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Letter of Appeal from the AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility

27 August 2001


His Excellency Aleksandr Lukashenko
President of the Republic of Belarus
Office of the President
220010 Minsk, Minsk oblast
Belarus
Faxes: 011 375 172 223872 or 011 375 172 260610


Dear Mr. President:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the largest organization of natural and social scientists in the United States and the world's largest federation of scientific organizations, with 145,000 individual members and 300 affiliated groups. AAAS publishes the preeminent scientific journal Science . The association is concerned about the role of science in the world, including the rights and responsibilities of scientists. Our AAAS Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility was formed in 1976 to protect the human rights of scientists, engineers, and health professionals and to deal with issues relating to scientific freedom worldwide.

On behalf of the Committee, I am writing to express my concern about the recent conviction of Dr. Yury Bandazhevsky. I am extremely concerned about reports that Vladimir Ravkov, 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 Belarusian security forces. He stated that security forces interrogated him for 14-16 hours a day, denied him food and sleep, and threatened to harm his wife and daughter. As I am sure you are aware, Article 15 of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment requires the exclusion of evidence extracted as a result of ill treatment or duress. It is also the Committee's understanding that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Advisory and Monitoring Group for Belarus issued a statement that no evidence had been provided to the court to substantiate Dr. Bandazhevsky's guilt.

If there is not substantial evidence to support the conviction of bribery, it appears that Dr. Bandazhevsky is being targeted because of his criticism of the government's health policies. In the last few years, Dr. Bandazhevsky has increasingly spoken up against government policies for dealing with the health risks caused by the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident. He has been critical of a policy that would remove restrictions on contaminated foods. His research has demonstrated a correlation between daily ingestion of food contaminated with Cesium 137 with a dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality among the exposed population, especially children. His fear was that a government policy to remove the restrictions on these foods would expose citizens to serious health risks.

Prosecuting an individual for speaking out against the government is in direct violation of Article 19 of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 19 states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

According to reports, Dr. Bandazhevsky will be unable to appeal this conviction in the Belarusian court system. The only way to reverse this unjust sentence is through a presidential pardon. I urge you to review this case and seriously consider the merits of a pardon.


Sincerely,

Carole Nagengast, Ph.D., Chair
Committee on Scientific Freedom
and Responsibility

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