AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

On 5 August 2005, Belarusian authorities conditionally released Professor Yury Bandazhevsky as part of an amnesty declared by President Lukashenka. Professor Bandazhevsky had served four of his eight year sentence. He was convicted of taking bribes from students, but international human rights organizations and his international scientific colleagues believe that the conviction was in retaliation for Dr. Bandazhevsky's criticism of the government's reponse to the radioactive fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in neighboring Ukraine. The colleague of Dr. Bandazhevsky who initially made the allegations of bribery subsequently withdrew the statement and claimed that the testimony he gave was the result of torture inflicted by the security forces.

Dr. Bandazhevsky is a highly respected medical researcher and an expert on the effects of radiation exposure. Research he and his wife, who is a physician, had conducted found pathological effects of the radiation from Chernobyl on children's health, findings which contradicted the government's official position. In 1999, he wrote a critical research report that claimed that the Ministry of Health and one of its research divisions, the Institute of Radiation Medicine, was not properly researching the effects of radiation contamination, particularly on food, from the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. The Institute supported a Belarusian policy that removed restrictions on contaminated food, leaving citizens to take their own precautions to avoid possible health risks.

Dr. Bandazhevsky's release is conditional. For the remaining time of his sentence, he will have to report regularly to the police. He is also restricted from being actively involved in politics, and may not be able to assume a managerial role in a research institute that a French research institution would like to start in Minsk.

The French research institution, the Commission de Recherche et d'Information Indépendantes sur la Radioactivité (CRIIRAD), has started an international project to create a biomedical laboratory in Minsk that would research the pathological effects of radioactive contamination that will be headed by Dr. Bandazhevsky and his wife, Dr. Galina Bandazhevskaya. According to CRIIRAD, they have about 50% of the necessary funds to start the lab. More information about the CRIIRAD - Bandazhevsky can be found online at: http://www.criirad.org/.

(Sources of information for this alert include: Amnesty International , The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Commission de Recherche et d'Information Indépendantes sur la Radioactivité.)

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send faxes or letters:

• Commending the government for the early release of Professor Yuri Bandazhevsky; and
• Requesting that all restrictions, particularly the one limiting him from managing a research institute, be lifted immediately.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

Alyaksandr Hryhoravich LUKASHENKA
President of the Republic of Belarus
Respublika Belarus
220016 g. Minsk
ul. Karla Marksa, 38
Administratsia Prezidenta
Respubliki Belarus
Fax: 375 172 26 06 10
Salutation: Dear President:

Viktor GOLOVANOV
Minister of Justice of the Republic of Belarus
220084 g. Minsk
ul. Kollektornaya, 10
Ministerstvo yustitsii Respubliki
Belarus
Ministru GOLOVANOVU V.
Fax: 375 172 20 96 84
Salutation: Dear Mr. Minister

Mikhail Khvostov
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus
Respublika Belarus
220030 g. Minsk
Ul. Lenina, 19
Ministerstvo inostrannykkh del Respubliki Belarus
Ministru Khostovu M.
Fax: 375 172 27 45 21
Salutation: Dear Mr. Minister

COPIES SENT TO:

His Excellency Mikhail Khvostov
Ambassador of the Republic of Belarus
Embassy of the Republic of Belarus
1619 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Fax: (202) 986-1805
Salutation: Dear Mr. Ambassador

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