Small business leader set to move ahead with strike plans despite jail sentence :: Charter'97 :: News

Aleksandr Makayev, a small business leader in Minsk, said he would move ahead with plans for organizing a nationwide two-day strike. United in a coordinating council, a group of small business leaders aim to organize the strike to protest draft amendments that would toughen penalties for violations of rent and accounting regulations by market vendors.

The activist was released from jail on Monday after serving a 10-day sentence for urging market vendors to walk off the job on March 2 and 3.

“I’m not scared because I know that I’m right as a conscientious citizen. We still plan to stage a strike on March 2 and 3,” he told BelaPAN.

Mr. Makayev said that the government may satisfy the demands of small business owners to avert the walkout.

The activist expressed fears that he may face a criminal charge over his petition to the Prosecutor General’s Office that questioned Aleksandr Lukashenko’s right to stand for reelection. In its reply, the prosecutorial agency said that the petition can be regarded as defamation of the Belarusian leader, he said.

The coordinating council was set up last year by several activists of Perspektiva, an association of small business owners, who accused Perspektiva Chairman Anatoly Shumchenko of inaction and reluctance to call an election for Perspektiva chairperson in 2005 as required by the charter. The group includes Perspektiva activists, members of political parties, and persons not affiliated to any political parties or non-governmental organizations, with all involved in the small business sector.

Apart from defending the rights of small business owners, the coordinating council is conducting a political campaign called, "Government without Lukashenko," against a third presidential term for the incumbent Belarusian leader. Its objective is to inform people about the dubious legality of the Lukashenko-initiated constitutional referendums of 1996 and 2004, about human rights violations, disappearances of Mr. Lukashenko`s opponents, and other subjects.