{"id":13254,"date":"2023-10-16T16:15:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T16:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/?p=13254"},"modified":"2024-01-24T20:13:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T20:13:08","slug":"hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-1-15-kastrychnika-2023-goda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/2023\/10\/16\/hronika-parushennyau-pravou-chalaveka-u-sfery-kultury-1-15-kastrychnika-2023-goda.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronicle of human rights violations in the sphere of culture (1-15 October 2023)"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of 15 October 2023, at least 123 cultural figures, including not less than 30 People of the Word, were behind bars.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Investigative Committee of Belarus has opened a criminal case against the participants of the We Care!<\/i><\/b> online marathon of solidarity with political prisoners. The live stream on various independent media platforms featured numerous cultural figures \u2013 writers, artists, and musicians.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Singer Kaciaryna \u0160apavalava<\/b> was detained in Minsk. On 13 August 2020, she performed the unofficial anthem “Mighty God” at the steps of the Philharmonic Society.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A new trial of public figure and prison literature author Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d<\/b> began in the Barysa\u016d <\/b><\/span>District Court. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The trial of the Tor Band<\/b> musicians continues behind closed doors in Homiel.<\/p>\n

Krumka\u010d <\/b>music band frontman Arciom Ramana\u016d <\/b>was detained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Local history expert and tour guide Aleh Dzja\u010dko\u016d <\/b>was detained and arrested for ten days.<\/p>\n

Teacher, geographer and local history expert Ihar \u0160arucha<\/b> was detained and arrested for 15 days.<\/p>\n

Unknown perpetrators once again vandalized the crosses in Kurapaty<\/b>, the site of mass executions during Stalin’s repressions, near the Minsk beltway. The targeted were the cross to political figure, historian and writer Vacla<\/b>\u016d Lasto\u016dski <\/b>and the crosses to executed Poles<\/span>.<\/p>\n

In Hrodna, authorities removed signs and signposts in the Belarusian Latin<\/b> alphabet from the urban space.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I. Politically motivated criminal cases against cultural workers, authors and performers<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/b><\/span> On 3 October, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the participants of the We Care!<\/b> online marathon of solidarity with political prisoners.<\/span> Among the marathon participants were many cultural figures – writers, artists, musicians. About 60 individuals have become suspects in the criminal case instituted under Art. 361.2 (2) of the Criminal Code (financing extremist activities). The article envisages a punishment of up to eight years in prison.<\/p>\n

2.<\/b> Singer Kaciaryna \u0160apavalava<\/b> was detained on 10 October in Minsk. On 13 August 2020, she performed Natallia Arsenjeva’s unofficial anthem, “Mighty God”, at the steps of the Philharmonic Society in the Belarusian capital. \u0160apavalava <\/b>was an employee of the Philharmonic and sang in a chamber choir. After her dismissal, she taught Brazilian couple dances. Pro-government information sources report about a criminal case opened against <\/span>Kaciaryna \u0160apavalava.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. <\/b><\/span>On 11 October, a new trial of public figure and prison literature author Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d<\/b> began in the Barysa<\/span>\u016d <\/b><\/span>District Court. After serving his imprisonment, Zmicier was to walk out free on 11 July 2023. However, authorities opened <\/span>a new case against him under Art. 411 of the Criminal Code (malicious disobedience to the requirements of the penal colony administration Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d is the author of the prison literature book \u010carviak (Worm), for which in 2014 he became the laureate of the Franci\u0161ak Aliachnovi\u010d Award, founded by the Belarusian PEN Centre jointly with Radio Liberty for the best work written in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

On 11 July 2022, Minsk’s Masko\u016dski District Court <\/b>started the trial of Zmicier and his wife, Nasta Da\u0161kievi\u010d, for participating in a street protest on 23 August 2020. They were charged under Article 342 (1) of the Criminal Code (group actions that grossly violate public order. During the investigation, while Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d was behind bars, Nasta Da\u0161kievi\u010d gave birth to her fourth child. During his last word at court, Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d stated that the police officers tortured him for using the Belarusian language: “\u2026During the arrest, they beat me in front of my pregnant wife and said: ‘What is this person saying? Let him speak normally. Let him speak normally.” On 14 July 2022, Minsk’s Masko\u016dski District Court sentenced Zmicier Da\u0161kievi\u010d to one and a half years in a penal colony. Nasta Da\u0161kievi\u010d\u00a0received three years of home confinement.<\/p>\n

4. <\/b>The trial of the Tor Band<\/b> musicians Ja\u016dhien Burlo, Dzmitry Halava\u010d<\/b> and Andrej Jarem\u010dyk<\/b>, which began on 14 September in the Homiel Regional Court, continues behind closed doors. Tor Band is a Belarusian band. Its music videos for the songs “We are not a Little People”, “Viva!”, “Who, if not you?!” have gathered over a million views on YouTube. The musicians were detained on 28 October 2022 and sentenced to 15 days of arrest several times. In January 2023,\u00a0Ja\u016dhien Burlo,\u00a0Dzmitry Halava\u010d\u00a0and\u00a0Andrej Jarem\u010dyk\u00a0were transferred to the pretrial detention centre in Homiel and faced charges in a newly opened criminal case. While the musicians were behind bars, the authorities designated the band as an “extremist formation.”<\/p>\n

II. Politically motivated administrative detentions and arrests of cultural workers, authors and performers<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

1. <\/b>Musician, founder and frontman of Krumka\u010d <\/b>band Arciom Ramana\u016d <\/b>was detained on 5 October in Homiel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. <\/b>On 9 October, local history expert and tour guide Aleh Dzja\u010dko\u016d <\/b>was detained in Mahilo\u016d <\/b>and <\/b>arrested for ten days.<\/p>\n

3.<\/b> Zaryna Kanapackaja<\/b>, a history senior researcher at the Institute of History at the National Academy of Sciences, was detained on 10 October in Minsk. In the video posted by the police, she says that she was only busy doing her scientific research, finished her doctorate and was preparing to defend her monograph about the Belarusian Tatars. Allegedly, she was at fault for subscribing to extremist channels to familiarize herself with their content.<\/p>\n

4.<\/b> Teacher, geographer and local history expert Ihar \u0160arucha<\/b> was detained on 10 October in Mahilo\u016d <\/b>and arrested for 15 days under Art. 19.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences (dissemination of extremist materials). Between 1993 and 2021, he worked at Arkad\u017a Kulia\u0161o\u016d Mahilo\u016d <\/b>State University, where he headed the Department of Natural Sciences. Ihar \u0160arucha<\/b> was fired for his civic activism.<\/p>\n

III.\u00a0Trials and arrests for using Belarusian and Ukrainian national symbols<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Barysa\u016d<\/span> district court sentenced Uladzimir Tolka\u010d<\/b> to ten days of administrative arrest after the police had found white-red-white symbols in his phone.<\/p>\n

IV. Conditions in places of detention, tortures of prisoners<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

1.<\/b> In October, political prisoner, researcher and editor Valeryja Kasciuhova<\/b> was deprived of phone calls and short meetings with her family members as the penal colony’s administration included her in the list of “terrorists.” Valeryja Kasciuhova is the founder and editor of\u00a0Our Opinion<\/i>\u00a0website of the experts’ community, the editor and author of the collection of annual analytical reviews about the development of the situation in Belarus\u00a0Belorusskiy ezhegodnik<\/i>, the head of the\u00a0Belarus in Focus<\/i>\u00a0monitoring group of experts. She was detained on 30 June 2021, after a search of her apartment, and placed in a pretrial detention centre on Valadarskaha Street in Minsk. The trial of Valeryja Kasciuhova and Tacciana Kuzina<\/b> began on 6 February 2023 in the Minsk City Court in an open mode. Valeryja Kasciuhova was charged under Art. 361(3) of the Criminal Code (calls for actions aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus), Art. 357 (1) of the Criminal Code (conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means), Art. 130 (3) of the Criminal Code (inciting social enmity or discord). On 17 March 2023, Valeryja Kasciuhova and Tacciana Kuzina were each sentenced to ten years in a minimum-security penal colony.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/b> Local history expert Uladzimir Hundar<\/b>, sentenced to 20 years in a penal colony, had his imprisonment routine changed to the stricter prison regime in Mahilo\u016d.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

3. <\/b>The administration of Prison No. 1 in Hrodna refuses medication parcels for the cultural manager, journalist and publisher Paval Ma\u017eejka<\/b>.<\/p>\n

V. Destruction of memorials and cultural objects\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

1.<\/b><\/span> Two icons were removed from the Pakro\u016d<\/span>ski Cathedral in Hrodna \u2013 the images of the holy martyrs Uladzimir, Metropolitan of Kyiv (tortured to death by the Communists in 1918) and Benjamin, Metropolitan of Petrograd (executed in 1922). The saints are depicted at the moment of their martyrdom, and their killers are dressed in the uniforms of the Red Army and the “Cheka” secret police force.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

2. <\/b>Inscriptions in Russian appeared on the crosses: the word ghoul<\/i> on the cross in memory of Lasto\u016d<\/b><\/span>ski, and Sit in Kresy<\/i> (Eastern Territories), Poles!<\/i> Remember the executioner’s block<\/i> on the cross in memory of the Polish victims of repression.<\/p>\n

VI. Repressions in the language sphere\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

It became known on 9 October that in Hrodna, local authorities removed signs and signposts in the Belarusian Latin<\/b> alphabet from the urban space.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As of 15 October 2023, at least 123 cultural figures, including not less than 30 People of the Word, were behind bars. The Investigative Committee of Belarus has opened a criminal case against the participants of the We Care! online marathon of solidarity with political prisoners. The live stream on various independent media platforms featured<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":13255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4255,1],"tags":[4291,4285],"class_list":["post-13254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cultural-right","category-news","tag-chronicle","tag-hronika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13254"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13318,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13254\/revisions\/13318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penbelarus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}