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US envoy: Belarus never provided information about December 19, 2010 police operation

The Belarusian authorities never provided information about the police operation carried out on December 19, 2010 to disperse peaceful post-election protesters, said Ian Kelly, the US Representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), speaking at a meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna on February 9.

They also failed to conduct any inquiry into the accusations of a disproportionate use of force in the police response to the protest, he said with reference to a report issued by Neil Jarman, the special rapporteur appointed by the Committee on International Control over the Human Rights Situation in Belarus.

The government of Belarus did not provide any information on the violent attack on Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, one of the presidential candidates, prior to the protest, said Mr. Kelly.

“The report asserts that given the level of force used against people engaged in a peaceful demonstration in Independence Square, it would have been reasonable to expect the state authorities to investigate complaints about the police action,” he said. “Analysis of the trials and prosecutions has highlighted a number of concerns about the abuse of human rights and the failure to uphold Belarus’ obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Similarly, the authorities have failed to investigate a number of complaints of maltreatment and physical abuse while in detention.”

In his report, Mr. Jarman also says that the Belarusian government justified the police operation on December 19, 2010 as a necessary response to a violent attack on the House of Government, but among the protestors convicted after the event, no one was implicated in any act of violence on that day.

Approximately half of those who faced charges or were convicted in connection with the protest were part of the political opposition, Mr. Kelly stressed. //BelaPAN