29 June 2008
Opposition youth Franak Vyachorka banned from crossing border into Lithuania

Franak Vyachorka, head of the Belarusian Popular Front’s culture commission, was banned from crossing the border into Lithuania, where he planned to meet with pro-democratic youths.

As Mr. Vyachorka told BelaPAN, on the morning of June 28, he was put off a bus at the Kamenny Loh border checkpoint. Belarusian border guards explained to him that he was on the foreign travel ban list.

According to Mr. Vyachorka, he visited Lithuania on June 7 and then did not have any problems with crossing the border. He said that he would complain to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

On January 1, 2008, the Belarusian government abolished travel permit stamps in passports and introduced an electronic passport check system, which detects people on the exit ban list. This list is in fact secret and, as a rule, people learn that they are on the list from border guards on arrival at the border.

Among those on the list are Anatol Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party, and prominent young opposition activists Barys Haretski and Zmitser Dashkevich.