Viktar Kalei: «From January 1 hundreds of thousands of people will be without means of support»

“The authorities frightened by the organised actions of the entrepreneurs and will use all levers of power the meeting not to be held on December 10,” Viktar Kalei, one of the action organisers, deputy head of the public organisation “For Free Development of Enterprise” said to the Charter’97 press center, commenting the sentence of the Zavadski District Court in Minsk.

It should be reminded that the Zavadski District Court of Minsk has sentenced today entrepreneurs Ales Talstyka and Ruslan Lutsenka to 7 and 10 days of arrest for spreading leaflets with information about the meeting, which is to be held on Kastrychnitskaya Square of Minsk on December 10.

But, according to Viktar Kalei, entrepreneurs can’t be frightened with trials or other persecutions. “From January 1 not tens, but hundreds of thousands of people will be without means of support. The majority can’t afford to re-register themselves as unitary private enterprises, it requires essential financial resources, moreover, taxes for unitary private enterprises are extremely high, so the people are quite decided about protest. What’s concerning the place of the action holding, we are peremptory about it: we are going to organise a meeting only on Kastrychnitskaya Square, whatever answer of the Minsk City Executive Committee would be,” one of the action organisers said to the Charter’97 press center.

He also added that the organisers had invited representatives of the council of ministers to the meeting, including minister of internal affairs Navumau, and had sent invitations to foreign ambassadors.

Viktar Kalei also said the meeting organiser count on a great number of participants of the action. “We spread the information sheets, where telephone numbers of organisers are pointed, in trade centers and on markets. People show their interest, support the idea of meeting, agree with the necessity to protest, as the authorities haven’t left another choice for us. Even if only two thousands of people come, the authorities will have to make concessions,” one of the leaders of movement of entrepreneurs thinks.

It should be reminded that a meeting of entrepreneurs is to be held on Kastrychnitskaya Square in Minsk on December 10. Its objective is to protest against Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s decrees on re-registration of individual entrepreneurs into unitary private enterprises and against ban to employ people who are not close relatives.