Ambassadors of EU Countries Visit Hunger Strike Protesters

On June 7 ambassadors of the EU countries: Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Germany, and Great Britain visited members of the Respublika parliamentary group and UCP activists who had announced a Termless hunger strike. The same day the protesters were also visited by head of OSCE office in Minsk and representatives of the People’s Coalition Five Plus, as well as a group of businessmen. They all expressed their support and understanding of the protesters’ demands, reports RFE/RL.
The EU countries ambassadors had a 1-hour conversation with the protesters. Ambassador of France Stephane Chmelewsky addressed MPs Valery Fralow, Siarhei Skrabets and Uladzimir Parfianovich saying they share the purposes of the hunger strike which correspond to European expectations of building democratic Belarus.
The same days the protesters were visited by representatives of the businessmen initiative “Perspektyva” from many cities of Belarus. They expressed their full support to “brave actions of the MPs”. Representatives of businesses from all regions of Belarus will express their solidarity with the hunger strikers by a national strike against the self-will of the authorities which they will hold on June 17.
The evening press conference which took place in the yard of Fralow’s apartment building gathered about 50 people. Two protesters – UCP activists Maryna Bahdanovich and Henadz Ananyew – did not participate. They cannot leave Fralow’s apartment, the place of the hunger strike. Outside they might be detained by police and delivered to court to be tried for an attempt to put a tent camp in the same yard on Saturday.