Youth Riot In Baranavichy :: Charter'97 :: News

Baranavichy branch of the pro-state youth organization the Belarusian Republican Youth Union with its full complement joined the oppositional movement Zubr. The decision was made at the general meeting of the BRYU members of the Baranavichy state college of light industry on March 2. This BRYU branch is one of the largest in the town, it consists of more than 100 members. The extraordinary incident has a national importance. To say that you are leaving the BRYU and joining Zubr is something like leaving the Young Communist league (Komsomol) because of ideological disagreement with guiding and determinant course of the Communist Party in the 70ies. By the evening of Wednesday, 3, the information was received about a planned joint emergency meeting of the college administration and the BRYU, where the mutinous youth are to be summoned.

The meeting took place on March 2, in the evening, in the assembly hall of one of the students’ hostels. The fist question on the agenda was a proposal of a number of the BRYU members to join the Zubr movement. After a short discussion it was approved by the majority of the present – 120 people. Only six persons abstained from voting. Nobody voted against the proposal. The new members of the Zubr movement received Zubr badges. In the end of the meeting its participants voted for an appeal to other BRYU branches with the call to support the Zubr movement and join its activities.

On Wednesday in the afternoon Mikhail Arda (Orda), the head of the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, hurriedly left Minsk for Baranavichy, the college headmaster said. The head of the “Lukamol” (popular name for the BRYU) tried to examine the problem on the spot. In front of the rebellious college, with short interruptions, police cars were standing the whole day. By the end of the day Baranavichy administration ordered to exterminate all agitation of the Zubr movement in the town. The order concerns graffiti, stickers and leaflets, which abundantly cover walls and fences of the town.

One of the Zubr coordinators, Yauhen Afnahel, comments the events of the last two days to the Charter’97 press service:

- This action is a natural reaction to forcing the Belarusian young people to join the BRYU. Young people have made a courageous deed, protesting openly. This action demonstrates that young patriots prefer solidarity and struggle for the future of Belarus to free discotheques. I am sure that such events sooner or later are to take place in other towns of the country. Belarusian young people want to go to Europe, and not back to the USSR.

You can express your support to Zubr activists in Baranavichy at this forum.http://www.charter97.org/bel/forum/5190