Human Rights Center Viasna is extremely concerned with the intensification of repressions against representatives of democratic opposition during the last months. Well-known public and political activists of Belarus are put behind bolt and bar for the reasons that are invented or provoked by the authorities.
Police detained another four people who handed out the Day of Freedom bulletin devoted to the anniversary of the declaration of the Belarusian People`s Republic. One of the detained is the BPF Party activist, Yuras Karetnikau. Now the detained people are in the Frunzenski Department of Internal Affairs of Minsk.
Three young activists of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) were arrested by police officers at about 3 a.m. on March 25, when they were hanging white-red-white colored ribbons on trees in central Minsk on the occasion of the 87th anniversary of the proclamation of the Belarusian National Republic, the BPF press office reported.
Bonn-based activists of Amnesty International Germany have started collecting signatures to a petition demanding the “immediate and unconditional release” of Belarusian opposition politician Mikhail Marinich, according to the website belarus-petition.org.
The Council of the Perspektiva business association on March 24 issued a statement urging on Prosecutor General Pyotr Miklashevich to “end a crackdown on activists of entrepreneurs` organizations and other citizens of Belarus who express their views and convictions in accordance with the constitution.”
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus has sent an answer to the supervisory appeal of he lawyer of the Belarusian political prisoners Valery Levaneuski and Alyaksandr Vasilyeu. The appeal has been lodged by a lawyer Alyaksandr Berylau on February 14. In the appeal the legal representative pointed at the violations of the norms of the code of criminal procedure during the trial over the leaders of the vendors’ movement Valery Vasilyeu and Alyaksandr Levaneuski, about the absence of trustworthy inculpatory evidence of the political prisoners, incorrect evaluation of the proofs by the court. However the Supreme Court of Belarus had found that there are no reasons for issuing the protest and upheld the verdict of the court of Lenin district of Hrodna (two years of imprisonment in a colony).
Young activists of the Belarusian Popular Front Party started to celebrate the Freedom Day, March 25, by attaching white-red-white ribbons on the trees in the center of Minsk. As the press service of the Belarusian Popular Front party informs, the action started at 2.30 a.m. The ribbons were tied on Peramoha Square, the Kastrychnitskaya Square and in Skaryna Avenue. In about half an hour three participants of the action were detained by policemen and taken to the police department of the Tsentralny district of Minsk.
The isolated former Soviet republic of Belarus on Friday sharply criticized the Kyrgyzstan opposition`s seizure of power there, and called it unconstitutional. "The events of March 24, 2005 in the capital of Kyrgyzstan provoke concern in Belarus," the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
On the first decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, democracy took root in most of its republics in name only. With the exception of the Baltic republics - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, now deeply entwined in Europe - new political systems and new leaders emerged from the post-Soviet chaos promising freedoms but somehow managing to ensure that those freedoms led to the continuation of their power.
Today from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. a picket in front of the Belarusian Embassy in Kyiv is to take place. It was initiated by public organizations “National Alliance” (Ukraine) and the “Young Front” (Belarus). The protest is timed to March 25, when in 1918 the independent Belarusian People’s Republic was proclaimed.
On the 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva on March 24 a report of the Special Rapporteur on situation with human rights in Belarus Adrian Severin was circulated. The leaders of the civil initiative “We Remember” Iryna Krasouskaya and Svyatlana Zavadskaya who are present at the session of the Commission in Brussels together with the representative of the organization in Brussels Volha Stuzhynskaya, as well as the International League of Human Rights express incomprehension and disagreement with the point of view expressed by A. Severin in the report.
On March 25, 1918 for the first time in about a thousand-year history of our unique nation statehood of Belarus was declares, and the Belarusian People’s Republic was created. Though the first independent Belarusian state had existed for less than a year, this day is to remain in the life of the country and of the Belarusians as a very important and a really national holiday. This holiday should weld, unite the nation. We offer the address of the Rada (Council) of the Belarusian People’s Republic to the Belarusian nation.
Four more opposition activists were arrested on March 24 after they attempted to hand out a bulletin urging the public to attend Friday’s anti-government demonstration in downtown Minsk.
The Belarusian foreign ministry has condemned the submission for consideration by the UN Commission on Human Rights of a draft resolution on the human rights situation in Belarus co-sponsored by the United States and the European Union.
The last events in Kyrgyzstan are a warning to Aleksandr Lukashenko, prominent Belarusian opposition politician Andrei Klimov told BelaPAN on Thursday.
Market vendors plan to stage an unsanctioned demonstration in downtown Minsk on March 25, Olga Krumina, spokeswoman for the Perspektiva business association, told BelaPAN on Thursday.
After Georgia and Ukraine, "silk revolution" hit Kyrgyzstan. President Askar Akayev has fled the country, and opposition MP Ishenbai Kadyrbekov was named acting president, hours after demonstrators overran the presidential palace in the capital, Bishkek.
A top executive with Russia’s Gazprom warned on Friday that the gas giant may raise its price for Belarusian consumers next year as part of its effort to deregulate domestic prices.
Belarus’ Prosecutor General`s Office has instituted criminal proceedings against the director of the State Aviation Committee’s Flight Support and Coordination Center.
Collectivized farming is the basis for rural revival, said Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko on Thursday while speaking at a government conference on the 2005-2010 rural revival and development program. He said that the development of large-scale manufacturers is the focus of the program. However, Mr. Lukashenko said that private farmers would also receive support under the program.
China attaches great importance to cooperation with Belarus’ Air/Air Defense Forces, the Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan as saying at his meeting with Oleg Paferov, chief of Belarus’ Air/Air Defense Forces, in Beijing on Thursday.
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