Belarusian Popular Front leader describes Freedom Day as most important date for Belarusians

An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people took part in a “Dzen Voli” (Freedom Day) demonstration that was held in Minsk on March 25 to mark 94 years since the proclamation of the 1918 Belarusian National Republic (BNR).Braving the rainy weather and high winds, the demonstrators gathered in the square in front of the National Academy of Sciences in the afternoon and marched to Peoples` Friendship Park, where a rally was held.

No arrests were reported during the demonstration, which had been sanctioned by the Minsk City Executive Committee. According to witnesses, police acted politely.
An opposition youth group called Malady Front did not march in the opposite direction to downtown Kastrychnitskaya Square despite its initial plans to do so. Its members joined the procession to the park, a desolate area where dogs are walked, but left the main crowd a block away from it.

A small rally was held in front of the science academy before the beginning of the march at 2 p.m.. Waving white-red-white flags, banners of European Belarus, Belarusian Christian Democracy and other opposition groups, participants chanted “Long Live Belarus!” and “Freedom to Political Prisoners!” They were holding signs “Lukashenka is a dead end” and “Where is my $500?”

A man at the scene told BelaPAN that there would not have been the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic and today’s independent Belarus but for the BNR. “All in all, we should remember that we are Litvins, not Belarusians,” he said.

“Freedom Day is the day of my independence and a great date for us, Belarusians. It is a day when we got liberated from invaders,” said a woman.

An elderly man said, “Freedom Day is a day celebrating the Belarusians. It is evidence that we still exist, and that not all have vanished.”

Another elderly man said, “I have always wanted to live free but been deprived of freedom. Several years ago, I found myself in a country called Lukavina, where there is no life at all. You spend days hoping that your granddaughters and great granddaughters will at least have something. That’s why I am here, waiting for other active people to join in and stage a bloodless revolution so that our people start moving in another direction.”

“Freedom Day is the most important date for the Belarusians,” said Alyaksey Yanukevich, leader of the Belarusian Popular Front. “On that day, the Belarusians’ dreams about independence that they had cherished for ages were articulated and made known clearly to the entire world. It is above all a holiday celebrating a struggle and a victory in this struggle for freedom and independence.”