BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

17/03/2006

Walesa and Havel urge support for Belarus opposition

Former Polish and Czech presidents, Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel have called on the international community to support the opposition candidate in Sunday's presidential election in Belarus.

In a letter published in Polish and Czech dailies, they wrote that the opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich should be treated as a democratic representative of the Byelorussian nation.

"If the European Union is able to truly support civic society, the last undemocratic regime at its borders will collapse. This may happen as quickly as communist regimes once collapsed. The stronger the opposition is, the less painful the transition to democracy, the less painful the transition to democracy and social transformation will be", Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel wrote.

Source:

http://www.poland.pl/news/article,Walesa_and_Havel_urge_support_for_Belarus_opposition,id,215469.htm