Minsk authorities banned picket dated to anniversary of disappearance of Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski
The United Civil Party office received a written notice about this on 3 September, RFE/RL reports.
Anatol Paulau, head of Minsk UCP branch, thinks the authorities are afraid people of Belarus can remember political disappearances.
“Uladzimir Ramanouski and I wrote a letter to the city executive committee asking to allow us to hold a picket on 16 September at intersection of Fabrychnaya Street and Rabochy Zavulak, where Hanchar and Krasouski disappeared 10 years ago,’ Anatol Paulau tells. ‘We wrote that we would bring posters with slogans about failure to solve those crimes. We said we planned to gather 50 people.
An open letter, signed by deputy head of the Minsk city executive committee Mikhail Tsitsiankou, says our application needed a seal. But our letter was printed on the official party blank, with all necessary attributes, including the registered seat and so on. We have never sealed such documents.’
