The Assembly of Belarusian NGOs works to protect the rights of non-governmental organisations and provides consultative and training services for NGOs. They are involved in the consolidation of members for the Assembly according to the areas of activity of the different organisations, arranging round table meetings and coordinating national projects. They provide information to NGOs and help to inform the suitable foreign partners for Belarusian NGOs and help to inform the international community about the development of the independent Belarusian third sector.

"Being a perfect example of a totalitarian neo-Soviet figure, President Lukashenka (and his followers as well), have an aggressive attitude to virtually any form of civil activism. Of course, opposition activists, and human rights defenders are a special target. Is it a Biblereaders society, vegetarian community or group of philatelists – all these are wrong if not originated from some government organ.

Current Belarusian legislation restricts the right to association. Those groups that have no official status are banned; membership and leadership are punishable by law and possible consequences include heavy fines and imprisonment. Reading this, one can say “Well, so why not to register?” It is not that simple. In fact the registration process is in the hands of government. So if they think there should be no permission – an organisation won’t be allowed to register. Formally, you can appeal to court, but, in fact, the courts are in hands of the “vertical” powers too.

So, it’s no surprise that here in Belarus, we carry out our activities underground. The KGB (yes, in our country this agency still proudly bears the name of the Soviet machine of repression) routinely tries to stop uncontrolled NGOs. Threats and “warnings” are usual, so is the recruitment of informers. But, this is not the full arsenal. Our organisation was attacked several different ways. Most notable were house-breaking to get our documents and poisoning. The former probably isn’t that interesting as many secret services use this illegal tool, when their power gives them possibilities to avoid “formalities” such as orders and official warrants.

The latter is less usual. I was poisoned during our meeting where many prominent activists and public leaders were present. It was not lethal poisoning, otherwise I would be dead. They just wanted to implant the feeling of fear and insecurity and disorganise our work before the presidential elections in 2006. It was useless to appeal to the police, because we decided that the it could be used as a pretext to attack and discredit everyone at the meeting. The poisoning had numerous consequences for our organisation and many of them are still to be dealt with. Yes, in some aspects they reached the goal. It was a blast of fear. Some of our employees and volunteers stopped work and left our organisation. I also felt a blast of distrust. There were no strangers at our meeting; someone, who belongs to our circle did it. The circumstances of the crime give us no way to definitely identify him/her, and it was very hard psychologically so that relations began to deteriorate. We found a solution, which I believe was the only right thing to do. Simply stop searching for the internal enemy, which anyway would be fruitless in terms of justice, but very fruitful in terms of sowing distrust. And continue to work for our goals, because it is our response,which they want to prevent but which is so necessary for our country.

Personally, it was hard too. I was virtually paralysed for several weeks, and taking into account the fact, that for some time nobody was able to say how it could affect my health and life, one could imagine my state of mind. But thanks to my family, friends and colleagues, they helped me in my recovery, which means among other things learning to speak and walk again."