BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/03/2008

Belarusian Authorities Jail Youth For Leaflet

A Minsk court on March 5 sentenced youth activist Maksim Serhyaets to five days in jail for violating the law on mass events, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. According to the police officers who detained him, Serhyaets attempted to put up a leaflet in a trolleybus for a March 25 demonstration marking the 90th anniversary of the declaration of the Belarusian People's Republic (BNR). Serhyaets told the court that he was only reading the leaflet, while the trolleybus already had several leaflets posted in it. The declaration of the BNR is regarded by pro-democratic Belarusians as a key event in the process of the formation of 20th-century Belarusian statehood. Contemporary Belarus, which declared independence from the Soviet Union on July 27, 1990, initially adopted the BNR's state emblem and flag. These symbols were banned in 1995 by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who established new state symbols similar to those of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. AM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2008/03/3-cee/cee-060308.asp

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