Committee to Protect Children Established in Babruisk
Human rights activists,
journalists and representatives of political movements formed a
committee to protect children in connection with the recent
kidnapping of the daughter of the Babruisk activist of the organizing
committee of the party "Belarusian Christian Democracy"
Viachaslau Sheleh. This decision was approved at their roundtable in
Babruisk.
On 27 July Sheleh's 16-year-old daughter was
hospitalized with a suspected concussion. According to her father,
unidentified persons hit Natallia on the head while she was doing
morning exercises. As a result she lost consciousness, after which
she was taken to a forest 20 kilometers from Babruisk and left there,
smeared with black paint. The oppositionist considers the incident as
an attempt of the security services to exercise pressure on him.
The
round table was attended by about 30 people, including
representatigves of the Belarusian Christian Democracy, the
Belarusian Popular Front, "Fair World", the Belarusian
Social Democratic Party "Hramada", as well as local
journalists, human rights activists and ordinary citizens. At
present, the committee consists of 18 people, the list of founders
remains open.
"We are creating a citizens' committee and
will undertake to inform Babruisk residents about this case”, said
the committee member Taisa Kabanchuk to BelaPAN . “We will
concentrate on informing the society and its consolidation around the
family so that nothing of the kind will happen to any of
us".
Participants of the meeting drafted an appeal which
they intend to submit to law-enforcement agencies, including the
Investigative Committee and the local authorities on 5 August. There
the citizens express their "extreme indignation at what happened
to Natallia Sheleh" and claim that social activists receive such
threats regulardly and consequently.
The authors of the
address are dissatisfied with the fact that the actions of the
unknown towards the 16-year-old girl are qualified just as
hooliganism. They ask the investigating authorities "to conduct
an investigation as transparent as possible and to inform the public
about it" and to initiate hearings with the participation of
citizens and law enforcement officials on the results of the
investigation in September.