What for has Homel City Executive Committee adopted a new ruling on mass events?
The Homel City
Executive Committee adopted a new ruling “On Mass Events” which
came into force on 5 September. As it is stated at the website of the
the executive committee, the aim of this decision is “the extension
of the list of grounds for mass events in the city of Homel,
organized by citizens, political parties, trade unions and other
organizations, as well as the improvement of the interaction between
the local authorities and the organizers of mass events”.
Previously,
there was just one ground for holding pickets and rallies – in a
sleeping district, near the Culture House of the Deaf “Vipro”, an
unfrequented place, where people occasionally walked their dogs.
After the
adoption of the new ruling “with the aim to extend the list of
places”, Homel will have two grounds for rallies and pickets. One
of them is located in the remote suburb of Navabelitsa, near a
children's sports school, and the other – at the other end of the
city, in the district where just industrial buildings, factories and
plants are located – on the ground near the square at the crossing
of Barykin and Vaiskovaya Streets, where only vagabonds can be met
occasionally.
Interestingly, the
only earlier ground was located several
kilometers from the center of Homel, whereas all these grounds are
situated in the places that are hard to find in the map.
Perhaps,
the Homel City Executive Committee scoffs
when writing that the ruling was taken with the aim to increase the
number of places for mass events and the improvement of the
interaction between the authorities and the organizers of mass
events. The new ruling also contains the earlier provisions about the
obligatory service contracts with the police, ambulance and street
cleaners.
It should be noted that
in a few months there will be celebrated ten years since the last
authorized street rally of the opposition in the city. All subsequent
actions of the opposition have been consistently banned by the
authorities.
