Lukashenka stages New attacks on our language!

[KatkouskiV]

Dear SEELANGers,

I was somewhat upset by the fact that the issue of the Belarus language
did not spur many answers at all. The upcoming battle in the court will
be probably the worst attack ever on the culture of Belarus, which is
under a great threat of being absorbed by the Russians.

I thought that distinguished linguists as most of SEELANGS members are
would be more responsive, maybe, you would forward protest letters to
the court.

Anyway, yet another burning issus is Belaruski Humanitarny Lycee --
THE ONLY surviving high school in Miensk, where courses are taught
EXCLUSIVELY in Belarusan. The authorities have been trying to close
it down for a long while. Now the latest news (below).

Z pavahay,
Uladzimir Katkouski


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RFE/RL BELARUS SERVICE
SYNOPSIS OF MAJOR NEWS ITEMS
THURSDAY, JULY 30, 1998

LYCEE DIRECTOR SACKED - The director of the Belarusian Lycee for the Humanities
was informed yesterday by the Education Ministry that he is being replaced by a
ministry-appointed educator.

Uladzimir Kolas was told he could either leave the institution he helped found
eight years ago or remain as deputy to the new director, philologist
Mikalaj Pleskatsevich.

Parents of Lycee students had hoped their two-year fight to save the only
remaining Belarusian-language high school in the country ended in victory two
weeks ago.  On July 14, the official press published a decision by the Council
of Ministers to upgrade the status of the institution and rename it Jakub Kolas
High School but leave the faculty and all else intact.

Vice-premier Uladzimir Zamiatalin told our reporter that Kolas was being
replaced because "the lycee was given a higher status and its director should
therefore be a more experienced person."  Only eight months ago, the Ministry of
Education gave Kolas a glowing performance appraisal.

At an emergency meeting today, parents vowed to protest the action. The Lycee's
deputy director Lyavon Barshcheusky, who is also acting chairman of the
opposition Belarusian Popular Front, said the move to replace Kolas with someone
"more obedient to the government" was just another step in the Lukashenka
regime's continuing battle to ultimately shut down this uniquely Belarusian
institution.