BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

27/04/2006

Human rights activists demonstrate outside Belarussian embassy

Prague, April 26 (CTK) - Some 20 people outside the Belarussian embassy in Prague today to protest human rights abuses by Alexander Lukashenko's regime in Belarus and to try to deliver an open letter criticising the situation in Belarus.

The letter also calls for the observance of the principle of the Declaration of the United Nations on Human Rights Defenders.

The demonstration was organised by Amnesty International (AI).

"The first two attempts at handing the letter to the embassy staff have failed. We were told that we should cast it into a post-box," AI spokeswoman Eva Dobrovolna told CTK.

"However, we will be trying to hand the letter in person until 19:00 and then we will stay here until someone accepts it, maybe even till the morning," Dobrovolna said.

The petition is designed to acquire as many signatures as possible for the letter for Lukashenko.

"We want to point to the oppression of the freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Belarussian authorities are trying to clamp down on civic society and political dissent, using such methods as intimidation, arbitrary detentions and long prison sentences," Dobrovolna said.

AI says that after the February presidential elections in Belarus, in which Lukashenko scored a landslide victory, some 900 people were detained in anti-government demonstrations in Minsk, while roughly half of them ended up in prisons.

Among the Prague demonstrators, there were some young people from Belarus. They said that they were grateful for the event, but did not believe in any change for the better in their home country.

Source:

http://www.praguemonitor.com/ctk/?id=w10376i20060427;story=Human-rights-activists-demonstrate-outside-Belarussian-embassy