An annual report focuses on human rights abuses registered in 2008. Some steps taken by the government to open up to the West were seen as “a thaw,” but still human rights monitors registered many violations. The authorities slightly changed their methods, but there was no freedom of assembly, expression, political parties and religion. In 2008, security officers raided offices and apartments of journalists working for Radio Racyja, a Byalystok-based, radio station, and Belsat, a Warsaw-based satellite TV channel, in Belarus. The same year, the authorities released what the EU and United States called political prisoners. The report may be useful to those who follow developments in Belarus. The documented instances of human rights violations throw light on false starts of the democratization process. (Z.K.)