Captive Nations Week has been conducted every third week in July for the past 48 years. This event has been held annually since 1959. When Congress designated the third week of July as a time to remember once-independent countries which are now under Soviet rule. The Captive Nations Committee and approximately 50 supporters—mostly from the former Soviet Union and Cuba—marched along the 5th Avenue last Sunday. Most of the participants were from Belarus.

Having the opportunity to express your opinion, all your dissatisfaction and complaints, letting the people around you know. It sounds so simple. It is simple in the USA. It is impossible in the countries which still lack basic human rights. If you live in Belarus, you are even afraid to pronounce the name of the so-called oppositioners in public. I`m writing “the so-called” since it`s impossible for Belarusian opposition even to access mass-media. Which opposition can survive in such conditions, if lies are already all over the country? If lies are widely believed in and everyone who`s pretty much of a free-thinker is always just a step away from an “exciting” opportunity to end up in prison. Or simply disappear. Yeah, I mean if he is not there. Because most likely, he already is.

Here, in NYC, on the 15th of July. We, representatives of the world`s captive nations, did have the opportunity to express our dissatisfaction. We wanted to attract attention to the fact that even in the middle of civilized Europe you can lack basic human rights. As well as in many other places in the world. Everyone gathered by the Plaza Hotel round 9 am. Then we marched along the 5th avenue to St Patrick`s Cathedral. Traditionally, the event finished at Central Park.

Captive Nations Parade is just the beginning of Captive Nations Week. In my personal opinion, even if you live in a free country and can hardly imagine that such situation is possible, you do need to know that such places still exist. Yes, even nowadays it is possible to go to prison just for expressing your political opinion. And people live in these countries. And they are even closer than you might imagine. And they also want to be free. All of them.

Photos by the courtesy of www.zbma.net

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Free Belarus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.