Belarusian Popular Front was forced to leave the party’s headquarters yesterday. The venue, located in the Minsk city center, served as BPF‘s office for last 19 years. On May 10th, the Economic Court in Minsk upheld eviction order issued by the municipal administration.
Before leaving the premises, party members installed big wooden board blocking the entrance, with their new office address posted on it. On the walls, slogans were sprayed „Long live Belarus!“, „BPF for ever“, „Nothing will stop us“, „We believe, we can, we will win!“.
Aleksey Janukievich, the BPF leader, told Belsat that despite eviction being rather disheartening, it will not affect the future of the party. – PBF is not the walls, but people and our supporters. – he said. – The oldest registered political party was forced to abandon its headquarters, occupied since 1992. And what is more, with the police participation. – he added.
Janukievich thinks that decision about evicting BPF was made after the presidential elections in December 2010. – A day after many people came to our headquarters to express their solidarity with those arrested. People offered help. – he said.
Rykhor Kastusiov, deputy chairman of the BPF, informed that the new office will be open on August 25th. – To be honest, after „Nasha Niva“ and „Narodnaya Vola“ won in courts, we had some hopes. We thought that maybe the authorities will be reasonable enough and treat BPF in the same manner. But, as we can see now – they were not. – commented Kastusiov. He also added, that he believed that BPF will return to its old headquarters one day. „In future, it won’t be an office, but rather a museum of the democratization of Belarus“ – said the deputy chairman.
Belsat
