Alaksandar Milinkievič

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Alaksandar Milinkievič
Аляксандар Мілінкевіч
Александр Милинкевич

Alaksandar Milinkievič
Born July 25, 1947 (1947-07-25) (age 62)
Hrodna, Byelorussian SSR
Nationality Belarus
Alma mater University of Hrodna
Occupation Physicist

Alaksandar Uładzimieravič Milinkievič or Milinkevich; (Belarusian: Аляксандар Уладзімеравіч Мілінкевіч, Russian: Александр Владимирович Милинкевич, born 25 July 1947 in Hrodna) is a Belarusian politician. He was nominated by the leading opposition parties in Belarus to run against incumbent Alexander Lukashenko in the presidential election on 19 March 2006.

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[edit] Biography

Milinkievič was born in 1947 in Hrodna. After graduating from the University of Hrodna, he passed his aspirantura at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Science of Belarus. Between 1980 and 1984 he was in charge of the (then forming) Faculty of Physics at the University of Sétif in Algiers. He also served as a docent at the University of Hrodna between 1978 and 1980, and then from 1984 on to 1990. At that time he also started to cooperate with local city authorities as a chief of one of the committees. Soon he reached the rank of vice-mayor of the city.

In 2001 he was the chief of staff of Siamion Domaš, one of the opposition leaders running for president in the 2001 presidential elections of Belarus. In October 2005 he was chosen by the United Democratic Forces of Belarus as the joint candidate of the opposition in the presidential elections of 2006.

Alaksandar Milinkievič in Poland, March 30, 2006

On 12 December 2006 he was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament.

[edit] Campaign for president

In October 2005, at a Congress of Democratic Forces, roughly 900 delegates from various political and civil society groups met in the capital Minsk to pick a single opposition candidate for the 2006 Presidential election. Milinkievič won over three other political leaders at the meeting (including Stanislav Shushkevich and Anatoly Lebedko). The unification process has the aim of selecting a single opposition figure who would run against President Lukashenko, who has run Belarus for over a decade. Belarus' opposition forces had previously tried to field a single candidate in the 2001 Presidential elections.

Milinkievič compared his campaign to that of another pro-Western opposition candidate in neighboring Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, whose victory in late 2004 was dubbed the "Orange Revolution." Although disappointment in Yushchenko's government has culminated in political crisis in September 2005 amid renewed allegations of mass graft coupled with a worsening economic situation,[1] Milinkievič calls last year's events in Ukraine an inspiration for his supporters. "We believe that Belarus will be next after… Ukraine," he told The Associated Press.[2]

However, opposition leaders realize that an uphill struggle lies ahead, despite their support from U.S.-funded NGOs. Lukashenko's socialist economic policies enjoy significant backing in rural areas of the country—one of the few areas of the Soviet Union where the country's social welfare network remains virtually unchanged since the Soviet era.[3]

In the Belarusian Presidential election of 2006, official results gave Milinkievič 6% of the vote against 83% for the incumbent Lukashenko.

In January 2006 Milinkievič was invited to Paris by the French government. He met with Minister of foreign affairs of France, and gave numerous interviews to Western media, including a TV interview to Euronews. Milinkevich, just like any other opposition activist, has absolutely no TV access inside Belarus, as the media in Belarus are state-controlled. The only exception when he was allowed to appear on Belarusian Television was his pre-election speech in 2006. Earlier, he had already met the new Polish prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, and the president of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus. In February 2006 he also met the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Javier Solana and several other top European politicians. His campaign received the backing first of the Polish government and later that of prominent EU officials.

[edit] Personal

Currently married to Civil Society activist Inna Kuley, he has two sons from a previous marriage. Aside from his native Belarusian Milinkievič also speaks Polish, English, French and Russian.

[edit] Activities following election

In the last week of December 2005, Alaksandar Darafiejeǔ (Alexander Dorofeev), a member of Milinkievič's "initiative group" for organising his election campaign, was arrested by the government in alleged connection with the Vitebsk bombing.[4]

On 9 March 2006, Vincuk Viačorka, a member of Milinkievič's campaign team, was sentenced to 15 days’ detention for "organizing an unsanctioned meeting" between the presidential candidate with voters in Minsk, despite the election law permitting such meetings. Nine further members of the opposition—Alexander Pavlovsky, Petr Babarenko, Alexander Zelko, Dmitry Kudryavtsev, Petr Topar, Vladimir Gribin, Alexey Makovich, Sergey Pyantsevich and Artem Litvinko—were also sentenced to 15 days’ detention for the same offence.

In April 2006, Milinkievič himself was jailed by the government for 15 days for taking part in an unsanctioned rally.

On November 23, 2006, government police detained Milinkevich three times as he traveled around Vitebsk Oblast with a local opposition activist who was accused of causing a fatal hit-and-run accident in the past.[5] On November 29, 2006, government police detained Milinkevich at a Minsk airport after he returned from a NATO summit in Riga. He was accused of having a forged passport.[6]

On December 4, 2006, Milinkevich was detained by the government in Belozyorsk on suspicion of drug trafficking.[7]

On January 6, 2007, Milinkevich was arrested by the government twice: first on the suspicion of drunk driving (he was found to be sober) and then on the suspicion of being involved in a traffic accident.[8] On January 29, 2007, Milinkevich said he was fined $2,200 by the government after being tried in absence for leaving Belarus illegally. He called it "revenge by Lukashenko."[9]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-09-28T163259Z_01_HO859543_RTRUKOC_0_UK-UKRAINE.xml&archived=False
  2. ^ http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/12801069.htm
  3. ^ "Opposition in Belarus Unites to Select Candidate for President". Voice of America. 2005-10-02. http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-10-02-voa33.cfm. 
  4. ^ http://www.charter97.org/eng/news/2005/12/26/vzryv
  5. ^ "Belarus opposition leader Milinkevich detained, spokesman says". International Herald Tribune. 2006-11-23. Archived from the original on 2006-11-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20061124002206/http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/23/europe/EU_GEN_Belarus_Opposition.php. Retrieved 2009-05-13. 
  6. ^ "Belarus' main opposition leader detained by authorities". International Herald Tribune. 2006-11-29. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/29/europe/EU_GEN_Belarus_Opposition.php. [dead link]
  7. ^ "Police briefly detain Belarusian opposition leader for 3rd time in 2 weeks: spokesman". International Herald Tribune. 2006-12-04. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/04/europe/EU_GEN_Belarus_Opposition.php. [dead link]
  8. ^ "Police detain Belarusian opposition leader twice in one day, spokesman says". International Herald Tribune. 2007-01-06. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/06/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus-Opposition.php. [dead link]
  9. ^ "Belarusian opposition leader fined over alleged border infraction". International Herald Tribune. 2007-01-29. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/29/europe/EU-GEN-Belarus.php. [dead link]

[edit] External links

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