OSCE Office Head Visited Mikola Statkevich :: Charter'97 :: News

The head of the OSCE office in Minsk Oke Peterson visited the leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada) Mikola Statkevich, who serves the sentence (three years of restraint of liberty) in the town of Baranavichy, for organizing a protest action against falsification of referendum and parliamentary elections results in October 2004.

The meeting took place in Baranavichy plant, “Rambyttekhnika”, where Statkevich is to work as an electronics technician. Members of Baranavichy branch of the Social Democratic Party Narodnaya Hramada – Ales Dolmat, Anatol Vajtskhouski and Viktar Syrytsa. All of them at different times were dismissed from work for political reasons.

Commenting of that, M. Statkevich noted that repressions against the party are becoming vaster. However he does not know a single occasion when a member of a party stopped his party work because of repressions. Despite of psychological and physical ordeals, Social-Democrats subjected to crackdown view the illegal and immoral actions against them as a proof of righteousness and necessity of their cause.

At the meeting of Mikola Statkevich with Oke Peterson the reporters of the local independent newspaper “Intex-press” were present. This newspaper, according to the ruling of authorities, would not be available on subscription starting from the next year.