Belarus leader vows to keep up raids of NGOs, media outlets
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The longtime leader of Belarus vowed Thursday to continue a crackdown on civil society activists he regards as “bandits and foreign agents.”
President Alexander Lukashenko chided officials in his administration for allowing the operation of non-governmental organizations that he called “harmful to the state.”
“A mopping-up operation is going on,” Lukashenko said. “Do you think it’s easy? There are thousands of our people working for them, and their brains are distorted and brainwashed with foreign money.”
Belarusian authorities have ramped up raids and arrests of independent journalists and civil society activists in recent weeks.
The Viasna human rights center said the country’s law enforcement agencies have conducted more than 200 searches of offices and apartments of journalists and activists so far this month. The center said authorities detained 11 activists Thursday.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists said authorities raided the apartment of freelance journalist Tanya Smotkina in the town of Hlybokaye for the second time this month and detained her for interrogation on charges of “inciting strife.”
A journalist who worked for the U.S.-funded broadcast RFE/RL and was detained last week, Ina Studzinskaya, declared a hunger strike Thursday to protest authorities refusing to give her access to her lawyer, the journalists' association said.
The deputy head of the association, Boris Goretsky, said Studzinskaya was kept in cell without a mattress where the lights were kept on around the clock.
Overall, 31 Belarusian journalists are in custody awaiting trial or serving sentences.
The Justice Ministry asked the country’s highest court on Wednesday to shut the Belarusian Association of Journalists over alleged flaws in office lease documents....
