Niakliayeu to police: I have the right to defend my human dignity

The leader of the campaign "Tell the Truth" Uladzimir Niakliayeu sent an open letter to the police about his arrest that occurred on October 20 in Minsk.

"I’ve been detained by two of you for the second time already. As always, without any reason. Or maybe you found the reason in the fact that at the street named after the national writer - Ivan Melezh near the house in which lived the national Belarusian poet Ryhor Baradulin I spoke Belarusian" - reminds Niakliayeu.

"I used to all such a things. They say you what to do – and you are doing. It’s your work. But there is something that cannot be used to. Almost every time in each police station there is somebody who is trying to make me speak my native language (Belarusian). Some of them trying to make me, the citizen of the Republic of Belarus “speak in Russian," others – speak "the normal language"(meaning that Belarusian isn’t a normal one). The same happened during today's arrest, and there are witnesses of it: two journalists detained with me,"- says the leader of the" Tell the truth. "
He emphasizes that he is tired to quote the article of the Constitution, explains the law and his rights to the police officers. "Everything is in vain, because only you have all the rights but I - no. But still I have one right: to protect my human dignity. The Belarusian language is my national honor, honor of my ancestors who were born on this land with this God-given language, they prayed on it, lived and died with it. And you are not those who can steal it from me. That’s the law. If it continues to be violated, all of us - poets, and the police, will disappear from this land without a trace. We’ll just die and everybody will forget us soon. Just die "- said the poet -politician.
As BelaPAN previously reported, during an interview with Uladzimir Niakliayeu on October 20, police detained him and independent journalists Alexander Liubianchuk and Maria Artsybasheva. They spent about one and a half hours in the police station, they checked documents of the detainees, and then released them. Police officers were interested in the recording made by journalists.