Several dozen residents of Vitebsk signed the collective letter to the Council of Ministers to affect change in the solution of the Vitebsk city executive committee №881 "On Mass Events in Vitebsk" and initiate an appeal to the Constitutional Court to verify compliance with this document, the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. Regional coordinator of the movement "For Freedom" Christopher Zhelyapau received a reply.
The response states that the Presidium of the Council of Ministers decided not to send a request to the authors of a collective letter to the Constitutional Court. Without explanation - emphasizes Christopher Zhelyapau. Activists also notes that the Council of Ministers did not respond to another question - how to, within its competence, this Authority shall amended the decision Vitebsk city executive committee, which can not be performed:
"Since the City Council decision in 2009 №881 public activists have not given permission for a single picket to any meeting or at any meeting. Because local authorities require that a request for action proponents have made a contract to service police officers, utilities, as well as physicians. These structures are shying away from the conclusion of contracts in any way possible. from the regional Department of Internal Affairs, as a rule, we are told that there will be guided by the law of mass actions, and not the decision of the city executive committee, which requires the prior conclusion of contracts.
"Lawyer Alex Gavrutikov activist organizing committee of the Party "Narodnaya Gromada", said: "We had hoped that the Council of Ministers will make adjustments to the Executive Committee decision at least in order to bring it into line with its same decision. There is a special resolution about the interactions between citizens and authorities police. and in case the organization of mass actions this ordinance provides for such a mechanism: the citizen appeals to the local authorities with the application for a picket or rally, and has the power associated with the police, so that they have concluded an agreement with the organizers. and in Vitebsk city executive committee ordered the citizens to apply in person.
Evaded essentially representatives of the Council of Ministers, it seems, on its own initiative redirected Vitebsk citizens appeal to the Ministry of Justice. From there Christopher Zhelyapovu also received a letter.
The letter states that local authorities are free to determine the procedure for applying for permits for street protests. The only thing that had to be stated in the Ministry of Justice - is the fact that in different regions of the authorities provided the order is different. According to results of a study of the problem by A. Gavrutikov, about half of local governments require preliminary agreements, including with the police, and half require maintenance contracts shares even after they have been pre-authorized.
"In a letter from the Justice Ministry said only that it would be good to make some changes and more precise wording in the law on mass events. But nothing is said, will be whether the Ministry to initiate these changes", - says Alexei Gavrutikov.
Representatives of Vitebsk public first appealed to the Council of Ministers that there ordered to amend the decision of the city executive committee. Previous attempts to initiate this process were unsuccessful: all instances of activists responded that the decision passed legal review, approved, and therefore deemed to be committed.
Now Vitebsk activists are considering the possibility to appeal directly to Alexander Lukashenko, as the Council of Ministers Presidium refuses to respond to the violation of their own regulations. Especially that the violations committed throughout the country, and to the company, started by activists in Vitebsk, joined by representatives of the regions and the whole social structure, such as the BNF and the movement "For Freedom."
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