Tuesday, February 28
Publicity! (1)
The Dutch Metro (an in public transport free distributed news paper) interviewed one of our participants: Anna Kogut.
Below you will find a translation of the article called "Eén minuut" ("One Minute") by Erik Jonk.
A: student and volunteer for Amnesty International
www.canigetaright.org
The Amnesty International Student group of Amsterdam is busy planning an international hitch hiking event to Belarus.
At the 16th of March, three days before the elections will take place overthere, they would like to address the severe violations of human rights in the last dictatorship of Europe.
◗ There is no train transport to the country?
◗ ◗ This time, for once, we won't go with public transport! We chose hitch hiking in order to be able to reach many people and make clear to them how severe the human rights situation is in this country bordering the European Union.
◗ What's wrong in this country?
◗ ◗ Several things. Critics disappear, opponents are sent to labour camps, protesters are put into administrative detention and excessive police violence and torture are not excluded; there is no independent media, in short: a dictatorship.
◗ Do you work together with other students from other countries?
◗ ◗ German and Polish students within Amnesty are very active on Belarus. Our other aim with this hitch hiking event is to visit these groups in order to establish a long-term cooperation.
◗ You have a shortage of men... Explain to us!
◗ ◗ Surprisingly more adventurous women will join our event than men, ha! We would like to solve this problem to ask politicians - tradtionally often male - to offer us a ride. Call it a carpool for Belarus. By the way, we will be able to connect each hitch hiker to someone else.
Sunday, February 26
An action on Belarus, but why?
Undemocratic
The current president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenka, has been in power since 1994. Even though elections have occurred, these are flawed and do not comply with the standards set by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation Europe (OSCE). Opposition candidates and campaign volunteers have been incarcerated for political reasons and the state media either put them in a bad picture or neglect them. Last year, president Lukashenka organised a referendum to ensure that he could run for president even after having served two terms.
"Disappearances"
Since 1999 and 2000, four critics of the regime have "disappeared". The government has displayed a lack of interest to investigate the various cases, and some clous point in the direction of involvement by the regime in the disappearances of the four. Cameraman Zavadsky, the entrepreneur Krasovsky, and opposition leaders Gonchar and Zacharenka have left their families in great uncertainty. Even now, six years later, in spite of repression of manifestations, the four people are commemorated monthly in public by the civil initiatives "We Remember" and "Solidarity16".
Press freedom
Independent media are scarce. The state has several ways to cope with critical newspapers: for example, critique can be viewed as an insult to the president. Once a newspaper is declared illegal, distributing these can be followed by arrests.
Freedom of Association
Manifestations and actions against the regime can lead to fines and incarceration. Even for such a small thing a wearing a mask of president Lukashenka, people can be imprisoned for several years. When people do demonstrate, they risk a violent arrest by the OMON, the special forces.
By organising events in Amsterdam, Bonn, Berlin, Warsaw en Bialystok we try to visualise the current human rights situation in this East European country.
It is possible to participate with the human rights activists in this hitch hiking event or to take down interviews with one of the participants. For more information, contact us at canigetaright@gmail.com.
