Press Conference Of Organizing Committee For Celebration Of BPR's 100th Anniversary Held In Minsk

Preparation for a peaceful march on March 25 became the key issue.

A press conference of the Organizing Committee for celebration of BPR's 100th anniversary was held in Minsk today.

As a Charter97.org correspondent from Minsk reported, the preparation of a peaceful street action on March 25 was the key issue of the press conference.

The chairman of the organizing committee, artist Mikola Kupava, the coordinator of the civil campaign European Belarus Maksim Viniarski, the co-chairman of the organizing committee for the creation of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party Pavel Seviarynets and the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front party Aliaksei Yanukevich attended the press-conference.

Maksim Viniarski spoke about the work that was carried out in the last three weeks after the extended meeting of the organizing committee, which united all opposition for the sake of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the BPR.

Maksim Viniarski summed up the interim results of the fundraising, which was announced a week ago. At the moment, over 1000 rubles have been collected. The activist told about engagement of volunteers in the preparation of the celebration of the BPR's 100th anniversary. People respond to the organizing committee's appeal and offer their help in disseminating information on the Internet and on the streets of Minsk.

The European Belarus coordinator thanked independent journalists and bloggers for the detailed coverage of the work of the organizing committee, as well as all the Belarusians who help in the preparation of the festive action on March 25. The activist stressed that, while the Charter-97 website is blocked, the information on the BPR's 100th anniversary brought to the readers by the independent information resources becomes especially valuable.

Maksim Viniarski named the main issues that the organizing committee should tackle in the near future. Firstly, this is the wide dissemination of the information on the preparation of the peaceful action, as well as negotiations with the authorities in order to make them understand that the independence of Belarus is a common value. "If this happens, tens of thousands of people will be on Yakub Kolas square in Minsk at 2 pm on March 25," – Maksim Viniarski stressed.

Mykola Kupava talked about what the organization was doing all year long and about the events that take place as part of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the Belarusian People's Republic both in Belarus and abroad. There are exhibitions, concerts, meetings of cultural figures and politicians, scientific works on the history of the BPR are published.

The logo of the National Organizing Committee for the celebration of the BPR's 100th anniversary was also presented, which was created by artists under supervision of Ales Marachkin.

Aliaksei Yanukevich told about the tools that the organizing committee uses to get the authorities' response to the application for a peaceful action on March 25.

The politician told about meetings with foreign diplomats, about attempts to negotiate with the authorities.

According to Aliaksei Yanukevich, all representatives of the European diplomatic corps, with whom they met, ambassadors, European Commissioner Johannes Khan expressed their extreme interest in ensuring that the street action on March 25 was peaceful, dignified, and that the authorities met the requirements of the people and the wishes of the organizing committee and allowed the rally to be held as it was planned.

According to the politician, a lot of representatives of the diplomatic corps said they would do their best to convince the Belarusian authorities to allow the rally.

Pavel Seviarynets listed all the attempts to hold negotiations with the Minsk city authorities. There have been four attempts, which have not produced results yet. The Organizing Committee is waiting for the response of the Minsk City Executive Committee to the last initiative on the negotiations on holding a street rally and a joint celebration of the BPR's 100th anniversary on March 25.

In order to increase the pressure on the authorities, the politician announced the organizing committee’s initiative, which is called the People's Application. All the citizens who believe that the rally should take place in the center of Minsk, can download the form and send their demand to the Minsk City Executive Committee.

The Organizing Committee for the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the BPR reminds that the money for the preparation of the action can be transferred to the Belarusbank cards:

4255 2003 0782 4292 12/20 Visa (BYN)

4255 2003 0250 4451 03/20 Visa (foreign currency)