In solidarity with the Chernobyl demonstrations in Belarus, the Norwegian coalition Belarus16 held a modest demonstration in front of the Norwegian parliament, this evening at 6:00 PM. Berit Lindeman of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee stated that also now that the elections are over, it is equally important to show solidarity with the Belarusian population and the people that are still in prison. Simultaneously, in Belarus, more than 10,000 people defied threats by the police and took the streets to commemorate the Chernobyl disaster which took place 20 years ago and to show their dissatisfaction with the Lukashenko regime. (26-APR-06) This article has been written by HRH / Ralph Pluimert. Pictures: Erlend Sand It has never become clear how many victims the Chernobyl disaster really claimed and still claims. According to Greenpeace no less than 100,000 lethal cases of cancer can be expected the coming years as a consequence of the 1986 industrial disaster. Although Chernobyl is a Ukrainian city, Belarus was harmed at least as hard. One fifth of Belarus’ territory was evacuated due to fall out of the exploded reactor. In Belarus the date of the tragedy, 26 April, has become a day of opposition against the Lukashenko regime. Most of today’s prominent human rights defenders started their activities in reaction to the Chernobyl disaster. Today’s protests have the slogan ‘Freedom, Truth and Justice.’ The protests were attended by opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich. Unique coalition
Belarus16 is a coalition of youth organisations, of which most are youth divisions of political parties, that represents almost the complete political spectrum in Norway. Organisations that in general disagree on more or less everything, find a common cause in their rejection of the Belarusian dictatorial regime. The coalition, which is also supported by the Human Rights House Foundation and the Helsinki Committee, is the Norwegian initiative related to the actions that every 16th day of the month are held worldwide in solidarity with the people in Belarus that suffer under the Lukashenka regime.
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Norwegian NGOs show solidarity with Belarusian demonstrators
In solidarity with the Chernobyl demonstrations in the Republic of Belarus, the Norwegian coalition Belarus16 held a modest demonstration in front of the Norwegian parliament, this evening at 6:00 PM. Berit Lindeman of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee stated that also now that the elections are over, it is equally important to show solidarity with the Belarusian population and the people that are still in prison. Simultaneously, in the Republic of Belarus, more than 10,000 people defied threats by the police and took the streets to commemorate the Chernobyl disaster which took place 20 years ago and to show their dissatisfaction with the Lukashenko regime. (26-APR-06)
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