Ihar Komlik Is Anchorman Of REP Trade Union

The independent trade union is unbroken, efficient, really helping Belarusians in all the regions.

This is what Ihar Komlik means to me.

For almost 15 years of contacts, we have not seen each other very often, but when it happened, there were always warm embraces, kind jokes, and if we were having serious conversations, they were always substantive – without blah blah blah.

This is the person who has a kindest smile, one of the most pleasant voices I heard, gleaming, but slightly sad eyes – when you look at them, you realize how many fates and fortunes, including spavined ones, they’ve seen. Because the meat mincer, through which the activists of independent trade unions passed during all these years, when the power steamrolled over those who were able to function, trying to remove the stranglehold from the neck of the working population, – you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy, and these are always invisible scars on your heart.

But the REP trade union is, by all means, something special. Unbroken, efficient people, really helping the Belarusians in all the regions. And Ihar is the anchorman of this trade union.

The way he dances is a story of its own. On Fiadynich’s anniversary, two days before the searches and arrest, I saw for the first time Ihar dancing folk dances. With such ease and drive! And it was a real discovery.

It was said at the jubilee that the people, who gathered, had passed through fire and water, but not through the mill yet.

I believe that this trial is still ahead, and that Ihar and his supporters will cope. And we will dance again, not once.

Alena Yakzhyk