Mahiliou Student: I Decided Not To Wait For Brave People To Fall From Skies

Aliaksei Maiseyau is fighting against the law on determents.

Activists who oppose the recently adopted law "On Determents" continue to face pressure from various sides. According to Radio Svaboda, a student of the Mahiliou State Economic and Vocational College, Aliaksei Maiseyau, recently submitted an application to the Mahiliou City Executive Committee to hold a single picket. His goal is to inform citizens about the new law, which concerns service in the army.

"I want to somehow resist this law, while many people, apparently, are afraid to file applications for such activities. I decided not to wait for brave people to fall from the skies," - Aliaksei Maiseyau says.

According to Aliaksei, the college administration has reacted to the initiative.

"I was summoned to the college regarding the picket. The director also tried to give me a "recommendation" not to do it, because there would be a kind of "brand" on me and why to wrong-foot the college. They tried to explain to me the inevitability of service in the army and that I would go there in any case, that is, what difference does it make then," - Aliaksei says.

The journalists couldn't get any comments from Aleh Bakhanovich, the director of the college, he explained that he was "busy".

This is not the first case of pressure faced by activists of the BY Protest campaign, which is against the law on determents. When earlier a student from Minsk, Valiantsin Mialeshka, also submitted an application to hold a single picket in a permitted place, the ideologist of Zavadski district was literally persuading him to withdraw the application to the picket. In Hrodna, three guys who were distributing leaflets about the campaign and the harmfulness of the new law were detained. The guys were questioned about the campaign activities and released without drawing up protocols. Human rights activists also know about a similar case that happened to the guys in Slonim.

Officials actually ignored the petition against the law "On Determents", which collected 10 thousand signatures. However, the indifference of the officials did not stop the citizens who are not indifferent. They started to coordinate actively through the Internet and plan a number of activities together to ensure that their opinion was heard.

According to the new law, a determent period for education will be granted only once. The Ministry of Defense explained the innovations by the lack of recruits and noted that the new rules will allow to recruit additional 4.5 thousand soldiers every year.