By David Sophrin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

MINSK, Belarus – Recent legislation passed by Belarus will now give the federal government monitor the internet use of its citizens.

The decree, set to take effect on July 1, requires that the nation’s internet providers save all data concerning the websites visited by internet users in the nation for one year.  Upon request, that information must be turned over to law enforcement agencies.  Internet providers also will have to restrict access to any website that the government chooses.

National security concerns were the impetus for the legislation, according to Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko.  “To ensure the security of the state and it’s citizens,…Internet service providers will be required to identify devices used to connect to the Internet and keep information on those devices and the services provided.”

Criticism from the larger European community has called the decree a restriction of individual freedom.  Lucia Morillion, of Reporters Without Borders (RWB), commented that “whatever…president [Lukashhenko] is calling this decree, it is not done to improve the situation of Internet freedom in the country.”  Another response from the RWB declared that Belarus had “[fallen] to the level of North Korea and China…as an enemy of the Internet.”

The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) was also quick to condemn the legislation, which will give the government greater control over what has been one of the few remaining arenas of free speech in the Eastern European country.  “It is complete control of information” said Andrei Bastunets, deputy chairman of the BAJ.

Belarus has long been criticized by international press watchdog organizations for the government’s extensive control over the country’s media.  There are currently no independent television or radio stations, and virtually all of the remaining opposition newspapers have been shut down by the government.

The recent internet legislation is likely to further damage the recent attempts by Belarus to become part of the larger European economic and political community.  President Lukashenko, who was re-elected to office in 2006 by results that were disputed by opposition groups in Belarus, has held the office since 1994.  Recent efforts by the President to gain better relationships with Europe has shaken the long-standing relationship that Belarus has traditionally had with Russia.

For more information, please see:

RADIO FREE EUROPE – EU Calls Belarusian Internet Decree ‘A Step In Wrong Direction’ – 4 February 2010

AFP – Opposition attacks Belarus Internet crackdown – 2 February 2010

DEUTSCHE WELLE – Belarus to further tighten Internet control – 2 February 2010

STRASBOURG, France – A Jewish cemetery in Strasbourg was the target of anti-Semitic vandalism on Wednesday.

Photo: One of the desecrated tombstones in a Jewish cemetery in Strausbourg. [Source: Ynet] According to The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), an umbrella group of Jewish organizations throughout France, there was extensive damage done to a number of the tombs in the Cronenbourg cemetery.  In addition to swastikas being drawn on 18 gravestones, the German words “juden ruas”, or “Jews out”, were written on one of the tombs.  Another 13 tombs were overturned.

After learning of the desecration, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that he “firmly condemns this unbearable act, the expression of odious racism.”  A member of the Israeli Knesset, Shlomo Molla, who was in Strasbourg attending events marking Remembrance Day, commented on the tomb’s vandalism.  “It was a horrible sight, which probably stemmed from the rising anti-Semitism [in] Europe.”

The fact that the vandalism occurred on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day is believed by some to be more than a coincidence.  Laurent Schmoll, a leader in Strasbourg’s Jewish community, noted that the vandalism occurred “at the moment we celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps, and I think there has to be a link.”

This is not the first time that Strasbourg’s Jewish cemeteries has been targeted by anti-Semitic messages.  Similar acts in previous years have occurred on International Holocaust Remembrance Day in Strasbourg, a city home to approximately 17,000 Jews.

For more information, please see:

AP – Jewish cemetery desecrated in eastern France – 27 January 2010

JTA – French Jewish cemetery vandalized – 27 January 2010

YNET – Jewish cemetery in Strasbourg desecrated – 27 January 2010

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia – The Russian opposition group The Other Russia has declared its intention to appeal the rejection of their application to stage a rally supporting the need for greater freedom of assembly rights in St. Petersburg.

The Other Russia had intended to stage the rally on January 31st along one of the main avenues of St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect.  The city’s Law and Order Committee rejected the organization’s permit to hold a rally, citing concerns about the potential protest’s effects on local traffic.  Immediately after the Committee announced its rejection, the opposition group stated that it would seek a legal appeal to the decision.

The planned rally is part of the larger Strategy 31 movement in Russia, a long term effort to bring the issue of continued restrictions on the freedom of assembly to the attention of the Russian public.  The campaign’s name is based on Article 31 of the Russian Constitution, which is supposed to guarantee each Russian citizens’ fundamental right to assemble.

The Other Russia leaders have indicated that regardless of the city’s final determination about their permit to hold the rally, their members will follow through will the protest as planned.

The city of St. Peterburg’s rejection of the rally permit continues a trend in major Russian cities where local authorities have cited various reasons to forbid rallies organized by opposition groups.  When those rallies have been granted permission to occur they have often faced the police detention of those involved.  Earlier this month thirty-four protesters were arrested by Moscow police during an event remembering the deaths of human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov and reporter Anastasia Baburova.

For more information, please see:

RADIO FREE EUROPE – Russian Opposition To Fight Rally Ban In Court – 27 January 2010

AFP – Rights protesters arrested in Moscow – 20 January 2010

AP – Moscow rally in memory of slain lawyer, journalist – 19 January 2010

STRASBOURG, France – The European Court of Human Rights ruled last week that a provision of a United Kingdom anti-terrorism law violated an article of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

The Court ruled that sections 44-47 of the United Kingdom’s Terrorism Act 2000, which gave police the authority to ‘stop and search’ any person without ‘reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing,’ violated a section of the Convention that ensures privacy for the individual and the family.  Under those sections, the police have been able to require an individual to remove certain articles of clothing and all objects from their pockets, as long that the officer believed that person may have objects that could potentially be used in a terrorist act.  Failure to adhere to such a request requested possibly in a fine or possible imprisonment.  In striking down this authority, the Court noted that rather than providing an objective test for which the police could use to determine when the search authority, the power could be applied based on the “‘professional intuition’ of the police officer.”

The case decided by the ECHR was brought In 2003 by British citizens Kevin Gillian and Pennie Quinton, who were stopped and searched by London police while traveling to an arms demonstration protest.  Both Gillian and Quinton sought judicial review in the UK legal system, appealing their claim to the nation’s high court, the Law Lords, but their claims was eventually dismissed.  Following the Court’s decision, Quinton indicated that he was pleased with the court’s ruling.  “There has to be a balance between private life and security.”  He also noted that “the Court has shown that section 44 is an invasion of people’s right to liberty and privacy.  Hopefully the government will have to put a fairer law in place to protect us.”

Until the court ruling earlier this month, the use of the authority by police in the United Kingdom had become more common.  While approximately 33,177 people were stopped in 2004, the police had used the authority 117,200 times in 2008.  Prior to the ruling, the Metropolitan Police had already indicated that the use of the authority would be reduced as a result of its growing controversial nature.

The Court noted that “the absence of any obligation on the part of the officer to show a reasonable suspicion made it almost impossible to prove that the power had been improperly exercised.”  Additionally, there lacked any safeguards against abuse of the authority.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has indicated that the government was disappointed with the Human Rights Court’s ruling.  “We are considering the judgment and will seek to appeal.”

For more information, please see:

IRISH TIMES – Strasbourg court rules against UK ‘stop and search’ powers – 25 January 2010

CNN – Britain to fight ruling on police searches – 13 January 2010

BBC – Stop-and-search powers ruled illegal by European court – 12 January 2010

THE GUARDIAN – Stop and search powers illegal, European court rules – 12 January 2010

MOSCOW, Russia – Twenty-four people were detained on Tuesday by Moscow police during a rally in remembrance of the killing of an activist human rights lawyer and a prominent reporter.

Approximately one thousand marchers attended the rally in remembrance of Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova.  Markelov had worked with human rights victims in Chechnya while Baburova, a journalist for the Novaya Gazeta, had published a number of articles critical of extremist Russian nationalist groups.  Both were murdered after leaving a building in downtown Moscow where they had been attending a news conference.  Protesters at yesterdays rally declared that those neo-Nazi nationalist forces were responsible for their deaths.

Leading human rights activists, including representatives from For Human Rights and the opposition political party Yabloko, were in attendance at the rally.  Russian human rights activist Gary Kasparov noted that those Russians who had been willing to speak out on human rights issues were becoming targets for extremist groups, and the government was not taking the necessary steps to protect them.

In addition to drawing attention to those responsible for the deaths of Markelov and Baburova, those participating sought to draw more scrutiny on the growing prominence of extreme nationalist groups in contemporary Russia.  Sergei Udaltsov, a human rights activist who attended the rally, noted that “we are here to say our firm “No” to nationalism, fascism, and inactivity of authorities.”

The protesters arrested were held by police on the grounds that they were participating in a march that had deviated from the permitted march route.  The city had originally denied a permit for the rally but eventually agreed to the event with certain restrictions.  Participants were not allowed to carry signs with political symbols and they could march in groups no greater than fifty people.  According to the Interfax agency the police put those who had been arrested onto buses before transferring them to another location.

Regarding the arrests at the rally, a police spokesman offered an explanation for the decision by police to arrest the protesters.  “[Those] twenty four people were detained after they tried to hold an illegal march.  There was an agreement with the authorities for a rally, but after the rally they provoked police by trying to stage a march.”

Nikolai Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, members of a neo-Nazi group, were arrested in November and charged with the killing of Markelov and Baburova.

For more information, please see:

MOSCOW TIMES – 500 Rally in Memory of Markelov – 20 January 2010

AP – Moscow rally in memory of slain lawyer, journalist – 19 January 2010

DEUTSCHE PRESS-AGENTUR – 30 arrested in unauthorized Moscow demonstration – 19 January 2010

OTHER RUSSIA – 600 Participate in Memorial March for Slain Lawyer – 19 January 2010

REUTERS – Police Detain 24 At Russian Rally For Murdered Activists – 19 January 2010