Why workers in Belarus were suspected of treason and extremism | Belarus: a view from Europe – special project DW | DW

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Arrests and searches of the leaders of the labor movement took place from 21 to 23 September. The siloviki came to the homes of representatives of the strike committees of four large enterprises in different cities of the country – Grodno Azot, Belarusian Metallurgical Plant in Zhlobin, Naftan in Novopolotsk and the Belarusian Railway. Some of them were released a day later, but 13 people ended up in the KGB pre-trial detention center and the Gomel pre-trial detention center No. 3.

The state TV channel ONT on Sunday 26 September showed a story about the arrested. It says that these are representatives of the initiative “Rabochy Rukh” (Workers’ Movement), created in the spring of the headquarters of ex-presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya. Supposedly under the control of American and Lithuanian special services, they prepared strikes and sabotage, were engaged in industrial espionage. A criminal case was initiated under the articles of the Criminal Code of Belarus “Treason to the state” and “Creation of an extremist formation”.

Reasons for arrests

“The arrests are a consequence of the work of a person who collaborated with the KGB,” – this is the explanation given by the head of the Grodno Azot strike committee Yuri Rovova, who is currently outside Belarus. In the ONT TV channel, he says, a fragment of a Zoom video conference was shown. A dummy, allegedly an employee of “Gomselmash”, whose name became known to the strike committee members, also took part in it.

Yuri Rovovoy, photo from the archive

When it became clear that this person was rooted in and was collecting data about the activists, they were advised to leave the country, Yuri continues. But someone did not have time to leave, and someone doubted that the consequences would be so harsh. As a result, the KGB is “working out” all who were identified.

Of course, on the one hand, he admits, people in factories are now intimidated, and this is a blow to those who can coordinate the labor movement. But, on the other hand, this story added motivation to them, showing that the authorities are really afraid of the workers.

“Everything will work out, the only question is when” – this is how Yuri Rovovoy assesses the prospects of the strike. And he immediately adds that a year ago the authorities ousted the most active members of the strike committee abroad, and it seemed that there was no one left, but today the workers again began to prepare for the strike. That is, the authorities failed to completely take them under control.

Labor Movement

The Rabochy Movement website, whose name “stachka.org” speaks for itself, lists the requirements: the resignation of Alyaksandr Lukashenka from the presidency, an end to the use of violence against civilians, the release of all political prisoners. These are top-priority tasks, followed by a list of fifteen more items.

Pavel Sapelko

Pavel Sapelko

The “Labor Movement” states that all non-violent methods to defend their rights and freedoms in Belarus have already been exhausted, and the only way to achieve their goals is a nationwide strike. Pavel Sapelko, a lawyer at the Viasna human rights center, notes that the Labor Movement operates within the framework of the law, because the right to strike is fundamental for workers in industrial enterprises and is enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. True, he adds, usually workers make economic demands, and in this case, political ones.

So far, in this case, the human rights activist continues, it is difficult to give any assessments. In fact, fifteen people are in jail – the detentions continued on Monday – but they have not yet been charged. “We learned from the TV what they are suspected of, but there are no documents,” says Pavel Sapelko.

Are the detainees recognized as political prisoners?

The Viasna center promptly collected information about all the detainees. And here, Sapelko continues, new problems have appeared. For example, on September 25 it became known that Aleksandra Kapshul, a former legal adviser of the Polymir plant of Naftan OJSC, was detained at the checkpoint on the Russian-Ukrainian border. He was handed over to employees of the Belarusian KGB and secretly taken to Minsk.

The question arises as to how the procedural rights of detained citizens of Belarus are respected in Russia, Pavel Sapelko notes: “It turns out, just nothing, because the procedure for extradition prescribed by law was clearly violated.”

Human rights activists are wondering, he continues, why these citizens are imprisoned if they are engaged in quite legitimate public activities. It looks like this is an arbitrary imprisonment, and the reaction will be quick – we are talking about recognizing the detainees as political prisoners.

Will there be a strike

On August 30, the leader of the Belarusian Workers’ Union, Sergei Dylevsky, wrote down and posted on the Internet a statement announcing a pre-strike state in the country and an appeal to the citizens of Belarus. In it, he listed all the requirements that are stated on the site of the Rukh Rukh platform. The arrests began three weeks after the video was released. But Sergei Dylevsky believes that these things are unlikely to be interconnected: “Yes, mobilization and preparation for the strike were announced, but the detentions did not stop throughout the year.”

Now, he continues, we can say that the authorities are so afraid of strikes that they began to isolate the activists, and the first arrests went “according to the trade union principle.” First, the deputy chairman of the Belarusian independent trade union “Grodno Azota” Valentin Teranevich was arrested, and then all the key figures of the independent trade unions at different factories.

“The strike is quite real under the current conditions, and in some enterprises, even local strikes are already beginning,” says Sergei Dylevsky. Preparations for a nationwide strike, he said, will continue.

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