Milinkevich : one has to be in politics not for oneself

30 meeting in 23 towns of Belarus, participating people who overcome fear, numerous detainments, questions about inflation, social benefits and corruption, preventive conversations with police officers – there are results of Aliaksandr Milinkevich’s 2008 regional visits programme.

Over the last three months Aliaksandr Milinkevich, leader of the Movement for Freedom, has held 30 meetings during his visits to 23 towns across the country. The number of people that gathered for meetings differed from town to town, ranging from 30 to 200 persons. More that 20 applications were submitted by the organizers to local authorities in order to get an official authorization for meetings. In all cases, the answers were negative what did not prevent Aliaksandr Milinkevich from meeting people.

- Such meetings are of crucial importance because they ruin fear and reduce apathy of people by involving them in open discussion and exchanges of views. The meetings make me more convinced that the number of people calling for changes in Belarus is growing up. The regime is losing support of people. The mood of people clearly indicates that Belarus can change soon. It is obvious that people begun looking for better perspective for our country and they would like to see personal alternative to current ruler as well. Increased prices, removed social benefits and helplessness of citizens in face of arbitrary rule are the most common concerns of Belarusians. These issues have been raised by people in every region. From this point of view, the country is very homogeneous- emphasized Aliaksandr Milinkevich

Meetings were accompanied by a number of detainments of Aliaksandr Milinkevich under very different pretexts. Road police officers pretended that Aliaksandr Milinkevich was using a stolen car or invalid matriculation plate. The meetings were attended by police officers, special security forces and local ideological departments representatives. After meetings Aliaksandr Milinkevich was often summoned by police to give explanations.

There were also cases when local police called Milinkevich to testify on criminals he never heard about before. During the last two visits to Brest and Hrodna regions Aliaksandr Milinkevich’s car twice damaged with tires punctured. In Hrodna, he was summoned as a suspect in criminal case of gold stealing.

- Such reaction of authorities constitutes a proof of how unready and helpless they are when there is an open discussion with citizens. Everyone has realized that if officials are so scared of such meetings in public something goes wrong in the country. The authorities should understand that an alternative must exist, it is a natural feature of any society, - said the leader of the Movement For Freedom.

However, despite permanent pressure from police and local authority people came to meet Milinkevich and talk on such issues as high prices on products and low salaries in state own companies, removal of social benefits and increased corruption.

Aliaksandr Milinkevich is going to continue his trips to regions in May. Next visits are planned to Minsk and Vitsebsk voblasts: “It would be useful for every politician of democratic forces to start visiting regions and meeting people across the country. One has to be in politics not for oneself but primarily for the sake of the people.