Today the first wave of the people detained during the protest have been released as their sentences expired. More could be released during the night and later this week. In 2006 me and my friends were released at around 3 am after being detained for 10 days as a punishment for being in the vicinity of a protesting square. In the night of our release we were met by a huge crowd outside of the prison, who came to show their support to the arrested. They were calling us brave people and heroes and saying many nice things. The crowd was applauding to every person who was leaving the doors of the prison. That was a very touching moment, a kind of positive push back into the life after being detained without any information about what was going on in the country.
The same has been prepared for the arrested this year – our little tradition in Belarus! Continue reading…
The first shock of the new reality in Belarus has started to wear out and people are starting to collect their thought together about how to live in this country now. GenerationBY team member is sharing his memories of the protest in Minsk on December 19, 2010.
Crowds of relatives and friends of the arrested waiting outside of Zhodina prison to pass them the necessities
“Happy Christmas? Not for Belarus”, – that is how Guardian’s journalist started his article about what happened in Belarus last week. And Belarusians did really forget about Christmas. It is impossible to enjoy the holidays at the same time when dozens of your friends are in jail. People are joking that the best of Belarusians have been jailed. Below is my personal recollection of those beautiful and at the same time disgusting hours of December protests in Minsk. Continue reading…
December 19th, 2010, will remain in history as a day when “Last Dictatorship in Europe” seized to be just an expression once dropped by american diplomats. The regime showed its true face. It is clear that it will take more than a peaceful protest for a change because those in power will not be ashamed to use all methods to keep it.
Late at night between 19th and 20th, Aliaksandar Zimouski, the head of the state TV (who was taken off this position as of today), commenting the clashes at the Square of Independece said: “Now it is very important not to let the opposition make the picture work for them”. And that is exactly what the state media have been doing since then – presenting their own picture of the events to the people who live outside of Minsk and do not have access to alternative media. The ideologically correct picture was conveyed via discussions on talk shows showing videos with “violent protesters” , airing videos with some participants (including few former candidates) in which they condemn the protests and blaming some of the candidates for the violence; showing fake shots with bats, metal sticks and Molotov cocktails supposedly brought by the violent crowd of youngsters. At first even some foreign media were reporting about crashes started by the protesters even though it was a clear provocation from the side of special services.
By now one can find quite a lot of material both on YouTube and on major international websites about what happened. Still, we decided to put here a chronological description of some major events that happened since December 19th. Continue reading…
