Human Rights Day: Poles Picket against Lukashenka’s Regime

13.12.2005.

According to RFE/RL

On 12 December in Warsaw and on 10 December in Poznan there took place actions devoted the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Participants of the picket in Warsaw held such posters as: “Lukashenka – president or thief?”, “The last dictator of Europe has neither honor, nor shame”, “Changes to the Criminal Code – jail for critics of the authorities”.

The action participants also demanded to punish the local authorities of Polatsk, who they believe have stolen the means, issued for the repair of the Culture Palace, which is now in the state of emergency and presents threat to human lives.

The action organizer Uladzimier Tsybulski stated the picketers acted on behalf of Revolutionary public movement, organization that will struggle for the retirement of the present authorities with the assistance of the actions, the sense of which will be clear to ordinary people:
-- The opposition can’t win without applying to the people. I decided to establish something here to help my nation, because I want to live in Belarus.

The picketers tried to pass their demands to representatives of the Belarusian Embassy, but nobody came out. The Embassy workers asked them to leave the documents in the postbox.

On 10 December members of Belarusian Cultural-educational center together with the Polish organization Young Democrats held an action in the center of Poznan. They reminded Poles they could enjoy the rights which citizens of Belarus were deprived of. Using loud-hailers, they read all paragraphs of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Polish and Belarusian. The action participants also held in their hands portraits of the missing Belarusian politicians and public activists, white-red-white banners and transparencies.