On December,19 2010 there were presidential elections in Belarus. These elections were not recognized by the OSCE, European countries and the USA as the previous presidential elections’ 2006 due to irregularities registered by observers and contradiction with the international norms.
One of the reasons why such a strict decision on Belarus was made was the use of brute force and the arrests of peaceful demonstrators, who went to the streets to show their protest against election falsifications. 700 Belarusians were brutally beaten, detained and condemned. There were 19 prominent politicians including 5 presidential candidates among them. Belarusian authorities are trying to blame the leaders of Belarusian opposition for organizing mass disorders.
Moreover, one day before the presidential elections in Belarus, on December, 18 2010, the chairman of the international youth public organization “Young Front” (Małady front) Zmicier Dashkevich and also its activists Eduard Lobov and Denis Lazar were preventively detained by Belarusian authorities.
Reacting to the aftermath of Belarussian undemocratic elections held on December 19th 2010, EDS released two statements:
In the statement on situation in Belarus EDS strongly criticise the actions of Belarusian security, defense and law enforcement agencies and call to release all the Belarusian citizens who were imprisoned both preventively and after the peaceful demonstrations of December,19 2010 immediately and stop the criminal and administrative persecution and deny all the politically motivated accusations.
In the second statement EDS strongly requires from the Belarusian authorities to release the leaders and activists of “Young Front” and acquit of all the politically motivated charges against them.
EDS is a member association of