Belarus Update 1: Lukashenko's scenario used to manipulate the peaceful protest actions and make criminals out the democratic presidential candidates

My friend Olga from Minsk sent this information to inform us of the situation in Minsk. Please keep her and many other friends in Minsk in your prayers, as they seek to live out their faith in the public arena.

 

 

 

Lukashenko’s scenario used to manipulate the peaceful protest actions and make criminals out the democratic presidential candidates

 

The Belarusian Christian Democracy Party, presidential candidate for the BCD Vital Rymasheuski as well as other democratic presidential candidates and activists are not responsible for the acts of violence, which took place on Independence Square in Minsk during a peaceful mass protest against the presidential election fraud on 19 December 2010. 

 

During the rally the democratic candidates for presidency decided to negotiate with the representatives of the Government in its headquarters, but no one opened the doors and there were a large number of riot police inside the building. Several provocateurs from the Belarusian security service started breaking the doors of the Government headquarters and then the riot police attacked the democratic presidential candidates and started beating up the protesters dividing and dispersing them all over the square. Vital Rymasheuski and activists of the BCD were trying to stop the provocateurs, but they were blocked and beaten by the police.

 

Here’s the video where Mr. Rymasheuski explains what happened (in Russian):

http://bchd.info/index.php?newsid=4174

"When we came to the Government house to knock on the door and call someone for the negotiations, drunk disguised provocateurs - 8 people - began to break the glass. There were many people from the security services with small cameras, who made a tight circle around the door; it was not possible to come close. We have organized the guards group and came to push out the agents-provocateurs and we have almost succeeded. But as soon as they stopped beating the windows immediately the riot police jumped out of the building".

 

The organizers of the protest rally planned to hold a peaceful demonstration. And the rally was peaceful indeed. Vital Rymasheuski announced this before 19 December and during the demonstration on Independence Square he was calling people to withstand the provocations performed by KGB agents. There were about a thousand drunken people in the crowd who had been sent there by the security service.

 

Now the Ministry of Internal Affairs has initiated a criminal investigation into yesterday’s mass protest on the square. The official press-release of the Ministry falsely states that the protesters used drain pipes, stones and chunks of ice. It also lies about a large number of wooden sticks, pieces of armature and bottles of alcoholic beverages allegedly found on the square. http://mvd.gov.by/ru/main.aspx?guid=1131

Here is the way how the Ministry of Internal Affairs views the situation http://mvd.gov.by/main.aspx?guid=26493. It has to be noted that the people on the video do not belong to the democratic opposition.

 

The Belarusian National TV puts the blame of vandalism and violence on the democratic leaders and on Vital Rymasheuski in particular. Now the KGB forces the remaining ex-presidential cases to make statements on TV against their colleagues, who are now imprisoned.

 

Now the BCD co-chairmen Vital Rymasheuski and Paval Sieviarynets are in the KGB pre-trial prison. Other former presidential candidates are also reported to be there.

The Belarusian Christian Democracy requests you to write appeals condemning the ignoble violent actions taken by the current Belarusian authorities, to conduct open and fair investigation of the events, to release the more than 600 of people held now in prison, some of them without warm clothes and even food and drink (http://nn.by/?c=ar&i=47794 in Belarusian).