English

Dzyady commemorative procession to Kurapaty

Some 1000 people, mostly opposition activists, took part in an annual commemorative procession staged in Minsk on Sunday to honor the memory of the victims of the Stalinist terror on the occasion of Dzyady (Remembrance of Ancestors Day).

The march, organized by the Conservative Christian Party (CCP) and sanctioned by the Minsk city and district authorities, ran from the Minsk Watch Plant to Kurapaty, a woody place just outside Minsk where up to 200,000 people are believed to have been murdered during Stalin’s purges in the 1930s.

Participants displayed Belarus’ historically national white-red-white flags and chanted “Zhyve Belarus!” (Long Live Belarus!), “Freedom to Political Prisoners!” and chanted the names of men whom opposition politicians and human rights defenders believe to be political prisoners.

Also displayed were the banners of opposition groups called European Belarus, Young Democrats, Belarusian Christian Democracy, and Maladaya (Young) Belarus, as well as banners saying, “Dzyady,” “Let Us Eternize Memory of Kurapaty Victims!” and “Let Us Defend Belarus from Russian Imperialism!”

Those participating included prominent opposition activists such as Vintsuk Vyachorka, Viktar Ivashkevich, Mikalay Dzemidzenka, Andrey Kim, Alyaksandr Makayew and Ales Talstyka.

The procession was accompanied by several dozen police officers in civilian clothes and a police vehicle with loudspeakers on the roof, with some plainclothesmen filming the event on video cameras.

The procession ended with a 30-minute rally at Kurapaty.

“I’m very glad that more and more people take part in the Dzyady procession every year,” CCP Acting Chairman Yury Belenki told reporters. “When we come to Kurapaty, we see that there are increasingly more people there, especially youths. There were mostly elderly people there 20 years ago, who remembered Stalinism and were motivated by their personal pain, whereas now there are many young people.”

“I don’t judge the efficiency of an event by the number of participants,” Mr. Vyachorka, a former chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front, told BelaPAN. “I think there are enough people today for one to conclude that despite the psychological intimidation and despite the crisis, which make people think about survival, there are those who think in terms of Belarus and in terms of remembrance. It is them who attend events like the Dzyady procession.”

When asked what was the distinguishing feature of this year’s Dzyady procession, Mr. Vyachorka said: “One of the initiators of the first, 1988 Dzyady march, Ales Byalyatski, who then led the Tuteyshyya association, is now in jail. This is the new feature that seems to have never been in place during the previous Dzyady commemorations. In this sense, Dzyady is associated with the memory of the freedom that has been taken away from us, and the people who are now in prison because they want freedom for Belarus.” //BelaPAN