Bykhau district still lacks venues for public events

Chairman of the Bykhau regional branch of the BPF Party, writer Siarhei Antonau, received on December 14 a response to his appeal sent to the district executive committee’s chairman Dzmitry Kaleyeu to request to select places for staging pickets in the town.

The response says that “a draft decision of Bykhau district executive committee "On Mass Events" is currently being approved, which will determine the location and procedure for holding meetings, rallies, marches, demonstrations, pickets and other events organized by the political parties, public associations, labor organizations and citizens in the territory of Bykhau district. Its entry into force will be reported to you in the near future.”

Siarhei Antonau said that he was very surprised by the answer from Bykhau executive committee.

“It turns out that in Bykhau district still lacks identified locations for events and the procedures for staging them. Meanwhile, such NGOs as the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, "Belaya Rus" and the Bykhau regional organization of the pro-government Communist Party regularly conduct public events in Bykhau, and no one is punished for this. On the contrary, their "achievements" are regularly covered by the local state-run newspaper. When an event is going to be staged by BPF activists, the officials do not allow it on spurious grounds. It turns out that according to the law, we have the same rights, but there is actually no law for pro-government organizations. In my opinion, Bykhau still remains a kind of "red zone", where they still use some strange communist laws."

According to Siarhei Antonau, as soon as he gets the executive committee’s decision “On Mass Events”, he will immediately file an application for holding a picket.

“I will make the officials publish the decision and immediately after receiving it I will file an application for holding a picket. I will also try to figure out how the Communist Party’s office is registered in Bykhau when it does not have its own premises and, accordingly, I will file documents for registration of the regional organizations of the Belarusian Popular Front Party. It will be interesting to see how the officials will react to this attempt, as, under the law of the Republic of Belarus, the BPF members and those of CPB have exactly the same rights,” says Siarhei Antonau.