Activist demands to punish head of culture department

16.01.2008. Tags: culture.
Source: RFE/RL.

Leanid Autukhou, resident of Haradok, Vitebsk region, addressed the local police department accusing the head of the local culture department of insult of the Belarusian language.

According to Leanid Autukhou, official Volha Kauryha violated Article 9.22 of the Administrative Code by creating “obsticles and limitations for the usage of the Belarusian language”.

In the letter addressed to the head of Haradok district police department Autukhou points out, the head of the culture department did not allow to carry out a meeting with writer Uladzimir Arlou in a district library. Besides that, she responded in Russian language to the letter with the request for permission of a meeting, written in Belarusian. Leanid Autukhou believes this is inadmissible for an official who works in the sphere of culture.

Haradok district police department accepted Autukhou’s statement for consideration. If the case goes to trial and the official is found guilty, she will have to pay a fine between 140 and 350 thousand BYR.

Besides the letter to the police, Leanid Autukhou, chair of the local BPF organization and supporter of the For Freedom! Movement signed a statement to chairman of the regional executive committee Uladzimir Andreichanka. He asks him to take measures to influence the head of the regional culture department Mikalai pashynski. The activist believes, the regional culture department did not pay real attention to his complaint about the ban on a meeting with the famous writer and limited itself to a formal response. The activist demands “to take certain measures fro de-bureaucratization of the system of culture in the region, which does not allow meetings with writers and other intellectuals which are initiated by citizens”.