Live Feed | 20 Oct

20 October 2020 | Infocenter Free Belarus 2020

Good morning, the 73rd day of the protests begins.

8:00 am Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya is collecting evidence of use of violence by Belarusian security forces to present at a meeting at the Danish Institute for the Prevention of Torture this week.

Yesterday, Sviatlana held an online meeting with Belarusian compatriots who are undergoing rehabilitation in the Czech Republic.

8:08 am Following the results of yesterday’s pro-government rally of retired servicemen, a resolution was announced. It expresses solidarity with the security forces who “protect order” in the country. The participants of the pro-government march called protesters “the ideological descendants of those who destroyed our people during the Great Patriotic War.”

8:31 am Yesterday, two people were detained at a pro-government march in Minsk. They walked in a column with white-red-white flags.

9:40 am Sviatlana Tikhanouskaya announced a deadline for law enforcement officers to take the peoples’ side. She promised that there would be no general lustration and only those who committed crimes would be punished.

“The People’s Ultimatum is your chance to side with Belarusians. If you don’t agree to carry out criminal orders, don’t do it.”

9:58 am The human rights organization Libereco calls on the Belarusian authorities to release the Swiss citizen Natalia Hershe, who was arrested during a women’s rally in Belarus.

10:31 am Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with the Mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski. They discussed:

• What help can be given to those Belarusians who were forced to leave the country but are not allowed to work in Poland;
• Possibility of creating special programs for Belarusian students;
• Opportunities for Polish mayors to share their experience with leaders of Belarusian people’s self-government;
• Support for athletes who were fired due to political views and lost the opportunity to train and prepare for competitions.

11:22 am The International Committee for the Investigation of Torture in Belarus has demanded that the department of the Investigative Committee for Minsk open criminal cases against the security forces.  This is based on evidence of the use of violence and weapons by the security forces against peaceful demonstrators during the Partisans’ March in Minsk on 18 October.

12:08 pm Political prisoner Vitaly Shklyarov had his house arrest terminated with a recognizance; so, he is free to leave his house but in return he cannot leave the country. He was able to meet his mother. Perhaps one of the reasons for changing Vitaly’s preventative measure was his serious illness.

12:17 pm Lukashenko has appointed new rectors for Minsk State Linguistic University, the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts, and Brest State Technical University – students of these universities keep holding regular protests. 

12:25 pm The director of one of the most important enterprises in the country, the Novopolotsk “Naftan”, was dismissed. In August, some of the factory workers went on strike for a few days. The dismissed Aliaksandr Demidov is said to be close to Natalia Kachanova, the speaker of the upper house of the Belarusian “parliament”.

12:40 pm The apartment of journalist Iryna Arakhouskaya’s mother was searched. The journalist is an eyewitness in a criminal case of “mass riots”; she was injured by a rubber bullet on 11 August. 

12:43 pm Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with the head of the Polish president administration, Krzysztof Szczerski, in Warsaw. They discussed the support that Poland can provide to Belarusians – to the repressed, wounded, and suffering for their beliefs. Sviatlana also expressed gratitude for help provided to the Coordination Council members who were forced to flee to Poland. 

1:04 pm From 18 August to 18 October, more than 700,000 Belarusians arrived in Poland via the humanitarian corridor, Belsat writes.

1:05 pm Minsk State Linguistic University students gathered in the university to protest against the new rector’s appointment and to support detainees. The number of protesting students is really high. 

1:10 pm Brest State Technical University students are protesting against the rector’s dismissal too. 

1:12 pm The Belarusian Foreign Minister’s wife, actress Vera Polyakova, is in the hospital with coronavirus. The Minister went into self-isolation. 

2:04 pm A search is being conducted at the home of the Belarusian National Youth Council RADA General Secretary, Anna Dapshevichute. 

2:34 pm One of the Minsk courts declared the NEXTA Telegram channel and its logo to be extremism-promoting material. 

2:54 pm Belarusian State University Faculty of Philosophy and Social Science students are holding a protest in solidarity with detained students.

3:11 pm Belarusian State University students are holding a rally to protest against the management’s actions and a recent regulation change that basically strips most students of receiving scholarships.

3:13 pm Minsk State Linguistic University professor Aliaksandra Dmitranok received a rebuke from the administration because she referenced a constitutional article as a justification for participating in peaceful rallies at the university.

3:14 pm Deputy Minister of Sports and Tourism Aliaksandr Baraulya and first Deputy Minister of Sports Viacheslav Durnov have tested positive for COVID-19.

3:22 pm The police were seen leaving the house of the Secretary General of the Belarusian National Youth Council RADA Anna Dapshevichute. Dapshevichute herself stayed home.

3:38 pm Yelena Gnauk, a retiree from the Pruzhany region, was supposed to be released after 15 days of detention, but was sent from court right back to her jail cell. 

Gnauk’s son commented to reporters: “Those who detained her did not name specific violations of the law as the grounds, but said she was being arrested as a suspect. The officers were probably in hot water over my mom’s letter about her conditions in jail, that there is no light and mice are running around.”

3:40 pm Criminal charges were filed against a Hrodna high school student who threw a rock at riot police.

4:07 pm The Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a comment concerning the recognition of NEXTA, an opposition Telegram channel, as extremist, noting that reposting information with the NEXTA or NEXTA Live logo entails administrative liability. Authorities also clarified that rebranding the logo and renaming the channel would not exclude NEXTA from the list of extremist materials.

4:09 pm Due to an unpaid fine, 83-year-old protest rally participant Yan Grib was restricted in his rights to use his property.

4:14 pm On 31 October, for the first time in 26 years, the World Congress of Belarusians will take place. The Congress will discuss problems facing the new Belarus in such areas as human rights and freedoms, economic development and attracting investment, international partnership and public sector reform, financial policy and social insurance, environmental policy, technological development, and reform of the army, police, and education.

Sviatlana Tsikhanovskaya and her team, Ivonka Survila, Pavel Latushka, Igor Leshchenya and others, are among the speakers.

4:20 pm The Ministry of Internal Affairs will be expanding the list of media it considers extremist.

4:21 pm A woman was summoned to the police station and subsequently arrested after walking her dog, which was wearing a white-red-white sweater. She was then tried for participating in a rally.

4:34 pm NEXTA Telegram channel changed their name to Hexta.

5:05 pm Lukashenko threatened to “sort out” the protests on Sunday, 25 October, the day of the People’s Ultimatum. He also promised to deal with the students.

5:20 pm The US does not recognize Belarus as a country with a market economy.

The US Department of Commerce decided to preserve Belarus’s status as a non-market economy (NME) in accordance with the US antidumping regulations.

5:26 pm The deputy dean of Maxim Tank Belarusian State Pedagogical University was fired for expressing his political views on social networks.

5:30 pm The founder of the Bamboo Group tech company was sentenced to 15 days in jail.

Vladislav Gerchikov was detained while sitting in his car in a courtyard on Kozlova Street during a student protest rally.

6:00 pm Since the beginning of the post-election protests in Belarus, the rectors of eight colleges and universities have been replaced. Naviny.by investigated why the authorities are doing this, and if they have achieved their goals. 

It is clear that the rectors who were unable to quash protests at their educational institution, or were simply too liberal in their response, have been relieved of their duties.

On social media, students described how both on campus and nearby, police officers and riot police often appear in plainclothes. Police officers film students and faculty at rallies, take away their signs and flags, disperse and detain groups, in addition to arresting and fining students. 

According to the Belarusian Students’ Association youth social organization and Students’ Initiative Group, over 150 students have been arrested in the first six weeks of the school year in Belarus. 

Educational expert Vladimir Dunaev believes that the rectors were dismissed because they were unable to prevent students from expressing themselves. “The new rectors are expected to use terror and intimidation,” Dunaev stated. “Natalya Baranova and other fired rectors might have resorted to expulsions, but they were not radical enough. They might have planned on using the proven tactic of deferred expulsion, when students are dealt with at the end of the semester, when they are simply expelled for poor academic performance. Now, the authorities seem to be demanding more immediate, radical measures to quell student dissent and rebellion.”

6:27 pm Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Among other things, she asked the Polish Prime Minister to organize a meeting with his economic representative, Ales Alekhnovich, in order to discuss an economic reform package for democratic Belarus. 

During the meeting, Tsikhanouskaya and Morawiecki discussed issues related to Belarusians’ recovery after the serious trauma they have suffered during the protest period, in addition to stipend programs for athletes in order for them to continue their training in Poland. 

Morawiecki expressed solidarity with the Belarusian people and protesters. Tsikhanouskaya responded with gratitude for Poland’s support of student programs, a free press, bloggers, and all Belarusian people. 

7:14 pm The US Department of Commerce decided to keep Belarus’s status as a non-market economy (NME), pursuant to US anti-dumping laws, according to the DOC website. 

7:34 pm In Vitsebsk, two retirees aged 69 and 79 were tried for participating in protests. Defendant Anatoly Matveev noted that the police report incorrectly stated the place and reason for arrest. The route of the column of protesters was also incorrect, and a non-existent address (18 Stroitely Avenue) was indicated. “Every word in the report is a lie. I think that the court does not have the right to consider a dishonest report. This hearing should not even be happening,” he stated, as he refused to answer any further questions from the judge.

7:45 pm An 83-year-old retiree was unable to pay his fine for participating in the protest. The authorities threatened to seize his car and dacha (small country cabin).

8:44 pm Today in Warsaw, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya met with former Belarusian law enforcement officers who quit in protest of the government’s policies. They met under the ByPol initiative, according to Tsikhanouskaya’s Telegram channel.

8:53 pm Solidarity chains are underway in all neighborhoods in Minsk. 

9:11 pm While considering personnel issues today, Alexander Lukashenko discussed 73-year-old opposition activist Nina Bahinskaya, who has taken part in protests since 1988. She has become one of the symbols of Belarusian protest since the 9 August 2020 elections. Bahinskaya has been arrested numerous times during the protests, including during the Women’s Marches this year, and police have confiscated her white-red-white flag. Lukashenka stated that if Bahinskaya were removed from the streets, the opposition would no longer have its “decoration”. 

9:14 pm Authorities refused to provide Maria Kalesnikava’s defense with information on who was issued permission to visit her at the Zhodzina prison on the eve of Lukashenko’s meeting with political prisoners at the KGB detention center in Minsk, or for what purpose. This comes from Kalesnikava’s Facebook page, which is now being run by her sister. It appears the application was submitted to the Investigative Committee.

“Maria’s attorney was not provided with this information,” the Facebook page confirms. “The current authorities are continuing to apply their own special definitions to the terms, ‘dialogue,’ ‘law,’ and ‘rights’.”

It is worth mentioning that earlier, information was received that Kalesnikava was invited to take part in Lukashenko’s meeting at the KGB detention center, but she refused. 

10:06 pm Belarusians in St. Petersburg have now been out in the street for 73 days straight! They are asking us to stay positive, not give up, and move forward. And don’t forget Schuchynschyna!