18 January, 2011On January 14, 2011, six representatives of the KGB turned up at the headquarters of REP, an IMF affiliate in Belarus. Having removed mobile phones of employees during the five hour search the authorities also confiscated computers, hard drives and other electronic storage media owned by the union, almost completely paralyzing the union's work.
BELARUS: On January 14, 2011, six representatives of the committee for state security (KGB) presented a search warrant and entered the Minsk office of the IMF affiliate Belarusian Radio and Electronics Industry Workers' Union (REP). Having collected all mobile phones of the employees at the time of the search, the authorities also confiscated computers, hard drives, other electronic storage media and some documents owned by the union.
The search warrant was issued by the deputy prosecutor of Minsk. According to Gennady Fedynich, REP Chairman, the warrant read that, "in the course of an investigation of a criminal case, operative information was received indicating that the electoral headquarters of the former presidential candidate Sannikov was located in the office of REP at Kuhlman str. 4, which therefore could contain instruments of crime, and documents and valuables that may be relevant to the investigation into the mass riots."
Explanations that the property actually belongs to the union and has nothing to do with the headquarters of the presidential candidate were ignored. The search was conducted very thoroughly, and the chairman's office was searched for about two hours. Following the confiscation of union equipment and records, the work of the trade union is almost completely paralyzed.
REP declared they will appeal the actions of the KGB in the prosecutor's office. Gennady Fedynich explained that, "several activists of trade unions took an active part in the recent election campaign and were agents of various presidential candidates. However, that does not mean that the union's office was the headquarters of one of the candidates. All the more this is not a basis for the search," said the chairman of REP.
Since December 19, 2010, when the peaceful rally in Minsk was broken up by the use of militia forces, the situation with human rights has seriously deteriorated in Belarus. About 10 union members who participated in the rally to express their civil position were arrested and sentenced to 10 to 15 days in prison. After their release they have continued to face pressure from KGB through the administration of the enterprises where they work.
IMF sent a letter to the A. Lukashenko President of Belarus and urged him to stop the anti-union repressions and punish those responsible for these massive violations of trade union rights. IMF calls on all its affiliates to also send letters to protest against these flagrant violations of trade union and human rights in Belarus.
Please send your letters of protest to A. Lukashenko, the president of Belarus,
at: [email protected]
With copies to:
Public prosecutor's office of Minsk,
220004, Minsk, Rakovskaya str. 38
[email protected]
Tel. 306-23-53, 306-24-58
Please also copy the Belarusian embassy in your country.
Also send a copy of your messages to the IMF at: [email protected]
UPDATE: Early in the morning of January 21 Gennady Fedynitch, REP chairman and Nikolay Gerasimenko, REP press-secretary, were interrogated separately by officers of militia regarding their participation in the mass riots in Minsk on December 19, 2010. They were both released after the interrogations; however Gennady was promised this was not his last visit.
The same morning Zinaida Mikhniuk, REP deputy chairperson for Brest region, was summoned for an interrogation to KGB in Brest.
Late in the evening of January 20 IMF affiliate SPM received a fax from the Ministry of Justice requesting that within five days it provides the list of SPM primary organizations, their structure, membership, leaders' names and information about affiliation fees. No other affiliates of the Congress got similar requests. SPM believes this information could be used against local union leaders and local organizations and is not going to provide it.