Picket of Union of Poles disrupted in Hrodna (Photo, video)

Eighteen people were detained at a public action against Russification of a Polish school in Hrodna.

An action against opening Russian-language classes at Polish secondary school No. 36 began on Lenin Square in Hrodna at 11 in the morning. It attracted about 50 members of the unofficial Union of Poles of Belarus. Police and people in plain clothes were watching the event.

As soon as picketers unfurled a banner “We won't surrender  Polish school”, policemen detained about 10 people, among them activists of the Union of Poles Edward Dmuchowski and Igor Bancer. A police bus took them in an unknown direction.

Other 6 people are reported to have been detained later in Dzevyatouka district. They are kept in a police vehicle.

Journalists Andrzej Poczobut and Jan Roman were detained  in Hrodna before the picket. Both were guarded to the Leninski district police department.

Police also tried to enter the flat of Ales Dzyanisau, an independent musician and journalist, Radio Svaboda reports. Policemen are noticed near the home of journalist Andrei Fralou.  

On May 22, the Hrodna authorities banned pickets against changing the language of instruction at Polish-language school No. 36.

Parents of schoolchildren worry about authorities' plans to open Russian-language classes at school.

The authorities complain other schools in Dzevyatouka district are overcrowded.

The Polish-language one-shift school was built in the mid-1990s on the Polish government's money.