Minsk Spring
| Minsk Spring | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | 24 March 1996— 26 April 1997 (1 year, 1 month and 2 days) | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by | Creation ofUnion State,authoritarian rule of PresidentAlexander Lukashenko | ||
| Goals | Cancellation of the agreement "On the Community of Belarus and Russia", resignation of Lukashenko | ||
| Methods | rally,peaceful marches | ||
| Resulted in | Adjustment of the Union State treaty, refutation of the unification of Belarus and Russia into a single state | ||
| Parties | |||
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| Lead figures | |||
| Number | |||
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The"Minsk Spring"or"Belarusian Spring"(Belarusian:"Мінская вясна",romanized:"Minskaja viasna","Беларуская вясна","Biełaruskaja viasna") was a series of mass street protests in 1996 and 1997 against the increasingly-authoritarian rule of PresidentAlexander Lukashenko.
Background and causes
[edit]The protests were triggered by a constitutionalreferendum on amendmentsto the 1994Constitution of Belarus.The referendum was called following a dispute between President Lukashenko and the elected parliament, theThirteenth Supreme Council,over the president's proposal to amend the constitution to extend his term of office from five to seven years, create a second legislative chamber whose members would be appointed by the president, and limit the power of theConstitutional Court.[1]
Officially, the public voted in favor of the amendments by a wide majority, although many countries, includingEuropean Unionmember states and theUnited Statessharply criticized the conditions under which the referendum was held as "riddled with violations of democratic norms" and refused to recognize its results:
"The constitutional referendum occurred in a repressive political environment and with pervasive government control of the media. Through this control, the Government denied the voters access to the views of the opposition--including members of Parliament and of the Constitutional Court".[2]The referendum resulted in the dissolution of the Supreme Council, which was replaced by a new, bicameral parliament. The president handpicked the members of the lower chamber and gained substantial influence over the upper chamber. The net result was the effective removal of all representatives of opposition parties from government.[1]
Protests and their suppression
[edit]The protests in the spring of 1996 started with commemoration of an anniversary of theBelarusian Democratic Republicon 24 March and peaked during theChernobyl Way-96 on 26 April 1996, which became one of the largest rallies in the period between theanti-Soviet protests of 1991and the2020 Belarusian revolution.According to various estimates, between 60 and 100 thousand people took to the central avenue of Minsk.[3]
Following the constitutional changes in November 1996, the Belarusian political system became increasingly authoritarian with the government seeking to curtail all political freedoms. The authorities did not sanction most of requested street demonstrations and then brutally dispersed "unsanctioned" ones. They began to apply a wide range of repressive measures against their participants – from brutal police force to fines and administrative arrests to expulsion of students and dismissal of employees on political grounds.[1]
Arbitrary and violent arrests of demonstrators, without regard to age or infirmity, became commonplace. In violation of the terms of both theBelarusian constitutionand international instruments such as theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), to which Belarus is a state party, Lukashenka issued a draconian decree in March 1997, codified into law later that year, which severely limited the right to citizens to demonstrate, regulating the even the types of symbols, flags, and banners participants may use.[4]
The protests resumed in the spring of 1997 with at least 10,000 demonstrators marching through central Minsk on 16 March.[5]
Charter 97,a declaration calling for democracy in Belarus was published on the anniversary of the 1996 referendum.[6]
Personalities of the Belarusian Spring
[edit]See also
[edit]- Belarusian democracy movement
- 1991 Belarusian protests
- 2010 Belarusian protests
- 2020 Belarusian protests
References
[edit]- ^abc"Why Don't Belarusians Revolt? | BelarusDigest".Retrieved9 April2021.
- ^"1996 Human Rights Report: Belarus".1997-2001.state.gov.Retrieved9 April2021.
- ^"Belarusian Spring – 1996: As Was The Case".charter97.org.Retrieved9 April2021.
- ^"REPUBLIC OF BELARUS".www.hrw.org.Retrieved9 April2021.
- ^"10,000 in Belarus Protest Moves by President".The New York Times.Agence France-Presse. 16 March 1997.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved9 April2021.
- ^"BBC News | Europe | Belarus government accused of human rights abuses".news.bbc.co.uk.Retrieved9 April2021.
Further reading
[edit]- "Праходзіць Менская вясна"(in Belarusian). Retrieved 2021-04-09.
- Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship,by Andrew Wilson. New Edition. - New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2021. -ISBN9780300259216
- Belarus: A Denationalized Nation (Postcommunist States and Nations),by David R. Marples. - harwood academic publishers, 1999. -ISBN90-5702-343-1