Thank you.
I'm Vladimir Neklyayev, the poet, and I have been forced to get into politics, which is not something that I am used to, because the political regime has brought me and the national culture to a critical level, including the national language and the civil society as a whole.
I am the leader of the campaign called “Speak the Truth!”, which was created three months ago. It's a civil society organization that was created just before the presidential campaign. Speak the Truth is an organization that was attacked in a form of banditry; they took away all of our of assets and our office. They even took away our money. They forced us to break up. They arrested me and also Andrey Dmitriev, who is here as well. Under pressure from the international community, they let us go, and somehow the situation was changed.
It is impossible to register a single NGO or political movement that has its own dissenting opinion that goes against that of the government. It is impossible to work in such organizations without being oppressed and without worrying about your own safety and that of your near and dear ones.
Our juridical status, the juridical group that we worked with, was also closed down, so when we come back to Belarus, our actions will be seen as the actions of an unregistered, unlawful group, because the group that was registered before has been disbanded, so our lives and our country are now in danger.
On the eve of new presidential elections, we would like to play an information role. We don't have the media to get our word out to the people.
We would also like to have some assistance. We need a place to work and equipment to work with. We need to give help to the families of those who were oppressed, because they have been put in prison, and their families would like to know how they are and how they are managing in prison.
Thank you.