BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

10/11/2006

Three Gay Activists Arrested and Released after 22 Hours on Eve of Gay Conference

GOMEL, November 10, 2006 - Three gay activists were released yesterday evening, 22 hours after being arrested in an apartment where they were attending a meeting of the organising committee of an International LGBT conference to be held in Belarus this weekend.

The three are Vyacheslav Andreev, Svyatoslav Sementsov and Viachaslau Bortnik, a spokesperson for human rights group TEMA said..

They were arrested the previous afternoon, along with four others who were released after two hours.

All were taken to the Zheleznodorozhnyi Borrow Police Department for interrogation.

The activists said that police officers had demanded detailed information on the program of the conference, a list of participants, and venue of the conference.

International guests were said to have been of special interest to thepolice.

The mobile phone address books were also checked.

The arrests were strongly condemned in Brussels where European gay activists were meeting for a conference on LGBT equal rights organised by the Socialist Group (PES) of the European Parliament.

News came through from Belarus of the arrests as the conference was discussing Socialist strategies for safeguarding fundamental LGBT human rights in Europe, with was attending by a Council of Europe director, Ralf-Rene Weingartner.

Delegates immediately called for the release of the three and insisted that the Belarus conference should be allowed to proceed.

"We have to tell Belarus that this behaviour is not acceptable," said Patricia Prendiville, the executive director of the International Lesbian and Gay Association Europe.

She called for the agreements already in place between the European Union and Belarus should be strengthened.

"International awareness on the situation facing lesbian and gays in Belarus needs to be addressed," she said.

The four who were arrested and released after two hours were Sviatlana Siarheichyk, Tanya Ivanova, Aleksei Filipenko, Natallia Kavalchuk.

Source:

http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/2006nov/1002.htm