Pinsk authorities violate Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights

08.06.2006.

According to some experts, the Belarusian language is constantly oppressed in favor of Russian in many spheres of social activity, such as education, mass media and IT.

A musical contest is under way in Pinsk. A special commission is to choose the best variant of the towns anthem. Valiantsina Matuzka, member of the jury, says: The jury must be thinking our town is a Russian-speaking one. So theyve decided that an anthem in Russian would be easier to understand by the people.

There are dozens young Belarusian poets in Pinsk, but they have not been taken into consideration by the jury. Uladzimir Skvartsou says that the contest was not organized properly, since not a single Belarusian writer appeared in the finals.

Aliaksandr Lukashenka who is in charge of culture issues in Pinsk is not very emphatic: Its happened by chance&

Aleh Trusau, chair of the Association of Belarusian Language says: Belarusian culture is being neglected in Pinsk at present& because of appropriate people town authorities. I have never heard of some local territory having an anthem of its own, unlike a coat of arms or an emblem. So the phrase the anthem of Pinsk is ridiculous.

According to him, the contest as a result of which the ancient Belarusian town will have a Russian-language anthem is a scandalous fact of violating the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights. He also declared that the ABL will try to void the procedures and the results of the contest with the help of Belarusian legislation bodies.