Notat fra 3F om undertrykkelse af den uafhængige fagbevægelse i Ukraine

I nform ation note
Subject Repression of independent trade unions in
Belarus
Date: 2 3 August 2 0 1 7
For Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MFA, and CISU Danish MEP’s and MP’s
By Jesper Nielsen, Head of 3F International Department jesper.nielsen@3f.dk
The following information has been collected by 3F, IndustriALL Global Union and IF Metall,
Sweden, from the involved trade union activists in Belarus as well as from m edia sources1
.
August 2 0 1 7 crack-dow n on independent unions in Belarus
On 2 August, between 09.15 and 09.30, two independent unions in Belarus were suddenly
raided by the police. Several of the policemen were disguised as maintenance service staff.
Both of the raided unions, REP (Radio and electronics workers’ union) and BNP (Refinery and
mine workers’ union) are 3F’s partners in the country. They are also – just as 3F -affiliates of
IndustriALL Global Union.
Some ten people entered the office of REP union and presented a public prosecutor’s warrant
for the search of the union office. They broke the door to the office of the chief accountant, as
there was no key provided at the time of the search. A similar search was carried out in
Soligorsk office of the BNP.
The raids were coordinated and did not allow any of the trade union leaders to get in contact
with each other. After searching the offices and private houses of union officials, the police
seized computers, hard drives were removed, as well as notes, bank cards, English language
material, phones, and other equipment. Trade union officials of both BNP and REP were
detained and brought to police offices for interrogation.
The chief accountant of the REP union, Igor Komlik, was arrested. According to the public
statem ent that appeared on the website of the State Control Committee of Belarus, Gennady
Fedynich (chairman of REP) and Igor Komlik are both charged with tax evasion. According to
the charges, the union leaders risk seven years of imprisonment and confiscation of their
property. As long as the case is on-going he is barred from leaving the country e.g. for cross-
border trade union activities.
We have no certain information about the accusations against BNP president Nikolai Zimin and
accountant Snjezana Grintevich.
Natalia Pichuzhkina, union activist and form er editor of the union website praca-by.info was
also detained. She was taken for interrogation at 3 pm and not release until10pm the same
day, while Gennady Fedynich was only released on the early morning 3 August.
Igor Komlik was later transferred to the Okrestina detention centre and remains in custody to
this day.
Background
This is the second major crack-down on independent civil society this year. The trade union
REP has been active in defending workers’ rights in Belarus for years. The union led a strong
nation-wide campaign against the notorious presidential decree 3 also known as “The decree
on social parasites”, penalizing the unemployed in Belarus. The campaign was conducted in
1
Mainly http: / / nn.by and http: / / www.industriall-union.org
OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2016-17
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 22
Offentligt
3FI information note on repression of trade unions in Belarus (August 2017) p. 2
close cooperation with other major Belarusian human rights organisations such as Belarus
Helsinki Committee and Vjasna.
Between March 5 and 13 a number of so called "preventive" detentions were carried out by the
Belarusian authorities. The Belarusian police apprehended politicians and social group leaders
who had said they would hold major protests scheduled for later in the month. Most of them
were imprisoned just long enough for them to miss the rallies, dem onstrations and protests.
Bloggers and journalists covering the events were also apprehended; followed by a wave of
arrests targeting the activists spreading the information about the protests. Finally, protesters
were arrested at the actual demonstrations and rallies: more than 50 in Minsk on March 15
and 30, and more in other cities of the country. A number of REP and BNP activists and leaders
were arrested. The most brutal crackdown took place on March 25, an unofficial holiday known
as Freedom Day (Dzen' Voli).
The unusually strong protests were inconvenient for Lukaschenko and the regime’s repressive
acts caused widespread condemnation. Lukaschenko then announced that the unemployment
tax would not be collected and the people who had already paid would be reimbursed, but that
the decree would be implemented at a later unspecified time.
Igor Komlik (left) has been transferred to the Okristina detention centre, while both he and
Gennady Fedynich are charged with tax evasion for personal accumulation of wealth.
The new actions of the authorities seem designed for halting the activities of the independent
trade union movem ent in Belarus. The timing of the recent crack-down suggests a strong
interest in preventing new civil protests. The day after raiding the unions, president
Lukaschenko announced the enforcement of a practically unchanged decree for later this year.
I nternational trade union protest
In May 2017 IndustriALL Global Union executives extended their strong support to their
Belarusian colleagues fighting against forced labour and criminalization of dissent in Belarus.
The global union organisations, IndustriALL and ITUC calls the recent attacks “interference in
the internal affairs of the trade unions, which is a grave violation of ILO Convention No. 87 on
Freedom of Association.”
The global unions demand that the governm ent "stops interference of state structures in the
internal affairs of the REP and BNP unions and adopt urgent m easures to ensure normal
conditions for the work of trade union organizations in accordance with the obligations of the
Republic of Belarus under ILO Convention No. 87.” They call for the "immediate release of Igor
3FI information note on repression of trade unions in Belarus (August 2017) p. 3
Komlik, to stop criminal prosecution of the leaders of the Belarusian trade union REP, and to
rem ove all groundless accusations against them.” In the letter, IndustriALL and ITUC reserved
their right to inform the International Labour Organization, European Union and other
competent international institutions of the on-going violations.
Also, a number of human rights organisations (e.g. Belarus Helsinki Committee and Vjasna)
have protested against the recent events.
Sanctions
The EU first imposed sanctions against Belarus in 2004, steadily extending them to m ore
individuals and organisations following a series of flawed elections, strengthening Lukashenko
and his parliamentary supporters’ power in successive landslide elections. In February 2016,
EU ministers decided to lift most sanctions perm anently, although they expressed they
remained concerned with the situation of human rights in Belarus. Ministers also called on
Minsk to abolish the death penalty and implement international conventions, guidelines and
EU’s recomm endations on dem ocracy.
After discussing the matter with our IndustriALL colleagues and our sister organisation, REP,
we agree that the best approach would be one of continuation of the closer relations between
EU and Belarus but that a small obstacle – the case of the independent trade unions – should
be rem oved to clear the way.
3 F recom m endations
3F urges Danish and EU diplomats to express deep concern about this case, to ask the
Lukaschenko government for information and for the withdrawal of charges against trade
unionists. The trade union officer Igor Komlik should be immediately released.
We think Denmark should urge other EU m ember states as well as the EU as a whole to
demand protection of trade union rights, freedom of association, assem bly and expression in
Belarus.