Anatol Kakhanchyk, a resident of Polatsk, has found himself in the authorities’ crosshairs only due to the fact of his possessing a house painted in red and white colours.
He was detained when he came to the police station after receving a summons. Then he was charged with ‘unauthorised picketing’ (Article 24.23 of the Code of Administrative Offences) and sentenced to 25 days of arrest.
According to preliminary information, he has gone on a ‘dry’ hunger strike, i.e. he does not take either food or water.
A year ago, Anatol Kakhanchyk painted two white and one red stripes on the walls of his parents’ house in the village of Aleshcha (Polatsk district) and placed the emblem Pahonya (Pursuit) in the window. In light of this, he appeared before court for ‘holding an unauthorised picket’; the authorities ordered him to re-paint the house, threatening with initiating a criminal case for ‘malicious hooliganism’ against him.
In 1991, the white-red-white flag and the emblem Pahonya were adopted as national symbols of the country. However, they were official until the 1995 referendum, when on the tip from Belarusian leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, who is an ardent adherer of the USSR, they were replaced by the Soviet ones. For years, pro-Lukashenka officials have been linking the white-red-white colours to the opposition. In December 2020, the authorities said that those Belarusian citizens who would hang out ‘unregistered symbols’ even on their windows or balconies might be penalised under administrative law.
belsat.eu
