KGB Tries to Control Activity of NGOs in Svietlahorsk and Looks for Intelligencers

08.08.2005.

According to the Board of Svietlahorsk district organization of the public association Fransishak Skaryna Belarusian Language Society, on 2 August an officer of the interregional KGB Board in Svietlahorsk phoned to Aliaksandr Rautsienka and asked him to come to the office.

A. Rautsienka is a member of the group that has just returned from Czech where its members familiarized there with the activity of the local self-government. The group included representatives of Belarusian Language Society, other NGOs, businessmen and journalists. 24-year-old A. Rautsienka went to Czech as a freelance journalist (he published articles in a number of newspapers in Svietlahorsk and took part in preparation of materials for the local TV in Svietlahorsk).

The KGB officer demanded from A. Rautsienka to tell why the group went to Czech, what they did there, which places they visited, what they talked about, etc. He paid especial interest to Telman Masliukou, one of the visit’s coordinators, and other representatives of NGOs. The same day Mr. Rautsienka informed other participants of the visit to Czech about this “talk”. As a result they composed a note of protest and on 5 August submitted it to the chair of the KGB Board in Svietlahorsk and the procurator of Svietlahorsk inter-regional procurator’s office.

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