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"My Belarusian People Woke up, Got up From Their Knees!"

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"My Belarusian People Woke up, Got up From Their Knees!"
PHOTO: TUT.BY

Confessions of an 87-year-old woman from Minsk who has hung a white-red-white flag on her balcony.

The Belarusian authorities continue to fight against white-red-white symbols. Once a flag in these colors was a state symbol, but today it has become a symbol of popular protest, and you can get a fine or even several days of arrest for it: the Belarusian authorities equated hanging red and white symbols on balconies or private areas with unauthorized protests.

Despite dozens of arrests and fines "for the flag," Belarusians continue to protest with red and white flowers and hang white-red-white symbols in the windows of their houses. One of those who were fined for this was an 87-year-old resident of Minsk, Lizaveta Bursova, a Holocaust survivor and war veteran. She told Current Time that she did not regret her deed, despite the fact that she was fined $ 160, most of her pension, and she was glad that the Belarusian people "got up from their knees."

"Yes, I have hung the flag! So that everyone knows whose side I am on," the pensioner said. "The trial did not make any impression on me, and I'll tell you why. I already knew how the trials over those who are on Akrestsina Street are held. The courts do not listen to anyone, even if people say they are innocent. They even seize those who really have nothing to do with these campaigns!"

As a child, Bursova, together with her family, escaped from Nazi-occupied Vitsebsk.

"We managed to leave Vitsebsk at a time when it was already bombed. Dad put us in a freight car. They were not called trains at that time, but echelons," she recalls.

Bursova is a multiple times champion in bullet shooting; she taught at a sports school for a long time. The pensioner says that she never supported Aliaksandr Lukashenka and did not like his populism. During the 2020 summer presidential campaign, Bursova signed for several alternative candidates. And then, she supported the protests that began on August 9, immediately after the CEC announced the election results and declared Lukashenka the winner of the presidential elections in Belarus. Neither his rivals nor independent observers recognized the August 9 election results and demand a new, fair vote.

The pensioner compares the current events in Belarus with the fascism that she once experienced.

"When everyone came out, I thought: Oh my God! Thank God! My people have woken up. They got up from their knees. My Belarusian people have woken up," she says.

Bursova is sure that the Belarusians will not be the same after such massive and lengthy protests.

The fine for the white-red-white flag, which Bursova hung on the balcony, was paid by the Sports Solidarity Fund to the pensioner. In early December, the Minsk police officially confirmed that the placement of white-red-white symbols on residential buildings' balconies and windows was tantamount to an administrative offense. In the capital of Belarus alone, more than 20 protocols have already been drawn up for hanging such flags.

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