English

Opposition youths deliver petition to education ministry

About 10 young activists of the “Tell the Truth!” campaign on August 12 visited the education ministry in Minsk to deliver a petition to Minister Alyaksandr Radzkow on the occasion of International Youth Day, BelaPAN reports.

The petition urged the ministry to close down its Department for Youth Affairs because of its inefficiency.

In addition, the youths wanted to hand the minister a calendar saying that the government devotes only one day in a year to tackling youths' problems.

The appeal was accepted by an aide to the minister and the calendar was seized by plainclothesmen.

After the petitioners came out of the building, one of them, Mikhas (Mikhail) Pashkevich, was arrested by plainclothesmen.

In photos:
1 – Plainclothesmen take away signs from the petitioners;
2 – Mikhas Pashkevich hands the petition to the education minister’s aide;
3 – Maksim Hryshchanka, deputy chief of the Minsk public security police, pictured center, talks the petitioners into going away;
4 – A plainclothesman attempts to prevent Yuliya Darashkevich, a photographer with the private weekly Nasha Niva, from taking pictures;
5 – Plainclothesmen arrest Mikhas Pashkevich.