Anatol Liabiedzka Is Detained in Minsk Airport

02.09.2005.

According to RFE/RL

Anatol Liabiedzka, the leader of the United Civil Party, was detained at the customs of Minsk-2 airport for more than 2,5 hours on his way home from the celebration that was devoted to the 25th anniversary of Solidarnosc trade union in Poland. At first the border guards checked his passport for more than half an hour, consulting their administration. Then customs officers examined the politician’s belongings. They paid interests to the materials of the conference “From solidarity to freedom” that took place in Gdansk and Warsaw.

As a result the border guards confiscated the conference programs, lists of participants, their biographies, CDs, Orange Revolution digest of poems in English and Ukrainian and a book devoted to the establishment of Solidarnosc trade union. In the confiscation report it was stated that this information could be harmful to political and economical interests of Belarus.

Mr. Liabiedzka considers such actions of border guards and custom officers lawless and humiliating.
-- Of course, one can only be glad for the people whom we saw in Gdansk and Warsaw. These people celebrate and have right to it. However, I should say that 95% of the people who took part in this scene at the airport understand that it was totally absurd, - he said.