Latest Articles about Belarus
LUKASHENKA SPEECH DENOUNCES OPPOSITION, WARNS THE U.S.
On April 29 Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka delivered a speech to the National Assembly on the "health" of the state that was wide ranging and more than two hours in duration. Although the speech covered a number of topics, its chief interest lies in his... MORE
CHERNOBYL DISASTER IS OFFICIALLY OVER
Approaching the 22nd anniversary of the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl plant in northern Ukraine, which will be commemorated in Belarus by the opposition with a march through Minsk on Sunday, two Belarusian scientists have firmly reiterated the official government position that irradiated territories no... MORE
AN OPINION POLL IN BELARUS REVEALS SKEPTICISM AMONG THE PUBLIC
Belarus has attracted international attention recently for all the wrong reasons: attacks on demonstrators, arbitrary arrests, searches of apartments of independent journalists, and the refusal to release political prisoners, particularly Alyaksandr Kazulin, the former Rector of Belarusian State University. But how does the population view... MORE
BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION PREPARES FOR CHERNOBYL MARCH
April 26 has traditionally been the date of the biggest opposition protest march in Minsk. In 1996, on the tenth anniversary of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, more than 50,000 people took part in an event besmirched by violence and the arrest of more than... MORE
BELARUS IS BACK TO A POLICY OF CONFRONTATION
Three recent events in Belarus have apparently returned the country to the repressive atmosphere of the late 1990s and thrown into doubt the prospects for any significant democratic changes under the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The actions suggest a government under intense pressure but bereft... MORE
HISTORIANS DEBATE 1918 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN BELARUS
On March 25, opposition demonstrators marked the 90th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the Belarusian National (People’s) Republic (BNR). The crowd was estimated at several thousand and refused to be confined to the officially sanctioned route from the National Academy of Sciences to... MORE
U.S. AMBASSADOR LEAVES BELARUS
A diplomatic dispute between Belarus and the United States reached a new low on March 12, when U.S. Ambassador Karen Stewart was recalled to Washington for talks. Earlier State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey had declared that the ambassador would remain in Minsk despite the... MORE
KAZULIN PERMITTED TO ATTEND WIFE’S FUNERAL IN MINSK
On February 23, Iryna Kazulina, the 48-year-old wife of imprisoned Belarusian opposition leader Alyaksandr Kazulin, died of breast cancer, an illness she had suffered for the past decade. Following a mass gathering in the center of Minsk and appeals from various countries for clemency, President... MORE
RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS IN BELARUS SPARKS DEBATE
Over the past two weeks Belarus has released a large group of “political prisoners” from jails and camps across the country. They include activists, politicians, and some of the entrepreneurs who were arrested when protesting the restriction of their activities through new state laws. Significantly,... MORE
REPRESSION UNDERMINES DIALOGUE WITH BELARUS
On January 22 Andrea Rigoni, a special rapporteur on Belarus for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), declared that PACE should recommence a dialogue with the Belarusian regime of President Alexander Lukashenka. Her comment denotes the latest stage in a continuing debate... MORE