BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/05/2006

Belarusian opposition appeals to Ukraine to offer university places to expelled students

(AP) Belarusian opposition activists appealed to Ukraine on Monday to offer some state university places to Belarusian students expelled from their own universities for protesting against their country's authoritarian leader.

The activists said they did not have exact numbers, but that up to 2,000 Belarusians had been arrested for participating in protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, many of them students. The students have faced jail time, and many have been thrown out of universities and fired from their jobs.

"I understand that there might be concern that our children might take the place of Ukrainians, but it would be an act of international solidarity between our countries," said Belarusian activist Tatyana Vanina, head of a Belarusian group called Rebirth of the Fatherland.

Ukraine's 2004 Orange Revolution mass protests, which helped usher in a new pro-Western, reformist leader, were seen as a model by the Belarusian opposition, which staged similar protests after Lukashenko won a new term in a March election dismissed by the opposition and Western nations as illegitimate.

The Belarusian opposition held an unprecedented series of protests, but they were smaller than the rallies in Ukraine and the tent camp young demonstrators set up on a central square in the capital Minsk was broken up by police.

About 100 Belarusians have come to Ukraine and applied for political asylum, said Vyacheslav Sivchik, head of the Belarusian activist group Razom.

"The repression has only increased," said Zmitser Dashkevich, leader of the Belarusian Youth Front, who was freed from jail Saturday but faces a new criminal case. Dashkevich planned to return to Belarus, but appealed for help for those Belarusians who see no alternative but to stay away for the time being.

Nikolai Ilyin is one of those. He was badly beaten when police broke up the Minsk tent camp, but managed to escape when police brought him to the hospital for treatment. He fled to Ukraine, he said, and now he is working for the Ukrainian branch of Amnesty International.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry has mildly criticized Lukashenko but refrained from harsh censure, raising complaints among Ukrainian activists who had hoped that President Viktor Yushchenko, a former opposition leader whose party faced official harassment from the government of former President Leonid Kuchma, would take a stronger approach.

Ukraine's Education Ministry refused to comment on the Belarusians' request, saying it had received no formal appeal.

Yushchenko administration officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Oleh Yastenko, the head of a Ukrainian students' group, said his organization had won assurances from some university rectors to provide space for Belarusians in daytime and distance learning programs.

Belarusian opposition leaders have made similar appeals to other nations, including Lithuania and Poland.

Source:

http://www.kyivpost.com/top/24452/