I was giving a presentation on Belarus right as the Chernobyl March was starting. At that point, nobody knew where Labedska was – some feared it was another political disappearance in the country. At night Labedzka, leader of the United Civil Party, was released from the KGB. The agents interrogated him as part of “their investigation of a criminal case of terrorism.” In fact, they were interested with foreign travels of the politician.
Labedzka told RFE\RL, “As I see it now, having analyzed everything what happened yesterday, it was such a demonstrative detention – as if I were a felon, a renegade, I was put face down to the pavement, cuffed and beaten up to the kidneys. Then I was thrown into my car. I didn’t know where they were taking me because they pulled a jacket onto my head so that I wouldn’t see anything.”
At the finale of the march, Vincuk Viacorka, leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Party, was arrested. A bit later, Siarhiej Kalakin, leader of the Belarusian Communist Party, Alexander Bukhvostau, trade union leader, and Alaksandar Milinkevich himself were imprisoned. Most of them were sentenced to 15 days of arrest, including the opposition leader.
Milinkevich commented on his arrest, “The government cannot and does not want to act in accordance with the law. It wasn’t an unsanctioned meeting. We’ve taken part in an approved event. When the schedule shifted, it wasn’t our fault. When we moved out to the thoroughfare, the sidewalk was blocked. There are no reasons for a trial. These are political cases. When the prosecutor’s office warned me, I told them, “Let us arrange the passage so that people could go unhampered.” But they cannot live without fear. They are so scared. They want to intimidate us, but rather fear themselves.”
A fellow blogger, Br23, wrote,

This is the most crucial point after the “elections”. If this arrest of the leader produces big enough outcry in the West and strong enough reaction inside the country, we’ll be able to say that Belarus has a new alternative leader. Otherwise, he’ll probably rot in jail (together with mister Kazulin), and Belarus will rot and decompose for another five years at least.

I think this is a legitimate conclusion. The West should make no mistake on this issue. Today practically all the key names of the Belarusian oppositions have appeared on prison rolls. Belarus is becoming an evident semblance of the totalitarian USSR. I think the West should seriously consider the demands of many pro-democratic Belarusians to convene an international trial of the Belarus’ regime.