RFE/RL President Meets Youth Activists In Minsk

MINSK -- RFE/RL President Jeffrey Gedmin visited the headquarters of the opposition Popular Front of Belarus (BNF) party in Minsk on May 20, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports.

Gedmin spoke with youth activists Iryna Hubskaya, Nasta Palazhanka, Artsem Dubsky and Maryana Hruzdilovich, who had been holding a hunger strike to demand the release of jailed opposition businessman Mykalay Autukhovich.

They ended their hunger strike on May 15 after opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich and Autukhovich himself urged them to stop.

The activists told Gedmin that the current situation in Belarus is different from what the government says publicly.

They said European and U.S. politicians should consider the real situation regarding human rights and basic freedoms in Belarus when they define their policies with official Minsk.