BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/05/2007

Former Belarusian Presindential Candidate Heads Opposition Movement

Some 100 delegates from across Belarus participated on May 20 in the founding congress of the Movement for Freedom (Rukh za Svabodu), initially conceived by united opposition presidential candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich in March 2006, shortly after the presidential election, Belapan and RFE/RL's Belarus Service reported. The congress took place in the building hosting the Polish consulate and the Union of Poles in Belarus in the northwestern town of Hrodna. The delegates reportedly elected Milinkevich as the leader of the movement and managed to complete all formalities needed for the movement's legal registration before police officers forced their way into the building and evacuated all participants, due to an alleged bomb threat. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/05/3-CEE/cee-210507.asp