RFE/RL: Belarusian Newspaper Warned Against 'Fomenting Interethnic Enmity'

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Subject: RFE/RL: Belarusian Newspaper Warned Against 'Fomenting Interethnic Enmity'

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

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RFE/RL: Belarusian Newspaper Warned Against 'Fomenting
Interethnic Enmity'


RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
________________________________________________________
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report
Vol. 2, No. 18, 16 May 2000
 
A Survey of Developments in Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine by the
Regional Specialists of RFE/RL's Newsline Team.
***********************************************************
HEADLINES
 
POLAND
        * PARLIAMENT SATISFIED WITH FOREIGN POLICY
        *
BELARUS
        * U.S. URGES REGIME TO ACCOUNT FOR DISAPPEARED
        OPPOSITIONISTS
        * NEWSPAPER WARNED AGAINST 'FOMENTING INTERETHNIC
        ENMITY'
UKRAINE
        * GOVERNMENT FIGHTS TO GET CASH FOR ENERGY
***********************************************************

................


NEWSPAPER WARNED AGAINST 'FOMENTING INTERETHNIC ENMITY.'
"Nasha Niva," an independent Belarusian weekly, sued the State Press
Committee in a bid to revoke a warning the committee gave the
publication for "fomenting interethnic enmity." The Supreme Economic
Court on 11 May rejected the newspaper's suit, siding with the
committee. Two such warnings are sufficient to ban a publication.

The committee issued its warning to "Nasha Niva" in March, after the
latter published a letter from Minsk-based architect T. Sudzilouskaya
entitled "I Envy Chechnya." Below is an excerpt from the letter
("Nasha Niva," 13-19 March 2000):

"I hate Russians and envy Chechnya.... I was morally raped at a police
station, when they stripped me naked to make a list of my belongings,
and in a court, where the judge did not even know the Belarusian word
for January, the month in which I was born.... They, the Russians,
have raped our children, who are now ashamed of speaking their 'rural'
language, the language of their parents.... They have destroyed our
culture and history.... When will God make a list of everything that
was raped and destroyed in my Motherland? I know who Russians are and
therefore I know what is going on in Chechnya, and I envy [Chechnya]."

"Nasha Niva" Chief Editor Syarhey Dubavets argued in court that it was
clear from the context of the letter that by "Russians," the author
did not mean representatives of a particular nation or an ethnic group
but people of various nationalities, including Belarusians, who show
no respect for the Belarusian language and culture. He said the
newspaper published the letter because it wanted a person driven to
despair by discrimination to be given the opportunity to speak out.
"The state should not trample on an appeal from the human soul," Mr.
Dubavets noted.

A representative of the State Press Committee argued that the letter
incited interethnic hatred. "It is sufficient to look at the heading
'I Envy Chechnya' to understand what the author means," he said. "We
know that the Chechens are currently at war and that they are mainly
fought by Russians."

................

*********************************************************
Copyright (c) 2000. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
 
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report is prepared by Jan
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