Mopping up in Vitsebsk (Updated)

Militia and secret services detain oppositionists in Vitsebsk almost every day.

Ales Halavan, an activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, a party under formation, was detained on January 15. He was caught by unknown people in mufti and forced to get into a car. a reason for the detention is unknown. Halavan managed to inform he was guarded to the Pershamaiski district militia department.

Opposition activist Valer Ramanenka was detained in the city center today – a national white-red-white flag was found on him. The oppositionist was guarded to the Pershamaiski district militia department. As it became known in the evening, the democrats were taken to the detention facility and left there until Monday. The young people are accused of being drunk, but according to local opposition activists it is untrue.

Ales Halavan says he sees only one reason for his detention is his recent meeting with Vitsebsk activists, friends of Syarhei Kavalenka, who hung out a white-red-white flag on the Christmas tree on January 7 and went under criminal investigation.

After this event, militia began to arrest Vitsebsk oppositionists and search their apartments. On January 13, militiamen searched the apartment of Syarhei Serabro, the editor of the Internet newspaper “Popular new of Vitsebsk”. Two computer cases, four old hard disk drivers, a digital compact camera, a notebook, and an 8 GB flash memory card were seized.

On January 15, Vitsebsk oppositionist Taras Surhan, Syarhei Kavalenka’s friend, was sentenced to 7 days of arrest. He was detained on January 9 when he was taking out the trash. Tsyhankova, a judge of the Chyhunachny district court of Vitsebsk, found him guilty of “hooliganism” – using foul language. This article is widely used in Belarus to arrest oppositionists to hide political motivations of repressions.

We remind that on January 7 a national white-red-white flag was hung out at the top of the 35-meter New Year’s Tree at Victory square in Vitsebsk. Syarhei Kavalenka, 34, was detained near the tree. On January 10, he was thrown into a temporary detention facility for two months on a decision of the prosecutor of Vitsebsk. A case under article 339, part 2 of the Criminal Code (repeated hooliganism, or committed by a group of persons, or connected with committing less serious bodily harm) was instigated against him. Under this article a punishment could be up to 6 years of imprisonment. On January 12 the oppositionist was released under his own recognizance.