Struggle of Belarusian militia against national flags gets to idiocy

Militiamen tore to pieces the flag a dweller of Smalyavichy town hung out on his private house and arrested the man.

A flag on a house of Andrei Kasheuski in Smalyavichy (the Minsk region) appeared in spring that made irritated the local authorities. However, it was difficult to find him at home, because his family uses the house in Smalyavichy only in summer and live in Zhodzina.

A militia squad came to the house on August 14 and strongly demanded to remove the flag. Andrei Kasheuski, son of the house’s owner, didn’t let the militiamen go in and asked to explain why the flag hindered them. Then the officers of the Smalyavichy militia department changed the tactics. They phoned Andrei’s father to work in Zhodzina and ordered him to come to Smalyavichy. Militiamen said the flag worsened the town’s appearance and its architectural character, took the flag and tore it to pieces, Viasna human rights centre reports.

Andrei Kasheuski’s father was warned he would face problems at work if the flag appeared again.

Andrei hung out a new white-red-white flag the next day. This time, the guy was detained and guarded to a pre-trial detention facility where he spent the weekend.

On Monday, August 17, Kasheuski stood a trial. He was accused of violation article 17.1 of the Code of Administrative Offences (disorderly conduct). Allegedly, he was quarrelling with is father and violated the public order. The court decided to delay hearing of the administrative case and summoned the guy’s father.

It should be reminded that hanging out national flags has begun to cause unreasonably harsh reaction of the authorities, whose representatives punish citizens for these actions thought they don’t have legal grounds to do this.

For instance, the administrative commission of the Savetski district of Homel fined activist of the “For Freedom” movement Zinaida Shumilina 175,000 rubles. The commission decided Shumilina didn’t have the right to hang a Belarusian national flag and a flag of the EU outside her private house.

Such “unregistered symbols” on a private house in Kletsk caused indignation of the local authorities. Officials asked the house’s owner Syarhei Panamarou to remove the flag and threatened Panamarou with “articles” and his wife with troubles at work.

On March 25, militia officers came to Iryna Laurouskaya, who hung out a two-meter white-red-white flag from a window of her flat on the first storey in Pushkinskaya Street in Brest.

They said the fishing rod, used as a staff, spoiled the “aesthetics of the street”, took photo of the flag, and confiscated it. The fishing rod wasn’t confiscated. Militia promised to examine this incident.

Law enforcement agencies and courts usually classify hanging out white-red-white flags as disorderly conduct and punish these actions with fines. Such cases are common in Minsk, Vitsebsk, Brest, Homel, Hrodna and other towns.

The statement that a flag can spoil the town’s appearance is absurd, because in this case all state flags outside the numerous governmental institutions all over Belarus fall under this estimation and must be removed as well.