Pavel Seviarynets: Last Days Showed Belarusian Youth Will Not Kneel Before Tyrant

The last elections happened in our country 25 years ago.

One of the leaders of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party Pavel Seviarynets has spoken about the lack of elections in Belarus, at the second Meeting of Free People:

- Dear friends, 25 years ago, when I was 17, the first and last elections took place in Belarus. Lukashenka won, and since then there have been no free elections. In these 25 years, I have had 6 years of administrative arrests, detention centers, and liberty restriction.

I don’t want you, the people of the same age as I was in 1994, to follow my footsteps and go to jail for politics. We have a right to a decent life, to our native language. I don’t want my children to go to school under Tsar Nikolay I.

This regime sends talented youth to the army, forces a kindergarten teacher to go and stuff a pack of ballots in the ballot box. This regime deprives a young man who records violations, off accreditation; makes youngsters from rural areas go to the police, observing free people. This regime wants to break the spine of the Belarusian youth, but it will fail. My friends, the last days showed that the Belarusian youth would not kneel before the tyrant, that it is unbreakable.

Important to note, the first Meeting of Free People took place on November 15 in two Minsk squares at once, and gathered a thousand participants. The action was supported by independent parliamentary candidates, civil activists, and bloggers.