Belarus: Neklyaev held in KGB detention centre; many more writers and journalists arrested

English PEN was alarmed by the 19 December 2010 mass arrests of demonstrators, among them writers and journalists, including members of the Belarus PEN Centre. It calls for an immediate end to the arrests, the release of all those who are held for their legitimate rights to peaceful protest and freedom of expression, and a full and proper investigation into reports of ill-treatment.
 
Reports today suggest that over 600 people who took part in demonstrations in Minsk on 19 December against the outcome of the recent presidential elections have been arrested and will remain in prison for up to 15 days. Some may then find themselves charged with “mass disturbances” and, if convicted, could serve several years in prison. Among them are a number of writers and journalists, details of whom are being gathered by PEN International (see below). One of the most well known to be arrested is Vladimir Neklyaev, writer and former President of the Belarus PEN Centre, who was severely injured, as reported in a PEN Rapid Action Alert issued on 20 December, and who was taken from hospital to an unknown location. Belarus PEN reports that he is now held by the Belarus State Security Agency (KGB).
 
“The PEN International community is responding with deep concern and compassion to news of the beatings and arrests of our colleague, Vladimir Neklyaev, former president of the Belarus PEN centre, and of other writers and journalists who took part in or attempted to report on events in Minsk” said Marian Botsford Fraser, Chair, Writers in Prison Committee, PEN International. “These writers and journalists have had the courage to speak out for democracy in the face of repression. We urge the Belarus authorities to immediately order the release of Mr. Neklyaev and all others arrested in violation of their right to free expression and peaceful assembly, to ensure that those who have suffered beatings be given necessary medical treatment and to address the troubling reports of a profoundly flawed election. We also extend our sympathy to Mr Neklyaev and his family, and to our colleagues in Belarus PEN.”
 
PEN has received reports of the following arrests of writers and journalists:
 
•    Vladimir Neklyaev, writer, poet, leading member of the Tell the Truth party and its candidate in the presidential elections and former president of the Belarus PEN Centre. He is now held in a KGB detention centre. For more on his life and work go to Wikipedia Neklyaev
•    Pavel Severinets an opposition activist, author of several books, and a member of Belarus PEN which recently awarded him their book of the year prize. See Wikipedia entry Severinets. He is also held in KGB detention.
•    Aleksandr Fiaduta, an author and literary critic, member of Belarus PEN. He was a former staffer of Lukashenko’s administration, but resigned after a few months in 1994, and then published a critical biography of the President, which although available in Russia, is banned in Belarus. He is now a member of Neklyaev’s Tell the Truth party and  is among those held by the KGB.
•    Nadina Radzina, and Dimitri Bondarenko and all staff and volunteers of  Charter 97, said to be Belarus’ only independent online website, were arrested after the site had suffered a cyber-attack believed to be government initiated. Radzina is said to have been beaten and both she and Bondarenko are said to be held by the KGB.
•    Natalia Koliada and Tiomo Zhalianzniak, founders of the Belarus Free Theatre that recently performed in London, and to which the UK playwright Sir Tom Stoppard is a patron. Koliada was held briefly and is now said to be in hiding. Zhaliazniak’s whereabouts are unknown. Article on London performance
•    Irina Khalip, journalist for the Russian Novaya Gazeta and wife of opposition candidate Andrei Sannikov, also arrested. She was severely beaten by police when giving an interview to the Russia radio station Echo Moskvy. She is held by the KGB.
•    At least 20 journalists are reported by the Committee to Protect Journalists to have been arrested. CPJ reports of police violence against Belarusian and foreign journalists attempting to cover the demonstrations, with cameras and recording equipment seized and smashed, beatings and injuries.

TAKE ACTION

Appeals should continue to be sent to the Belarusian authorities:
•         Condemning the arrest and ill-treatment of Vladimir Neklyaev and other writers, human rights activists and journalists;
•         Expressing alarm at reports that some have been beaten and that they are held in poor prison conditions;
•         Calling as a matter of urgency that all prisoners be provided with any necessary medical attention, and that their whereabouts be made known;
•         Urging that all writers and journalists held by the authorities for the peaceful practice of their rights to freedom of expression and association be freed immediately, and that a full and proper investigation be held into reports of ill treatment.
 
Government address:

President of the Republic of Belarus
Alyaksandr G. Lukashenka
Karl Marx Str. 38
220016 g. Minsk
Belarus
Fax: 375 172 26 06 10 or 375 172 22 38 72
Email: pres@president.gov.by

Also via the Belarus government website:
http://www.president.gov.by/en/press10650.html

Similar appeals should also be sent to the Belarusian Embassy in the UK:

His Excellency Aleksandr Mikhnevich
Embassy of the Republic of Belarus
6 Kensington Court
London
W8 5DL