Heorhi Stankevich has been warned that his employment contract will not be prolonged in the next academic year. Mr Stankevich is one of the founders of the Belarusian Christian Democracy from the Beshankovichy district and a German teacher who ran for deputy in the last regional elections. He has been a teacher at the same school for 14 years now.

The school principal asserts that they are terminating Mr Stankevich’s contract by order of Ivan Zharabtsou, head of the regional department of education. Heorhi Stankevich says that Mr Zharabtsou threatened to fire him in 2006, when the activist was taking an active part in Alexander Milinkevich’s presidential campaign. However, the official changed his mind later and assured the teacher that he would retain his position as long as he worked on his.

“But Mr Zharabtsou did not manage to keep his word. Perhaps, his bosses forced him to get rid of me”. Heorhi Stankevich comments on the situation. “I just wonder who on earth is going teach German to the kids, because there have always been a lack of teachers in this area. University graduates never stay here for long”.

 Heorhi Stankevich says he had a lot of time to prepare for his dismissal morally. Last summer the contracts of all the teachers were prolonged by five years, but his was only prolonged by a year. It finishes on 31 August 2010.

The activist could feel that the local authorities were very angry with him when he was running for deputy during the recent regional election campaign. The local election committee then forbade to broadcast his appeal to the voters on the local radio station. His speech was only broadcast on the last day before the elections after a special permission from Lidia Yermoshina, chairperson of the Central Election Commission.

There was also another case when the activist was found under pressure. The authorities launched legal actions against him for publishing his own newspaper called Kryvinka with a print run of only 299 copies. Mr Stankevich has been publishing this paper for five years at his own expense. The judge decided that he broke the law regulating the distribution of periodicals and fined him 700 000 Belarusian rubles ($233).

 “I was told that my materials kindle people’s hostility towards the authorities. But this is not true, I only help my readers see and understand what is going on in our district. I do not only criticize, I tell people about the existing problems and suggest possible ways of solving them. However, to tackle these problems the officials would have to work more and harder, but they are not willing to”. Says the activist. 

Mr Stankevich has already complained about this verdict to the courts of all levels and presently the case is being considered by the Supreme Court.

In Heorhi’s opinion, the local authorities decided to intimidate him and make him give up politics.

“Our authorities dislike people with an active political and public position, particularly when they impact on other people. And there are more and more readers of Kryvinka with every passing day, more and more people are willing to know the truth. And I am not going to give it up!”

In 2006 this teacher of the German language won a regional contest and was designated “Teacher of the year”. In the year of 2007 he was officially thanked for his excellent work, and in 2008 and 2009 he received recognition from the school administration for his contribution in his pupils’ upbringing.

Moreover, Mr Stankevich writes poems and songs. His two collections of poems, called The Bells and My Star, have already been published. He also took part in a project called Bards of Freedom.

Press-centre of the Belarusian Christian Democracy