BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

14/06/2007

Belarusian Opposition Confers In Lithuania

Nearly 100 representatives of Belarusian opposition parties and nongovernmental organizations gathered for a two-day conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, on June 13, RFE/RL's Belarus Service and Belapan reported. United Civic Party leader Anatol Lyabedzka told journalists that the main objective of the conference is to draft an action plan based on the guidelines of the opposition congress in Minsk last month (see "RFE/RL Newsline," May 29, 2007). Lyabedzka also explained why the congress is taking place in Lithuania, not Belarus. "We are holding it in Vilnius because the city is close to Belarus. Participants need the same amount of money to travel to it that they would need to go to Vitsebsk or Mahilyou. But in Vilnius we are guaranteed that 30 minutes into the conference no police or emergency-management officers will break into the auditorium, saying that a bomb has been planted there. No one can guarantee this in Belarus," he noted. Belarusian Popular Front leader Vintsuk Vyachorka told RFE/RL that participants in the conference resolved that the opposition will take an active part in parliamentary elections in Belarus in 2008. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/06/3-cee/cee-140607.asp