A. Milinkevich stated that several thousands of people are to stay on the square. The whole night and the whole day tents and people are to stay on the square. Tomorrow at 6.30 p.m. a mass meeting is to be held there again. Milinkevich urged the Belarusians to come to October square tomorrow, and continue fight for liberation f their country from tyranny.
TWO SONS OF THE SINGLE DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENCY ALYAKSANDR MILINKEVICH, VITAUT AND ALYAKSANDR MILINKEVICH, HAVE DISAPPEARED. THEY WERE TO BRING FOOD, HOT TEA AND WARM CLOTHES AND BLANKETS TO THE SQUARE. FOR 40 MINUTES THEIR PHONES ARE NOT ANSWERING, THEIR EMPTY CARS ARE PARKED ON THE SQUARE.
After 23.00 the equipment was switched off. Alyaxandr Milinkevich said this was a forced measure since it was necessary to maintain the public order. He declared that people would stay on the square. Nobody should leave. The meeting participants scan "Long Live Belarus!" and keep on fixing tents.
Well-known Belarusian musicians Ihar Varashkevich and Zmitser Vajtsushkevich announced: “I was afraid to perform on March 18, I was afraid to perform on March 19, but I am not afraid to sing here now, because my son lives not far from this square. I want him to live in a different country!”
Several minutes ago SOBR (riot policemen) tried to provoke a fight on the square. Law-enforcers in mufti attacked people who were bringing sleeping bags to the square. However, protesters stopped them and have not allowed detaining anybody. Alyaksandr Kazulin addressed policemen with the call not to perform provocations and defend people from provocators. The square was scanning: “Policemen are with people!”
As the Charter’97 press center was informed by the soloist of the rock-band “Krama” Ihar Varashkevich, tomorrow well-known Belarusian rock-bands will perform of the square, including N.R.M. and “Krama”.
Policemen have just tried to seize electric generator to stop the concert on October square. The single candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich talked to them, and they left. People were scanning: “Police is with people!”
Police orders to close the Central supermarket, which is situated near the October Square, an hour earlier. In this way policemen hope that people would not be able to buy hot tea and food in the shop. However, people are bringing food and hot tea from home.
People are standing on the sidewalk of the avenue. They are waving white-red-white flags, blue flags of the European Union, flags with the icon of Our Lady of Minsk. Cars and buses passing by honk in support.
An address of the People’s Writer of Belarus, Nil Hilevich, was read to the people on the square. Unfortunately, because of poor health he cannot be present on the square.
Alyaksandr Milinkevich expressed gratitude to policemen for not preventing people from gathering on the square. He called upon reporters of the Belarusian TV to come to October Square and film the protest of the Belarusian people against dictatorship. “The whole world is broadcasting how we struggle for freedom! And the Belarusian TV channels are showing only a moustache, moustache and moustache,” Alyaksandr Milinkevich said.
A member of the European Parliament, leader of the Liberal Party of Norway addresses the protesters. He told that today the whole world is following the events in Belarus and the fight of the Belarusian people for their freedom. When Belarus would be liberated from tyranny, Europe would become completely free.
CLEVELAND (Reuters) - The United States rejects the results of the Belarus election and believes the campaign that re-elected President Alexander Lukashenko was conducted in a "climate of fear," the White House said on Monday.
The Radio Svaboda direct broadcast is organized on the square. It is informed that Europe has not recognized the results of the presidential elections in Belarus.
Representatives of Ukrainian political associations take part in the meeting. They stated that today Ukraine together with the whole civilized world had not recognized the outcome of the Belarusian Presidential election. “Ukraine is with you!” - the speakers declared.
The meeting is still lasting. Famous Belarusians, elite representatives, politicians, musicians, ordinary participants of the meeting take the floor. The people are scanning “Homeland!”, “Freedom!”, “We Will Prevail!”. Many of them are keeping lit candles. People don’t stop coming.
Alyaxandr Milinkevich has just made a speech; he declared the people would stay on the square till the victory. He urged everyone to call their relatives, friends asking to fetch warm clothes and hot tea.
Famous Belarusian writers, musicians, writers, artists, scientists have come to the square. “The most important thing is that we are many; that so many people are delivered from fear and have taken to the streets. Today we have showed the whole world that there is another Belarus, which wants to be free and is opposing Lukashenka. We are the majority. I am sure that Lukashenka has not got even 50%,” the press center of the Charter’97 was told by the famous Belarusian writer and historian Uladimir Arlou, who is on the square now.
The atmosphere on the square is festive. Songs of famous Belarusian rock-bands are playing. White-red-white flags are fluttering, people are dancing and singing. Blue, white and red balloons are flying up in the air. More and more people arrive.
A widow of the abducted businessman and public leader Anatol Krasouski, the leader of the civil initiative “We Remember!” Iryna Krasouskaya is on the square. “The events in Minsk have surpassed all my hopes. The people have awakened, they started to realize what is going on in the country. Besides, people have understood that they are not alone, that we are the majority. I see the solidarity we wanted to achieve by initiating Days of Solidarity on the 16th Day of every month. Today the topic of the disappeared politicians was mentioned in many speeches that have come to the square said that nobody would ever forget that people in our country had disappeared. This regime does not have a right of existence, as it is implicated in forcible abductions of opposition leaders and a journalist,” Iryna Krasouskaya said to the Charter’97 press center.
The Belarusian opposition leaders take the floor at the square. The Declaration of the Belarusian people has just been adopted. The Belarusians demanded to plead the Presidential election of March 19 invalid; to plead Alyaksandr Lukashenka the key frustrator of free and democratic election; to plead the present staff of the Central Election Commission responsible for the falsification of the election outcome; to appoint the second election for July 16, 2006. The people are scanning “No To Dictatorship!”
A deputy of the State Duma Vladimir Ryzhkou told to the Charter’97 about the impressions of Minsk demonstration. “It is incredible! People are coming and coming to the square. All the cars are greeting them with honks. People are not afraid any more. I see that the Belarusians do not recognize the results of these elections. Lukashenka hasn’t won 80% of votes. He hasn’t got even 40%. The Belarusians want justice, And we, Russian citizens, support them. We would not support dictator Lukashenka!”
20,000 Belarusian citizens have gathered on the square. A Bell of Freedom is ringing. The bronze Bell of Freedom weights 120 kilograms. Then the songs of Belarusian rock-musicians were played on the square. In his speech on the square Alyaksandr Milinkevich said: “Our protest will be long and powerful!”
Alyaksandr Milinkevich delivered a speech on the square. “Today they have announced the results of the presidential vote. People are laughing. It’s a disgrace. They have isolated themselves from the people. They are afraid of the people. Their power rests on lies and violence. We are the free people of Belarus. We do not recognize the results of the vote. It’s a constitutional coup! It’s seizure of power by Lukashenka and his clique. We are for the rule of law! We wouldn’t’t surrender! We demand free and fair elections! We are for freedom, truth and justice”. Alyaksandr Milinkevich told that a resolution would be passed at the square, in which the people would say: NO TO DICTATORSHIP!
Belarusians are chanting: “We want truth!”, “Long live Belarus!” Cars passing by give honks as a signal of support to the people on the square. A.Milinkevich is to address the meeting in a few minutes. Amplifying equipment is being installed. People are coming to the square incessantly.
The number of participants has increased to 10,000. Almost all the square is filled with people. Protesters are chanting: “Long live Belarus!”, “Freedom!”, “Milinkevich!”
Alyaksandr Milinkevich is on the way to the square.
There are 5,000 people on the square. More and more people are arriving. White-red-white flags, flags of the European Union and of the youth resistance movement “Zubr”. People have occupied the stairs of the Palace of Trade Unions. Alyaksandr Milinkevich is expected on the square.
Several thousand people have gathered on the square. People are arriving all the time. The number of people is growing. The single democratic candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Milinkevich is expected to arrive to the square.
Helsinki Commission Chairman Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Co-Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) today welcomed President Bush`s transmission of reports on the sale or delivery of weapons and weapons-related technologies and on the personal assets and wealth of the senior Belarusian leadership. The reports were mandated by the Belarus Democracy Act, sponsored by Smith, and signed into law President Bush in October 2004. The unclassified portion clearly indicates a pattern of Belarusian sales or delivery of weapons or weapons-related technologies to states of concern, including state sponsors of terrorism.
Helsinki Commission Chairman Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) today described Belarus` election as a farce. "The detention of hundreds of opposition activists in advance of Sunday`s voting in Belarus has deprived opposition campaigns of their leaders, further contributing to a climate of fear in that country. Newspapers have been seized. An early voting system is in full force in which people are being pressured to vote for the regime. International observers are being detained, denied visas or turned away at the border. Belarus` KGB chief is engaging in hysterical threats that protests will be viewed as `terrorism` and Lukashenka is threatening to `break the neck` of dissent. These are all indications of a regime terrified of its own people and that has no intention of conducting a free and fair vote," concluded Chairman Brownback. "Once again, Lukashenka is taking no chances and tightening his grip as Europe`s last dictator."
Viktar Shejman (Viktor Shejman) has been appointed the State Secretary of Security Council of Belarus. Shejman, together with Interior Minister of Belarus Uladzimir Navumau (Vladimir Naumov), SOBR commander Dzmitser Paulichenka, former Interior Minister Yury Sivakou (Sivakov) are suspected of implication in abductions and assassinations of the Belarusian oppositionists and journalist.
In the evening of March 19, Secretary of State of the Polish Prime Minister’s office Adam Lipinski claimed the Belarusian Presidential election undemocratic in his interview to Radio Svaboda. According to him, the Polish government is to take ultimate position regarding the election and further relations with Belarus after the opposition protest actions have consequences.
Sergei Parsyukevich, an independent observer, was arrested by police officers at a polling station in Vitebsk on March 19 and sentenced to five days in jail for "resistance to police officers."
“The world hasn’t seen such a confused, hysteric and clumsy dictator, that Aliaxandar Lukashenka looked like during the election, for a long time, - member of the URF (Union of Right Forces) Party Political Council Boris Nemtsov said in his interview to “Belorusskiy Partizan”, commenting on the outcome of the Belarusian Presidential election. - All his actions are nothing but mistakes and strategic miscalculations. He became illegitimate when he moved the election date a few months ahead; he became illegitimate when he forced 30 per cent of the people in general and 60 per cent of all village dwellers to vote ahead of schedule, which is ridiculous for the entire world. He became illegitimate when he ordered to arrest opposition activists and to drive foreign observers out. He ultimately proved his illegitimacy having drawn such a fantastic percentage during the voting. This is too much.”
“Elections in Belarus are not democratic. Due to some facts we can make a conclusion that all the votes cast during the early voting were taken to the still bank of the authorities. I will persuade my colleagues in the State Duma, Russia shouldn’t cooperate with Lukashenka’s regime,” told the deputy of the Russian State Duma Vladimir Ryzhkov at a press conference in the office of the United Civil Party today. Ryzhkov also mentioned a number of facts of violations in the elections: detentions of Milinkevich and Kazulin’s camp activists, unequal access of the candidates to mass media, mass intimidation of students, expelling of independent observers to polling stations.
Information from the Netherlands has been received, that at the moment First Instance Tribunal of Brussels (Tribunal de Premiere Instance a Bruxelles) considers the issue of launching investigation of alleged crimes of Lukashenka’s regime. “There is a hope that the question on CRIMINAL PROSECUTION of the following persons: Lukashenka, Shejman, Sivakou, Naumau, Paulichenka – would be decided positively,” the initiator of submitting a complaint, Alyaksandr Shchurko, a citizen of Belarus living in the Netherlands as a political refugee, told to the Belarusian Partisan internet source.
A candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Kazulin believes that the protest on October Square in Minsk on March 19 is only a beginning. “It’s a beginning of people’s liberation from fear. It is already clear that these elections are different. Comparing to the year 2001 we see that people were not afraid to come”.
Bogdan Klich, head of the Delegation for Relations with Belarus in the European Parliament, slammed Belarus` presidential election as neither free nor fair. As Mr. Klich told BelaPAN, the delegation will present its preliminary report on the ballot in Brussels and discuss the situation with Lithuanian and US lawmakers on March 20.
Activists passed out oranges to Belarusians at checkpoints on the Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian borders on March 19. Proposed by Ukraine`s Pora party, the campaign was aimed at "supporting the Belarusian people in its fight for civil liberties." Activists of Pora, Poland`s ruling party Law and Justice and a number of Lithuanian NGOs handed out oranges, the symbol of a 2004 wave of protests in Ukraine, to Belarusians driving home from their countries, according to the Pora press office.
Independent and reliable exit polls would be impossible in Belarus, said Vilnius-based Baltijos Tyrimai (Baltic Surveys)/The Gallup Organization in a press statement. The group noted that owing to Belarusian authorities` measures, it had decided not to poll exiting voters in this presidential election in the country. Baltijos Tyrimai coordinated such polls during Belarus` parliamentary elections and referendum in 2004.
In Navapolatsk at the polling station number 28 an observer nominated by signatures collection was not registered. Members of the electoral commission told that they would allow him to observe the elections in case he would bring all those who had signed in support of his nomination.
On March 19 the Belarusian people have made their choice. The Belarusians have chosen freedom. 40000 of people have come to the center of Minsk to defend their votes from mean rigging by the authorities. The Belarusians, like the rest of the world, has understood: the dictator has lost. Belarus has become a different country. Since March 19 we are living in a New and Free Belarus.
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