Statement of Democratic Parties of Belarus

The three-month suspension of the issue of “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” and “BDG. Dlya Sluzhebnogo Polzovaniya”, made by the Ministry of Information on the initiative of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Belarus as well as a number of verdicts to journalists and warnings to independent editions evidently witness the intention of the Belarusian authorities to put an end to those small islands of liberty of speech that remain in the country’s informational space. The life standard in Belarus is rapidly decreasing, the majority of the population are paupers, the social and economical situation is getting worse and the international isolation becomes more perceivable. All these facts witness the complete failure of the politics, maintained by A. Lukashenka for almost nine years of his rule. The regime’s authority is falling down and it tries to prevent Belarusian community from every chance to receive information about alternatives to the present course, that has lead Belarus nowhere.

In this situation Belarusian democratic parties:

- express their solidarity with journalists of “BDG” and other independent mass media;
- condemn gross violations of liberty of word in Belarus;
- demand from the Ministry of Information and the Prosecutor’s Office of Belarus to stop persecution of independent press;
- urge the international community and governments of democratic countries of the world to support the journalists and editions, persecuted in Belarus.

Vintuk Viachorka (the BPF Party)

Siarhey Haydukevich (Liberal Democratic Party)

Siarhey Kaliakin (Party of Communists of Belarus)

Valiantsina Matusevich (Women’s Party “Nadzeya”)

Mikalay Statkevich (Belarusian Social Democratic Party (“Narodnaya Hramada”)

Uladzimir Strakh (Belarusian Labor Party)

Stanislaw Shushkevich (Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada)

2 June 2003

Minsk