Intimidation of Youth Activists in Baranavichy
On 9 November, on the eve of Aliaksandr Milinkievich’s arrival, Baranavichy organization of Young Front distributed literature among students of Baranavichy State University. They handed out several dozens of newspapers and copies of the informational bulletin of the united democratic forces (#4, October 2005).
The following day the university students who are members of Young Front were summoned to the dean’s office. Siarhiei Marchyk, chair of Baranavichy Young Front organization, said:
-- In the morning of 10 November, in the second half of a class the teacher came to me and told me to go the dean’s office. I understood why immediately. The provost on upbringing waited for me there. They started asking why I handed out the newspapers, where I took them from, who else handed them out and who paid (!) us for that, etc. Frankly speaking, I didn’t understand why she asked me: no matter what I said – she didn’t listen to me and made her own conclusions. Then the dean of our faculty joined her. They tried to find the answers to the questions once again. Our talk (about 45 minutes) was accompanied with threats: soon the semester exam would come and I and my friends who handed out the newspapers had no hope for passing them. Besides, they threatened our parents would have trouble at work. Then the dean summoned my father to the university. He hasn’t come there yet, but I feel it will do no good.
