Maidan

On Monday evening on October Square in Minsk a protest meeting again took place with the presidential candidates Milinkevych and Kozulin addressing the many thousands present. Aleksandr Milinkevych promised that “our protest will be strong and long-lasting”. “We do not recognize these election results. It is a constitutional coup! Lukashenko and his clique have simply seized power! We are for the power of the law” We will never give in! We demand fair and honest elections! We are for freedom, truth and justice”. Aleksandr Kozulin read out a “Declaration on behalf of the Belarusian people”. It contained the demand to hold new presidential elections on 16 July 2006, form electoral commissions with the participation of the opposition, and to release those political figures being held in places of deprivation of liberty.
Vladimir Dorokhov, Deutsche Welle

Brief Chronicle of the last few hours
00:30 About 1500 people have remained on the square for the night.

00:15 Milinkevych’s sons are fine. The alarm had been raised at 23.45 when they could not be found, though their car was parked on the square. They were supposed to be bringing food for the demonstrators. It turns out they were detained and checked by the police, but the latter let them go.

23:13 There are already 15 tents on October Square. Activists are asked people to help the occupants of the tent city by bringing warm things and things to drink.

23:09 Milinkevych has held talks with the police who have allowed them to soend the night there. People are chanting: “The police are with the people” and putting up tents.

Belarusian young people are filled with hope. They chant “Milinkevych!”, “Zhyve Belarus” [“Long live Belarus”], get to know each other, sing and drink tea from thermoses.

Coaches with activists are planning to come from the regions, in particular from Vitebsk.

22:48 A tent city has already appeared on October Square with eight tents already. Belarusians are intended to stay there all night. Any sale of drinks in nearby shops has stopped for some reason but residents of Minsk are bringing thermoses and warm things. The number of people on the square is not decreasing. Milinkeyvch has walked around the tents himself, giving moral support to the tent city inhabitants.
In the capital of Belarus it’s about minus 5 degrees Celsius, with no snow.

Good news. Lukashenko has received Putin’s congratulations. Maidan-Information knows that this is a bad sign for Belarusian dictators. [After the first two rounds of voting in the 2004 elections in Ukraine, Putin twice congratulated Yanukovych, before the latter’s victory was declared invalid – translator’s note].