Performance “No to Army Slavery!” held in Minsk (Photo, video)

• 29.01.2009, 13:13

A performance against forceful call-up of opposition youth was organized in the center of Minsk on January 27.

Activists of the civil campaign “European Belarus” held it on Independence Avenue. A participant of performance caught some young people, walking down the street, and ranked them. He was swearing, shouting and “draftees”, made them parade, do push-ups, paint grass and snow, clean shoes of the superiors, and fulfil other absurd orders. The orders were seconded with whip strikes. Recruits, who tried to escape, were caught and punished.

The performance ended with chanting “No to Army Slavery!”

“This performance is not only against forceful call-up of some opposition activists. It aim is wider. Belarus is one of a few European countries with the army of a Soviet type. Those, who served, know that it is ineffective and soldiers don’t get any useful skills. We think that our country should have a professional army, and drafting campaign should be abolished,” one of the participants of the campaign commented on the performance.

Passers-by watched the street action, one of them even joined the performance.