Business call on authorities to stop violence, start dialogue with civil society, workers press demands

<p> MINSK, Aug 14 - PrimePress. Representatives of Belarus’ business community urge the authorities to stop violence and start a dialogue with civil society – a lot of companies and public organizations in Belarus have distributed such appeals. </p> <p>   </p> <p> The Belarusian business community has published their open address with regard to the situation in the country. It has already been signed by the heads of numerous small and medium businesses. </p> <p>   </p> <p> The open letter reads: “We, representatives of the business community, create jobs, goods and services in our country. We finance with taxes the state budget, part of which is spent, among other things, on the maintenance of the state apparatus and law enforcement agencies. We love our country and wish it only peace, development and prosperity. That is why we call on the state authorities to immediately stop violence and repression against peaceful demonstrators, we call on demonstrators to use exclusively peaceful forms of protest activity, we call on the state authorities and the joint campaign headquarters of alternative candidates to immediately enter into negotiations on the situation with the past elections and find a way out of the existing crisis. This could be a transparent recount of votes in the past elections; fixing the date for new elections that will be as fair and transparent as possible.” </p> <p>   </p> <p> The Association of Communication and Marketing Agencies of Belarus (ACMA) has issued an open letter with their assessment of the situation in the country and called for the release of political prisoners. ACMA is the most active and numerous association in the field of marketing and communications in Belarus. It is a member of the international association EACA, which unites national associations of 30 European countries, is a strategic partner of Russia’s AKAR, Ukraine’s Supreme Council, Estonia’s TULI, China’s CAA and others. </p> <p>   </p> <p> The Association of Advertising Organizations (AAO) and the Association of Interactive Advertising (AIA Belarus) on behalf of the enterprises of the advertising industry of the Republic of Belarus expressed their negative attitude to what is happening in the country after the elections and demanded to immediately stop illegal actions of law enforcement agencies against citizens throughout the country; unconditionally release from prison those citizens who took part in peaceful protests related to the results of the elections; immediately begin a dialogue with civil society about the results of the elections. </p> <p>   </p> <p> More than 2 thousand (as of August 14 – editor’s note) CEOs, investors, developers and employees of Belarusian IT-companies joined the open letter calling on the authorities to stop violence. </p> <p>   </p> <p> “We are not experts in politics, but we are experts in technological business. The country is forming an environment in which technological business can't function. Startups are not born in an atmosphere of fear and violence. Startups are born in an atmosphere of freedom and openness. In the near future we will start to observe a mass outflow of specialists abroad, opening of offices in neighboring countries, a slowdown in the IT sector growth, reduction of investments in Belarusian IT companies, a decline of tax revenues. There is a risk to cross out all high technology achievements in a short time,” reads the letter. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Representatives of the IT community called on government agencies to stop violence against civilians and remove the atmosphere of fear from the streets, release all political prisoners and detainees, hold new transparent elections of the President of Belarus, provide citizens of Belarus with free access to information. </p> <p>   </p> <p> The co-founder of PandaDoc startup Sergei Borisyuk appealed to the law enforcers, who no longer want to take part in the atrocities and promised financial support to those who will resign. He was also joined by the company’s founder Mikita Mikado. In just one day they were approached by more than 30 law enforcement officers. Some of them say they don’t want to take money, but want to earn it themselves. They point out that it's very difficult to resign from law enforcement agencies, because in this case they have to pack back to the state $10-20 thousand (in compensation for the cost of training). Some of them will have difficulty finding jobs. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Pavel Laschenko, head of the Belarusian branch of the EY international audit company, also expressed his civic position. He addressed the Prosecutor General, the chairmen of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, representatives of other state bodies with topical issues, in which he questioned the results of the election and suggested not to escalate the behavior of representatives of law enforcement agencies. </p> <p>   </p> <p> On August 14, heads of Belarus’ high-tech innovation enterprise Adani, Uladzimir and Alena Linev, addressed law-enforcing bodies, public organizations and citizens of Belarus with an appeal to find a reasonable way out of this extreme situation. The company calls on representatives of the state authorities and law enforcement agencies to immediately stop any violence and repression against civilians in Belarus, release the citizens who were imprisoned and detained during the days of protests, and enter into a reasonable dialogue with society. </p> <p>   </p> <p> On August 13-14, personnel of large state-owned enterprises addressed their demands to the municipal authorities and heads of enterprises to facilitate the immediate release of all detainees during the protests of August 9-12, 2020. They also demand that Alexander Lukashenko should resign and a new presidential election should be conducted. </p> <p>   </p> <p> Protests were held, in particular, at Minsk Automobile Plant (MAZ), Minsk Tractor Plant (MTZ), Belarusian Automobile Plant (BelAZ), Belarusian Metal Plant (BMZ), Belaruskali. If their opinion is ignored, the workers are ready to go on strike, as follows from on-the-scene reports by Radio Liberty, Euroradio and Belsat TV company. </p> <p>   </p> <p> The latest presidential elections in Belarus were held on August 9, with incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko winning 80.1% of the vote, as stated in the official report by the Central Election Commission. Lukashenko’s main rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, was said to get 10.1% of ballots in her support. End </p>

2020-08-15

Primepress