"Oppositionist Barys Hamaida Did What Couldn't Be Done"

The activist held a picket under the white-red-white flag right on the day of Lukashenka's arrival in Vitsebsk.

On November 22nd, when Kastus Kalinouski and his comrades-in-arms were reburied in Vilnius, Vitsebsk activist Barys Hamaida came out with a white-red-white flag to the center of Vitsebsk.

According to Radio Racyja, he was holding an information poster about the event, which he had been unable to get to.

The oldest Vitsebsk oppositionist knew that he risked being convicted for this manifestation of solidarity. But he could not help but celebrate this date, Hamaida says:

"Yes, I knew that sooner or later they would come for me, but it was simply impossible not to take to the streets on that day. I could not go there, to Vilnius, but it was just necessary to pay tribute to our national hero Kanstantsin Kalinouski and all the others," - Hamaida says.

Barys Hamaida managed to do what almost couldn't be done: he was picketing under a white-red-white flag just when Lukashenka arrived in Vitsebsk. There were a lot of policemen and people in civilian clothes in the center of the city. But they didn't even think that anyone would do something like that.

"I was walking steadily, not hiding, under my arm I had a poster, and a white-red-white flag in my hands, in a case. They just didn't have time for me: before Lukashenka's arrival they were cleaning the city from "terrorists", looking for them in the basements, climbing through the attics, inspecting everything ... And I walked quietly through it and stood there," - the activist says.

Barys Hamaida will be tried in the Chyhunachny district court on December 13th. The name of the judge and the exact time are still unknown.