BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

Jun 15, 2005, 9:25 GMT

Jailed Belarusian business leader suspends hunger strike

Excerpt from report by Belarusian human rights group Charter-97 web site on 15 June

The leader of the national strike committee of entrepreneurs and a member of the Free Belarus council of civil initiatives, Valeryy Levanewski, has suspended his protest hunger strike. The political prisoner's relatives received a letter from the businessman, in which he writes that he decided to end the hunger strike for health reasons. Nevertheless, Valeryy Levanewski plans to go on hunger strikes every month until he reaches his goal. Uladzimir Levanewski, son of the entrepreneurs' leader, reported this to the Charter-97 press centre.

"I am suspending the hunger strike for tactical reasons. First, I am not feeling very well. Second, I have been forced to draw up a list of my belongings, and this indicates that they want to send me to the Interior Ministry's national hospital by force. A man was on a hunger strike before me, so he was taken to an isolation ward. They made him an injection and sent him to hospital. As for the hunger strike, I plan to stage it every month until I reach my goal," the political prisoner's letter reads.

[Passage omitted: Levanewski demands the dismissal of the chief of the Interior Ministry's committee on the execution of punishments as he believes that his complaints are not duly considered - see report by Charter-97 web site, in Russian, 1208 gmt 2 Jun 05; Levanewski and his deputy, Alyaksandr Vasilyew, were charged with slandering President Alyaksandr Lukashenka and sentenced to two years in jail last September - see report by Charter-97 web site, in Russian, 1127 gmt 7 Sep 04.]

Source: Charter-97 web site, Minsk, in Russian 15 Jun 05

BBC Mon KVU 150605 gk/vk

Source:

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/mediamonitor/article_1013353.php/Jailed_Belarusian_business_leader_suspends_hunger_strike