Post office refuses to send telegram to Statkavich in Belarusian

• 13.08.2012, 14:11

Birthday wishes for the political prisoners were re-written in Russian.

Former political prisoner Syarhei Skrabets says post office assistant refused to send a telegram to congratulate political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich on his birthday, Radio Svaboda reports.

“I wanted to send a telegram to congratulate my friend Mikalai Statkevich on his birthday. I went to post office No. 5 in Serabranka city district. I only wrote in Belarusian: 'Dear Mikalai! Happy birthday! Stand firm, we'll win!' It's a telegram. It is supposed to be short,” Syarhei Skrabets says.

“He was surprised when a post office assistant asked she could not send this telegram in Belarusian. I asked why it is forbidden to send telegrams in Belarusian and she answered the telegraph could send messages only in Russian. I had to re-write the text in Russian,” Skrabets says.

We remind Mikalai Statkevich marked his birthday in prison on August 12. Mikalai Statkeivch was a presidential candidate at the 2010 election. He was detained on December 19, 2010, after a protest rally against the rigged election results. He was sentenced to 6 years in a medium security penal colony.