Fear of grassroots rebels

The administration of the Homel Railcar Repair Plant is looking for initiators of the appeal to the director.

Workers of the transportation department of the Homel Railcar Repair Plant prepared an appeal to the plant administration asking for salary increase. The appeal was signed by 30 people. Workers demanded a meeting with the director. He planned see personnel on November 9, the administration organized a meeting with workers on November 8.

“I was among the people who initiated gathering of signatures,” train driver Dzmitry Karashkou says. “The administration has decided to accuse me of everything and discredit me. Workers say they were told that I am almost a foreign spy, I am paid for destabilization at the plant. They said I receive money for destabilization of the situation. The administration called on workers not to trust me.”

Dzmitry was detained in September for distributing leaflets for holding silent protests and was arrested for several days. Later, he was called to Ryhor Kulik, the deputy director responsible for regime and security. He told the activists about geopolitical position of Belarus, international economy, American history and Russian tycoons. The deputy director also asked the train driver about his education, family and aims of activists of “Revolution by social networks”.

He noted that “the authorities have never tolerated and will not tolerate the dissent and will react hard”. He said Dzmintry, his wife and parents could face problems and threatened someone could plant drugs or weapons on Dzmitryto give his a real prison term. The deputy director advised Dzmitry Karashkou to think about his wife and parents and added “it’s not a game, it’s serious”.