UN says rights situation in Belarus deteriorating

The human rights situation in crisis-wracked Belarus
is still deteriorating, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said today,
spotlighting mass arrests, including of journalists, and numerous allegations
of torture.
“I regret to report that since the (UN human rights)
council’s urgent debate on Belarus in September, there has been no improvement
in the human rights situation in the country,” she told the council.
“On the contrary, recent weeks have seen continued
deterioration, particularly with respect to the right of peaceful assembly,”
she said, pointing out that hundreds of demonstrators continued to be arrested
each week.
Since an August election, Belarus has been gripped
by massive protests that erupted after Alexander Lukashenko, 66, secured a
sixth term as president of the ex-Soviet republic.
The opposition charges that the election was rigged
and political novice Svetlana Tikhanovskaya — who ran against Lukashenko in the
place of her jailed husband — was the true winner of the polls.
In recent weeks, authorities imposed an intense
crackdown in which hundreds were detained and protesters were prevented from
gathering in central Minsk.
Bachelet pointed to reports that more than 27,000
people had been arrested since the August 9 vote, with around 1,000 reportedly
arrested on November 8 and 700 on November 15.
Senior citizens were among some of the peaceful
protesters taken into custody.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights decried
“multiple and credible reports of people beaten by members of the security
forces during and after their transport to police stations or detention
centres,” warning that such incidents could amount to torture.
She also voiced particular alarm over the “numerous
allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in
custody,” pointing to the some 2,000 complaints reportedly lodged by the end of
October.
Among those rounded up since August were 373
journalists, including six who remain in detention, Bachelet said, stressing
that lawyers associated with the opposition were also under pressure, with some
facing criminal charges and others disbarred.
Most of the diplomats who participated in the hybrid
session echoed Bachelet’s concerns, denouncing police violence and the
crackdown on protesters.
Some, including Russia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela,
came to Belarus’s defence.
Russian ambassador Gennady Gatilov reminded the
council of police violence in a range of other countries, including in France
and the United States.
“The champions of human rights are very discreet
about all of that,” he said.