Foley Square Littered with ‘Body Bags’

By LORENA RAMIREZ

Passersby scratched their heads as they passed by the fountain at Foley Square today, where the sidewalk was decorated with some 20 students and artists who lay down in body bags in protest against capital punishment worldwide.

The Belarus Free Theatre, along with La MaMa Theatre, organized the “Give A Body Back” demonstration, a public cry against the cruelties of the death penalties worldwide, including the U.S., which now awaits the outcome of the death penalty decision for the accused Boston Bomber.

The demonstration also called attention to the heightened reaction to the protests in Baltimore, as well as Belarus’ policy of not returning bodies to their families after execution.

For about an hour students and artists lay down in body bags, “as a symbol of that horrible situation with people who are executed,” said Natalia Kaliada, co-founder of Belarus Free Theatre.

Outlawed in its homeland of Belarus, the group is in New York for its residence at La MaMa, where they are currently performing its new play about capital punishment. Today however, Kaliada said, “It’s not [about] theatre, it’s [about] real life.”

“The idea is very simple, when a mother loses her son, the only thing she wants to have is his body,” said Kaliada, who is a Belarusian political refugee. “And this is what we are trying to achieve, to put pressure on Belarusian government to release bodies back to families so they will be buried according to tradition.”

The Belarus Free Theatre was founded in Belarus in 2005, where many of the company’s members have served time in prison, lost their jobs, gone into hiding, or been exiles.

Belarus is the only European nation that still has a death penalty and human rights groups have called for a moratorium there. Activists charge that the condemned are not informed of the scheduled date of execution, and that following the execution, relatives are not told where the body is buried.

In 2012 Vladislav Kovalyov and Dmitry Konovalov, both 26, were put to death for their involvement in the deadly attack on the Minsk metro, reported the Guardian. Kovalyov’s mother said she had received a note from the authorities saying the death sentence on her son had been carried out.

Kaliada said that the theatre has been successful in raising awareness about the cruelties of the death penalty worldwide because of the support of the theatre community.

“If politicians will be of the same solidarity level as theatre community in New York, then I believe we will stump death penalty not only in Belarus, but in different countries around the world,” Kaliada said.