Protest New Attack on Trade Union Rights in Belarus

Posted to the IUF website 19-Sep-2003

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The IUF is calling for urgent protests against the September 18 sentencing and imprisonment of Belarussian trade union leader Aleksander Yaroshuk. Yaroshuk, the President of the Congress of Democratic Trade Unions of Belarus (BDKP), was tried and immediately sentenced to begin serving 10 days in prison by a district court in Minsk for a newspaper article he published on August 21 criticizing the court procedures leading to the illegal dissolution of the union of air traffic controllers. He was tried and convicted of the "crime" of "showing disrespect for the court" � a charge which normally applies to contempt of court as manifested during court proceedings. During the court hearings on the dissolution of the air traffic controllers union, however, no such charges were brought against Yaroshuk. Yaroshuk was not allowed to read the case materials, and the hearings were held in a closed court.

This latest attack on independent trade unionism in Belarus follows the government's takeover of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus (FTUB) last September in a police operation undertaken to eliminate the country's largest and most oppositional union umbrella organization. Since the state takeover of the FTUB, independent trade unionism has converged around the BDKP. Yaroshuk, who had previously headed the FTUB's largest member union, the Agro-Industrial Workers' Union, had served as an IUF Vice-President prior to the AIWU's sususpension from IUF membership following the police action against the union and the destruction of its independence.

The BDKP has condemned the trial and sentencing of Yaroshuk as a "political order aimed at destroying the independent trade union movement in the country", and has appealed for international solidarity and support. You can support this appeal by sending messages to Belarussian President Lukashenko and the relevant authorities. A sample message follows below. Please send copies to the IUF secretariat of any messages you might send.

Sample message to the President of Belarus

To: Administration of the President of Belarus
Fax: + 375 17 226 06 10
By telegram to: 38 Karl Marks Str.
Minsk 220016
Belarus
E-mail messages can be sent via http://president.gov.by/eng/president/mail.shtml

We suggest that you send the message in English.

Mr. President,

Concerns: Sentencing of trade union leader A. Yaroshuk

I write to condemn the trial and sentencing of Aleksander Yaroshuk, President of the Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, by the district court of Minsk on September 18. Yaroshuk was tried and convicted for criticizing the dissolution of the air traffic controllers union in a newspaper article published on August 21. The trial and sentencing of Aleksander Yaroshuk are flagrant and unacceptable violations of trade union rights and the right of freedom of expression.

I therefore call on you to take the necessary measures to ensure that the decision sentencing Mr. Yaroshuk to prison is overturned and he is immediately released.


Sincerely,