Lukashenka has no place in the International Ice Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum

The International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum have been urged to get rid of Lukashenko.

The group of public figures appealed to the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum with a request to move the Ice Hockey World Cup 2014 from Belarus to another country, and remove a hockey jersey with the name of Lukashenko from the Hall of Fame.

Copies of the letter have been sent to the world's leading media.

To Leaders of The International Ice Hockey Federation

Leaders of The International Hockey Hall of Fame & Museum

Copied: Leading World Media

We are artists and sportsmen people whose professional area of interest does not belong to politics appeal to Leaders of International Ice Hockey Federation and The International Hockey Hall of Fame to stop any possible connection to the Last Dictatorship of Europe.

We appeal to public and political leaders of the World and all people of good will to joint us on this initiative and to stop the political speculations on the subject of sport, and in particular – hockey that is used by the Belarusian regime in particular by Alexander Lukashenko.

We are talking about Belarus - a country with a population of nearly ten millions, located in the Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, people, in the most part, know about this country by a fact that it, based on the wording of journalists is "the last dictatorship in Europe". Over the past 16 years, it managed by Alexander Lukashenko - a man, who had usurped the power, falsifying the election results and forcibly eliminating his political opponents.

Beginning in 1997, none of the results of elections conducted in Belarus had not been recognized by the international community. In 1999/2000, five of Lukashenko's political opponents were kidnapped and killed, or died under mysterious circumstances. Report of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe "Disappeared People in Belarus," argued that the deaths of political opponents of the regime had to do with the country's leadership, which created the "death squad" – a structure involved in political killings by the authorities’ orders.

The last presidential elections held on Dec. 19, 2010, culminated in mass arrests, destruction of editorial offices of independent media, and imprisonment of six presidential candidates. In total, there were arrested and sentenced about 700 people. Among these, about 40 people were charged under criminal articles involving jail sentences from 5 to 15 years. And today, houses searches, arrests and interrogations continue across the country. In January of this year, EU countries, USA and Canada introduced political and economic sanctions against the Belarusian regime.

Belarusian dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, is obssesed by ice hockey. And, especially, not only, and not so much the game itself, but much more speculations on the sport subject. Skating-rinks and ice arenas have being built across the country, despite the fact that the vast majority of children cannot afford it - the average salary in Belarus does not exceed $300. But the information has been broadcasting without stopping by all state TV channels and in all state newspapers that "big hockey supports Alexander Lukashenko.” Huge amounts of money are invested in this campaign, because the popularity of the Belarusian dictator’s policy among the Belarus population has negligible support.

In the International Hockey Hall of Fame & Museum there is stored a hockey jersey with the number "1" and name "Lukashenko,” presented by the Belarusian authorities. On behalf of all Belarusians and all people of a good will of the World, we urge you to remove it from the Hockey Hall of Fame. Today, its presence there can be considered an absolute anomaly. As if someone decided to put Adolf Hitler's paintings in a commemorative museum of those who had been killed during the Holocaust.

It appeared historically, that hockey, after the collapse of the Soviet empire, kept developing only in democratic countries. This is kind of sport, which at all times, was demonstrating the triumph of a team spirit, courage and honesty in the fight. We encourage you to follow the clear and pure principles that Baron Pierre de Coubertin had hymned in the "Ode to Sport":

O Sport! You are nobility!

You overshadow with laurels only those who struggled to fight and win fairly, openly and unselfishly.

You are perfect.

You demand high morality, justice, moral purity, and integrity.

At the Olympics in 1968, during the performance of the national anthem, accompanied the awarding ceremony, the athletes raised their hands in black gloves to declare their support for all those who had suffered from racial segregation. Today those who can support the Belarusians should rise the “hand in glove”. Not for Alexander Lukashenko, whose hands are stained with blood, but for ordinary people - Belarusians who love hockey no less than the dictator.

We ask that you remove from the Hockey Hall of Fame the jersey of the man who does not endorse, but discredits the great sport and does not value a human life.

We ask you to move the World Cup on Ice Hockey that was planned to take place in Belarus in 2014 to another country in Europe but that respect human rights and democratic values.

Sincerely,

President Vaclav Havel
Sir Tom Stoppard
Natalia Kaliada, Belarus Free Theatre
Nikolai Khalezin, Belarus Free Theatre
Sarunas Marculenis, NBA
Bruce Jackson, PTD
Irina Krasovskaya, President of We Remember Foundation
Olga Bondarenko, co-founder of Vyzvalenne Civil Initiative
Irina Bogdanova, Founder of FreeBelarusNOW!