Youth action on St. Valentine’s Day
After police cordoned the square, the organizers decided to stage a rally near the cathedral.
Members of the Malady Front youth group had also ordered a prayer service for the Christian love and for the God’s blessing of Belarus, but it did not take place. Youth activist Kacja was waiting for the action inside the cathedral and told us the following:
“We came to mark St. Valentine’s Day. We hope that God will give us his blessing for this holiday. Secret police agents followed us from our houses. They would even approach some of our guys and search them. Our activists Zmicier Khvedaruk and Aleg Korban were even summoned for interrogation at the KGB.”
By 1800 the square had been cordoned by plainclothes secret police agents in black. Around 30 activists gathered from the side of the old town hall and unfolded their posters, saying “Malady Front” and “Action of Love”.
The girls, dressed as angels with a heart and the outline of Belarus on their chest, greeted Minskers and handed out “Valentines”. We asked one of those “angels” which message they were trying to put out.
“I am taking part in this action in order to confess my love to my country and to express solidarity with our imprisoned brothers. I have a heart with the outline of Belarus on my chest. This displays our love to our country. The wings are in chains, symbolizing that the regime is trying to imprison us. But, they will not succeed.
We do not have fear since long ago. How can we think about fear when our brothers are behind the bars? If we don’t stand up now for the defense of the imprisoned, for the defense of our country, we will simply loose our Motherland,” she said.
After some time, the action participants started moving towards the French Embassy. Two white-red-white flags and one EU flag were raised above the demonstrators.
While the angel girls were greeting the new French ambassador, Aliaksandr Milinkevich and his wife Ina Kulej joined the youth.
“I want to make sure that there is freedom in Belarus. Freedom begins with the actions like this one, when the youth simply wants to walk along the streets and congratulate people with this holiday. Is it a crime? The crime is that the authorities fear in panic and they have put out these guys in black. They even fear to show their papers to identify themselves.
I want to send my warmest greetings to Europe, which supports us truly sincerely.
Many people say that we need to go underground. There will be fewer victims, of course. But, we must display that we should not fear. This is the reason these young people have come out,” Milinkevich said.
Afterwards, the demonstrators started moving on Independence Avenue to the German Embassy on Zacharava Street. More people were joining in on the way, raising the number of participants to 100-120.
Unexpectedly, the “men in black” pulled one of the flags from the hands of an elderly man and broke the flag stick. Surprisingly, none of the demonstrators noticed the incident.
“They threw their janissaries for this flag. But, they did not win. They simply showed that their spirit was weak and the youth would win anyway,” said the owner of the lost flag.
Near the German Embassy, the rally stalled. Apparently, the organizers had forgotten to warn the embassy about their visit, so the activists were met only by a guard who spoke German. After having greeted the guard through an interpreter, the youth turned to the U.S. Embassy.
The action organizers, Barys Harecki and Siarzuk Huminski were detained by police on the way. Around 40 activists reached the U.S. Embassy. A deputy head of the U.S. diplomatic mission came out from the building to greet the youth.
The activists read out a brief statement, quietly walked to a metro station and went back to their homes.
An elderly man, who also took part in the rally, described the result of the action to our radio.
“This is yet another proof that the white-red-white flag possesses a huge power and influence on the people. The plainclothes bastards fear both this flag and the Belarusians. Therefore, on March 25 we will come out together under these flags and will not allow them to be broken,” he said.
Photo by www.nn.by
