Live Feed | 11 Sept

11 September 2020 | Infocenter Free Belarus 2020

8:00 am The 34th day of the protests in Belarus begins. Today is Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya’s birthday.

8:10 am Belarusian State University (BSU) Lyceum students released a video message in which they spoke about the unacceptability of violence in the streets of Belarusian cities.

“We fully support the position of BSU Lyceum administration and teachers,” said the students.

8:15 am Pavel Latushka, a member of the Presidium of the Coordination Council, received a response from the Investigative Committee concerning his request to initiate a criminal case on the cases of violence committed by the security forces against detained citizens. The Investigative Committee stated that since Latushka’s appeal did not contain information about specific crimes, there are no grounds for investigating the appeal.

8:30 am According to the source @motolkohelp, 16-year-old Timur Mitskevich, who was injured during the protests and disappeared from the hospital yesterday, is now safe. The information is currently being verified.

8:44 am In Minsk, another inscription, “We will not forget! We will not forgive!” appeared – this time, in honour of the late Mikita Kryutsou.

9:15 am Today, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya was supposed to participate in the meeting of the Visegrad Four – an association of Central European states which includes Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Poland insisted on Tsikhanouskaya’s participation, but the Czech Republic vetoed it.

The decision was made by the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrei Babis. He told reporters that this spontaneous meeting would not benefit the Belarusian opposition, would give a counterproductive result and be used by Lukashenko’s media against the opposition, whose fight for a new presidential election in Belarus is fully supported by Prague.

9:38 am Belsat journalist Dmitry Kazakevich was detained in Vitsebsk. Two police officers approached him, put him in a car and drove off.

9:40 am Belarusian IT companies’ employees recorded a video supporting PandaDoc.

“They called us the future of Belarus, and now they are stealing the future from us”; “There are tens of thousands of us solidary IT specialists, and this is just a drop in the ocean of millions of solidary Belarusians,” they pointed out.

9:50 am The Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne responded to the appeal of Belarusian diaspora regarding the situation in Belarus:

“Australia is concerned about the use of violence against protesters exercising their democratic freedoms following the Presidential election. The Government is also concerned at the lack of transparency surrounding the conduct of the Presidential elections and the imprisonment of opposition candidates, journalists and peaceful protestors [sic].

“Australia supports all peoples’ right to assemble and protest peacefully. We urge the authorities in Belarus to ensure that the fundamental human rights of the Belarusian people are respected, along with their right to determine the country’s future as a sovereign and independent nation.”

10:20 am The Belaruskali strike committee representatives have arrived at Minsk regional court and with them, many journalists and city residents who came to show support. Arrests have already started: a woman, who tried to take the mask off a ‘tikhar’ (security officials in civilian clothing – Ed.), was roughly arrested, and two more people were detained a bit later.

10:45 am In the area of the Academy of Sciences, where Lukashenko is holding a meeting with Belarusian scientists at the moment, there is no mobile Internet.

11:00 am A freelance journalist from Homel, Andrey Tolchin, who works with Belsat, has been arrested.

11:10 am Russia Today (RT) TV channel answered Meduza news portal’s questions about their work in Belarus.

According to RT, there are 32 people working in Belarus who “advise their Belarusian colleagues on a variety of topics”. RT compared Belarus to Tunisia, Venezuela and Cuba.

11:20 am Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Volha Kavalkova recorded a video message to Belarusians together.

They stated that the pressure now being exerted on the Presidium of the Coordination Council by Lukashenko’s regime will not prevent the Council from continuing their work. Volha Kavalkova noted that “it is impossible to stop the solidarity and the people’s desire for truth and justice.”

Tsikhanouskaya called on every caring Belarusian to join the Coordination Council – “all it takes is to submit an application via an online form.”

11:30 am In Baranavichy, the police began “collecting the statements” of the aircraft plant workers who had signed an open letter demanding an end to the repressions, the exposure of fraud and the holding of new elections. The letter was signed by approx. 400 workers of the plant.

11:50 am Masked men came to the editorial office of the charity project “IMENA” (“NAMES”).

This was reported to Euroradio by the employees of IMENA magazine and personnel from another office in the same building.

12:00 pm According to the human rights center “Viasna”, five people were arrested today at the Minsk regional court.

12:00 pm ❤️✊✌️ Belarusians are greeting Svetlana Tikhanovskaya on her birthday.

• The students of Minsk State Linguistic University have come out for a rally of solidarity and sang “Happy Birthday, Mrs. President”.
• Protesters from Zhodzina have created a super-cool video for Svetlana’s birthday.

12:10 pm Dmitry Semchenko, a former presenter of All-National Television of Belarus (ONT) and the head of the presidential pool of journalists on the channel, has been sentenced to 15 days of detention for participation in a rally on 16 August.

Dmitry says that he was there doing his work: “I was there, but I did not have any posters and did not chant any slogans. At that time, I was a journalist for the state TV channel.”

Dmitry was detained last night, and spent the night in the detention ward in Akrescina, said his wife Yulia to TUT.BY.

12:20 pm A representative of the Vatican Secretariat of State is to visit Belarus on 11-14 September. Today, 11 September, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher shall hold a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Uladzimir Makei.

Earlier, the head of the Catholic Church of Belarus, a citizen of Belarus, Tadeusz Kandrusewicz wasn’t allowed into the country in violation of all current laws.

12:25 pm Minsk residents have gathered in front of the Minsk regional court to support the striking miners. Today the court shall hear the case of JSC “Belaruskali” against the strikers to define the “legality” of the strike.

12:45 pm Meduza reported that Alexander Lukashenko is planning to travel to Russia on Monday, 14 September. The Kremlin has confirmed the official visit and stated that no documents are to be signed. No press conference is planned either.

12:55 pm The new prosecutor considers the strike at Belaruskali completely illegal.

1:08 pm District departments of the Investigative Committee have begun to turn down claims filed by victims of police and security forces’ brutality and torture from 9-13 August.

They are refusing to start or are suspending investigations on the basis of alleged “lack of experts’ conclusions,” reports the human rights organization Viasna.

1:18 pm ⚡️🐼 Bank accounts of the IT company PandaDoc have been blocked. Over 250 employees of the company are unable to receive their salaries.

1:33 pm Students of Homel Technical University have taken part in a rally of solidarity with their teacher Vadim Belsky, who was holding a one-man protest.

After the rally, the students returned to their classes when police arrived looking for those students who were holding posters.

1:42 pm Radio Liberty cites the interview of the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nausėda, to Baltic News Services (BNS). Mr. Nausėda called for a tougher position of the EU, emphasizing that “the list of sanctions without Lukashenko is only worth a smile.”

He also stated the need for the development of a program to support Belarus after Lukashenko’s resignation.

1:47 pm The Investigative Committee has started criminal investigations against people who took part in the march on 6 September.

Let us remind you that on the same day, the head of the Main Directorate for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime, Mikalai Karpiankou, pursued peaceful demonstrators, burst into a cafe,and smashed the glass door with a baton. However, no criminal case has been initiated in this case yet.

2:31 pm A resident of Vitsebsk, Vladislav Kuznechik, and his father Vitaly are now on the territory of the Swedish Embassy.

The two men say they were almost captured on 6 September during the rally in Vitsebsk. Armed men attacked them, used tear gas and beat them with batons. Both men managed to escape detention but, in fear of persecution, went into hiding for the next four days.

This morning, they attempted to enter the Swedish embassy in Minsk to request asylum but were refused entry. The men then jumped over the fence to enter the territory of the diplomatic mission.

Security forces have now surrounded the embassy and are waiting for the extradition of the refugees.

2:45 pm Maria Kalesnikava’s sister, Tatsiana Khomich, has recorded a video “Let our Masha go!” in support of her sister.

Initially, the video was to be recorded by Maksim Znak, who had also been detained the day before. As he was recording the video, unidentified people wearing masks burst into the office of Viktar Babaryka’s headquarters and began a search.

In the video, Tatsiana talks about how they tried to expel Maria from the country. To stop them, Maria had to tear her passport, which is no longer worth anything because of the events taking place in the country.

She calls on everyone to record a video in support of Maria and other political prisoners.

3:00 pm Swedish diplomats are now trying to contact their executives in Stockholm to resolve the situation. The refugees have been told to wait.

3:05 pm While employees of the Swedish embassy were waiting for instructions on what to do with the two Belarusians from Vitebsk who had applied for political asylum earlier today, an unidentified man in civilian clothes was seen in front of the embassy. When journalists started ringing the doorbell of the embassy, he started recording them on video.

A security guard at the embassy, who met with a TUT.BY employee in the backyard, said that “everything is fine so far.”

3:24 pm The court hearing on the Belaruskali strike continues. Sergei Cherkasov, who was declared as a representative of the Belaruskali Strike Committee as a defendant, this morning, said that he had been removed from the strike committee at today’s meeting. Therefore, he cannot represent the Strike Committee in court.

3:40 pm It became known that the State Border Committee responded to the head of the Catholic Church of Belarus, Metropolitan Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, to his appeal of 1 September, in which he asked to explain why he had not been allowed into the country.

“I can confirm that we have received the answer. However, the Metropolitan Archbishop decided that we would continue to resolve the issue without further ado. Probably, the next steps will be submitting his appeals to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor’s Office,” said Yuri Sanko, the press secretary of the Catholic Church in Belarus.

3:45 pm The State Border Committee has published a video (видео) of how the car of the Ukrainian Ambassador Igor Kizim was searched after crossing the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. The ambassador reminded that in accordance with the Vienna Convention, inspection of a diplomat’s personal luggage, when crossing the border of the country where he works, is not allowed, unless there are good reasons. He agreed to open the car-boot, but warned that he would write a diplomatic note warning of a “diplomatic war.”

3:54 pm Today, four detained PandaDoc employees were charged with fraud committed by an organized group or on a particularly large scale (part 4 of article 209 of the Criminal Code). They face three to ten years in prison and a fine.

4:00 pm Yevgeny Pylchenko, Ivan Kravtsov’s lawyer, commented on the detention of the member of the Coordination Council Ivan Kravtsov and the Council spokesman Anton Rodnenkov, who were questioned by the Financial Investigation Department (FID) today as part of an investigation into the theft of money from the Minsk Watch Factory.

“It all started on Monday around 11 am, when Kravtsov disappeared. As I am his lawyer, I immediately started looking for Ivan […] At first, we did not think about the FID, but around 4-5 pm his house was searched or inspected. […] the people present introduced themselves as FID staff. That’s why I brought the order and the notice that I undertake Kravtsov’s defense.

I requested all investigative actions to be performed in my presence.
So far no one has contacted me from the FID, and I have received no other response. At the same time, on Monday, according to Kravtsov, he was inside the FID building, and asked for his lawyer to be informed, however, that was not done.”

4:15 pm The prosecutor’s office intends to be more active in issuing punishments.

“Work will be intensified to detect those responsible for the damage, especially the organizers of the riots,” said Deputy Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Alexei Stuk.

In addition, Mr. Stuk said that over 200 reports had been prepared on the administrative offences committed by minors in their participation in mass protests in Belarus and that the Prosecutor General’s Office was initiating to increase parental responsibility for children’s misconduct.

4:39 pm Today, 72 hours have passed since Ilya Salei, a lawyer Viktor Babariko’s personnel and a member of the presidium of the Coordination Council, was detained. Ilya should be either arrested or released from detention. Today, Ilya was arrested.

4:45 pm US First Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun spoke about the situation in Belarus. Here are the main points:

• The people of Belarus “rejected Lukashenko as their leader” and he has “no legitimacy”
• “The regime is not working in the interests of the Belarusian people. …> At present, after the people have clearly rejected the regime, the Belarusian authorities are using violence to hold on to power.”
• The United States is discussing “targeted sanctions” with Europe that will affect those who Washington considers responsible for the violence.
• The United States hopes that Russia will call on Lukashenko to “give in” to the people.

4:50 pm ⚡️⚡️The Visegrad Group (Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic) will present a package of support to the Belarusian people at the forthcoming extraordinary EU summit.

The package includes visa-free regime for citizens of Belarus, as stated by the Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki.

5:05 pm S&P classified Belarusbank and BelAPB banks’ ratings as CreditWatch negative.

5:15 pm Vladislav Kuznechik said that the embassy staff brought them water and food. He also confirmed that they helped to contact the UN, where the men were told that no embassy in Belarus would give them political asylum, it can be obtained only if the person is already abroad.
Vladislav and Vitaly do not plan to leave the territory of the diplomatic mission.

5:20 pm Nexta Telegram channel’s subscribers reported that in one of Minsk’s secondary schools, a representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs tried to intimidate children with threats and scaremongering about white ribbons, a “fascist” white-red-white flag, extremist telegram channels and participation in rallies.

The employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs also attributed the activity of the Telegram channel to the distribution of extremist materials.

5:30 pm Amnesty International has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to raise the issue of human rights in Belarus in talks with Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi on 14 September.

“Amnesty International encourages you to use this meeting to raise the issue of the need for the Republic of Belarus to comply with its international human rights obligations,” said Natalia Zvyagina, Director of Amnesty International’s Russian office.

5:42 pm Repression against independent journalists continues. In Grodno, the security forces came to search the editorial office of the local independent media HrodnaLife.

6:00 pm The Minsk regional court declared the decision to hold a strike at Belaruskali and the strike itself as illegal.

6:10 pm According to a statement made by Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, the US government does not recognize Alexander Lukashenko’s presidency as legitimate and insists on new elections in Belarus. In particular, he said:

“The United States cannot and will not decide the course of events in Belarus. This is the right of the Belarusian people as enshrined in the United Nations universal charter of human rights and also in the OSCE charter. The Belarusian people have this right and they were not given that right on 9 August.”

7:12 pm The US government is not planning to issue sector-specific economic sanctions against Belarus at this time, according to Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun.

“We are looking at targeted sanctions aimed at the individuals who are most responsible for … the violence as well as the theft of the election,” Biegun said. The goal of the sanctions is to affect their financial assets and the ability to travel. Mr. Biegun added that wider sanctions might be considered later but Washington was reluctant to do anything that would hurt the financial well-being of the ordinary people.

(Source: Reuters)

7:20 pm Secretary for Relations with States within the Holy See’s Secretariat of State bishop Paul Richard Gallagher spoke of the Vatican’s and the Pope’s support for the people of Belarus at a meeting with Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei in Minsk.

According to a statement from the Holy See Press Office released on Friday evening, he had come to Minsk “to show the attention and closeness of the Holy Father to the Catholic Church and the whole country.”

Archbishop Gallagher, whose role in the Vatican is similar to that of a Minister of Foreign Affairs, will remain in Belarus until 14 September. His visit comes at a difficult time for the relationship between the Belarusian authorities and the Roman Catholic church in Minsk.

7:25 pm Residents of the town of Khoiniki have been fined after a rally attended by the town authorities.

On 16 August, about 200 Khoiniki residents took part in a peaceful assembly, where the chairman of the district executive committee, chief of police, and city prosecutor came to answer the protester’s questions. They also assured people that they were not doing anything illegal, but now they are facing court hearings, Radio Liberty reports.

“The district prosecutor general told people at the rally that he hadn’t banned any gatherings at the town square. The chief of police said that we were not disrupting the public order. The chairman of the district executive committee said: ‘this is your rally’, and promised that the local media would cover it. None of them warned us that the demonstration was unauthorized! And now we are being dragged to court,” said Igor Kucherov, a former detective who now works as a legal advisor.

Were the authorities knowingly deceiving the locals? Who knows.

7:38 pm A video published by RIA Novosti shows police officers aggressively detaining women right inside the Red church in Minsk. Even the 73-old activist Nina Baginskaya could not avoid their brutality.

7:42 pm “Foreign Minister Schallenberg had a fruitful conversation today with Coordination Council member Pavel Latushko. They agreed that repression against Council members and peaceful demonstrators must stop immediately. The only way forward for Belarus is through an inclusive national dialogue,” the Austrian Foreign Ministry tweeted today.

7:59 pm Vladimir Putin is set to meet with Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi on 14 September, according to the Kremlin’s press service.

“During the meeting, key aspects of future strategic partnership and collaboration between Russia and Belarus will be discussed. We are prioritizing large-scale joint initiatives concerning economics, trade, energy, and culture as well as prospective integration as an allied state,” the statement said.

Earlier, Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced that no particular agreements would be signed at the meeting.

The visit will take place amid daily protests against unfair elections in Belarus that have been happening since the beginning of August.

8:30 pm A few news highlights from Gomel, as reported by Naviny.by.

At 8 am, university professor Vladimir Belsky expressed his support for miner Yuri Korzun in a one-person protest. Yuri, who works for the Belaruskali potassium plant, had handcuffed himself in a mine at the depth of 305m (1000 ft) and refused to leave. He had then been forced to go up.

Mr. Belsky was eventually arrested by the police and will spend 3 days in jail. At 1 pm, a solidarity rally was held at the university where he works. Milana Evreinova, a student, and historian Evgeny Malikov, professor at the Belarusian State Transport University, were detained.

This morning, police also detained three local activists: Ilya Mironov, Sergey Stepanets, and Yuri Shatsky. Mr. Shatsky was then released after a “preventive conversation.”

Journalist Larisa Schiryakova has been arrested and taken to the Gomel district police department. The home of Marina Drobyshevskaya, another reporter, has been under surveillance since morning. The officers tried to access her apartment, first calling via the intercom and then ringing the doorbell until it broke down, Ms. Drobyshevskaya told BelaPAN. Journalist Evgeny Merkis was also visited by police at his home.

According to human rights activist Leonid Sudalenko, this morning police arrested a 58-year old resident Alexander Ivanov. He was later sentenced to 7 days in jail.

Ivan Shalygin, an employee of the Gomel Center for Hygiene, Epidemiology, and Health, was detained at work today. He participated in the March for Unity that took place on 6 September in the city.

8:41 pm Latvia has issued 51 visas for Belarusians who are facing political repression in their own country, according to Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs.

The Minister also said that Latvia is considering requests for political asylum. He added that the Latvian government has allocated ‎€200k to hospitals for treatment of Belarusians who were injured due to repression, and also for the support of different groups of the Belarusian society.

9:37 pm According to TUT.BY, there are currently between 100 and 200 people at the Square of Change, the common area of an apartment block that became famous for high levels of protest activity. People are socializing, drinking tea and coffee. Many have brought their kids. The police have lined up near a wall.

A white-red-white opposition flag has been displayed on the 19th floor of an apartment block in the Novaya Borovaya neighborhood. Recently, city authorities have been trying to remove all the protest flags from the buildings.

9:49 pm Ilya Salei, Maria Kolesnikova’s lawyer, is in custody. “Before this, he was only detained for 72 hours, and now the measure of restraint has been officially documented. This means that the 10-day period before the suspect has to be charged starts now, just like in the cases of Maria Kolesnikova and Maxim Znak,” said a spokesperson for Kolesnikova’s team.

9:53 pm The “Loudest March in the World” is planned for Saturday, 12 September. Women will take to the streets to support their friends.

Organizers have suggested bringing photographs of Belarusian women who have been repressed and arrested, chanting their names and making as much noise as possible by any means: whistles, loudspeakers, horns, banging on cookware, etc.

By doing this, the participants will hope to reach the ears of those who refuse to listen to their demands:

• Putting a stop to all violence and investigating every case of police brutality;
• Releasing all political prisoners;
• New, fair elections, without Lukashenko.

10:09 pm Police have acknowledged detentions at the rally near the Red Church. “I can confirm that some people have been arrested for participating in an unauthorized demonstration,” said Natalia Ganusevich, the spokesperson for the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of Minsk, in a conversation with TASS. She could not name the exact number of arrests at the time.

10:21 pm Edgars Rinkēvičs, Foreign Minister of Latvia, called renowned author and 2015 Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich to show solidarity. “…I expressed Latvia’s full support to the Belarusian society in the strive for political rights and freedoms. We are concerned about her safety and will continue supporting Ms. Aleksievich,” he tweeted.