Belarusians Demand To See Kachanava Near Lukashenka’s Administration

The official has been hiding from the people for five months by now.

Representatives of the civil initiative “Against Lawlessness in Prosecutor’s Offices and Courts” are trying to get an appointment at Lukashenka’s Administration on June 22. They are discontent that Natallia Kachanava hasn’t received the citizens in Minsk for 5 months.

On Thursday morning the activists approached the building of the Presidential Administration. The initiative’s lawyer Tamara Siarhei explained these actions to Solidarity in the following way:

- On January 19 this year, Head of Lukashenka's Administration Natallia Kachanava held the first personal reception of citizens in the institution. On her appointment in December 2016, the ruler ordered her to deal with the work on the complaints of citizens, which he called the weakest link in the Administration.

In January, Natalia Kachanava held a meeting with 6 representative of our civil initiative “Against Lawlessness in Prosecutor’s Offices and Courts”. The reception was held in a friendly atmosphere.

However, after the meetings we received exactly the same formal replies, of which we already have dozens, maybe hundreds. Our individual complaints were sent to those state authorities (court, prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Justice), which violated our constitutional right to reply at merits to the issues, set out in the complaints.

I want to note that we address to the Administration of Lukashenka with only one plea: to restore our right to reply at merits of the issues raised.

It turns out, Lukashenka’s order remains unfulfilled. The question arises, either the ruler deliberately misleads the citizens in publiuc, or he is the leader of our country only formally, while officials are doing what they please.

We have once again filed a collective application for a personal appointment with Natallia Kachanava. But, if the previous head of the Administration received the citizens once every three months, Natallia Kachanava scheduled an appointment on June 22 - five months later!

But that's not all. We have recently received messages that the appointment in Minsk was cancelled: no appointments to be held in June.

However, according to the Law on Citizens’ Appeals, if a chief cannot hold a reception on the actual date, they are obliged to entrust it to a deputy. So today, in spite of everything, we, the representatives of the initiative, go to the Administration to ask questions.

Important to note, the members of the initiative, which consists mainly of elderly people, were repeatedly detained and fined before.