Tell the Truth (Belarus)

(Belarusian: Гавары праўду, Havary Praŭdu) is a campaign in Belarus, which was started on 25 February 2010 by educational and research institution "Movement Forward"[1] and is supported by some social public figures.[6][7] This address was supported by a historian and human rights activist Tatiana Protko [be], organizer of foundation "Children of Chernobyl" professor Gennady Grushevoy, chairman of Belarusian Association of Journalists Zhanna Litvina, academician Radim Garetsky [ru], people's artist of Belarus Zinaida Bondarenko [ru], grand chess master Viktor Kupreichik, poets Hienadz Buraukin and Rygor Borodulin, political scientist Alyaksandr Feduta.[8][11][12] On 19 April Neklaijev made an attempt to deliver several postcards personally, but they refused to accept them in the Presidential Administration because he wasn't an official representative of their authors.[24] On 2 June at the Zaslavl water storage basin near Minsk the leaders of campaign presented a collected book «100 faces of unemployment», dedicated to the problem of employment in Belarus.[31] Identical action was organised on 10 July in Orsha: with the assistance of municipal executive committee the activists of campaign cleaned the river Kuteenka.On 19 July on the meeting with Belarusian businessmen Niaklajeu announced that he is planning to become a delegate of 4th All-Belarusian National Assembly, which was supposed to take place in fall 2010.Uladzimir Niaklajeu declared that the activists managed to attract the attention of citizens of Belarus with their initiatives and social emphasis of the campaign helped people to better understand that it is necessary to solve problems on global level, in the country scale.Around 1:00 pm reporters started to receive multiple calls from different cities that the police is arresting activists of campaign and attempts to enter apartments for conducting searches.Searches and arrests were also present in Grodno, Gomel, Mogilev, Brest, Bobrujsk, Soligorsk, Slonim, Volkovysk, Borisov, Belynichi and several other towns.As mentioned in the press release of Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus dated 21 May the reason for arresting activists and seizures of equipment and documentation was a criminal case, opened according to the request of the owners of publishing company Dixand.Later the press release says that after investigatory actions it was established that the printed goods were produced by Dixand "by the order of the organizers of movement "Forward" and civil campaign Tell the Truth!Ministry of Internal Affairs declares that violations of law by Niaklajeu and Vozniak were "numerous and systematic", but does not specify concrete unlawful actions incriminated to them.The director of Dixand Alexander Boldyrev informed the Belarusian editor's office of Liberty Radio that he knows nothing about a criminal case related to his company.Valentina Matusevich, in whose apartment the police found weapons and drugs, explained that her arrested son was several times on duty in the office of the campaign but was barely interested in politics.On 20 May the chairman of European Parliament Jerzy Buzek expressed "great concern about deterioration of situation with human rights in Belarus" related to mass persecution of activists of "Tell the Truth!"He said that the EU may reconsider its relations with Belarus and demanded to "immediately stop repressions and persecution of civil society organisations and return on the track of democratization" from Belarusian authorities.Representatives of 33 social organizations, including famous scientists and environmentalists of different countries signed a petition to the public prosecution office, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Presidential Admisnistration of Belarus, which expressed protest against persecution of Yuri Voronezhtsev and seizure of personal belongings of the family of a «witness in a case» and demand to restore legal justice.As informed by the press-secretary of the campaign Julia Rymashevskaja "most evident hunting" was organized after collected signatures for naming one of the streets and metro stations after Vasil Bykov.On 17 August Bashura was charged with the commission of a crime according to two parts of article 380: forgery of documents aimed to be used by the producer and same actions, conducted by previous concert by a group of people.At the same day all pickets of the campaign in Mogilev region ware banned, several activists were arrested, one of them – Michail Pashkevich – received a fine of 1,4 million Belarusian rubles.On 10 June the court took into account the submissions of lawyers of Movement Forward that it is impossible to present organisational documents that were either confiscated by investigation or are located in a sealed office.Politician from the opposition Alexander Milinkevich considers the idea of addressing Presidential Administration to be wrong and finds the aims and sources of campaign financing to be questionable.The chairman of United Civil Party Anatoly Lebedko criticized the idea of Niaklajeu to be nominated as a delegate of All-Belarusian National Assembly.Several independent internet mass media ("Solidarity", "Belarusian Guerilla" and others) mentioned and discussed the assumptions that Niaklajeu's campaign is financed by sponsors from Russia.Candidate of philosophical sciences, ex-director of informational and analytical center of Academy of Public Administration Under the Aegis of the President of the Republic of Belarus Jurij Baranchik noted the genuine novelty of campaign and well-selected ideological basis.