Opposition activists in Homyel denied permission to hold rallies in commemoration of Chernobyl disaster :: Charter'97 :: News

Opposition activists in Homyel have been denied permission to hold rallies in the city on April 26 to observe the 21st anniversary of the Chernobyl accident.

As one of them, Syarhey Hawrylin, told BelaPAN, he asked the city government to authorize a rally to honor the memory of the Chernobyl victims. According to him, prior to that, he had approached Syarhey Paroshyn, deputy chairman of the Homyel City Executive Committee, with the proposal to stage a joint rally. The reply was a resounding no. "He explained that he opposed windy eloquence and proposed participating in a community clean-up instead. But what does raking up leaves have to do with the Chernobyl anniversary?" said Mr. Hawrylin.

On April 20, he received a letter from the City Executive Committee, which said that permission to stage the rally had been denied because the application had been filed in violation of Article 5 of the Mass Events Law. The letter also said that the application of Maryya Bahdanovich, another local opposition activist, had also been rejected, as it had been in violation of the Law`s Article 10. "The letter did not say what specifically was wrong with the applications," Mr. Hawrylin said. "It is likely that the authorities` reason was that I wouldn`t be able to ensure proper order and sanitary conditions at the rally. They have repeatedly used this pretext to ban rallies planned by local opposition activists."

According to Mr. Hawrylin, he and Ms. Bahdanovich will ask the city government to specify the grounds for rejecting their applications.