BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS
DATE:
Jun 15, 2005, 18:55 GMT
Police in Belarus disrupt opposition gathering
Text of report by Belarusian news agency Belapan
Minsk, 15 June: The first regional conference of the Belarusian opposition to nominate delegates to the National Congress of Democratic Forces was disrupted in Svetlahorsk (Homel Region) today. The National Congress of Democratic Forces will be convened to put forward a single opposition candidate to run in the 2006 presidential elections.
As Belapan has learnt from a deputy head of the United Civic Party, Alyaksandr Dabravolski, two conference organizers, namely, the leader of the Svetlahorsk branch of the Belarusian BPF-Revival Party [Belarusian People's Front], Vadzim Balbash, and the head of the Homel region branch of the party, Viktar Ramanishka, were detained by the police one hour before the conference was supposed to start.
Dabravolski said that the leader of the Party of Communists of Belarus, Syarhey Kalyakin, the head of the BPF-Revival Party, Vintsuk Vyachorka, and an NGO leader, Alyaksandr Milinkevich, had come to Svetlahorsk to take part in the conference. "All of us were approached by local policemen who were curious about what we were doing in Svetlahorsk," he said.
Several dozens conference participants are presently rallying in front of the police directorate building demanding the release of those detained.
The leader of the United Civic Party, Anatol Lyabedzka, told Belapan that the national congress organizers had foreseen such a development and would no longer hold public gatherings. He added that delegates would be nominated by means of a signature collection campaign. "If the authorities continue to prevent us from holding conferences, we might switch to this formula," Lyabedzka said.
In accordance with the plan for fielding a single candidate, 143 conferences to nominate congress delegates should be held throughout Belarus.
Source: Belapan news agency, Minsk, in Russian 1633 gmt 15 Jun 05
BBC Mon KVU 150605 ch/ms
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