Belarus: ICFTU denounces assault on independent trade union activist
Brussels, 16 March 2004 (ICFTU OnLine). The ICFTU today denounced a physical attack on a Belarussian trade union
activist, which occurred earlier this month in the city of Grodno and urged the government of President Aleksandr
Lukashenko to open an investigation into the assault.
According to the ICFTU, Ivan Roman, an activist of the independent trade union "ASM", was walking in the Old Town
section of Grodno, on his way home, on the evening of March 8, 2004, when he was suddenly pushed into a car by an
unknown individual. Once inside the car, he was beaten on the head and passed out. He woke at least one our later, lying
in the snow in a field, on the outskirts of the city. His notebook and keys had disappeared, though his passport was in
the snow not far from him.
When he tried to report to the police, the officers refused to note his complaint and refused to issue him with a
written instruction needed under regulations in force to obtain a doctor's certificate of injury. He had sustained a
facial bruise and suffers from severe headaches. He has since written a formal complaint to the local prosecutor but is
still awaits a reply from the prosecutor's office.
"I would like to think the assault is not connected to my trade union activities, says Roman, but I doubt it. My wife is
convinced the two are closely related". Ivan Roman had been dismissed last November from his job as a production-line
operator in Grodno's "Republican Unitary" enterprise of automobile spare parts, after several years of increasingly
active involvement with the ASM trade union. He suffered serious harassment after denouncing the conditions under which
the factory had been privatised. These conditions violated both the law and provisions of the collective agreement in
force at the plant. Amongst other measures, he had been detained three times by the plant's security guards and on two
occasions had been brought by the guards to the local police station. He had, since his dismissal, been distributing the
independent union newspaper Rabocha Solidarnosc ("Workers' Solidarity"). While distributing the union paper, he was
summoned by the police and asked why he was involved with it. When he asked the officer questioning him for the purpose
of the interrogation, he was told it was carried out under instructions of the State Security Committee, "KGB".
The ICFTU represents over 150 million workers in 233 affiliated organisations in 152 countries and territories. ICFTU is
also a member of Global Unions: http://www.global-unions.org