Vaclav Havel congratulates charter97.org website editor on Freedom Day

Today Natallya Radzina, the editor of charter97.org website, has received a letter from the former president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, and members of the Czech organization “Civic Belarus”.

In the letter to the journalist, who was arrested after the events of December 19, and has spent a month and a half in the KGB jail, and now awaiting trial she continues her work in exile in the town of Kobryn, it is said:

Dear Natallya,

We have been following your civil protest against the procedure and results of the presidential election with hope, and we were indignant at evidence of cruel measures against you on the part of police and the KGB. We are reading the news about the political situation in Belarus carefully and worriedly, and we would like to assure you that in these hard times we are thinking of you and your family, and in the future we plan to continue to attract attention of the word community to violations of basic human rights and civil rights in your country, for a long time we have been trying to increase international pressure with the aim to release unjustly imprisoned, and in order to stop persecution and criminalization of opposition. We find persecution for political views and non-admission of lawyers and doctors to prisons absolutely incompatible with the main principles of democracy and a rule-of-law state.

Let us join you in celebration of March 25, the important day of Belarusian statehood, and express by correspondence our civil support and solidarity. We believe that your position would be rewarded by a truly decent life in your wonderful country.

Vaclav Havel,

Co-Chairman of the International Association “Civic Belarus”

Jan Ruml,

Director of “Civic Belarus”, former Minister of Interior and Senator

Members of “Civic Belarus”:

Petruška Šustrová, translator and journalist

Petr Bratský, Senator of the Czech Parliament

Martin Vidlák, head of office of President Václav Havel

Marek Svoboda, Head of Center for Human Rights and Democracy, People in Need

Jaromír Štětina, Senator of the Czech Parliament, originally a journalist.