Volha Mikalaichyk: I Do Not Want To Maintain This Power

The activist intends to assert her rights in international democratic structures.

Recently, Volha Mikalaichyk received the decision of the bailiffs of the Pershamaiski district court of Minsk, which imposes a ban on the right to convey the private house, where the woman lives. The bailiffs considered the unpaid fines of 5250 rubles for taking part in peaceful protests to be the ground for seizing Mikalaichyk’s house. During the year Volha Mikalaichyk participated in pickets to support imprisoned blogger Eduard Palchys, activist Nina Bahinskaya and others.

– I was in fact deprived of the right of disposing my plot and my part of a private house in the center of Minsk. That is, now I am not allowed to sell my house or give it as a present to someone. And I was really intended to sell it in order to buy property in Kiev, where I have a lot of work. However, it is not possible to do it, unless I pay off the fines, – the activist told Radio Racyja.

– How many fines have you been given lately?

– 230 million non-denominated rubles (about 11,500 dollars), or 23,000 new rubles. I have already paid 18 thousand rubles, I managed to find them somehow. But more than 5000 rubles remain unpaid. And the difficulty is that I do not want to maintain this power any more. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of Belarus guarantee me the right to peaceful assembly. When you read the Declaration of Human Rights, established by the United Nations, its respect for the person moves you to tears. And here a human being is a nobody. Although we are children of God, not slaves.

Therefore, it is not likely, but I want to try and draw attention of various international organizations to the way our country treats democratic activists. Can you imagine: people are deprived of shelter for their views? The private property is a great value in Europe. And we are given huge fines for peaceful pickets, and then our property is seized. Such an attitude towards the country’s citizens is simply unacceptable.

– Are they going to set your house for an auction?

– They haven’t done it yet, but nothing can be ruled out. As far as I know, first they are going to distrain the property inside the house, it will be sold to compensate for the amount owed.

– Perhaps it would be necessary to appeal to the public, so that people in solidarity gathered the money to pay your fines…

– Well, it’s possible to do it, but I want this issue to be heard in international organizations. One can even pay for breathing the air, but how long can we stand it? Why does one have to pay, if he hasn’t violated anything? I want to be heard.