About 8 opposition activists came to the October square of Minsk today. They protest against rigging the voting results at the parliamentary elections and referendum. People were holding national white-red-white flags, and a banner “Yes to Belarus, No – to Lukashenka!”. In 15 minutes all participants of the protest were detained by riot policemen. Among the detainees are opposition activist Vyachaslaw Sivchyk and leader of the Belarusian Party of Freedom Syarhei Vysotski. It is the eighth day of confrontation of the regime and people who do not want to put up with rigged voting results of the parliamentary elections and referendum.
Law-enforcing agencies from Mahilyow have deported two US citizens for “illegal missionary activities”. As the BELTA agency was informed by the regional KGB department, the Americans came to our country for rendering humanitarian aid under the aegis of an officially registered in Belarus international charity organization “Sofia”. However, according to the KGB information, they disseminate the teaching of Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, LDS Church). They handed out books, carried out meetings. The LDS Church is not registered in the Mahilyow region, the KGB informed.
The Political Council of the United Civic Party (UCP) has adopted a statement describing the official results of the October 17 parliamentary elections and referendum as illegitimate.
Today the coordinator of the civil initiative “Charter’97” has received several phone calls from the unknown persons. They presented themselves as officers of the Minsk Organized Crime police Division. “A person started to call me on my mobile phone. He presented himself as a representative of Minsk Organized Crime Division, police major Emelyanov, and offered me to come for a “conversation”. I told that I can come, but only after a writ would be sent to me. After that, in several hours, another person called me. He presented himself as an officer of the same department, major Sergey Ivanovich Voronov. He also offered me to come to him for a conversation. I said again, if I would receive a writ, as my experience tells me that such conversations are usually followed by arrests, searches and battering. And if before this moment the person who called me talked with me politely and respectfully, after that he started to talk offensively and started to make threats to me. “There would be arrests, searches, battering. We guarantee this”. After that I just hanged up the receiver,” told Dzmitry Bandarenka to the Charter’97 press center.
Today’s rebroadcast of Sunday’s analytical TV program “Vesti nedeli” (News of the Week) of the Russian television channel RTR was censored by the Belarusian authorities again. A large item covering the events in Belarus (elections and referendum, “Belarus Democracy Act’, protest rallies), was substituted by commercials. Yesterday evening the item was shown all right, but today morning TV audience has not seen it.
A criminal action has been initiated against Syarhei Kalyakin, the leader of the Party of Communists of Belarus, oppositional to the current president. Alena Skryhan, second secretary of the Communist party told that Kalyakin is charged with publishing documents with figures of the results of the voting, which had been prepared before the elections and come to hand to Kalyakin.
Banners with the words “He has lost” were hanged out in Minsk by Zubr activists. One of the banners was placed on the railway bridge over the road to the market “Zhadnovichy”. The other was placed over the road to the Automobile market. These are the liveliest roads on the weekend in Minsk. The slogans were seen by thousands of drivers and passengers.
The European Union, next to the USA, should put pressure upon the Belarusian authorities. This statement of Hans-Georg Wieck, the former OSCE Office head in Minsk, at the session of the Bundestag, is quoted by the German newspaper “Koellner Stadt –Anzeiger”.
Poland`s interior minister said on Saturday he has suspended an agreement between a Polish and a Belarusian police academy because of recent police violence against protesters in Belarus. Police forces in Belarus have been cracking down on demonstrators protesting Oct. 17`s referendum, which was widely seen as fraudulent. The vote allowed pro-Moscow authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to seek a third term in power.
The politicians delegated by opposition parties to the central election commission as associate members have condemned last week`s referendum and parliamentary elections as riddled with violations.
The Belarusians are going to continue protest against rigged results of the parliamentary elections and referendum held on October 17. On October 24, for the seventh time, people came to the October Square of Minsk again. Several dozens of Zubr activists unfurled a white-red-white flag and a flag of the European Union. One of the Zubr activists, Alyaksandr Atroschankaw, made a speech. He had read an address to the citizens of the country with an intention to organize a mass protest action on November 26. “An outrageous fraud has causes a wave of protests, -- was written in the document. – For seven days the Belarusians were coming to this square. The protest of the Belarusian youth was seen by the whole country, by the whole world. Dozens of our friends were thrown in jail. The world community does not recognize the results of the parliamentary elections and referendum and expresses support to the people of Belarus. Our struggle is to be continued. Resistance is to be shown in many forms all over the country”.
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