Iryna Krasouskaya: “Rally in Minsk is an answer of Lukashenka to the visit of Sikorski”

The leader of the initiative “We Remember”, widow of the businessman and public leader who was abducted in Belarus, Iryna Krasouskaya, is convinced that the disband of the peaceful protest on September 16 means that Lukashenka’s regime is not going to change.

“My reaction to the events in Minsk on the Solidarity Day is unequivocal. When riot policemen are beating people during a peaceful rally, it cannot evoke anything but indignation, anger, pity and compassion to the injured. It is not by accident that the rally was disbanded by riot policemen under the command of Uladzimir Navumau, who is suspected by the world community of implication in abductions and assassinations of opposition leaders and a journalist.

I think it is an answer of Lukashenka’s regime to the visit of Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. It can also be viewed as an answer of Lukashenka’s regime to the rallies of solidarity with the disappeared on September 16 in different cities of the world, and in the twin city of Minsk, Eindhoven (the Netherlands) as well. While people all over the world were commemorating people who died in struggle for free and democratic Belarus, inside Belarus people who gathered for a rally of solidarity with the family of the abducted were beaten. It was another reminder to the European Union that Lukashenka’s regime is not going to change profoundly, but is going to bargain with the West only. It is obvious that the Belarusian regime is not going to investigate the cases of the abducted. I would like to advise those who are trying to help the Belarusian regime to get back to the track of democracy and lift sanctions, not to forget about one of the 12 conditions of the European Union: investigation of the cases of the abducted. Solution of this question can become the factor which would mean that the time for talks has come,” Iryna Krasouskaya said in an interview to the Charter’97 press-centre.

As we have informed, a rally of solidarity with families of the oppositionists abducted in Belarus was brutally disbanded. Riot policemen beat up leaders of the oppositional political parties, including candidates for “deputies” of the “parliament”.

On September 16, on the anniversary of abduction of Viktar Hanchar and Anatol Krasouski, a rally in memory of forcibly abducted Belarusians was held in the twin city of Minsk, Eindhoven. The rally was held by the initiative “We Remember” in cooperation with a number of Dutch non-governmental organisations. With participation of the town-hall of Eindhoven 4 oaks were planted in the centre of Eindhoven in memory of people abducted in Belarus.