as Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus, resigning as a form of political protest. He co-founded the civil action Charter 97, and was awarded the Bruno Kreisky Prize in 2005.
The Belarusian democracy movement is an opposition movement in Belarus which seeks to challenge the government of President Alexander Lukashenko.
The 2011 Belarusian protests were a series of peaceful protests by demonstrators in Belarus demanding the resignation of current Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, who had been the president of Belarus since 1994. Belarus is an authoritarian state, and in May 2011 presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov was sentenced to five years in prison for taking part in the Dec 2010 election. Lukashenko claims he won that election with almost 80% of the vote.
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 11 October 2015. Long-term president Alexander Lukashenko ran for his fifth term in office, having won every presidential election since independence in 1991. He was re-elected with 83.47% of the vote. The 'against all' option received more votes than any opposition candidate.
Vsevolod Yanchevski is a Belarusian statesman and politician, assistant to the authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko and member of his administration responsible for state ideology. He has been included in EU sanctions lists between 2011 and 2016.
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