19.12.2011 | Pariser Platz, 10117 Berlin

Assembly to remember the demonstrations in Minsk on December 19, 2010

December 19, 2011, 1 – 5 pm

Pariser Platz, 10117 Berlin

 

One year after the defeat of the peaceful demonstration in Minsk, Belarus, a rally will take place at Pariser Platz in Berlin on December 19, 2011.

 

Governing the country since 1994 president Alexander Lukashenko got reelected last year for the 4th time with an official vote of 80%. The independent observers stated massive election fraud.

 

On the evening of the election about 50,000 Belarussians demonstrated in the capital Minsk against the manipulated votes. The demonstration was brutally knocked down. About 700 people got arrested and sentenced to different imprisonments.

 

Currently there are still 16 political prisoners arrested, amongst them presidential candidates Andrei Sannikow and Nikolai Statkevich. Many of the political prisoners are reporting publicly about torture used in Belarussian prisons in order to enforce confessions. The Belarussian justice system is internationally criticized for torture, disposal of officials, adulteration of evidences, and perversion of justice.

 

The Belarussian Government continues political repressions against civilians and members of the opposition.

 

In Belarus the current year was characterized by propaganda trials and mass arrests. More than 2000 people have been arrested during peaceful protest in summer 2011.

 

Lukashenko passed new laws prohibiting the right of assembly and freedom of expression as well as handing uncontrolled power to the police and the KGB.

 

Belarus is the only country in Europe, which still declares and executes death penalty.

 

The Supreme Court in Minsk announced its adjudgement regarding assumed terrorists Dmitrii Konovalov and Vladislav Kovalev (both 25 years old) on November 30: death penalty for both. No evidences of guilt had been presented during the lawsuit. The trial evoked rather even more questions than being able to give answers.

 

 

We assemble at Pariser Platz in Berlin on December 19, 2011 from 1 pm through 5 pm

•    to express solidarity with the political prisoners and their families.

•    to demand an immediate release of all political prisoners in Belarus.

•    to demand the abolition of the death penalty in Belarus.

 

On this day the Belarussian artist Marina Naprushkina in cooperation with the 7th Berlin Biennale and the Kalmar konstmuseum in Sweden publishes the newspaper Self # governing. It contains amongst others contributions about Belarus, a country, which is not only geographically located at the border between Russia and Europe, but also politically fluctuating between these borders.

Is there another future than between EU neoliberalism and Putinesque neoimperialism?

7-berlin-biennale-naprushkina-minsk2010
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