Lawyers: 7 Belarusian candidates charged

[peejay 327]

Lawyers: 7 Belarusian candidates charged

By YURAS KARMANAU

Associated Press

MINSK, Belarus – The seven Belarusian presidential candidates who were arrested after this month's election have been formally charged with organizing a mass public disturbance and face up to 15 years in prison, their lawyers said Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched through the streets of Minsk after the Dec. 19 election to protest fraudulent vote-counting. The demonstration was violently broken up by club-swinging riot police.

The election handed a fourth term to authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who exercises overwhelming control over politics, industry and media in this nation of 10 million.

One of his challengers, Vladimir Neklyayev, was badly beaten while trying to lead supporters to the election-night protest, and his lawyer said his health took a sharp turn for the worse in prison Wednesday and his life was in danger.

Lawyer Tamara Sidorenko said 64-year-old Neklyayev suffered an attack of hypertension in which his blood pressure soared. He was treated by medics, but prison officials refused to allow him to be hospitalized, and his blood pressure has not come down, Sidorenko said. His speech was slow and he was barely able to move.

"At any moment Neklyayev could die," the lawyer said. "He has been charged, but he cannot be questioned."

Another candidate, Nikolai Satkevich, has declared a hunger strike in prison, according to his lawyer, Tatyana Stankevich.

The government refused to comment on the charges filed against the seven candidates, five of whom remain in prison.

Overall, some 700 people were arrested after the election. Most were sentenced to five to 15 days in jail.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101229/ap_on_re_eu/eu_belarus_election

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

They are still arresting people there. We had a friend of ours get picked up a few days ago for questioning. Luckily for her, she had company visiting her at the time so people knew she had been picked up by the KGB.

Russia is mainly to blame for this pecker head (Lukashenko). If not for Russia, this dictator wouldn't have had the chance to pull his ####### back in the 90's when he had parliament arrested, and replaced with his own stooges...all this done by Russian trained KGB back in Yeltin's era. Tsar Putin didn't help matters when he thought (like Yeltsin did), that Lukashenko would hand Belarus over to Russia on a silver platter.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Our politics are a yawner compared to the FSU. When all this cam down about Rod Blagojavich, Alla just shrugged "Of course, what do you expect?" The level and pervasiveness of corruption from the President to the mailman to the clerk selling train tickets...in the medical profession, for example, is just unfathomable by Americans. People here do not even believe when you tell them how it works.

It is why I always question the wisdom of people on one side of the fence or another on FSU politics. Is there a side that makes a difference? The people doing the arresting in Belarus are as guilty as those arrested, or more so.

I am not pleased to see this happening again (it never really stopped in Belarus) but it is happening again in Ukraine when it more or less went away for a few years and was never anything but a shakedown for cash anyway.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Our politics are a yawner compared to the FSU. When all this cam down about Rod Blagojavich, Alla just shrugged "Of course, what do you expect?" The level and pervasiveness of corruption from the President to the mailman to the clerk selling train tickets...in the medical profession, for example, is just unfathomable by Americans. People here do not even believe when you tell them how it works.

It is why I always question the wisdom of people on one side of the fence or another on FSU politics. Is there a side that makes a difference? The people doing the arresting in Belarus are as guilty as those arrested, or more so.

I am not pleased to see this happening again (it never really stopped in Belarus) but it is happening again in Ukraine when it more or less went away for a few years and was never anything but a shakedown for cash anyway.

Mark my words...it's going to get worse in Ukraine with that brainwashed Kremlin stooge Yanukovych running the show there. Again it's the Kremlin and other brainwashed Soviet stooges pulling the strings in Ukraine now like in Belarus. Russia is behind Yanukovych and Lukashenko being in power. There's little good about Russia and it's take on politics and even worse Russian Derzhava. Russians and their implants in Eastern Ukraine and Belarus are by far and large the worse thing going for all three of the "Rus country's". It starts with the FSB/KGB run Russian Orthodox Church, and ends with the typical brainwashed Russian nationalist...which accounts for most of the Russian population. They aren't known as the scourge of Europe for nothing.

Russians like to say it's because they are new to democracy and capitalism for them being...them, but that's nothing more than a p*ss poor excuse. Tsar Putin and his brainwashed NASHI Youth make the Tea Party here look like cub scouts on a Sunday outing. Ask any country bordering Russia how they really feel about their "big neighbor" and you won't hear anything positive unless it's from brainwashed Russian implants living in said country. I pray for the day Russia is permanently neutralized and split up into several country's. Russia's worst enemy is itself (Russians).

Edited December 30, 2010 by Why_Me

[peejay 327]

Our politics are a yawner compared to the FSU. When all this cam down about Rod Blagojavich, Alla just shrugged "Of course, what do you expect?" The level and pervasiveness of corruption from the President to the mailman to the clerk selling train tickets...in the medical profession, for example, is just unfathomable by Americans. People here do not even believe when you tell them how it works.

It is why I always question the wisdom of people on one side of the fence or another on FSU politics. Is there a side that makes a difference? The people doing the arresting in Belarus are as guilty as those arrested, or more so.

I am not pleased to see this happening again (it never really stopped in Belarus) but it is happening again in Ukraine when it more or less went away for a few years and was never anything but a shakedown for cash anyway.

That part of the world has known nothing but chaos interrupted by intermittent bouts of what passes for stability. Foreign invasions, revolution, civil war, civil strife.

My mom's parents and grandmother's brother left Belorussia (Belarus) for America before WWI when it was ruled by the Russian Czar Nicholas. I remember them well from my youth in the 1960's. They all pretty much died of old age by the late 1960's and early 1970's. I spent many summers living with them as a kid when my parents dumped me and my brother on them for the summer so they could take a break from us kids. I heard lots of stories about "the old country" growing up.

We got to go meet our Belarusian relatives over there after the glasnost period. I heard a lot of stories about what my relatives that stayed behind had to endure. They are survivors and they will survive.

Edited December 30, 2010 by peejay

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

That part of the world has known nothing but chaos interrupted by intermittent bouts of what passes for stability. Foreign invasions, revolution, civil war, civil strife.

My mom's parents and grandmother's brother left Belorussia (Belarus) for America before WWI when it was ruled by the Russian Czar Nicholas. I remember them well from my youth in the 1960's. They all pretty much died of old age by the late 1960's and early 1970's. I spent many summers living with them as a kid when my parents dumped me and my brother on them for the summer so they could take a break from us kids. I heard lots of stories about "the old country" growing up.

We got to go meet our Belarusian relatives over there after the glasnost period. I heard a lot of stories about what my relatives that stayed behind had to endure. They are survivors and they will survive.

That's the good...and the bad of it. Belarusians for the most part are just happy to have their potatoes, bread, and vodka...the older ones, and the rural ones anyways. When will younger Belarusians be able to join the EU and modern Europe ? The "I will survive" take on life doesn't cut it for those who want more out of life. Belarus is broke...and I mean way broke, and it's not going to get any better unless Belarusians get off their dead ####### and do something about it...like a REVOLUTION. It's time for Belarus to join the 21st century...and the only way that's going to happen is for Belarusians to oust that corrupt Kremlin backed Soviet mafia stooge of a dictator aka Lukashenko.

Edited December 30, 2010 by Why_Me

[peejay 327]

That's the good...and the bad of it. Belarusians for the most part are just happy to have their potatoes, bread, and vodka...the older ones, and the rural ones anyways. When will younger Belarusians be able to join the EU and modern Europe ? The "I will survive" take on life doesn't cut it for those who want more out of life. Belarus is broke...and I mean way broke, and it's not going to get any better unless Belarusians get off their dead ####### and do something about it...like a REVOLUTION. It's time for Belarus to join the 21st century...and the only way that's going to happen is for Belarusians to oust that corrupt Kremlin backed Soviet mafia stooge of a dictator aka Lukashenko.

I keep out of that because it isn't my country. I may have Belorussian blood in my veins, but it isn't my country. It isn't my wife's country of birth either, she was born in Russia and took Belarusian citizenship because that is where she lived when the USSR broke up. Regardless. The only point I was trying to make is that my Belarusian relatives survived without America and whatever life they made and make for themselves will likely be in Belarus. I wish them the best and my thoughts are with them.

Edited December 30, 2010 by peejay

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I keep out of that because it isn't my country. I may have Belorussian blood in my veins, but it isn't my country. It isn't my wife's country of birth either, she was born in Russia and took Belarusian citizenship because that is where she lived when the USSR broke up. Regardless. The only point I was trying to make is that my Belarusian relatives survived without America and whatever life they made and make for themselves will likely be in Belarus. I wish them the best and my thoughts are with them.

I also with Belarusians the best. My only ties to Belarus where my wife...to begin with, and then it progressed with her, her father, and her friends being activist. We still do what we can...whether it be helping with web space for West leaning Belarusian forums, or using our resources to help bring certain literature to print. Survival is human nature, but it's also human nature to have the chance to make ones life more livable. It's what Belarusians deserve and hopefully it happens in my life time.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I keep out of that because it isn't my country. I may have Belorussian blood in my veins, but it isn't my country. It isn't my wife's country of birth either, she was born in Russia and took Belarusian citizenship because that is where she lived when the USSR broke up. Regardless. The only point I was trying to make is that my Belarusian relatives survived without America and whatever life they made and make for themselves will likely be in Belarus. I wish them the best and my thoughts are with them.

BTW peejay, you do know that flag in your avatar means arrest and possible jail time in Belarus if caught with it in public don't you ?

[peejay 327]

BTW peejay, you do know that flag in your avatar means arrest and possible jail time in Belarus if caught with it in public don't you ?

Yes, I am aware of that. The present regime associates that flag with the democratic opposition. Actually it is an old flag dating back to the short lived independent Belarusian National Republic of 1918. The Pahonia you use as your avatar was also a symbol of that short lived independent republic. I have no idea if the Pahonia is also outlawed.

Those old symbols were revived from 1991 to 1995 to represent the new independent state of Belarus after the USSR broke apart. The present regime outlawed it after Lukashenko seized power.

It is no accident that the present Belarusian flag is basically the old Soviet Union era Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic flag minus the hammer & sickle. It was the Bolshevik takeover and establishment of the BSSR in 1919 that doomed the independent BNR. The symbolism of all of these flags cannot be understood without their historical context and what they represent to individual Belarusians depending on their political outlook.

I am not attempting to make a political statement by my choice of avatar. I vaguely remember getting letters from my relatives with that postage stamp on the envelope back then. I found the postage stamp on the internet, thought it looked cool, and turned it into an my avatar on VJ. My first visit to meet my Belarusian relatives in the early 1990's was during the era of the old red & white flag. That red/white flag and the Pahonia symbol was on sale everywhere in the tourist shops at that time. I still have those souvenirs. I associate them more with my first visit to Belarus than as a political statement.

I have relatives and friends in Belarus as well as Belarusian friends living here in the USA that I see regularly. I am interested in their views and opinions because of my ancestral ties, but as an American I stay out of their politics.

Edited December 30, 2010 by peejay