IMF: Stop supporting dictatorship in Belarus

The IMF: Stop supporting dictatorship in Belarus

Greetings,

As you know, on May 31, 2011, the Council of Ministers and the National Bank of Belarus applied for a Stabilization Loan from the IMF seeking to borrow from $3.5 billion to $8 billion dollars. This loan, if granted without political conditionalities, would enable Lukashenka to continue his authoritarian regime by financing the violent repression of peaceful demonstrators and the unjust detention of innocent civilians.

For the past 17 years, Lukashenka - distinguished as the ‘last dictator of Europe’ - has driven the economy of Belarus to the brink of catastrophe. Today, Belarus has an external debt of 12 billion USD, negative net reserves and an exchange rate of 1 EUR to 7270 Belarusian Rubles. Banks are quickly running out of foreign currency and in turn, people are now physically fighting in front of exchange offices.

Thousands of people, in all of the major cities of Belarus, participated in silent marches on June 15, 19, 22, July 3 and 6, 2011, to demand Lukashenka’s resignation due to the violent tactics of his repressive regime and the economic instability he has caused. In sum, over 1700 people were arrested and physically assaulted by Special Forces and State Police. On August 4, 2011, Aliaksandr Bialiatski, prominent human rights advocate, head of Human Rights Organization “Viasna” and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights, was arrested in Belarus.

Currently, Belarus holds a shameful 3rd place in the world for its number of incarcerated prisoners (per capita). That is, in addition to:

- Unlawful detention and imprisonment, after the presidential elections in December 2010, of 42 political activists and journalists, among whom 4 were presidential candidates;
- Disappearance of 4 prominent political activists in 1999, whose bodies have still not been found and the perpetrators have not yet been convicted;
- Expulsion of thousands of students from universities and schools for their participation in peaceful demonstrations and their affiliation with political organizations;
- Control over the flow of information with legalized state censorship of the Internet, closure of independent newspapers, radio stations and the detention of journalists;
- Enforcement of a black list restricting the travel of hundreds of thousands of Belarusians abroad.

IMF loan always comes on certain conditionalities. Despite of the fact that, a $3.5bn program of the IMF in 2009 already helped rescue the economy of the authoritarian regime, the Belarusian government did not undertake any economic reforms the Fund required. Shockingly, instead, more facts of weapon trade came up stating that Lukashenka earns over $1,7 bln annually from selling arms to Libya, Iran and Syria and other authoritarian regimes.

Yet, the IMF is considering giving Lukashenka a new billion-dollar loan in the coming months.

The IMF has never voiced any political conditions to Belarus. But it is clear that only political stability and democracy can ensure the continued economic recovery of Belarus.

Therefore, we believe that IMF should send the same message to Lukasenka as the one that is now being sent to Libyan leader Muammar el-Qaddafi and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: No more money to support continuing violence and human rights violations of the Belarusian regime. No loans for dictators.

Together with hundreds of thousands of Belarusians demanding political change, we are calling for the IMF to address the democratic concerns in Belarus and to not provide the Stabilization Loan until the Belarusian authorities initiate the following immediate changes [adopted from Human Rights Watch report on Belarus (2011) ]:

The President:
- Initiate legislation to repeal article 193.1 of the criminal code, which imposes criminal penalties for participating in unregistered organizations.
- Repeal the requirements for website operators to register with state authorities and for Internet cafes to gather information on Internet users.

The Prosecutor General:
- Start a thorough and impartial investigation into the use of force on December 19, 2010.
- Start a thorough and impartial investigation into the use of force on silent demonstrations on June 15, 19, 22, July 3 and 6, 2011.

The Ministry of Interior and the Committee for State Security (KGB):
- Immediately release detainees arrested in connection with the events of December 19 if they are not accused of having directly engaged in violence.
- Immediately release detainees arrested in connection with the events of June 25, 19, 22, July 3 and 6, 2011.
- Immediately release Aliaksandr Bialiatski, head of Human Rights Organization “Viasna” and vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights, detained on August 4, 2011.

The Ministry of Justice:
- Ensure that all the trials of people charged with offenses connected to the December 19 events and the demonstrations organized from January to August 2011 are open to the public, and comply scrupulously with international fair trial standards.

The Ministry of Information:
- Restore licenses to radio station Avtoradio.

I, undersigned here, am asking the IMF to immediately enforce the above-mentioned conditions on president Lukashenka and retain the loan until the conditions are met by the Belarusian authorities.

Thank you,

[Your name]