Michael de Laine

Belorussian activists punished by forced military service

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 25th January 2009

The Belorussian regime has started to use compulsory military service as a weapon in the struggle against the country’s civilian society and political opposition, according to the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

“The regime in Belorussia seems to have boundless creativity in finding new ways of oppressing the opposition,” said Robert Hårdh, secretary-general of the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights on 21st January.

The organisation said that the Belorussian regime has started to use compulsory military service as a weapon in the struggle against the country’s civilian society and political opposition.

“It is therefore vital that the EU is not appeased by the few steps of progress that are made in some areas while the pressure is increased in other areas at the same time,” Hårdh added. The committee monitors and reports on the situation of human rights in Sweden and internationally.

According to the committee, Belorussia exempts people from military service all the time they receive university-level education. However, many young Belorussian activists have been locked out of the universities in recent years because of their political activity; a large number of them have been inducted into the Belorussian army, although many have gone to neighbouring countries Poland and Lithuania to continue their studies.

“There is much to indicate that the security services are behind this induction effort,” the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights said.

According to the committee, the young activists are often caught by people wearing civilian clothes and then taken to an army enlistment office.

Previously issued medical reports stating that the persons cannot serve in the military for medical reasons are declared invalid and doctors are forced to write new diagnoses under pressure. Representatives of the security services participate in the whole of the process that leads to the activists being forced into military service.

“It’s a matter of keeping the young activists out of the community for one-and-a-half years with the aid of so-called doctors,” said
Ales Bialiatski, chairman of the Belorussian human rights organisation Viasna.

“Among those who have been inducted into the army in this way are Vital Karatysj and Zmitser Zjaleznitjenka, both members of the Belorussian National Front (BNF), an opposition party; Franak Viatjorka, who chairs BNF’s youth organisation, and Viatjorka’s predecessor, Ales Kalita,” said Bialiatski.

Others hit by the initiative are include Zmitser Fedaruk and Ivan Sjyla, activists in the Malady Front youth movement; Pavel Kuryjanovitj, an activist in the campaign ‘European Belorussia’; and youth activists Pavel Batujeu, Fjodar Tjarankou, Ales Krutkin, Artsiom Zabaryn and Uladzimir Siarhejeu, among others.

The Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights said that the EU decided in October to drop for six months its immigration ban on 40 Belorussian politicians and civil servants, including the country’s dictator, Aleksander Lukasjhenka. The people on the list have not been allowed to enter the EU since the Belorussian presidential election in 2006.

In retaliation, the committee said, Belorussia has in recent months included two opposition publications in the state’s distribution network and adopted a number of other steps in an effort to convince the West that the country is undergoing a democratisation process.

“The campaign over recent months to force members of the opposition into military service is one of several signs that Belorussia is not serious about moving towards democracy,” the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights said.