Rat-hunters and counter-terror

Soon the isle of stability, celebrated by the state propaganda, will turn into a real “hot spot”.

So, it blew again. And again, in Vitsiebsk. Thank God, nobody got hurt this time. But undoubtedly, if the real criminals who planted the bomb near the KGB in Vitsiebsk are not found, there will be victims. This is the robust logics of explosion-stories.

They are trying to convince us there is nothing to worry about. Everything is fine, they say. The KGB reports that three suspects have already been detained, and one of them demonstrates “traits of deviance behaviour”.

This is the place for applauds and awards. But all we hear is silence.

And this is not surprising. All over the world, a terrorist act consolidates the society and strengthens the powers, but here, on the contrary, it raises a wave if mistrust to the government.

There are several reasons to the mistrust.

First of all, instead of a real counter-terror discourse, from the very beginning we have been getting  ”rats in a bucket” dissolved with demagogy and undisguised political bootlicking. When General Sukharenka announced “rat hunt” in the finale of the presidential campaign back in 2006, he looked good on BT, ONT and on the pages of Sovietskaya Byelorussia. But his words had no connection to an actual fight against terrorism.

That’s how we found out that the powers can play “counter-terror” just to strengthen positions.

Second of all, today the KGB is just a brand well-positioned in the soviet times that has lost most of its glance and glamour after the collapse of the soviet empire. Local enthusiasts have been trying to reanimate the brand during the last 18 years, but with no luck.

Once the president of the National Olympic Committee said about them: “shepherds, not KGB:ists”. And in this particular case we cannot but agree with him.

Just think: how can a trimmer and a rat-hunter be also a counter-terrorist?

That is why, when the KGB reports about another terrorist arrested, I immediately become suspicious.

But this is the big picture. Now to the details.

The explosive detonated in Vitsiebsk. Any explosion in Vitsiebsk is directly associated with the case of Dzmitry Kanavalau and Ulad Kavaliou. It inevitably revokes the doubts caused by the criminal case against the “Vitsiebsk terrorists”:

“Look, we told you, you had the wrong guys! Those two were shot, but bombs still explode!”

And now there are people (surprisingly enough, not “opposition morons” but recently employed as state officials) who claim that this was the explosion’s true message. I can’t say whether they’re right or wrong. But I know for a fact that anyone can link the dots. And we cannot deny this fact. The powers have to face the consequences of their irresponsible actions.

Meanwhile, in Belarus more bombs explode and Molotov cocktails are cast against the walls of foreign embassies… Soon enough the isle of stability praised by the state propaganda can turn into a real “hot spot”.

And then what? New rat stories?

Andrzej Poczobut for charter97.org

Illustration by belzhaba.com