BPF party is forced to remove white-red-white flag from façade of its office

05.08.2008. Tags: Belarusian Popular Front, political persecution.
Source: Charter`97.

The housing and maintenance department of the Savetski district of Minsk demands that the Belarusian popular Front party remove a white-red-white flag from the building where the headquarters of the party is situated, and warned that otherwise the rental contract with the party could be dissolved. The office in Masherau Street, 8 where the headquarters of the Belarusian Popular Front is situated, is the place where opposition traditionally holds many its meetings.

In the letter received by the Belarusian popular Front party, it is said that the housing and maintenance department of Savetski district of Minsk obliges the organization to remove the flags on the façade; otherwise the rental contract won’t be renewed. The letter was signed by the director of the housing and maintenance department of Savetski district of Minsk.

The BPF office is remarkable as it is the only building in the city centre where the Belarusian opposition can gather. Many meetings of opposition, different press-conferences are held there.

The leadership of the BPF believes that the demands of the Savetski district’s housing and maintenance department violates Article 21 of the Law on Political Parties, under which a party has a right to promote its ideas. ‘And the white-red-white flag is one of the most important ideas of the Belarusian Popular Front party’, representatives of the party explain.