Protests Against Brest Battery Plant: Target Exploitation Is Increasing

Hundreds of people took to the march on Sunday, despite the 33-degree heat.

At noon on June 16, opponents of the battery factory construction gathered on Lenin Square in Brest again, racyja.com reports.

According to human rights activist Raman Kisliak, more than 200 people came to the square.

Such meetings have been held here every Sunday since February 25, 2018.

The police officer warned the audience through a megaphone about the inadmissibility of violating the order of organizing and holding a mass event.

"It's hell on the square - 33 degrees in the shade. Despite this, the people have come, which confirms their determination to close the factory," - Kisliak says.

According to him, people are now in a good mood, because there is hope that the plant will be closed down.

"The speed of movement towards the goal has increased several times," - activist Aliaksandr Abliak says.

The participants of the meeting discussed the decision of Brest Regional Executive Committee to suspend the construction of the battery factory "until the violations are eliminated."

The corresponding order of the region's head Anatol Lis was published by the regional executive committee on June 14.

After the meeting at the square, which lasted until about 12.45, the plant's opponents walked along the central streets - Pushkin and Savetskaya - to the cinema Belarus and dispersed at 13.20.

There were no detentions. There were more than 10 policemen in uniform and civilian clothes on Lenin Square. Some of them were capturing on video the meeting and the march.

On June 12, a group of opponents of the enterprise met with the head of the region. According to Raman Kisliak, during the meeting the activists made public a number of violations revealed during the construction of the battery factory. The head of the region promised to check these facts within a week, and if the violations are confirmed, the plant will not work. The activists announced their intention to continue Sunday's meetings on Lenin Square and the duty near the plant.