Alaksandar Milinkievic
Encyclopedia
Aliaksandr Uładzimiravič Milinkevič ' onMouseout='HidePop("60355")' href="/topics/Hrodna">Hrodna
Hrodna
Grodno or Hrodna , is a city in Belarus. It is located on the Neman River , close to the borders of Poland and Lithuania . It has 327,540 inhabitants...

) is a Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

ian politician. He was nominated by the leading opposition parties in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

 to run against incumbent Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Lukashenko
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko has been serving as the President of Belarus since 20 July 1994. Before his career as a politician, Lukashenko worked as director of a state-owned agricultural farm. Under Lukashenko's rule, Belarus has come to be viewed as a state whose conduct is out of line...

 in the presidential election
Belarusian presidential election, 2006
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 19 March 2006. The result was a victory for incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, who received 84.4% of the vote. However, western observers deemed the elections rigged...

 on 19 March 2006.

Biography

Milinkevič was born in 1947 in Hrodna
Hrodna
Grodno or Hrodna , is a city in Belarus. It is located on the Neman River , close to the borders of Poland and Lithuania . It has 327,540 inhabitants...

. After graduating from the University of Hrodna, he passed his aspirantura
Kandidat
The Candidate of Sciences degree is a first post-graduate scientific degree in some former Eastern Bloc countries, such as Russia and Ukraine, which is awarded for original research that constitutes a significant contribution to a scientific field. The degree was first introduced in the USSR on...

 at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Science of Belarus. Between 1980 and 1984 he was in charge of the (then forming) Faculty of Physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...

 at the University of Sétif
Sétif
Sétif |Colonia]]) is a town in northeastern Algeria. It is the capital of Sétif Province and it has a population of 239,195 inhabitants as of the 1998 census. Setif is located to the east of Algiers and is the second most important Wilaya after the country's capital. It is 1,096 meters above sea...

 in Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

. He also served as a docent
Docent
Docent is a title at some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks below professor . Docent is also used at some universities generically for a person who has the right to teach...

 at the University of Hrodna between 1978 and 1980, and then from 1984 on to 1990. At that time he also started to cooperate with local city authorities as a chief of one of the committees. Soon he reached the rank of vice-mayor of the city.

In 2001 he was the chief of staff of Siamion Domash
Siamion Domash
Siamion Mikalayevich Domash is a Belarusian policitican....

, one of the opposition leaders running for president in the 2001 presidential elections of Belarus
Belarusian presidential election, 2001
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 9 September 2001. The result was a victory for Alexander Lukashenko, who received 77.4% of the vote. Voter turnout was 83.9%.-Results:...

. In October 2005 he was chosen by the United Democratic Forces of Belarus
United Democratic Forces of Belarus
The United Democratic Forces of Belarus is a coalition of political parties participating as the main opposition group during the 2006 presidential election...

 as the joint candidate of the opposition
Opposition (politics)
In politics, the opposition comprises one or more political parties or other organized groups that are opposed to the government , party or group in political control of a city, region, state or country...

 in the presidential elections of 2006
Belarusian presidential election, 2006
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 19 March 2006. The result was a victory for incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, who received 84.4% of the vote. However, western observers deemed the elections rigged...

.

On 12 December 2006 he was awarded the Sakharov Prize
Sakharov Prize
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, named after Soviet scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament as a means to honour individuals or organisations who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought...

 by the European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...

.

Campaign for presidency

In October 2005, at a Congress of Democratic Forces, roughly 900 delegates from various political and civil society groups met in the capital Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...

 to pick a single opposition candidate for the 2006 Presidential election. Milinkievič won over three other political leaders at the meeting (including Stanislav Shushkevich
Stanislav Shushkevich
Stanislau Stanislavavich Shushkevich is a Belarusian politician and scientist. From September 28, 1991 to January 26, 1994 he was the first leader and head of state of independent Belarus after the dissolution of the Soviet Union...

 and Anatoly Lebedko
Anatoly Lebedko
Anatoly Lebedko is a Belarusian politician and the head of the United Civil Party of Belarus.Born in the village of Triles, then part of the Stoŭbtsy Raion in the USSR's Minsk voblast , Lebedko emerged in the 1990s as one of the leading critics of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whom...

). The unification process has the aim of selecting a single opposition figure who would run against President Lukashenko, who has run Belarus for over a decade. Belarus' opposition forces had previously tried to field a single candidate in the 2001 Presidential elections.

Milinkievič compared his campaign to that of another pro-Western opposition candidate in neighboring Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...

, whose victory in late 2004 was dubbed the "Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...

." Although disappointment in Yushchenko's government has culminated in political crisis in September 2005 amid renewed allegations of mass graft coupled with a worsening economic situation, Milinkievič calls last year's events in Ukraine an inspiration for his supporters. "We believe that Belarus will be next after… Ukraine," he told The Associated Press.

However, opposition leaders realize that an uphill struggle lies ahead, despite their support from U.S.-funded NGOs. Lukashenko's socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

 economic policies enjoy significant backing in rural areas of the country—one of the few areas of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 where the country's social welfare network remains virtually unchanged since the Soviet era.

In the Belarusian Presidential election of 2006
Belarusian presidential election, 2006
Presidential elections were held in Belarus on 19 March 2006. The result was a victory for incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko, who received 84.4% of the vote. However, western observers deemed the elections rigged...

, official results gave Milinkievič 6% of the vote against 83% for the incumbent Lukashenko.

In January 2006 Milinkievič was invited to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 by the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 government. He met with Minister of foreign affairs of France, and gave numerous interviews to Western media, including a TV interview to Euronews
EuroNews
Euronews is an international multilingual news television channel.It covers world news from what it claims to be a 'European' perspective.Criticisms are that the perspective is in fact that of the European Commission - a major and growing funder of Euronews....

. Milinkevich, just like any other opposition activist, has absolutely no TV access inside Belarus, as the media in Belarus are state-controlled. The only exception when he was allowed to appear on Belarusian Television was his pre-election speech in 2006. Earlier, he had already met the new Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 prime minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz
Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz is a Polish conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of Poland from October 31, 2005 to July 14, 2006...

, and the president of Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 Valdas Adamkus
Valdas Adamkus
Valdas Adamkus was President of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.In Lithuania, the President's tenure lasts for five years; Adamkus' first term in office began on February 26, 1998 and ended on February 28, 2003, following his defeat by Rolandas Paksas in the next...

. In February 2006 he also met the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 Chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...

, Javier Solana
Javier Solana
Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga, KOGF is a Spanish physicist and Socialist politician. After serving in the Spanish government under Felipe González and Secretary General of NATO , he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary...

 and several other top European politicians. His campaign received the backing first of the Polish government and later that of prominent EU officials.

Personal

Currently married to Inna Kuley, he has two sons from a previous marriage. Aside from his native Belarusian
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...

 Milinkievič also speaks Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...

.

Persecution

In April 2006, Milinkievič was jailed by the government for 15 days for taking part in an unsanctioned rally.

On November 23, 2006, government police detained Milinkevich three times as he traveled around Vitebsk Oblast with a local opposition activist who was accused of causing a fatal hit-and-run
Hit and run (vehicular)
Hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic accident , and failing to stop and identify oneself afterwards...

 accident in the past. On November 29, 2006, government police detained Milinkevich at a Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...

 airport after he returned from a NATO summit in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

. He was accused of having a forged passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....

.

On December 4, 2006, Milinkevich was detained by the government in Belozyorsk on suspicion of drug trafficking.

On January 6, 2007, Milinkevich was arrested by the government twice: first on the suspicion of drunk driving (he was found to be sober) and then on the suspicion of being involved in a traffic accident. On January 29, 2007, Milinkevich said he was fined $2,200 by the government after being tried in absence for leaving Belarus illegally. He called it "revenge by Lukashenko."

External links


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