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The European Union said Wednesday it does not recognize the results of Belarus’s August 9 election that detractors of President Alexander Lukashenko say was rigged to extend his 26 years in office. The EU also said it would move forward with sanctions on Belarus.
 
“The EU will impose shortly sanctions on a substantial number of individuals responsible for violence, repression and electoral fraud,” European Council President Charles Michel said after an EU emergency summit to discuss the crisis in Belarus.
 
Unrest in Belarus further escalated Wednesday when Lukashenko ordered his police to suppress protests in the capital, Minsk, days after a severe crackdown on peaceful protesters that resulted in the deaths of at least two people, the injuring of hundreds of others and the detention of nearly 7,000 people.
 
“There should no longer be any disorder in Minsk of any kind,” the official Belta news agency reported Lukashenko as saying.Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko chairs a Security Council meeting in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 18, 2020.Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has offered military assistance to Lukashenko, warned German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron Tuesday not to interfere in Belarusian affairs. Putin’s warning came as he spoke by phone with Merkel, Macron and Michel.
 
A political opponent of Lukashenko urged EU leaders before the emergency summit not to recognize the presidential election, declaring it was rigged in Lukashenko’s favor. Lukashenko denies the accusation.  
 
Political opponent Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya issued the appeal from exile in neighboring Lithuania. “I call on you not to recognize these fraudulent elections,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “Mr.  Lukashenko has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world.”
 
Tsikhanouskaya says she is the winner of the vote and has called for new elections under international supervision.Belarusian Opposition Leader Flees to Lithuania Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya tells supporters she feared for her children’s safety on 3rd straight night of violent anti-government protestsWorkers in Belarus began striking in recent days as part of a campaign to oust the authoritarian president.
 
Unrest began to escalate after Lukashenko dismissed demands to resign following a severe police clampdown on peaceful protesters.
 
Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde has offered to visit Belarus as the incoming head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which frequently mediates disputes on the continent. Western nations and former states of the Soviet Union are members of the OSCE. 
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A political opponent of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko urged European Union leaders Wednesday not to recognize the country’s recent presidential election, declaring it was rigged in favor of Lukashenko.Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya issued the appeal from exile in neighboring Lithuania before European Union leaders hold an emergency summit to discuss the Belarus crisis. “I call on you not to recognize these fraudulent elections,” Tsikhanouskaya said. “Mr.  Lukashenko has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world.”Tsikhanouskaya says she is the winner of the election and has called for new elections under international supervision.Workers in Belarus began striking in recent days as part of a campaign to oust the authoritarian president after he extended his 26-year term in an election detractors contend was rigged. Lukashenko denies manipulating the election.Lukashenko Declared Winner in Belarus Election for 6th Straight Term   Protests erupted challenging the results; rights groups say one person was killed, dozens injured, and several hundred arrests were made Unrest in the country began to escalate after Lukashenko dismissed demands to resign following a severe police crackdown on peaceful protesters days after the August 9 election.EU members have suggested they would place sanctions on Belarusian officials they consider responsible for election fraud and a crackdown on protests that resulted in the deaths of at least two people, the injuring of hundreds of others and the detention of nearly 7,000 people.Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered military assistance to Lukashenko, a close ally. Putin spoke by phone Tuesday with European Council President Charles Michel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron.Putin warned Merkel and Macron not to interfere in Belarusian affairs.Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde has offered to visit Belarus as the incoming head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which frequently mediates disputes on the continent. Western nations and former states of the Soviet Union are members of the OSCE.
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The United Nations reports humanitarian workers are facing unprecedented levels of violence while putting their own lives at risk in order to provide life-saving aid to millions of civilians caught in situations of crisis.  This year’s World Humanitarian Day honors and pays tribute to these thousands of unsung, real life heroes. World Humanitarian Day was created in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the U.N. compound in Baghdad on August 19, 2003.  Twenty-two people were killed, including the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieiro de Mello.Across the World, Humanitarian Workers Grapple With Effects of Coronavirus On World Humanitarian Day, workers mobilize to fight locust swarms in Somalia, feed schoolchildren in Nepal and coordinate aid in war-torn Yemen Since then, nearly 5,000 aid workers have been killed, wounded or abducted.  Spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, tells VOA humanitarian workers in 2019 were subjected to a record number of attacks in conflict zones around the world.“Last year, there was a total of 483 aid workers who were targeted in the fields where they are doing their life saving work; 125 of them were killed in the line of duty and the same number were kidnapped and many more were wounded,” said Laerke. The U.N. reports most of the attacks occurred in Syria, followed by South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan and the Central African Republic.  Laerke says every time aid workers are targeted it has a ripple effect on the population they are trying to help.“The vast majority of aid workers on the front lines—those aid workers that we are calling the real heroes of the day are nationals of the country where they work,” said Laerke. “Very often they are members of the same communities that they are helping.  Some are refugees helping their fellow displaced people or even the host communities where they are.  Others are local doctors and nurses offering their services free of charge.” Still others, he says are international aid workers who jump from crisis to crisis.  Humanitarian agencies warn delivering aid has become even more dangerous in the current coronavirus pandemic.  The International Committee of the Red Cross has documented more than 600 incidents of violence, harassment or stigmatization against healthcare workers, patients and medical infrastructure in relation to COVID-19 cases during the first six months of the pandemic.
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Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya has called on the European Union to not recognize what she called “fraudulent elections” last week in which she lost to longtime President Alexander Lukashenko. In a video message ahead of an emergency EU summit on the issue Wednesday, Tsikhanouskaya said, “Lukashenko has lost all legitimacy in the eyes of our nation and the world.”In this Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020 file photo Belarusian opposition supporters gather for a protest rally in front of the government building at Independent Square in Minsk, Belarus, with a Soviet era sculptures in the foreground.Official election results showed Lukashenko winning with 80% of the votes, and he has denied allegations that the voting was rigged. Tsikhanouskaya rejected the results, as did protesters who have gathered for mass rallies across the country to voice their opposition to Lukashenko. 
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A Washington, D.C.-based political analyst faces an uncertain future in Belarus – where he remains in prison charged with inciting mass unrest in the run-up to rigged elections that triggered a wave of protests in challenge to strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s 26-year rule. Vitali Shkliarov, 44, is a Belarus native married to an American who news reports say works at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. He was arrested July 29 while visiting his parents in his hometown of Grodno.  KGB agents detained him as he went out to the store to buy a watermelon for his son.  He managed to issue one quick message on his popular Telegram channel: “FILE – Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, candidate for the presidential elections, reacts during a meeting with her supporters in Minsk, Belarus, July 19, 2020.Foreign interference conspiracies The elections — which Lukashenko claims he won in a landslide over Tikhanovskaya despite evidence of mass vote rigging — have led to the largest protests in Belarus since the fall of the Soviet Union.  A state crackdown on demonstrators in the wake of the vote has only fueled public anger, with widespread reports of torture and abuse at the hands of police and security forces.  Authorities report nearly 7,000 arrests.   But as discontent with Lukashenko swelled even before the election, Lukashenko warned of foreign plots to overthrow his government.  Enter Shkliarov.  “Some people were detained with American passports, married to Americans, working in the State Department,” said Lukashenko, in what appeared to be comments directed at Shkliarov’s arrest in particular.  “Vitaly’s become a convenient scapegoat for Lukashenko’s security forces,” said Skliarov’s lawyer, Anton Gashinsky, in an interview with VOA.  “He ideally fits the picture that they’re trying to draw: foreigners came from abroad to organize a revolution.” Workers of the Minsk Tractor Works Plant leave after their work shift as activists with old Belarusian national flags greet them in Minsk, Belarus, August 18, 2020.Shkliarov denies he was active in Tikhanovsky’s campaign and says he is being punished for writing critically about the government in the run-up to the election.  A prolific political commentator on events in America and the former Soviet Union, Shkliarov’s writings have appeared in Foreign Policy magazine and Russia’s independent Novaya Gazeta among other publications. He has also advised on presidential campaigns in Russia, Georgia and the United States —  where he worked as a field staff organizer for former President Barack Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.  The Belarusian human rights group Viasna has recognized him as a political prisoner.  The European Federation of Journalists, EFJ, is also demanding his release.   If found guilty of charges, Shkliarov faces up to three years in prison and fines.   Conditions inside  Shkliarov has detailed a grim existence since his detention last month.  “Like any person daring to criticize an authoritarian regime, I understood you can’t swear off prison. But when they arrested me, I didn’t expect that I would fall into a totalitarian torture chamber,” Shkliarov wrote in a statement released to Novaya Gazeta Monday.  “No, they don’t beat me. But they’re trying to break me. With everything they have,” he added.  Shkliarov said he was put in a dirty, overcrowded cell with no hot water despite increasingly brisk temperatures in Belarus.  Inmates are forced to shave with a dull razor and given one shower weekly – prompting skin breakouts. Patriotic Soviet music blasts through the prison from morning until night. Prisoners are forbidden to lay down throughout the day.   He said he has also been denied contact with family members through mail, and that his writings and letters are read and confiscated by authorities.   Complaints led to a six-hour stint in the stakan – Russian for “the glass” – a vertical isolation cell with no room to sit while deprived of food and water.  “He’s constantly under psychological pressure,” his lawyer, Gashinsky, said to VOA.  “He’s living in conditions he considers inhuman to try and break him psychologically.”   “It shouldn’t be this way. This isn’t 1937,” added Gashinsky in a reference to the height of the Soviet-era repressions. Responding to inquiries from VOA, the U.S. Embassy in Minsk acknowledged a consular officer had been granted access to Shkliarov on August 13 after “repeatedly” raising concerns. “We continue to press for fair treatment, judicial transparency, and regular visits by U.S. consular officials,” read the statement.  “We have no higher priority than the safety and welfare of U.S. citizens abroad,” it said. Other US lawmakers say they, too, are paying attention. U.S. Department of State officials have not responded to VOA requests for comment on Shkliarov’s case.  But some U.S. lawmakers say they are paying attention.  “The government’s ongoing crackdown on the democratic opposition, as well as the arrest of American citizen Vitaly Shkliarov, is a calamity and completely unacceptable,” said Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a statement.  “Now more than ever, the international community must not waver in our steadfast support for democracy, human rights and the aspirations of the Belarusian people.”  It is a message Shkliarov came to identify with during his own experiences on the campaign trail in America.  In an interview with Public Radio International’s The World in 2018, he recalled his experiences urging Americans who were reluctant to vote in the U.S. presidential elections during cold-calls over the phone. “I grew up in a country where nobody asked us. Nobody asked me what president I would love to elect or even who I am. Nobody cared,” Shlkiarov said he would tell people.   “And here you have this democracy. You can actively voice your opinion and influence the decision-making. This is amazing. You guys don’t understand what you have.”   Most, said Shkliarov, promised to cast their ballots.    
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More workers joined a growing strike Tuesday to oust authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko after he extended his 26-year term in an election that detractors contend was rigged.Thousands of workers began walking off the job Monday at state-controlled facilities, joining actors and broadcasters. Unrest began to escalate after Lukashenko dismissed demands to resign following a severe police crackdown on peaceful protesters days after the August 9 election.Workers of the Minsk Tractor Works Plant leave after their work shift as activists with old Belarusian national flags greet them in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 18, 2020.The first government official to challenge Lukashenko was the ambassador to Slovakia, who said in a video Saturday before he resigned that he supported the protests.The ambassador to Spain, Pavel Pustav, posted a statement Tuesday on Facebook urging a vote recount and the prosecution of those who beat peaceful protesters.Officials from Western countries have refused to recognize the election as free and fair, and they have denounced the police crackdown.The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to discuss Belarus in a closed-door session Tuesday, one day before European Union leaders are to discuss the matter.
 
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Judges at a U.N.-backed tribunal have found one man guilty in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and acquitted three others charged in the case.   
 
The presiding judge at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon declared that Salim Jamil Ayyash was guilty on all counts, including conspiracy to commit a terrorist act using explosives and intentional homicide of Hariri, the 21 bystanders who were killed in the massive explosion, as well as the attempted murder of the 226 injured persons.
 
But the court said it could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra were guilty of being part of the conspiracy.
 
All four defendants were tried “in absentia” and have not been seen in years.
 
The men were low-level operatives with the Lebanese group Hezbollah.  
 A woman holds images, some showing former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, outside the U.N.-backed Lebanon Special Tribunal in Leidschendam, Netherlands, Aug. 18, 2020.Much of the prosecution’s case centered around phone records of the four Hezbollah operatives charged with planning and carrying out the attack and the ensuing attempt to cover it up.
The defense argued that the evidence was circumstantial and unreliable.  
 
A tribunal judge said Tuesday that while Syria and Hezbollah “may have had motives to eliminate” Hariri, the judges found no evidence that either was involved in Hariri’s assassination.      
   
Syria and Hezbollah were not on trial, but in the aftermath of the assassination, fingers were pointed at Damascus. Massive national protests led to Syria’s troop withdrawal from Lebanon.   
   
The judges said it is beyond a reasonable doubt that a suicide bomber set off the explosion, but they could not make any finding regarding the bomber’s identity.   
    
A U.N. Security Council resolution established the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) in 2007, following a request to the United Nations by the Lebanese government.Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri speaks to the media after a U.N.-backed tribunal handed down a verdict in the 2005 bombing that killed former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 21 other people, in Leidschendam, Netherlands, Aug. 18, 2020.The trial, which began in 2014, involved 297 witnesses and 3,000 exhibits of evidence.  
 
Hariri was killed Feb. 14, 2005, as his convoy drove along the Beirut seafront. The judges determined that an unidentified suicide bomber detonated the small truck loaded with 2,500 to 3,000 kilograms of a TNT-like explosive.  
 
A number of victims attended the session at the court, located in a suburb of The Hague, including Hariri’s son, Saad, who is also a former prime minister.  
 
Presiding Judge David Re said he hoped the court’s verdict gives the victims and their families some form of closure.    
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A U.S. arms envoy said Tuesday it is Russia’s turn to respond to U.S. terms to extend the landmark New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.“Russia understands our position and what remains to be seen is if there is the political will in Moscow to get this deal done,” said Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control Marshall Billingslea. “The ball is now in Russia’s court.”   Billingslea’s comments were made to reporters in a telephone briefing after the latest round of talks in Vienna with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. FILE – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov speaks to the media in New York, Jan. 16, 2010.The treaty limits the U.S. and Russian deployment of strategic nuclear weapons and expires in February.  The U.S. wants to address Russia’s build-up of its shorter-range nuclear weapons arsenal that is not covered by the 2010 treaty. Washington also has called for a more robust weapons verification system. The U.S. has demanded that China be included in any deal replacing the treaty, but Billingslea appeared to soften the request, saying a framework would be developed that “can include China in due course.” Washington pulled out of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 1987 after maintaining Russia deployed a cruise missile in violation of the deal. Russia said because of the missile’s range, it was not covered under the INF agreement. The U.S. is trying to negotiate a deal that covers all warheads. Russia says it has no preconditions. “Russia stands for an extension of the START treaty but is not ready to pay any price for that,” Ryabkov said through his ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna.  S. Ryabkov: Russia stands for an extention of the START Treaty, but is not ready to pay any price for that.— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) August 18, 2020 
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