BELARUSIAN OPPOSITION STAGES "EUROPEAN MARCH" IN MINSK. Several thousand demonstrators took part in the European March for Freedom on October 14 in Minsk to press for closer links between Belarus and the EU, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. Disobeying the city authorities' ban on the march in downtown Minsk, some 2,000 people went to October Square and marched several kilometers along the capital's main thoroughfare, Independence Avenue, to the Academy of Sciences, where another group of demonstrators gathered.
"Belarus will be in Europe. We'll build a country that we won't be ashamed of. A free, fair, and real one," opposition presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich told the crowd in front of the Academy of Sciences. Other speakers urged the government to fulfill the 12 conditions that the EU has set for Minsk before it can join the European Neighborhood Policy. The conditions, publicized in November 2006, include holding free and fair elections, giving the opposition access to the state media, ensuring freedom of association, releasing political prisoners, and abolishing the death penalty. After marching from the Academy of Sciences to Bangalore Square on the city's outskirts, the demonstrators dispersed without any arrests being made. Police detained several dozen opposition activists last week in an apparent attempt to prevent them from participating in the October 14 demonstration. Belapan reported that at least 25 of them were jailed on charges of using obscene language in a public place.
(Fonte: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty)
