We had fun on July 3 (photo) :: Charter'97 :: News

My friends and I arranged a meeting in Niamiga at 7 p.m. to have a walk in the city center together. The company was pretty huge. And nearly everyone had a t-shirt “For Freedom” (“За свабоду”) on. We all were in good spirits, walking around and congratulating people on the feast. Flags with the emblem of Minsk were soaring above our heads. I left the crowd and approached a police officer under a bridge in Niamiga:

- Congratulations! - I said in Belarusian.

- Thank you so much, - replied the police officer in Russian.

We moved ahead, shouted out “Long Live Belarus!” near the Palace of Sports. Many voices responded. We invited to join us and walk together. Our company grew.

We reached the screen in Pieramozhtsau Avenue. It wasn’t so easy to walk farther because of a police cordon. We lifted down the flags, split into small groups of two-three people and passed the cordon keeping the rods. Then we put the flags up again. We were standing very close to the stage talking to people. But in a while (about 30 minutes before Lukashenka arrived) five police officers approached us (they must have been scared that we would rush off to meet the President so gaily that he would be knocked down. And then who knows…).

- Guys, you should leave.
- Why?
- And what is written on your t-shirts?
- Freedom is stated in the Constitution!

Then 15-20 OMON officers came to us. Still we didn’t leave; we were listening to music. The shouts “Long Live Belarus!” could be heard from time to time. But Bat’ka’s time has come, and he wasn’t going to meet with us for sure. An interesting game with the police started. For example, they start picking on a guy or a girl from our company; I approach them to ask something like “Guys, what’s going on here?”; meanwhile our friends hide in the crowd. This happened about six times, and the police got tired. They switched with OMON who started grabbing us in five. This game tired us too. They grabbed a couple of people and carried somewhere. Commentaries began to sound:

- Let him go! Don’t beat him! What are you doing?
- Take my hands as you should. Don’t tear my t-shirt!
- Sure, I’ll take you! Just wait a bit! (unquotable)
- Why are you so angry? You represent the law, and swear like a trooper. You should on the contrary, restrict those who curse in public. Look there, drunk young people are lying in bushes. It’s them who should be detained!
- You think you’re so smart? (unquotable)

I wonder why do they get so mad when someone tries to be polite with them?

We were six detained. They put us in a bus under the bridge. One of us, a guy, didn’t look so good. He was neither conducted nor carried to the bus; he was dragged over the road. Soon our friends surrounded him. We listened to the fireworks altogether. Then the bus left. We were singing, and a girl with a flag was running behind the bus till the Central district interior department.

We arrived. We were summoned to the office one by one. The guy who was called first said he was to spend the whole night there. I was summoned to another room on another storey. There were two relatively young women.

- Is it your first time here?
- No, he was here then when there was something about those benefits… do you remember?
- Oh, yes. (It’s nice when people remember you. In particular, if they remember you as a fighter J )
- What a lovely t-shirt you have. Stylish, just for the youth. It’s better when the text if white instead of yellow.
- So you are, as you say, “high-principled”?...

The conversation was long, but nice. Nearly unofficial. We talked about Belarus, about OMON, about fears, about us - those who love freedom. Then they called my dad to ask if I could be exonerated, if he would arrive. They let me go.

- Be careful, Paval.
- Thank you. See you later!

I took a taxi, otherwise I wouldn’t have got home. I logged in to ICQ, agreed with friends to go to the court on the next day. Got ready to sleep. But SMS came at 3 a.m.: “I was exonerated. There’ll be no trial - I’m going home…” It’s nice. Love live Belarus!

Paval, Jeans-by.com