Flats of Members of Aliaksandr Milinkevich’s Initiative Group in Vaukavysk Get Searched

At about 7 p.m. on 5 February Vaukavysk police searched the private flats of Viktar Vaichuk and Vital Huliaka. The police showed the order for search, signed by the procurator of Vaukavysk. The alleged reason for the searches was that somebody wrote “Go Away” and “Go Away, Please” on the walls of several buildings.

-- This is a pure provocation, -- stated Mikalai Aksamit, chair Milinkevich’s headquarters and initiative group in Vaukavysk. – By the way, it’s not the first one. We were detained even during the first day on which we collected signatures for our candidates. The police told us we could collect signatures only on the election day, 19 March and detained us in the eyes of many people in order to intimidate them. This time, when they searched the flats, they didn’t pay any interest to paint. They looked through the bookshelves and printed materials and confiscated a computer system block. Everybody knows Viktar Vaichuk and Vital Huliakm haven’t written anything on the walls, because they respect their city. Their only fault is that they have worker in the initiative group and also collected signatures in order to become members of the polling station election commissions. This is confirmed with the fact that they were driven to Vaukavysk District Board of Internal Affairs as witnesses (!) and were asked there about the quantity of members of Milinkevich’s initiative group and the plan of its activity.

Vaukavysk activists are indignant at such actions. According to the human rights activist Viktar Sazonau, they have already complained to the local procurator’s office and the procurator general.