Belarus shuts down more NGOS in crackdown
KYIV: Belarusian authorities on Friday announced the closure of 15 Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO), part of a sweeping crackdown on independent media and civil society activists that includes shuting dozens of NGOS.
The groups ordered to close include the Human Constanta human rights center, the Names charity organisation, Belsetka Anti-aids group and an organisation assisting disabled people.
The groups’ closure comes a day ater authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko vowed to continue what he called a “mopping-up operation” against civil society activists whom he denounced as “bandits and foreign agents.”
Altogether,morethan50ngosarefacingclosure.
They include the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), the biggest and the most respected media organisation in the country, and the Belarusian PEN Center, an association of writers led by Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature.
Human Constanta said in a statement that the authorities didn’t explain why they decided to close the group, adding that the action reflects a “growing pressure on civil society in Belarus.”
Also targeted is the Press-club, an organisation that offered education programs for journalists.
Its head, Yulia Slutskaya, and three other workers have remained in custody since their arrest in December.
Amnesty International denounced the dissolution of Belarusian NGOS and called for a “strong international response to ensure that the Belarusian authorities immediately end their vicious crackdown on civil society.”
“Today is another dark day that will go down in the history of Belarus,” Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said in a statement. “Undeterred, the Belarusian authorities are pushing in their unprecedented and increasingly brutal atack on civic space, all forms of opposition or peaceful dissent.”
US Ambassador Julie Fisher also strongly condemned the dissolution of NGOS, tweeting that by targeting “impacful NGOS focused on the disabled, arts, media, human rights and more” the Belarusian authorities seek to blame others “rather than acknowledge their own role in creating the crisis in Belarus.” Belarusian authorities have ramped up action against NGOS and independent media, with more than 200 raids of offices and apartments of activists and journalists so far this month, according to the Viasna human rights centre.
The independent Regionalnaya Gazeta (Regional Newspaper) said on Friday it was forced to halt publication following the raid of its office in Maladzyechna, 80km northeast of the Belarusian capital, Minsk, and the arrest of several of its journalists.