Eight female students, three male students and MU Vice-rector for Student and Alumni Affairs Simona Koryčánková, who represented the professors, took up posters with photos of the faces of eight female students, three male students and one female professor who are symbols of resistance against the Belorusian authoritarian regime. In front of the statue of President Tomáš G. Masaryk, they signed the posters, which had arrived in Brno from Charles University in Prague, and took a photograph with them. They were then passed on as a relay to another Czech institution – Palacký University in Olomouc.
“The 11+1 project refers to the twelve people arrested on 12 November 2020. They’ve become a symbol of the persecution and repression against university students in Belarus and an inspiration to us. The posters were provided by representatives of the Belarusian Student Association. The basic idea of the whole event is to connect the faces and names of people who are free with specific students and academics who are in prison,” explained Natália Antalová, the organiser of the MU event and student at the Faculty of Medicine.
Students from all ten MU faculties and the Chair of the Students’ Chamber of the Academic Senate, Daniel Jirků, took part in the photo shoot and signing on behalf of Masaryk University.
The organisers plan that the “manifestation relay” using the 11+1 symbolism will move from the Czech Republic to Slovakia, Austria and Germany and end its journey in Vilnius at the recently-founded European Humanities University which, having had to leave Minsk, still provides education to many Belarusian students.
Posters showing the Belarusian university students and the teacher who are now imprisoned in penal camps, will also be exhibited during the Brno–Minsk event on 17 November at the Scala University Cinema.