Vitsebsk activists applied for authorization of tree pickets dated to anniversary of Chernobyl accident
Yan
Dziarzhautsau, a member of the Conservative-Christian Party
Belarusian Popular Front, applied to Kastrychnitski District
Executive Committee with an application for the authorization of a
picket on 26 April. Earlier, two similar applications were filed by
the head of Vitsebsk regional branch of the Belarusian Popular Front
Leanid Autukhou and the head of the regional branch of the "For
Freedom" movement Khrystafor Zhaliapau.
According to Yan
Dziarzhautsau, who applied for holding a picket in Mazuryn Park, the
aim of the action is not only to commemorate Chernobyl victims but
also to express protest against the construction of a new nuclear
power plant in Astravets.
All three pickets are dated to the
27th anniversary of the accident at Chernobyl nuclear power plant,
Vitsebsk democratic activists intend to hold them in the places which
were officially determined as suitable for such actions by the
district administrations. Meanwhile, during the recent years the
authorities haven't permitted any mass events, including those
dedicated to Chernobyl. At the same time, there are many liquidators
of the consequences of the accident who live in Vitsebsk region and
people who moved there from the polluted areas.
The usual
pretext for the refusals to authorize such actions was the failure of
the organizers to present service agreements with the public
utilities, ambulance and police. The latter institutions use various
techniques to evade from concluding such agreements with the
activists, and the city authorities continue violating freedom of
peaceful assemblies by banning all events organized by civil and
political activists.