Global Voices Online

Minsk, March 2006 - by anonymous: “One young woman was arrested while standing outside an internet cafe near October Square on Monday, as the tent camp was formed. She was released after three days, and returned on Friday to the prison walls to hand out letters from other detainees she had taken out when released.”

As the opposition leader Aleksandr Milinkevich and other politicians have ended up in jail for the next 15 days following the April 26 march, Belarusian LJ users (some of whom were sentenced and jailed in March 2006) note the lack of support for their leaders and suggest ways to fix the situation (BEL, RUS):

inenigma: maybe someone knows the exact address of the [jail] on Okrestina? I want to write a letter to [Milinkevich]. Theoretically, it's a useless endeavor, but [the police] will have something to busy themselves with - they'll have so much paper to get rid of…

kaputmaher: I went there tonight, spent some time standing around… Commemoration or something… =))))) Though I was alone there at that time =)

inenigma: I was there two evenings in a row, on the 27th and 28th, and indeed, no one was there… very strange… even though we were being watched )) i think, this was very swinish behavior (or not so?) is it really so difficult to just come there and support [the prisoners]? no one was trying to capture us there (knock on wood…)

kaputmaher: It'd be human and correct and it has to be done! They were supporting us in a similar situation.

mindoug: I was there, too. Me and no one else =)

[…]

inenigma: I suggest that all those who are ready to come to Okrestina - tomorrow, for example - get in touch with me […] and we'll talk it over and start going there together )) and a good idea also is to really start writing letters to them… who knows, maybe they'll be passed [to the prisoners…]