Vitsebsk: Barys Khamaida detained again

On 18 February in Vitsebsk, Barys Khamaida, activist of the Conservative-Christian Party Belarusian Popular Front, was detained for two hours for distribution of the party magazine Belaruskiya Vedamastsi. The official reason for the detention was that the policemen needed to check-up the literary editions and periodicals that were distributed by Mr. Khamaida.

’They refused to do it on-site and guarded me to the Chyhunachny district police department of Vitsebsk,’ said the activist.

According to him, the policemen paid most attention to the 17 editions of Belaruskiya Vedamastsi for 2008-2009. This magazine is issued in Warsaw by Zianon Pazniak, CCP BPF Chairperson. As far as the edition is printed in Poland, the police decided to confiscate the magazines and pass them to the ideological department of the Vitsebsk oblast executive committee for a check-up.

However, when Mr. Khamaida refused to sign the confiscation report and demanded a copy of the document, the magazines were returned to him. The activist is sure that his detention is connection to the election campaign. ‘The authorities are afraid of the words of truth, by which Zianon Pazniak addresses the readers in the pages of Belaruskiya Vedamastsi,’ commented Barys Khamaida.