Legal purging in post-Soviet countries discussed in Minsk

Civil society activists from Belarus and Ukraine talked about the criteria and issues of purging in Belarus.

On 18^th July, a round table “Relevance of purging on the post-Soviet territories” organized by the “Purging for Belarus” civil initiative took place in Minsk. The participants discussed the Ukrainian experience (starting from Maidan to our days), examples of legal purging in other post-Soviet countries and possibilities of purging in Belarus, Assembly NGO informs.

As one of the round table organizers and member of the Assembly’s Working Group, Waclaw Areszka, said, the informal civil initiative dedicated to the issues and perspectives of purging arose 3 years ago aiming at elaborating the concept of purging in Belarus and prepare the society for it.

At the meeting, Uladzimier Javorski, an expert from Ukraine, human rights defender, and a co-author of the draft law on purging that is being considered by the Ukrainian parliament at the momenttook a word. He stressed that his vision of legal purging is based on the Council of Europe standards, according to which purging is not a criminal punishment, but is just a ban to hold a number of positions in the government. According to the human rights defender, legal purging should be aimed at consolidation of democracy and prevention of the governmental officials sharing totalitarian values to work in the government for 10-15 years.

Vinchuk Viachorka, Assembly’s Working Group member said that legal purging is Belarus should cover the governmental officials who worked during the Soviet times. He also noted that the society should elaborate high moral standards for people striving for power and stick to those. The second Chair of the Supreme Council of Belarus, Miachyslau Hryb, suggested that the opposition and civil activists acted more ingeniously and didn’t reveal all their purging plans so that the authorities couldn’t consolidate even more.

Experts and civil activists discussed the criteria and issues of purging in Belarus for 3 hours. How should legal purging be implemented? Who will do that? Is it necessary to purge business circles along with the authorities? Should the KGB archives be made public?

In the nearest future, the civil working group on the purging plans to raise the issue among the broader public. Anyone who is interested may join the group.