Traffic Police Interfere With Election Meetings of Aliaksandr Milinkevich

Source: www.charter97.org

On 6 January the leader of the united democratic forces, a former candidate for presidency in Belarus Aliaksandr Milinkevich started journeys over the country as an agent of democratic candidates for deputes of local soviets. Meetings with voters in Rechytsa, Homel and Dobrush were planned on that day. However the car of the democratic leader was stopped three times over the day by police and traffic police. On 7 January the same situation repeated, Milinkevich’s car was stopped three times.

In the village of Parychy, Svetlahorsk region, the car of the politician was stopped under a pretext that traffic policemen supposed that a deputy chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front party Aliaksei Kavalets who was driving the car, was allegedly drunk. The politicians were taken to a primary health worker’s station in the village of Parychy for examination. Then he was taken to a hospital in Svetlahorsk, saying that necessary chemical agents are lacking in Parychy. The examination in the hospital didn’t confirm suspicions of traffic policemen. At 12.50 Milinkevich and Kavalets were released.

While they were checked, Milinkevich was late for a meeting with voters in Rechytsa. Milinkevich’s press-secretary Pavel Mazheika told to BIelaPAN that detention was ‘a planned action of the authorities which aim is not to allow a meeting of the leader of the democratic forces with voters’.

At about 3 p.m. the car of Milinkevich which was heading to Homel on ‘Homel-Kobryn’ road was stopped by traffic police again. As said y Pavel Mazheika, the policemen stated that the car was suspected for implication in a traffic accident in Rechytsa. The politician and the driver were demanded to go to a local police department. Milinkevich refused to obey saying that he hadn’t been in Rechytsa. However, discussions with traffic policemen took about two hours.

In about 20 kilometres from Homel the car of the leader of the democratic forces was stopped again. Traffic policemen explained their actions by facts that a passenger wasn’t strapped in. In an hour A. Milinkevich went to Homel, but the meeting with voters was over at that time.

On the way to Dobrush the politician was not detained. But after arriving to a planned meeting, he couldn’t get into the assembly hall. Policemen and local authorities’ representatives were standing near the entrance. They told that A. Milinkevich arrived too late, and other events are taking place there.

On 7 January on the way from Homel to Kalinkavichy traffic policemen detained Milinkevich’s car twice. The politician went to Homel for a meeting with voters as an agent of a candidate for deputy of the regional soviet, the head of the United Civil Party regional branch Aliaksei Manevich.

First traffic policemen checked the documents and let the drivers go rather quickly. The second documents check took place at the road Homel-Kalinkavichy at the cross-roads Rechytsa-Khoiniki.