Word: statkevich
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Dates: during 2005-2005
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...Nikolai Statkevich tried to buck the system in 2001: he ran for President of Belarus. The country calls itself democratic, but President Alexander Lukashenko, in power for 11 years, runs it like the last dictatorship in Europe and brooks no challenges to his neo-Stalinist rule. That's why Statkevich, 49, leader of the opposition Social Democratic party, found himself confined to a prison barrack in the town of Baranovichi, 120 km west of Minsk, the nation's capital. Last March, the government sentenced him to three years of forced labor for "resisting the authorities and obstructing traffic" during...
...senior law-enforcement official told him privately that the police might switch sides if tens of thousands march against a rigged election. Lukashenko is convinced Belarusians prefer his stability and government handouts. He knows how to make small, insignificant gestures. Late last month, after a Swedish diplomat visited Statkevich in a very public show of solidarity, Lukashenko allowed the dissident to spend his nights at home with his seriously ill father. But his days are still spent in forced labor. And as long as Lukashenko is President, real freedom will remain elusive for Statkevich - and 10 million other Belarusians...