On February 10, a peaceful rally of people who keep protesting against constructing a battery plant took place in the Belarusian city of Brest.
One year passed since Brest residents had started protesting against the construction of a battery factory in the city. As the city authorities do not authorize protests, people do not make speeches or chant any slogans – they just feed pigeons or carry baloons.
According to human rights activist Uladzimir Vyalichkin, about 200 persons took part in the latest event. The protesters were silently marching along the pedestrianised Savetskaya street to the Belarus cinema. There they listened to a street musician’s perfomance. Then at the request of the audience, he turned on the cover of the song ‘To Live’ which is considered the unofficial anthem of the protests.
It is the first time when people have not gone to their places after feeding pigeons in Lenin Square.
The battery plant near the city is being built in the free economic zone Brest by a Chinese corporation. The project was commissioned by iPower company. It is planned that the plant will have a full cycle of production of lead-acid batteries.
Residents of the city and surrounding villages believe that the production would harmfully impact their health and the environment. The project opponents say the construction has a number of violations, almost 37 thousand signatures against the plant were sent to Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s administration in February. But the government commission did not find any violations in the implementation of the project.
СК, belsat.eu
