The chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada) Mikola Statkevich congratulated Viktor Yushchenko with his victory at the presidential elections on the night December 26/27 in Kyiv, in the building of the press center of the oppositional candidate. “I asked Viktor Yushchenko to pay attention to the situation with democracy in Belarus. Viktor Yushchenko promised not to forget about our country,” told M.Statkevich to the BelaPAN.
On TV one can see white-red-white flags on the Independence Square in Kyiv. Belarusian presence in Kyiv remains, the Belarusians have their tent in the tent camp in the Khreschatyk.
The chairman of the National Strike Committee of Belarus, one of the leaders of the European coalition “Free Belarus” Valery Levaneuski, as we have informed, for unknown reasons had been transferred to Mahilyou minimum-security correctional labor facility #19. Previously the entrepreneur, convicted for alleged libel of Alyaksandr Lukashenka, was serving the term in the minimum-security correctional labor facility #22 in the settlement Damanava, Ivatsevichy district Brest region. After a meeting with family on November 30 there were no letters from him for a long time. As it turned out, he was not writing as he was in pre-trial detention centers in Hrodna and Minsk. And again he went on hunger strike showing his protest…
“The examination of witnesses is coming to an end. All witnesses both for witness for the prosecution and for defence are giving practically identical testimony. They all do not have not have any material claims for the equipment and property to Mikhail Marynich, that is why the examination of witnesses has demonstrated that the prosecution could not provide convincing evidence of Mikhail Marynich’s guilt,” told the attorney Vera Stramkouskaya to the Charter’97 after the first part of today’s hearing of the case of one of the leaders of the Belarusian opposition, Mikhail Marynich. At present there is a lunch break in the court.
Four activists of the Zubr movement were detained today in Minsk for carrying out an action of solidarity with Viktor Yushchenko, who won the presidential elections in Ukraine. Young people have tied orange ribbons to the fence of the Ukrainian Embassy in Belarus. The policemen detained the Zubr coordinator Mikita Sasim and activists Katsyaryna Dietkouskaya, Nika Lazouskaya and Anastasiya Shashkova. They all were taken to the police station #132 by the Embassy. In half an hour the girls were released, and the report had not been drawn up. The Zubr coordinator Mikita Sasim is still kept in the police station.
In Minsk by the building of the court of Minsk district, where the trial of one of the leaders of Belarusian opposition, Mikhail Marynich, continues, the detentions of the activists of the Zubr started. The activists have come to support the political prisoner.
The attitude of Russian president Vladimir Putin towards his Belarusian colleague Alyaksandr Lukashenka would not become better after the victory of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, in Ukraine. This opinion in the interview to the BelaPAN was expressed by one of the leaders of the democratic movement of Russia, Boris Nemtsov. “The relations are bad, and they would not get better. This question should be viewed at a physiological level,” believes B.Nemtsov. As said by him, the events in Ukraine are a fantastic lesson for Russia.
“Yushchenko’s victory is a victory of the Ukrainian people, a victory of democracy, of a new Ukraine. “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine has demonstrated once again that there is no alternative to the democratic development of the European countries, despite of al the efforts of the forces of the past, both in Ukraine and abroad. The people of Ukraine have made their choice of the European and democratic way for their country’s development. As the “rose revolution” a year before in Georgia, the “orange revolution” has proved in which direction the states of the region, to which Belarus belongs, see their future,” told the coordinator of the civil initiative Charter’97, former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Andrei Sannikov commented on the results of the presidential elections in Ukraine. According to the returns after 97.03% of election commissions protocols counted, Viktor Yushchenko is by 8.67% ahead of his rival, Viktor Yanukovych. “Everybody was following the development of events in Ukraine attentively, some with fear, and some people with hope. Undoubtedly, all adherents of a normal development of their state welcome the victory of Yushchenko and hope that in the near future Belarus would be able to return to the way of democratic development,” believes the politician.
The Minsk-based Independent Institute for Social, Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS) has received yet another warning letter from the Ministry of Justice. As IISEPS head Oleg Manayev told BelaPAN, it is the ninth letter in the last three and a half months.
Pro-Western opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, one of the two candidates in Ukraine`s November 26 repeat presidential runoff who is strongly tipped to defeat Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, said at Friday`s news conference that if elected president, he would try to solve all problems in the Ukrainian-Belarusian relations on a mutual basis.
Students at the formally defunct Yakub Kolas National State Humanities Lyceum, closed down by the Belarusian authorities in 2003, started a winter training session in Vilnius on December 24.
The campaign manager of Ukraine’s reformist candidate Viktor Yushchenko said that the latter will visit Belarus after he enters upon his duties as president.
“I express solidarity with Mikhail Marynich. It is our duty as democrats to support each other. We should be at one. The greatest victory today has happened in Ukraine. Moldova and Belarus are bound to be the next. Dictatorships cannot exist long,” told the leader of the Christian Democratic Popular Party (CDPP) of Moldova Iurie Rosca. The leader of Moldovan opposition and of the Christian Democratic Popular Party faction in the parliament of Moldova has signed a petition in support of one of the leaders of Belarusian opposition Mikhail Marynich, who is on trial these days in Minsk. The petition was also signed by 11 deputies of the faction.
By 10 a.m. the Central Election Committee has processed 96.13% of votes of the election committees. 52.62% of voters, or 14 million 636 thousand 22 Ukrainians have supported Viktor Yushchenko. 43.6% of voters, or 12 million 126 thousand 900 votes voted for Viktor Yanukovych. 2.35% of electors voted against both candidates. The votes of 27 million 813 thousand voters were counted. We congratulate Viktor Yushchenko and the Ukrainian people with indisputable victory, for which they have been fighting courageously and for a long time. We believed in your victory. Our activists were with the Ukrainians all this time in the Independence Square in Kyiv, some of them have suffered from the Ukrainian law-enforcing agencies for their activism. We supported our courageous neighbors by covering the events in Ukraine in these decisive days. The Ukrainian “orange revolution” has not left indifferent the Belarusians who want to live in a free and democratic country. The victory of our neighbors infuses us all with hope. Glory to Ukraine! Long live Belarus!
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