Maladechna: Authorities Disrupt Meeting of Intellectuals with Electorate

According to BelaPAN

The meeting of Belarusian intellectuals with Maladechna residents was held in one of the town’s cafes within the frames of the project of the Belarusian intellectuals Choice for Belarus. This educational project was established for preparation to the upcoming election to local soviets, appointed on 14 January 2007. The aim of the project is to inform citizens about the daily political, economic and social issues of the Belarusian society. As said by the participant of the meeting professor Ivan Nikitchanka, the public managed to listen to speeches by the human rights activist Aleh Volchak, the former speaker of the parliament Mechyslau Hryb, the former head of the National Bank Stanislau Bahdankevich and to his one as well. The next speaker was to have been the deputy chair of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) Aliaksei Karol. However, suddenly in the cafй hall appeared the organizer of the meeting and said that the owner of the cafй received a telephone call from Maladechna town executive committee with the demand to immediately stop the meeting unless its participants wanted to deal with the police.

‘At Maladechna meeting we spoke about the state politics in the field of human rights, the state order, the financial basis of the Belarusian economy and Chernobyl threat to Belarus,’ Mr Nikitchanka said. He emphasized that such meetings with citizens of different town and cities will continue in the beginning of 2007. All in all, it was planned to hold 14 meetings. Five of them have already taken place in Orsha, Homel, Svetlahorsk, Vitsebsk and Maladechna.