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Opposition rally in Minsk issues demands to government

A resolution containing a series of demands to be put forward to the government was adopted at an opposition rally called "Narodny Skhod" (People’s Assembly), which was held in Minsk on Saturday.

The rally, which was attended by a crowd estimated by reporters at 500 to 700, took place in remote People's Friendship Park in Bangalore Square.

The adopted demands, addressed to the president, the Council of Ministers, the House of Representatives and the local authorities, included stopping the rise in prices of staple foods, medicines and essential goods and services; raising salaries, wages, pensions and allowances in proportion to the inflation rate; indexing people’s rubel deposits to compensate them for their losses caused by this year’s depreciation of the national currency; creating the opportunity for people to freely buy foreign cash and allowing foreign currency loans to be repaid with Belarusian rubels; abolishing the system of fixed-term employment contracts; creating favorable conditions for businesses; releasing and exonerating all political prisoners; and conducting free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections.

“This is just the beginning,” Viktar Ivashkevich, one of the organizers of the rally, commented to reporters. “In the summer, there were silent protests, but now we have held an open public event and issued clear demands to the authorities. The fact that we have openly expressed our demands will be an example for those who were afraid or too lazy to come to the rally.”

The organizers expect people to “get tired to live the way they do” and to realize that their living standards will continue to decline if nothing is changed, Mr. Ivashkevich said.

He pointed out that the authorities had made an all-out effort to minimize the attendance of the rally in Minsk and similar events simultaneously held in other cities. He noted that the police had seized sound amplifying equipment from the organizers of the Minsk rally.

“The fact that the police did not break up the rally suggests that the authorities realize that a crackdown would not increase budgetary revenues,” he said. “However strongly they may hit opposition activists in the heads with sticks, dollars won’t rain down on them as a result of this. This is the main reason they have to be self-restrained and refrain from massive persecution. And we should take advantage of this situation.”

Police enclosed the area where they thought the rally would take place with metal railings and set up three metal detector gates, but not a single person walked into the enclosed area and the rally was held nearby.

Such security measures were taken as always during a mass event, Alyaksandr Lastowski, spokesman for the Minsk city police department, explained to reporters. “People may walk into the area through the metal detector gates, but they don’t want to do that,” he said.

Participants at the rally displayed white-red-white flags, banners of an opposition group called European Belarus, which was led by the now imprisoned former presidential candidate Andrey Sannikaw, and signs saying, “Sannikaw is Our President!” and “Freedom to Bandarenka!”

Another organizer of the rally, Henadz Fyadynich, chairman of the Belarusian Union of Electronic Industry Workers, suggested in his speech that the head of the Minsk government, Mikalay Ladutska, should visit factories in the city to see that workers cannot afford going to factory canteens. “It is not enough to tighten the belts of common people; it is necessary to tighten the belts of officials,” he said.

Two former presidential candidates, Uladzimir Nyaklyayew and Vital Rymashewski, and United Civic Party Chairman Anatol Lyabedzka were among those present.

Ihar Yawseyew, deputy head of the Minsk city police department/public security police chief, could be seen at the scene.

Up to 30 young people, members of an anarchist group, were standing from other participants, displaying black-red flags and shouting "Freedom, Equality, Anarcho-Communism” and “Power Generates Parasites” from time to time, using a megaphone.

According to Mr. Ivashkevich, the organizers of the rally plan to hold a news conference at noon on Monday and then deliver copies of the adopted resolution to the addressees.

Mr. Ivashkevich announced that the next “Narodny Skhod” rallies would be held on November 12. // BelaPAN