<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2013 How were you arrested? It was reported at first that a man who had hung out the flag managed to escape…<\/p>\n
\u2013 I admit: it was I who hung out the flag. I climbed the tree and hung out the flag. I saw from above that the flag provoked excitement \u2013 people were standing with their heads lifted up, they were either surprised or scared. I saw the militiamen fussing, two cars driving up and understood they were going to arrest me. I didn\u2019t have a thought to escape. Frankly speaking, I knew before that I would be arrested.<\/p>\n
When I went down from the tree, I was met by two riot militiamen, who seized my legs. I umped down. They began to beat me. They called me a scum, wacko, handcuffed me and continued beating. I didn\u2019t resist, I knew it was dangerous for me. Then their commanders ran up, some lieutenant colonels… They were shouting at me and insulting me.<\/p>\n
I managed to set facer towards the people and shouted \u201cLong live Belarus\u201d and \u201cGlory to Belarus!\u201d Riot militiamen tired to shut my mouth wit hands in gloves, twisted my arms, and dragged me to a bus.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2013 It is said the militia brass in Vitsebsk was alarmed due to your action.<\/p>\n
\u2013 It is so. I was guarded to the Kastrychnitski district militia department. I saw the chief of the department who was boiling over, shouting at me and insulting me. On his order, I was guarded to medical examination, alcohol and illegal drugs level was checked. They didn\u2019t find anything.<\/p>\n
Then I was informed a criminal case under article 339 part 2 of the Criminal Code (repeated hooliganism, or committed by a group of persons, or connected with committing less serious bodily harm) was instigated against me. I refused to give evidence unless lawyer Pyotr Kavalenka, whom I trust, arrived. The investigator began to shout, he said I must hurry up, because his chiefs were waiting. But I decided they could wait. I gave evidence only after Poutr Kavalenka\u2019s agent had come.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2013 What were you questioned about?<\/p>\n
\u2013 They asked why I had climbed the tree, why I had hung out the flag. On the third day they gave a layout of Victory square. I was to draw my way to the square. They didn\u2019t want to take me to the \u201cplace of crime\u201d. Then I had a face-to-face confrontation with a militiaman. I said I would speak only Belarusian. The investigator said she didn\u2019t know the Belarusian language and wasn\u2019t able to interpreter me.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor said before announcing a measure of restraint to me: \u201cYou came to someone else\u2019s party, laid your flag on the table and smashed everything\u201d. I answered Belarus is our home, our land, so his comparisons are misplaced.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2013 How did you find conditions in the detention facility?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Conditions were very bad. Militia treated us awfully \u2013 they were rude, mocked us, insulted, outraged. O understand why former prisoners hate militia after release. Jail guards call people arrested cattle, dogs. They treat them as if they were not human beings. They use their power to play tough guys.<\/p>\n
Conditions in wards are bestial as well: wards are damp and cold. In the daytime they allow only sit on beds, one cannot lean to the walls, though we could not read that in the new internal regulations. There were 10 persons in the ward, which is many, but all of them were very kind to me. They met me like a Santa Claus; everybody knew that a white-red-white flag was placed on the main New Year Tree in Vitsebsk.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2013 Many our readers were interested how did you manage to climb 40-metre tree?<\/p>\n
\u2013 Very simple. From inside. There were cells reminding drinking glasses standing all round the trunk, and small fir-trees were put into them, and the large tree was consisting of these small trees. I had to climb into the surface only near the top, in order to hang the flag. Nobody saw me from the beginning. I didn\u2019t have fear \u2013 I have good coordination of movements. I had been engaged in sports activities a lot: wrestling, box, jogging. But for an untrained person it is certainly dangerous. You shouldn\u2019t repeat it without skills and dexterity.<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n\u2013 Syarhei, what did you want to say to Belarusians by your action?<\/p>\n
\u2013 I put up the flag higher than Moscow Soviet star, placed on the top of the New Year Tree by the authorities. Our flag was higher than their Soviet, outdated and unnecessary red stars. I know how Belarusians treat out flag and how they love it. Even those how do not know our history, agree that it is beautiful. I raised that flag higher than the star on behalf of those people. I am sure that it will become a state flag soon. There is no escaping that.<\/p>\n
I would also like to underline that political rallies in Belarus must take place in the centre of the cities, in the squares, in crowded places. I see how people are inspire by our braveness, they become more courageous themselves then.<\/p>\n
We remind that on January 7 a national white-red-white was hung out at the top of the 35-metres-high Christmas tree set up on Victory square in Vitsebsk. An activist of CCP BPF, 34-year-old Syarhei Kavalenka was detained for the act. On January 10 the prosecutor of Vitsebsk decided to place him in the remand prison for 2 months. A case on charges relating Article 339 Part 2 of the Criminal Code (repeated hooliganism, or committed by a group of persons, or connected with committing less serious bodily harm) has been opened against him. He faces up to 6 years of imprisonment under this article.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Op 7 januari 2010 heeft Sergej Kavalenko een rood-witte vlag opgehangen in een kerstboom in het centrum van Vitebsk. Leden van de militia hebben hem aangehouden. Inmiddels is hij weer vrij.\u00a0Hieronder een interview met de actievoerder. Bron: Charter97<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mensenrechten-acties"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1197"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1202,"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1197\/revisions\/1202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vierbomen.nl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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