New Year trees are not always decorated in Belarus prisons

Prison administrations and the Department of Corrections have declined to comment on how the New Year is celebrated. The European Radio for Belarus has asked the relatives of prisoners or those have been released about this issue.

Alexander Kozulin’s daughter Volha told our radio that they keep their family traditions in spite of their father being in prison.

Volha: “Dad told us that nobody could care less about anything in prison, so the New Year is not a holiday for the administration. Dad has very special feelings about the New Year. We had a tradition in our family when dad would always bring a fir tree and decorate it by himself. It is very important to him. While in prison, one day before the holiday he realized that nobody was going to decorate their fir tree. So he teamed up with his inmate to cut out various animals from the old New Year postcards. They have fir trees, but I don’t know whether all of them will be decorated. I will definitely be decorated in Unit No 1, because my father is there”.

Pavel Mazheika who served his exile term during the 2006 New Year told our radio that prisoners were allowed to stay up longer and watch TV.

Pavel Mazheika: “Alcohol was definitely not allowed. There were no New Year parties either. The only relaxed thing was that we could watch TV longer up to 2 a.m.”.

However, Pavel managed to celebrate the New Year with his family.

“When serving my exile term, I was allowed to leave the territory once a year on condition that I had no reprimands from the administration.  I took this opportunity and celebrated the New Year with my relatives and close friends”.