The OSCE conference on issues of domestic independent election watch is being held in Warsaw these days. Among those invited to the conference were also the activists of the Belarusian Civil Initiative “Partnerstva” who conducted independent monitoring of the elections in 2004. On their way to Warsaw, however, they were detained by the Belarusian customs officers who refused to allow them to cross the boarder. They also took away published materials belonging to the activists of “Partnerstva” including the book “Referendum and Elections to the “House of Representatives” in 2004” published by the Initiative “Partnerstva” which describes numerous law violations during elections.
Today the action of solidarity with Belarusians who are marching out at 6.00 pm to the Oktyabrskaya Square in Minsk with portraits of famous missing Belarusian people has taken place in the capital of Kyrgyzstan Bishkek. Several dozens of activists of the Kyrgyz youth movement “Birge” came to the Belarusian embassy in Bishkek holding portraits of Victor Gonchar, Yury Zakharenko, Anatoly Krasovsky and Dmitry Zavadsky.
The Commission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CE (PACE) for Legal Issues condemned cases of human rights violations in Belarus. The statement made following the results of the Visiting Session of the Commission which took place in Paris this Friday says that the Commission “condemns the campaign of intimidation and regular and more and more violent persecution conducted against independent journalists and representatives of the civil society in Belarus”. The document mentions the persecutions of the Polish-language press, arrests of the activists of the “Zubr” movement and other actions of the Belarusian authorities which according to the authors of the statement “violate the freedom of speech and assembly”.
Early in September the Union of Belarusian Writers received a written notice dated 30 August from the Ministry of Justice. The authorities threaten to take the organization to court and close it. The Ministry of Justice has four complaints: the sign board on the building has not been changed, the seal of the organization does not comply with the legislative requirements, some members of the UBW are foreigners which is against the present legislature; the Union of Writers has not sent the statute of the organization to the Ministry of Justice, informs “Nasha Niva”.
The leader of the Padlyask division of the Polish Peasants` Party (PSL), Adam Dabronsky took apart the plans of the Vice President of the Polish Sejm Jozef Zykh (also a member of PSL), who intends to visit Belarus, informs the centrist Polish newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza”. Dabronsky is concerned that Zykh’s visit can be used by Belarusian propaganda. “My colleague Zykh has no idea of the ways practiced in Belarus. I would recommend him to stay in Poland and engage in the pre-election campaign,” – was Adam Dabronsky’s comment on the plans of his party co-worker.
On 13 September the office of the Belarusian Trade Union of the workers of the radioelectronic industry (REI) was broken into. Yesterday the partners of the trade union came to the office and found it being in a real chaos.
Two Zubr activists were detained today in Mahiliou by police. Yauhien Suvorau and Uladzislau Barodka were handing out leaflets containing information about disappeared people and about Belarusian political prisoners.
One of coordinators of Ukrainian youth movement PORA, advisor of Minister of foreign affairs Sergey Yevtushenko detained in airport in Azerbaijan. He is kept in special section of police without explanations.
One of coordinators of Ukrainian youth movement PORA, advisor of Minister of foreign affairs Sergey Yevtushenko detained in airport in Azerbaijan. He is kept in special section of police without explanations.
Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has blamed the United States for causing global instability and manipulating the United Nations. Lukashenka told the UN summit that Washington is using a campaign on democracy and human rights to try to dominate other states.
A traditional rally in remembrance of the disappeared Vice Prime-Minister of Belarus Viktar Hanchar and businessman Anatol Krasouski is to take place in Minsk tomorrow. On September 16 at 6 p.m. people with portraits of Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski, and other Belarusians, who disappeared without traces – former Internal Affairs Minister Yury Zakharanka and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski.
Paviel Sieviaryniets, who has been sentenced to two years of personal restraint for alleged organization of the mass riot after the parliamentary election of 17 October 2004, spends his term in the village of Malaia Sitna, on the border with Russia. In the end of August he applied to Aliaksandr Damuts, head of the open colony, with the request to allow him visiting a church at least once a week. Mr. Damuts formally allowed it to him, but due to the imposed restrictions it remains practically impossible.
The president of Belarus mourned the dissolution of the Soviet Union, defended former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and said the United States was causing chaos in the world.
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