Justice Ministry Warns Three Political Parties

According to the official web-site of the Ministry of Justice of Belarus, on 1 February three oppositional parties – the Party of Communists of Belarus (PCB), the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Hramada) and the Belarusian Women’s Party Nadzeia – received official warnings from the ministry for holding the constituent assembly of a political alliance Union of Left Forces on 17 December 2006 in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. In the text of the warning it is state that according to the present legislation ‘the activity of the political parties who are registered on the territory of the Republic of Belarus can cover only the territory of the Republic of Belarus. Political parties have no right to organize and hold events on the territory of other states.’

We should remind that at first the parties planned to hold the constituent conference in Minsk, but didn’t manage to find a suitable office for it. As a result it was decided to transfer it to Chernihiv.

The aim of the Union of Left Forces is to unite the efforts of the three parties for reaching the goals of the democratic coalition. Yet in Chernihiv the leader of the Party of Communists of Belarus Siarhei Kaliakin assumed that the authorities could refuse to register the Union of Left Forces for political motives, but the parties would find a way to coordinate their activities anyway. The parties also intend to appeal the warnings to the Supreme Court.