13 picket applications – 13 refusals

Activists of the organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy in the Hrodna region received 13 refusals to their 13 applications for information pickets in different cities.

They intended to hold the events to inform the population about the problems of the introduction of local border traffic, etc. The peculiarity is that all applications for different days were filed by one person, socio-political activist Anatol Makarau. He received picket bans from the Astravets, Ashmiany, Berastavitsa, Vaukavysk, Voranava, Iuye, Lida, Masty, Svislach, Smarhon and Shchuchyn district executive committees, as well as from the Hrodna and Skidzel city executive committees.

The overwhelming majority of refusals is explained either by the fact that the indicated action site was not determined as a place for mass events by the authorities, or that the applicant failed to enter into service contracts with the police, ambulance and public utilities. There are also original reasons: for instance, the Masty DEC explains its refusal by holding the event “Hello, school!” at the action site in the specified time and place, and the Iuye DEC states that the industrial market doesn't work on 6 September, as a result of which the picket cannot be held.

The Berastavitsa and Vaukavysk DECs violated the Law “On Languages” by answering in Russian, whereas the applications were filed in Belarusian. The answers were signed by the Chair of the Berastavitsa DEC Anton Kulisevich and the Deputy Chair of te Vaukavysk DEC Uladzimir Zakharchuk. In the answer from Berastavitsa it was openly written: “Makarau A.P. shall be banned to hold the mass event”.

The BCD coordinator in Hrodna Mikalai Bausiuk, commenting on the situation, said it again confirms that it is impossible to receive a permit for a picket in the Hrodna region. He regards the refusals to authorize the pickets as far-fetched, manifestation of a true bureaucracy. Besides, Mikalai Bausiuk said that the authorities simply do not want the introduction of local border traffic.