Participants of the protest action on March 25, Freedom Day, were interrogated in the committee of inquiry the Interior Affairs general directorate of the Minsk Executive Committee. Vyachaslau Siuchyk, who was sentenced to 15-days arrest, told about it to the Viasna human rights center. The participants of the protest rally were interrogated for three days, while they were kept in the special pre-trial detention center.
Six persons have submitted bids to the Permanent Council of the Pro-Democracy Forces to compete for the single opposition candidacy in the 2006 presidential election, according to Vladimir Strakh, head of the Permanent Council Secretariat.
Participant of the protest on March 25, an activist of the Zubr movement Andrei Baranau was taken to hospital number 9 from the court of the Tsentralny district of Minsk. According to the lawyer of the human rights center Viasna Valyantsin Stefanovich, who is in the court now, many participants of the protest are arriving in the court with brain injuries.
In the former Soviet republics of Ukraine, Georgia and, most recently, Kyrgyzstan, peaceful, pro-democracy protesters have ousted corrupt and autocratic governments that attempted to hold onto power through rigged elections.
The Ukrainian party “Pora” has adopted a statement in support of the Belarusian political prisoners. The Ukrainian youth call the Belarusian authorities to stop political repressions against their citizens. “We are not asking, but demanding to release coordinator of the civil initiative Charter’97 Zmitser Bandarenka, and one of the leaders of the Zubr movement Mikita Sasim, and other political prisoners. In the beginning of the orange revolution, and at its crucial moment, Zmitser Bandarenka and Mikita Sasim, as well as many other Belarusian patriots, were with us on Kyiv Maidan (Independence Square) shoulder to shoulder, and fighting for Ukrainian and Belarusian democracy. That is why we call all Ukrainian democratic forces, as well as the new democratic regime, to join the campaign for release of Belarusian political prisoners,” the statement reads.
At the 61st session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva a report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus was delivered. The leaders of the civil initiative “We Remember” Iryna Krasouskaya and Sviatlana Zavadskaya, as well as the head of the International League of Human Rights expressed incomprehension and disagreement with the point of view stated by A. Severin in his report. To their mind, the document is not taking in consideration the attitude of he international community on majority of questions.
Today Dzianis Krauchonak, a participant of the protest rally on Freedom Day, on March 25, has been sentenced to 5 days of arrest by the court of the Tsentralny district of Minsk. This decision was made by the chairman of the court Nikalay Samasejka.
The chairman of the court of the Tsentralny district of Minsk Mikalay Samasejka sentenced the participant of the action on March 25 Kanstantsin Karol to 5 days of arrest. By passing a judgement the chairman of the district court had not taken into account the fact that doctors established a traumatic brain injury of Kanstantsin Karol, a result of brutal beating-up in the police bus after detention. On Saturday, March 26 an ambulance was called to the special pre-trial detention center in Akrestyn Street. The ambulance had taken K. Karol to a hospital, were the diagnosis was established, human rights center Viasna informs.
On March 25 in the building of the Senate of the Czech Republic a round table discussion was organized on the occasion of the solemn celebration of the Freedom Day of Belarus. The topic of the discussion was “From Totalitarianism and Tyranny to Real Independence”. The initiators of this event were a public association “Union of Belarusians Abroad”, a group of Czech Senators headed by the deputy head of the upper chamber of the Czech Parliament Edward Outrata and the human rights organization “Amnesty International”.
Mikalai Charnavus was charged with organizing an unsanctioned meeting during the strike of vendors in Baranavichy on March 1, and action on behalf of the unregistered organization. On March 25 Mr. Charnavus was punished by a fine 240,000 rubles.
On March 25-27 opposition activists tried to continue a non-stop protest in support of political prisoners, staged daily on October Square in Minsk since March 11. For three days activists of the Zubr movement, public association Perspektyva, the United Civil Party, common citizens were coming to the square with the portraits of political prisoners: politician and diplomat Mikhail Marynich, leaders of the vendors’ movement Valery Levaneuski, Alyaksandr Vasilyeu and Anatol Shumchanka, the coordinator of the civil initiative Charter’97 Zmitser Bandarenka and one of the Zubr leaders Mikita Sasim. However they were forced out of the square by Minsk riot police, who said that it was an unsanctioned protest.
The Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan has revealed its impact in Belarus, a former White Russian Republic. Belarus` Administration condemned the opposition`s overthrow of the Askar Akayev government and hundreds of people in Belarus participated in demonstrations calling for the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Reporters Without Borders today condemned the confiscation of four computers and printing equipment from the independent weekly Zhoda yesterday in Minsk by plain-clothes members of the Belarusian KGB and local police. The newspaper, which has a circulation of 5,000, is accused of illegally installing its offices in an apartment.
A dozen activists of the Belarusian Free Trade Union (BFTU) staged an authorized rally in the northern city of Polotsk on March 26 to protest the persecution of BFTU members.
About 30 participants of the protest rally on Freedom Day, March 25 have spent the weekend in the pre-trial detention center in Akrestsyn Street. The names of some of them are known. Among the arrested are opposition activists Vyachaslau Sivchyk, Dzmitry Harbunou, Ihar Novikau, Andrei Baranau, Yuliy Bugaeu, Anton Tsikhanovich, Alyaskandr Khupyarskou, Vadzim Taptunou and Alyaksnadr Prushynski. On March 28 all the detainees are to be tried in the court of the Tsentral district of Minsk.
An independent pundit predicted that Aleksandr Lukashenko’s edict touted by the government as creating favorable conditions for the operation of market vendors would have the opposite effect.
According to legal expert Sergei Balykin, the edict’s provision that sets space rent caps for privately owned retail markets and shopping centers runs counter to the Civil Code and the constitution, violating the owner’s right to charge any amount for renting his/her property.
There were six Belarusian citizens on the eight-member crew of a Ukrainian-registered cargo plane that crashed into Lake Victoria in Tanzania on March 23, Ruslan Yesin, a spokesman for the Belarusian foreign ministry, confirmed to BelaPAN on Saturday.
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