8 April 2008
Two opposition youths go on hunger strike to display solidarity with Kazulin
Opposition youths Pavel Vinahradaw and Svyatlana Harakhovik have gone on a days-long hunger strike to display solidarity with imprisoned politician Alyaksandr Kazulin.
Ihar Rynkevich, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party “Hramada” and Dr. Kazulin’s former lawyer, ended his hunger strike on Tuesday.
“I lost more than 11 kilograms after 12 days of the fast,” he told BelaPAN.
The politician explained that he had started taking food because of the need to organize an opposition march to be staged on the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl accident later this month. “But my first experience of participation in a political hunger strike has given me a feeling of extraordinary internal strength and determination to endure this form of protest,” he said.
Uladzimir Myanshow, chairman of the Hrodna region’s association of disabled people, and civil society activist Syarhey Antoshankaw in Lida, Hrodna region, are also currently on a hunger strike to demand Dr. Kazulin’s release.
Opposition politician Syarhey Skrabets and his brother, Alyaksandr, were the first to go on a hunger strike to display solidarity with the former presidential candidate this year. They refused food between March 10 and April 1.
Dr. Kazulin, rector of Belarusian State University between 1996 and 2003 who was a candidate in Belarus’ 2006 presidential election, was arrested during a police crackdown on a peaceful post-election opposition demonstration on March 25, 2006. He was found guilty of hooliganism and the organization of group actions disturbing the public peace.
The person is believed by many to be the last convicted political prisoner in the country.
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