Police detain busses with entrepreneurs heading for protest action in Minsk

Traffic police didn’t let two buses hired by entrepreneurs for a trip to Minsk out of Svetlahorsk.

RFE/RL learnt it from Anatol Zmitrovich, head of the coordinating council of individual entrepreneurs, who lives and works in Svetlahorsk:

‘Both buses couldn’t leave the town, because the traffic police banned it. To be short, they scared the people who were going to drive entrepreneurs to the march. We went to the police to clear out the situation. But nobody came out to speak with us.

Nevertheless, the entrepreneurs found a way out and everyone who was going to Minsk did it. I was among them.’

Viktar Harbachou, the head of the NGO For Free Development of Business (registered in the Ukraine), stated to RFE/RL that all regional entrepreneurs’ organizations in Belarus support the March of Entrepreneurs in Minsk.

‘It is the problem of 200 000 entrepreneurs,’ he said. ‘That’s why we need to solve it together, not one by one.’ Our representatives from regions are on their way to Minsk. In the morning I received calls from Slutsk, Homel oblast, Baranavichy and other regions. According to the received information, traffic police stops the busses and cars with entrepreneurs and put down their passport data.’

In particular, in Rechytsa the police stopped the car of an activist of For Free Development of Business Aleh Shabetnik. ‘The police put down the passport data of all passengers and then let us go’, Shabetnik said.