Mechyslau Hryb: Only Change Of Government Will Stop Legal Mayhem

The main mission is to replace the authorities in Belarus with the legally elected ones.

It’s been 20 years since the referendum, which changed the country’s destiny, was held in Belarus.

In the opinion of the direct participant of the said events Mechyslau Hryb, the source of the horrible consequences we are dealing with now is the government. He has told this in an interview to the ucpb.org website.

- How do you assess the events that happened in 1996 from today’s angle? What are the consequences, and is there an opportunity to overcome them?

- My assessment hasn’t changed. I spoke up back then, having given the proof-points that it was an illegal referendum, that it was held with violations of the legislation. After that, I repeatedly found confirmation that it had been illegitimate. The Constitution in the new version of 1996 came into force upon conducting of this referendum.

When we held the next to last session of the Supreme Council of the 13th convocation right before the referendum, Lukashenka attended it, as well as Chair of the Supreme Court Valer Tsikhinya. When Mr. Tsikhinya was speaking at the session, asking who the author of the amendments to the Constitution was, everyone kept silence. Then Lukashenka confessed it was him. So, Tsikhinya said that if the Supreme Council had recognized these amendments and addendums to the Constitution, our country would have to face the “legal Chernobyl”. It’s as though he saw it in a crystal ball, today we do have what we have.”

The point is not in that notorious referendum or the Constitution, designed by the authorities to please themselves. That Constitution is illegal. But even it doesn’t work today. It’s the orders and decrees, which contradict even the current Constitution, that work. So, if we are speaking about the consequences, the point is about the whole government, not just the referendum.

It order to make something moving we need to change the government for a democratic one, I mean, legally elected. Those who are at power today have just one goal – maintenance of this power. For the people, this is not life, but poverty.