Representatives of the NGO Amnesty International Moldova (AIM) today staged a peaceful protest in front of the Embassy of Belarus in Chisinau. The protesters carried placards saying “Free Belarus”, “Stop torture!”. Police officers maintained public order at the scene, IPN reports.
Protesters said they came to show solidarity with the people of Belarus. “A year has passed since the presidential elections held in Belarus. During a year, over 30,000 people have been jailed and their right to freedom of expression was violated. By this protest, we wanted to show that we are near them, support and are solidary with the people of Belarus. We follow them and support them. The accusations of torture and other forms of ill-treatment are widespread. Hundreds of civil society activists, human rights defenders and protesters or even simple passersby experienced unfounded, politically motivated criminal proceedings and are either in jail or under house arrest. Furthermore, in July the government intensified its crackdown on civil society, closing arbitrarily about 50 civil society organizations almost overnight,” said representatives of Amnesty International Moldova.
According to AIM, the nature of the serious human rights violations committed in Belarus during a long period of time, primarily the wide use of arbitrary arrest and detention with the aim of repressing protests and the systematic use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment against detainees who are considered to have ties with the opposition, generates the idea that these violations are committed as part of an attack against civilian population and, consequently, can be classed as crimes against humanity.
AIM calls on the authorities in Belarus to immediately and unconditionally release Maryia Kalesnikava and other hundreds of persons who were detained or jailed only because they exercised their rights, including the freedom of peaceful assembly and expression, and to fully cooperate with the international partners and organizations, including the UN Human Rights Council, the UNHRC Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the OSCE Moscow Mechanism Rapporteur.
“The international community should conduct a complex examination of all the available and potential liability options, also through criminal jurisdictions that apply universal jurisdictions if necessary, so as to try accusations of deliberate use of illegal and sometimes lethal force, of arbitrary arrest and detention, of torture and other forms of ill-treatment by the police in Belarus and to consider the possibilities of extending such jurisdictions,” noted AIM.
