Baranavichy authorities forbid protest action

Baranavichy City Executive Committee has not allowed a republican meeting in protest against the deteriorating living standards. Private entrepreneur and civil activist Mikalai Charnavus applied for it.

The meeting was supposed to be held in Lenin Square on March 7. Mikalai Charnavus wanted to protest against ‘the collapsing economy in the state, impoverishment of the people, decreasing wages and decree #222 that has made entrepreneurs jobless ’. Up to a thousand people were expected to take part in the action.

The meeting was not allowed because the Law on Mass Actions forbids conducting such actions closer than 50 metres away from administrative buildings’, Charnavus told BelaPAN.

Furthermore, the monument to Lenin is on the list of historical and cultural values of Belarus. The local executive committee forbids conducting mass actions closer than 50 meters away from architectural, historical and cultural monuments.