Baranavichy Authorities Disrupt Celebration of 20th Anniversary of Polish Public School :: Charter'97 :: News

The Polish public school of Baranavichy will celebrate its 20th anniversary in a small hall of an officially closed building, not in the local Culture Palace, as they intended. According to the founder and the director of the school Alzhbeta Dalenha-Vzhosek, the school rented the hall of the local Culture Palace for the celebration as about 100 guests from Belarus and Poland were to attend the event. However, a week before the celebration the administration of the Culture House annulled the rent agreement. The local Polish minority says that the local authorities disliked the idea of public celebration of the jubilee.

‘This news was quite strange for us, because we haven’t dealt with political propaganda for these 20 years and children came there only to study. Now we will have to gather in the small hall of the Polish House. There’s little space there, but what can we do? I hope that at least nobody will hinder us,’ stated Alzhbeta Dalenha-Vzhosek.

We should remind that the Polish House in Baranavichy has been closed due to alleged violations of fire security and sanitary demands. Despite this, in February, 100 days before graduation, Baranavichy city executive committee permitted holding there a solemn meeting of parents and pupils.

In the last curriculum year the school had 307 pupils, the previous year – 600.