Chairperson of BNR Council: “Show the world your human dignity” :: Charter'97 :: News

In her address to the Belarusian nation the chairperson of the Council of the Belarusian People`s Republic (BNR) Ivonka Survilla urges Belarusian citizens not to fear and to show their human dignity to the world. The author of the address underlines that, like other people, the Belarusians “have a right to live peacefully and happily in their own state, without fear and terror”. “You have a right to work for yourself, for your children and grandchildren. Your neighbours have already passed the way to a normal life. They all are ready to help us… I will repeat the words of John Paul II “Have no fear!” - the address reads. “Do not let anybody to steal your vote. Do no lose heart. Show the world your human dignity”.

In the address distributed on March 12 it is noted that “all tyrannies base themselves on fear. Fear is the justification for so-called “strong regimes”. Allegedly only a strong leader can defend people from internal and external enemies. If there are no enemies, they must be invented. In this way “a terrible West”, “aggressive” America, and the worst of all, our “nationalists” had been invented. In absence of objective information people cannot see that all this propaganda and brainwashing that had started in Stalin time, have no other goal but make intimidated slaves out of them, those who would continue to say “Anyway, we do not have a war”, like our grandmothers”.

As said by I. Survilla, “absolutely all human rights are violated in the country, even those which our people enjoyed in the 16th century, when our nation was one of the most developed nations of Europe. Today it is forbidden to read independent newspapers, campaign materials are forbidden, patriots fighting not for power, but for a better future of their nation, are arrested.

Note by the BelaPAN: the Council of the Belarusian People’s Republic was proclaimed on March 18, 1918 as the organ of the supreme power of the Belarusian People’s Republic. Since December 1918 Council of the Belarusian People’s Republic is in exile. In 1997 a linguist, artist and a prominent figure of Belarusian diaspora Ivonka Survilla was elected the chairperson of the Council. Ivonka Survilla was born in 1936 in Stouptsy, a small town west of Minsk.