Volha Nikalaichyk: Restaurant In Kurapaty Is Cynicism Of Authorities

Protocols and detention don't stop the Kurapaty defenders.

Kurapaty continues to be in the limelight – protest actions do not stop despite detentions of activists and protocols drawn against them, Belsat reports.

Protests in front of the restaurant Let's Go To Eat, which opened almost inside the Kurapaty area, continue for more than 12 days. Representatives of civil society are going to influence the owners of the object by all legal methods.

Since yesterday, the Kurapaty defenders plan to be on watch near the restaurant Let's Go To Eat all the time in its working hours – from 12 to 24 hours. Seven organizations will be taking turns in sending groups of their representatives to keep the protest going: the civil campaign European Belarus, Alternativa, the solidarity movement Razam, the Belarusian Christian Democracy party, Belarusian Popular Front, Young Front, and the Conservative-Christian Party BPF.

Yesterday, the leaders of the Kurapaty defenders tried to hold a constructive dialogue with the owners of the restaurant. However, when the activists came to the office of the company, they simply could not get there – the employees locked themselves inside the office.

"I'm convinced: they watch streams, follow this information, but they hide like criminals. And we want to demand that these people closed and moved their restaurant built on bones to some other place, as it does not belong in Kurapaty," – the co-chairman of the BCD party Paval Seviarynets says.

This is exactly the opinion expressed earlier both by the Ministry of Culture and the General Prosecutor's Office, which recognized the construction in the security zone illegal in 2012. At that time, Belnovotex Group began unauthorized construction of the entertainment center on that territory, although initially they were supposed to build a roadside service facility in a fully authorized location. And after a while the boundaries of the protection area were changed, bypassing almost all official procedures, so that they could fit the built-up complex.

"All documents indicated that this was protection area. And then suddenly they build here not a church, but an entertainment center. This is the cynicism of the authorities!" – Volha Nikalaichyk, a public activist and director, says with indignation.

The Kurapaty defenders intend to involve Minskers in an active boycotting of not only Let's Go To Eat, but also of other restaurants of the same owners: Grand Kushavel, Tuse, The View. They also expect that the problem will soon gain international resonance.

"We decided to appeal to the presidents of Austria, Israel, Poland, Germany, who are going to come to the opening of the Trastsianets memorial on June 29. We will also invite them to Kurapaty to lay flowers to Kurapaty crosses. And, of course, we hope that there will be discussion of this situation, as Trastsianets and Kurapaty relate to one issue," – Paval Seviarynets believes.

Activists say that the campaign to protect Kurapaty has just begun, and that protests will not stop without reason.