Riot In Brest: "I Am Overwhelmed By Feeling Of Pride For My Fellow Countrymen"

The events taking place in Belarus regularly confirm that the people’s patience is coming to an end.

"The new information year has started in Brest with a bomb. At the turn of the years 2017 and 2018, Brest and district residents learned that a battery factory with a full cycle of production was being built in their neighborhoods," – Brest Newspaper journalist Liudzmila Selekh writes.

"Despite the fact that the information appeared during the New Year and Christmas holidays, it had sensational effect. It set off a negative chain-reaction throughout the whole city and the suburbs: a fully-fledged campaign against the construction was launched in social networks, forums, and messengers.

In the morning of January 5, my colleagues invited me to go with them to the site of the factory under construction to have a look at what was happening there, to make a photo and video footage and, if possible, to talk to the administration of the future factory.

We saw a group of people at the site entrance who, as it turned out, had come from Brest to express their opinion about the factory under construction and to try to find answers to their questions. Men and women, young and old, rural residents and townspeople, people of different incomes, education, political views. All of them were united by the concern about the future, their health and the health of children.

I was listening to those people, and I was filled with a sense of pride for my fellow countrymen. For the first time in a long time, I felt unity, solidarity of Brest residents, their readiness to defend their rights and interests. I experienced similar feelings almost a year ago, at the March of Non-Parasites in Brest on March 5, which was attended by more than a thousand people. After the rallies to protest against Decree No. 3, the authorities were forced to retreat, send it for revision, and, in fact, surrender.

How could one not remember the defense of Kurapaty in February last year, when activists and local people opposed the construction of a business center on the site of a mass burial of victims of Stalinist repressions. Defenders set up a 24-hour camp, laid down under construction equipment and defended the territory.

How could we not mention the cozy district in the center of Minsk – Asmolauka, where all of the houses were to be demolished according to the general plan. 9,000 signatures were collected in support of the old district, the situation was widely covered in the media, and the detailed plan for demolishing Asmolauka was not adopted.

How could one not mention Sasha Korzhych’s death in Pechy, which the Defense Ministry tried to hush up, to write it off as suicide, but then it was forced to react under the public pressure.

These events confirm that the people’s patience is not inexhaustible. They still somehow tolerate the fall of the living standard, but when it comes to health and life, property, it is better not to drive them mad."