25 years after USSR breakup: Belarus historical flags near KGB headquaters in Minsk

At 9 a.m. Young Front activists led by Zmitser Dashkevich started hanging out white-red-white flags in downtown Minsk. The action was timed to the 25th anniversary of the collapse of the USSR.

The activists gathered at the main post office and then walked along Independence Avenue to October Square. They meneged to place 25 flags. However, soon the police began to take off historical symbols.

The action was filmed by journalists. Near the KGB building Iryna Arakhouskaya, a camerawoman of the newspaper Nasha Niva, and reporter Mikita Nedaverkau were detained. The police claimed that the duo were hanging flags out, although they just performed their professional duties. After being kept for about an hour at Tsentralny police station, the journalists were released.

Video nn.by

December 8 is the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Belavezha Accords that declared the dissolution of the Soviet Union and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

This year, in the period of 19 September to 19 October, Young Front collected 10,000 signatures under a petition on granting the status of non-material historical and cultural value to the white-red-white flag. The petition was handed over to the Ministry of Culture.

On 19 September 1991, the white-red-white flag and emblem Pahonya (Pursuit) were officially recognized state symbols of the Republic of Belarus. Such resolution was passed by the Supreme Soviet of the 12th convocation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

But after the 1995 referendum, they were replaced by those reminiscent of Soviet symbolism. The white-red-white flag has been often associated with the opposition to the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka. It is not officially banned from public usage, but is treated by the authorities as an unregistered symbol which means that demonstration of it by political activists or sports fans can lead to arrests and confiscation of the flags.

• Election over? Football fans arrested for scarves with ‘Pahonya’ to be tried in court
• ‘Pahonya Close To Us’: Medvedev, Kabyakou under historical emblem of Belarusians
• Drunk men detained for insulting Belarusian language and white-red-white flag

belsat.eu following svaboda.org, nn.by