Belarus Protests: Lukashenko Dissenters Put 'White-Red-White' Undergarments in Balconies After Police Confiscates Flags
Dissenters of the incumbent President decided to arrange their inner wears and t-shirts in the white-red-white format in their balconies to mark their angst against the government. The strategy to use undergarments, including bra, was adopted after the police reportedly confiscated the nationalist flags that were put in private balconies.
Minsk, September 6: The 'white-red-white' flag, a symbol Belarusian nationalism, is back in focus amid the raging nationwide protests in Belarus. The flag, that officially represented Belarus for only two brief periods in the last 100 years, is now being used by demonstrators to ring a clarion call against the Alexander Lukashenko-led regime. Belarus Protests: Authorities Blocks Over 50 News Websites Amid Large Protests.
Dissenters of the incumbent President decided to arrange their inner wears and t-shirts in the white-red-white format in their balconies to mark their angst against the government. The strategy to use undergarments, including bra, was adopted after the police reportedly confiscated the erstwhile national flags that were put in private balconies.
Valzhyna Mort, an author and staunch critic of Lukashenko, shared images of the inner wears and t-shirts being arranged in the white-red-white format in the private balconies. "Because authorities send policemen with ladder trucks to take down white-red-white flags from private balconies," she tweeted along with the pics.
What Protesters Were Upto After Confiscation of The 'Nationalist Flag'
What is The White-Red-White Flag and Why Authorities Are Confiscating It?
The white-red-white served as the official flag of Belarus for only two periods in recent history - between 1918-19 and 1991-95.
On the first occassion, the flag lost its official status after Belarus was invaded by Germany in the World War I. After the region was taken over by the Soviet Union, a flag with artwork on the left, red stripes on top, green on bottom and a golden logo of hammer and sickle was adopted as the official flag.
After the collapse of Soviet Union, Belarus re-adopted the flag which is admired by the country's nationalists. However, Lukashenko was opposed to its use claiming that the flag was influenced by Adolf Hitler's Nazism.
In 1995, when he took over as the President, a referendum was conducted on the use of official flag. In the voting whose result was decried by the West, the Belarusians purportedly chose the flag with red and green stripes - a variant of Soviet-era - instead of the nationalist white-red-white flag.
The flag, nearly after two decades, gained prominence after the Opposition leaders began using it at several rallies in the run-up to the presidential elections. In the agitation that erupted after the "rigged poll results" - which saw Lukashenko retaining power - the white-red-white has emerged as the official theme of the protests.
Although the use of flag is not criminalised, the authorities in some parts of the country are reportedly arresting protesters wearing the white-red-white colours, and also confiscating the controversial flags.
The crackdown against the nationalist flag turned rampant after Lukashenko, in a press conference on August 28, reiterated that the white-red-white colours share a past with Hitler's fascism. "Should Belarusians return to what existed in the years of fascism? How many people of ours were killed under this flag? How many Russians, Belarusians, Jews, Tatars perished here? And all of them under that flag," he said.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 06, 2020 07:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).