English

Opposition activists demonstrate in Minsk

Some 200 people took part in a demonstration that opposition groups staged in downtown Minsk on Monday evening to demand an international investigation into the disappearances of four opponents of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, BelaPAN reports.

Former Interior Minister Yury Zakharanka, former MP Viktar Hanchar, businessman Anatol Krasowski and journalist Dzmitry Zavadski went missing in 1999-2000. They are widely believed to have been abducted and murdered by a government-run death squad.

Demonstrators, including poet Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, leader of the “Tell the Truth!” campaign; Viktar Ivashkevich of the Belarusian Popular Front; Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party; Andrey Sannikaw, leader of a group called European Belarus and a former deputy foreign minister, and his wife Iryna Khalip; and prominent human rights defender Hary Pahanyayla, formed a “human chain” along Independence Avenue in the square in front of the National Academy of Sciences, displaying images of the missing persons.

Using megaphones police officers warned that the demonstration was unsanctioned and its participants might be arrested.

The organizers initially wanted to stage a march from the National Academy of Sciences to Liberty Square, where a rally would be held, but after the Minsk city government denied permission, the organizers decided to limit the demonstration to the formation of a “chain of concerned people” near the National Academy of Sciences and the displaying of images of the missing.

The demonstration lasted for about 40 minutes. After participants rolled up their images and signs and were about to leave the scene, plainclothesmen grabbed European Belarus activist Yawhen Afnahel, one of the official organizers. Police in plain clothes also attempted to arrest a few more people but retreated in the face of resistance from other participants.

The small number of participants at demonstrations in commemoration of the high-profile disappearances is a result of the poor moral state of the nation, Mr. Nyaklyayew said in an interview with BelaPAN.

Only a small minority are ready to defend the values of democracy and justice and demand the truth about the disappearances of opponents of the government, he noted.

Despite the opposition's calls for participation in the August 16 demonstration, people turned out not to have abandoned the everyone-for-himself principle, he said.

"This poor moral state is one of the consequences of the 16-year rule of Alyaksandr Lukashenka," Mr. Nyaklyayew said. "If the regime changes and democracy comes, it won't be very difficult for us to make positive change in the economy and ensure decent living standards for people. However, it will be much more difficult to repair the ailing society. What has happened today is evidence that our society is ill. There are many people who are indifferent to the fate of the people who are no more."

“We ourselves would like very much people to behave within the law and not to provoke or, more precisely, not to break the law,” said Alyaksandr Lastowski, spokesman for the Minsk city police department. “This is the only thing we want in this hot weather. You could see that nobody prevented people from standing with images in their hands.”