by Ales Karniyenka from Forum, Gomel, Belarus
 
I was a part of a group of young activists from public organizations in Ukraine (including Crimea), Belarus, and Serbia (Yugoslavia) who came to Poland in order to familiarize themselves with local governmental reform, the local electoral process, and the general mechanisms of  Polish democracy. Due to this experience, an idea was conceived to organize some of my own democratic actions.
Divided into small groups (two-four members in each), participants in the training courses found themselves in different towns of the Polish province. I was invited to Radom, a town south of Warsaw, because the young people from the local branch of Liga Respublikanska wanted to receive  young Belarusans. Liga Respublikanska is a right-wing organization of  young people famous for its uncompromising attitude toward the leftists and for its radical methods of struggle. I must also emphasize that this organization and particularly its members made a great impression on me personally. But let us leave political emotions aside and concentrate on Liga Respublikanska's methods.
The members of Liga Respublikanska held, in my opinion, a very interesting measure. They wanted to protest a visit from leftist politicians who planned to march along the central street with an important guest at the head of the column accompanied by an orchestra. However, as soon as the march began a small group Liga Respublikanska’s activists, who were dressed in white gowns and caps and equipped with disinfectant spray joined the cortege at its end. They followed the column of the leftists and sprayed (of course, symbolically!) the road. Naturally, the attention of the press was immediately switched to this "sanitation and epidemic" group. The activists then were able to make press statements saying that they had disinfected the city in order to clean it from the "red virus." Of course, this event was widely commented on by the press and not only on the regional level. In a word, the event was a success.
When our stay in Radom was approaching its end, we met with Ivan Lozovy, a well-known public activist. He liked the protest measure very much because communists and postcommunists are still very strong in Ukraine. I proposed that we cooperate and hold a similar joint protest in Kiev because we would  not have been able to carry out the same measure in Belarus, in any way. First, it is necessary to apply to authorities for permission to hold opposition measures. It is practically impossible to receive this permission in the provinces: the authorities either refuse to grant an appropriate permission based on imaginary reasons or change its date and place due to which the holding of a measure becomes absolutely senseless. I was absolutely sure that it will be impossible to hold a "disinfecting" measure in Gomel.
Some 30 people took part in the measure. All were dressed up in special polyethylene coats, white gowns, and white-and-blue caps; they were equipped with special disinfectant spray cans, sweepers, brooms, and brushes and planned to follow a march of leftist politicians and activists. Two activists carried a poster  "The USSR---Rukh's Special Sanitation Service," and two people carried the national flags of Ukraine and Belarus on either side.
However, right before the march, the city police reacted to our unusual outfits. Several officers of the power structures supported by several dozens of policemen in uniforms and the "people in civil suits" tried to block our activities. They presumed we planned a provocation and a fight with the procession of the "leftists.” I agree that it was a genuine provocation, but we did not plan any confrontation. Therefore, after a 30-minute discussion, we agreed that we will start moving after the leftists when they are at a safe distance from us. In addition, we agreed that we will not follow the columns of communists and the socialists all the time, but will "disinfect" only the square and later we will move to join the funeral procession organized by the Rukh.
In the Ukrainian language, this measure was called "Let Us Clean Our City From Communists." Over 20 cameras -- perhaps the majority of journalists representing Kiev-located mass media came to film this event. Naturally, this was widely commented on by the press, the radio, and the television. I know that the Russian television channels also presented this footage.
I am only sorry that because of the Kiev police, the Belarusian participants in the measure failed to carry out their program. It was planned beforehand that the route of our procession had to go near the Belarusian Embassy and certain journalists from Russian mass media  would report on the “cleaning” of the Belarusian Embassy. In this way, we wanted to protest against the imprisonment of our colleague, Aleksey Shydlowski, a "Young Front" organization activist, who was sentenced for political "graffiti" as well as against other human rights violations within Lukashenko's government. However, when journalists learned about the changes in the route, they moved to the square and we were only able to wave the national flag, which is forbidden by Lukashenko in front of the embassy.
When we returned from Kiev, a colleague remembered that he saw a similar action on the television in late 1996. As we see, it was not the Poles who invented this measure. It is quite possible that it was not the Yugoslavs either. It is not important who is the author of this idea but rather that it exists. It is no less important that in all places this measure has been effectively working against the successors of totalitarian systems and has been cleaning the path for democracy. In this regard, I support a general Slavic union and cooperation.