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Relatives of people arrested over December 19 protest call for international probe into election night violence

Relatives of former presidential candidates and other people held in the KGB's detention center over the December 19 post-election protest have called for the establishment of an international commission that would probe the brutal crackdown on the demonstration, told BelaPAN.

«After the presidential election and the subsequent peaceful protest hundreds of Belarusian citizens were arrested and beaten up and many of them were sentenced to a jail term or a fine,» said a statement issued by the detainees' relatives last week.

«We believe that the dispersal of the peaceful event was provoked by a group of provocateurs who can be identified with the help of existing pictures and video footage. We are baffled by the fact that these people have not been placed on the wanted list so far.»

The group said that some of the people held in the KGB jail, such as former presidential candidates Uladzimir Nyaklyayew, Andrey Sannikaw and Mikalay Statkevich, and journalist Natallya Radzina, needed urgent medical attention, and demanded that «Alyaksandr Lukashenka release all of the hostages that he took.»

«We are calling on all Belarusian citizens, as well as the international community, above all the leadership of the European Union, the United States and Russia, to join these demands,» the statement said.

The group said that unless all of the detainees were released, tough sanctions on the part of the EU, Russia and the United States against the «Belarusian regime» would be well-founded.