U.S. Department of State: Lukashenka using authoritarian decrees to rule Belarus
The U.S. Department of State has prepared its annual human human rights report-2016. This is the first detailed report prepared by Donald Trump’s administration. The report is signed by new U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Radio Liberty reports.
The paragraph dedicated to Belarus consists of 56 pages. The citizens’ inability to change the government by election, absence of control and counterbalance mechanisms in the political system and the authorities’ abuse resulting from it are called the main problems in the human rights sphere.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka has undermined the supremacy of law since his election in 1994, the report says. It was done by manipulating elections and authoritarian decrees. All the following presidential elections did not correspond to international standards, the document states. The same can be said about the presidential election held in 2016.
The authors of the report mentioned numerous violations of human rights in Belarus. They stressed the existence of bad treatment and torture in Belarusian prisons (referring to the death of prisoners Ihar Ptsichkin and Ihar Barbashynski) and political cases (the case started against blogger Edurd Palchys).
