OSCE observers visit Sluck and Salihorsk
Long-term observers of the OSCE mission visited Salihorsk and Sluck, where they met with the authorities and local human rights defenders.
The Salihorsk and Sluck districts are controlled by the OSCE observers Lars Tollemark (Sweden) and Maksim Buyakevich (Russia). According to the Salihorsk member of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, election observer Leanid Markhotka, who had a personal meeting with them last week, the OSCE observers paid a thorough interest to all the circumstances of the electoral campaign in the region.
“We had quite a long meeting. We presented to the OSCE representatives detailed information about all registered facts of non-compliance of the electoral process with the democratic norms. From now on we will directly inform international observers about all flagrant violations registered by us. They are ready to come to the scene would it be necessary. After meeting with us the OSCE representatives headed for negotiations with the local authorities,” says Mr. Markhotka.
Local human rights activists also say they have started receiving information about the attempts of the intelligence services to establish control over the work of the international mission, in particular – that the local authorities were charged with lobbying the involvement of an interpreter from the education department for work with the OSCE mission. So far, human rights activists don't possess any information about the results of this endeavor.