Youth leader Ales Kalita is drafted to army service despite heart illness

Ales Kalita, the head of the youth wing of the Belarusian Popular Front, has been found combat-fit for military service. Such a decision has been adopted by Mahiliou regions draft commission today.

Ales Kalita has told to RFE/RL that he had been prohibited to be present at the session of the commission.

The chairman of the commission Anatol Hlas demanded that Ales to left his mobile phone in the corridor and to the question why called Ales a jerk and told him leave the room. The decision of the commission was received by Ales after the end of the sitting. He was found combat-fit with insignificant limitations.

Ales Kalita has health problems with which young people are relieved from military service. Earlier Mahiliou district draft commission found him unfit for service because of a heart problem (16 mm cardiac wall’s out-pouching). However the regional commission sent him for additional check-up to the Central Military Medical commission in Minsk.

After a check-up there the stage of the heart problem was found much less serious. Ales Kalita intends to appeal against the decision of the regional draft commission and the diagnosis of the Central Military Medical Commission at the prosecutor’s offices and courts.