Up to 1,000 Arrested, Trials Have Begun

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MINSK 000337 SIPDIS KIEV ALSO FOR USAID SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PHUM BO SUBJECT: Up to 1,000 Arrested, Trials Have Begun Refs: (A) Minsk 331, (B) Minsk 307 ¶1. Summary: Trials for those arrested March 24, when police raided the protest tent camp on October Square, started on March 24. Most of the detained are being sentenced to 10-15 days in trails that last 10 minutes at most. Reportedly, so one has been acquitted. Police detained another estimated 100 people on March 25, bringing the total number arrested in the past week up to possibly 1,000. Exact numbers are impossible to confirm, as the authorities have not released any information on detainees and have denied families access to most of those arrested March 24 and all of those from March 25. No one, including his wife, seems to know the whereabouts of opposition presidential candidate Aleksandr Kozulin, arrested and reportedly beaten March 25. Numerous credible reports and news video footage shows that police beat a number of people on March 25. The Vyasna human rights NGO stated 10 protesters needed medical treatment after being beaten, while the Minister of Interior dubiously claimed eight police officers were injured when the opposition threw an "explosive device" into their ranks. No one can confirm rumors that one demonstrator was killed by the police. End summary. Mass Arrests, Number Unknown -------------- ¶2. Authorities have arrested hundreds, possibly as many as 1,000, of opposition activists and protesters since the March 19 presidential election. Valentin Stefanovich of the Vyasna human rights NGO reported that authorities arrested more than 200 people on March 21 and 22 in relation to the protest on October Square. He estimated around another 500 were arrested in the early morning on March 24 when security services raided the October Square protest and arrested all participants. Vyasna believes around 100 more were arrested on March 25 around the Milinkevich demonstration near October Square and during the interrupted march to the Okrestina detention center. The opposition United Civic Party (UCP) released a list of 59 women, including UCP deputy Valentina Polevikova, who were arrested between March 25 and 27 and are being held together in one detention center. Vyasna, other human rights groups, opposition parties and the independent media all report that it is impossible to find out who and how many people were arrested as the authorities are not releasing any information. 
Kozulin Still Missing -------------- ¶3. Opposition presidential candidate Aleksandr Kozulin is among those detained on March 25. Although it was reported he was transferred to a detention center in Zhodina, 30 miles east of Minsk, on March 27 his wife told a press conference that she had no idea where her husband was being held and that police would give her no information. Human rights activist Oleg Volchek, one of Kozulin's senior campaign workers, told Post March 27 that Kozulin's team also did not know his whereabouts, but they believed he was still in Minsk. Kozulin's spokeswoman, Nina Shidlovskaya, told Post she thought Kozulin was in Minsk's Volodarskogo detention center, but admitted no one had been allowed to communicate with him. Other Big Names Accounted For -------------- ¶4. Several other prominent opposition members have been detained. Pavel Mazheiko, Milinkevich's spokesman, was detained for two hours on March 25. He was in a car with the public address system Milinkevich used to address the March 25 demonstration. After the event, police pulled over the car, seized the equipment and arrested Mazheiko. Mazheiko told Post he was freed only because of Milinkevich's efforts to find him. The equipment remains in police custody. Mazheiko also told Post that Milinkevich's stepson was arrested on March 25. Milinkevich and his team have been searching for him in all the courts and detention centers, but still have no information on his whereabouts. ¶5. Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet was also arrested on March 25. Sheremet's colleague, Narodnaya Volya deputy editor Svetlana Kalinkina, told Post she was with Sheremet watching the March 25 demonstration (before it began to march on Okrestina) when five police officers came into the crowd and detained Sheremet. BT news on March 26 showed several clips of Sheremet and Kalinkina watching the demonstration, so it is clear the GOB had its eyes on Sheremet. Sheremet went before the court on March 27, charged with swearing in public, and was ordered deported within 24 hours with a five- year ban on returning to Belarus. [Note: Sheremet's parents live MINSK 00000337 002 OF 003 in Minsk.] Kalinkina told Post that Sheremet was feeling unwell as he had pneumonia (contracted before he came to Minsk) and because police beat him after his arrest. On March 26, BT showed an interview with a doctor who claimed she examined Sheremet after his arrest, and that he only had a slight sore throat. Poor Conditions in Detention Centers -------------- ¶6. According to Vyasna, several detainees Poloffs spoke to on March 24, and the British Embassy, which was granted consular access to a Canadian detainee on March 24, many of those detained on March 24 were not fed for the first 24 hours. However, a Belarusian Popular Front member also arrested March 24 told Post he was fed once before his trial the day of his arrest. Post has heard that detainees began to receive regular meals on March 25, but has no information about any of those detained the 25th. Detainees' families complain many were not allowed to deliver food or warm clothing to their jailed relatives, as is usual practice. The British Embassy was told March 25 it could not deliver blankets to the jailed Canadian that day, as detention center authorities could only allow five such deliveries at a time, and their staff was already overwhelmed. British ConOffs saw some people who were able to deliver food and warm clothing. Post believes these problems stem from detention centers not being prepared for the mass influx of arrests, rather than from any desire to mistreat the opposition activists. ¶7. BelaPAN news service reported that Dmitry Shimansky, Milinkevich's campaign leader for Brest, who was jailed for 10 days on March 24 for an unsanctioned protest, is now in the hospital. Shimansky reportedly told the press his temperature soared and the jail called an ambulance on three occasions, on March 24, 25 and ¶26. On the 26th, medical personnel diagnosed him with severe flu and brought him to the hospital, where he is now on antibiotics. Shimansky claimed his cell was very humid and the temperature inside dropped to 54 degrees nightly. Beatings and Maybe One Death; GOB Blames the Opposition -------------- -------------- ¶8. Video footage of the March 25 demonstration clearly shows that the security forces used violence to disperse the march to Okrestina. BBC and EuroNews have run clips showing several OMON officers beating a couple of middle-aged women with clubs. They also clearly showed some sort of smoke grenades being used against demonstrators; some reports claim this was teargas, while others said they were just smoke grenades. Western press also showed several bloody demonstrators lying in the street and police carrying one person away on a stretcher. A freelance American journalist showed Post footage of police kicking, punching and beating demonstrators. Vyasna told Post that ten demonstrators required medical attention because of police violence, but details on this are scarce. Some reports claim demonstrators received skull and spinal injuries from police clubs. Several sources are reporting an unconfirmed story that one demonstrator died after police clubbed him on the head. Post has not spoken with anyone who can confirm this story. The UCP claims it has information that Viktor Lukashenko, 29-year old son of the president and his National Security Advisor, took personal part in the March 25 violence. A press source reports that it was Presidential Security forces, dressed as OMON police, who broke-up the March 24 tent city protest on October Square. This source said the OMON was under orders not to use any force, but Presidential Security disobeyed and beat a number of detainees after their arrest. Post has heard from numerous sources that some detainees were beaten, and video footage shows OMON commander Yury Podobed telling his troops during the raid not to use force. ¶9. Authorities announced that only three demonstrators needed medical attention for mild injuries received when they were trampled by their own side. However, Minister of Interior Vladimir Naumov announced that eight police officers are in the hospital after demonstrators threw bottles and "an explosive device" into the police ranks. On March 26, BT news showed heavily bandaged police complaining of their mistreatment at the hands of the opposition. BT also showed a smoke grenade striking the shields of police as they awaited the opposition march. [Note: From the flat trajectory of the grenade, it appeared to have been shot at the police rather than thrown, making it unlikely it came from the unarmed opposition.] Naumov also said two BT journalists needed medical attention after the opposition pelted them with snowballs in Yanki Kupali park, where Milinkevich and Kozulin spoke. [Note: The crowd did throw snowballs at these "journalists," but it is doubtful the snow injured anything but their pride.] MINSK 00000337 003 OF 003 Closed Trials Have Begun -------------- ¶10. Some of those arrested March 24 went to court that same day. Poloff observed two trials, both of which lasted 7 to 10 minutes, at the Partizansky District Court, where 29 detainees received 10 or 15-day sentences. The judge read the written accusations from the arresting officers, who were not present, asked the defendant for their plea and story, and then handed down the conviction. No witnesses were invited to either case. One person was sentenced to 10-days in jail, and the other to 5-days (the defendant credited Poloff's presence for this lighter sentence.) ¶11. Vyasna, opposition parties and the independent press report that trials began in courts across Minsk after noon on March 27 for those arrested March 24 and 25. Authorities have closed all courts to spectators, including relatives, journalists and human rights groups. Nonetheless, information has begun to leak out. Buses with detainees pulled up behind the Central District Court building. Press reports claim that detainees were taken into the court one at a time, usually returning after just five minutes inside. The first few detainees to return shouted to waiting relatives and press that they received either 10 or 15-day sentences for petty hooliganism or for participating in an unsanctioned demonstration. Police shouted at them to be quiet and the rest of the detainees said nothing when they returned to the bus. Post confirmed with the secretary of Pervomaisky District Court that trials are taking place there for detainees bused in from Zhodino (where they were taken presumably because Minsk's detention centers are full),but that the trials are closed to the public. The UCP claimed that those whose last name begins with O through S are being tried at the Lenin District Court. Due to the large number of people detained, these trials are likely to last several days. ¶12. According to press reports, three Russian citizens arrested March 24 have been sentenced to 15-days in jail each. The Ukrainian Embassy told BelaPAN that seven Ukrainians were arrested March 24. Four of them were minors and were deported on March 24 and 25, with a five-year ban on returning. Two more were sentenced to 15-days in jail, and one is awaiting trial. Former Polish Ambassador to Belarus Mariusz Maszkiewicz is reportedly going to trail on March 27. KROL