Youth About Minsk Actions: Seeing It Live Is Much Cooler Than Watching Streams Online

Young Belarusians are telling why they went out to protest against the “integration” on December 7 and 8.

Activists of the European Belarus civil campaign from different cities of the country took part in the protests that happened in Minsk over the weekend. For some of them, these were the first street actions of this scale. Charter97.org asked some active protesters to share their impressions.

Dzmitry Kazlou, Vorsha:

- It was important for me to take part in the action to protect independence, on the one hand, as a blogger, and on the other, as an activist and citizen of Belarus.

When I participated in other similar events, I noticed that journalists behaved absolutely neutral, did not associate themselves with the participants of the action. It is as if the problems to which the protests are dedicated do not concern them. A blogger has the opportunity to be a participant in the action. We cover events, but at the same time we hold national flags and chant actual slogans. Thus, I give information to people at actions and express my civic position. This is very close to the participants of the action.

Aliaksandr Smalianok, Baranavichy:

- I really wanted to go to Lithuania for the reburial of Kastus Kalinouski, but it happened so that I did not have time to get a visa on time. It’s not very easy to obtain a visa here, so I watched the streams and had a feeling I was participating in the events myself. When I heard the call to protest against the surrender of independence, I realized that I had to go. Probably still was under the effect of Vilnius, and the time has come.

I want to say thanks to everyone, it was great, the atmosphere was really friendly and I felt fighting spirit. Seeing it all live is a lot cooler than watching the streams.

Aksana, Maladechna:

- Many of my fellow students were going to the protest against integration. At first I doubted, but then, when I saw the whole center of Minsk flooded with white-red-white flags in the photo, there were tears in my eyes. I firmly decided that the next day I would definitely come. On Sunday, I went there together with a company of six people.

Why do you need to come out to protest? There is nothing to lose. So far, the only option is to leave the country after graduation. At least to flee to Ukraine, relatives have long been calling. But then after all I’ll regret all my life that I didn’t try to change something here. You can’t just sit back and pretend that everything is fine.

Piotr, Minsk:

- In September I visited the picket of the European Belarus, I was impressed by the assertiveness and integrity of the people, I liked very much that they were not afraid to express their opinion and stand on the position that the government needs to be changed. So, not everyone is silent, and the authorities can not oppose anything to openness and truth.

I took a business card from the guys, left my number, and so imperceptibly even got involved in the “movement”. They invited free people to the meeting, I was able to come only on November 16, did not regret it for a second. On that day I realized a lot for myself, but the main thing is that there are many of us, that silence will not lead to anything good. On December 7, I went to the rally without invitations. I am glad that I became involved, I have never felt such solidarity of different people.

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