To save Kavalenka

I do not know how Syarhei Kavalenka could be saved. But I know for sure that we all should try to do that.

It may sound cruel, but alive he is needed by Belarus. And he is not needed dead.

One can sacrifice oneself and leave the loved ones in enteral sorrow, when you know that you will save other people by your death. In the case of Syarhei Kavalenka he will not save anyone. And not the Belarusian nation, for sure. There have been many deaths, including murders and suicides, haven’t there? Veranika Charkasava, Aleh Byabenin, Henadz Karpenka, Dzmitry Zavadski, Yana Palyakova – the list could be continued. Has the popular tumult followed? Certainly not. And not, amid the triumph of social networks as the main means of self-expression, Kavalenka’s desperate self-sacrifice, if he goes all the way, would cause just a few thousands of additional outcries: “He must die!” on the web. Men with hayforks would not come to defend the human dignity of the Belarusian nation, even if hundreds of people go on hunger strikes and die.

I understand perfectly well that Kavalenka cannot stop. It is not a matter of life or death for him, it’s a matter of reputation. But Alyaksandr Kazulin’s reputation did not suffer at all after he stopped the hunger strike. On the contrary, people realized he was not only a courageous person, but a sensible politician who thinks about the future of Belarus. And Kazulin’s decision to drop out of politics after his release from prison was his personal choice, which cannot be blamed by anyone.

Unfortunately, many people are following Syarhei’s hunger strike with an avid interest of sports fans: will he stop it or not? Will he die or not? And if he dies, how the society reacts? It will not react in any way, it is clear now. One should not die for the sake of outcries in social networks. One should not die at all, if there is a possibility to survive and continue struggle. Kavalenka does not think about it anymore – he has chosen a different path. He hardly hopes that he can change the verdict by his hunger strike: this small fry, judges and prosecutors, do not care a damn about his life, and their own conscience. I think Syarhei understands that perfectly well. He hardly hopes that het would deliver the society from fear and passivity by his death, and would make people close ranks under white-red-white flags, for which he had been convicted, and march to liberate their country from Lukashism: there would become more flags at avatars in social networks probably, and that’s all. So we are to save his life. I do not know how we can do that. Back in January all relatives of political prisoners wrote letters to him with a request to stop the hunger strike. Zyanon Paznyak, the main moral authority for every member of the Conservative Christian Party Belarusian Popular Front, addressed him. Everything was futile. Now the Young Front offers to write letters to the General Prosecutor’s Office with a request to transfer Kavalenka under home arrest on health grounds. But as the experience of all families of political prisoners shows, correspondence with the General Prosecutor’s Office is a time-waster. In a month, when Syarhei could be dead, authors of these addresses are to receive standard answers that medical care is delivered in accordance with the Penal Code, or some other meaningless answer.

So we need to write. But not to the General Prosecutor’s Office, but to Syarhei Kavalenka himself. Lets’ shower him with our letters and telegrams with an appeal to stop the hunger strike. It is one thing when relatives of political prisoners or politicians write letters to him, and quite the other when all of us are going that: the Belarusian nation for the sake of which he is going to die. We need Syarhei Kavalenka to stay alive, and not a legend for descendants about a person who had sacrificed himself for the sake of the country. We need his life, and not his death.

It is possible this would not work. But I do not see any other possibilities, I cannot invent them. If you have any ideas, just suggest them. I know one thing: we must save Syarhei Kavalenka. And not much time is left.

Iryna Khalip for charter97.org