Lyavon Barshcheuski: “Shady deals of dictator mustn’t be approved of blindly”

The leader of the Belarusian Popular Front party has addressed the Belarusians on the occasion of Freedom Day celebration on March 25.

When in 1991 the Belarusian People’s Front with the help of thousands of people ob the Square and the BPF oppositional deputies in the Supreme Soviet succeeded in proclaiming the Belarusian independence, a real freedom of speech, unions and associations, a relative freedom for business, the state status of the Belarusian language, the white-red-white flag and “Pahonya” (“Chase”) as the state symbols, it seemed that in the future the Belarusian society would develop in the direction of further rapprochement with Europe, and in about 10 years Belarus together with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia would join the European community of nations.

But after really revolutionary changes in late 1991, the majority of Belarusians got lost facing the new problems of free life, and they wanted to return back to the seemingly “stable” past: some wanted “restoration” of Soviet order, and the Belarusian People’s Front didn’t have enough time to carry out profound economical reforms, so it couldn’t resist the aggressive populism of the “young wolves” grouped around the person of the future first president.

For me personally, like for many friends of mine, the results of the referendum against the Belarusian language in 1995 and tearing away the white-red-white flag from the building of the Supreme Soviet were not a surprise, though it made us ask ourselves tough questions. For many people than it seemed that all the things we had been fighting for dozens of years, including construction of the independent European Belarus which appeared to be so close, were doomed. But in spring 1996 the BPF and its supporters took to the streets dozens of thousands of people who stated that we hadn’t bent our neck. For 14 years the BPF, the entire democratic community was doing a hard work for propagating the Belarusian national conscience and Euro-Atlantic values.

Until very recently the majority of the people in general had a positive attitude towards the games of the regime, including the “union state”, which existence demanded no particular sacrifices from a common citizen. Agreements on the common regional air defence system of Belarus and Russia signed by Lukashenka, and only ne thing, as independent experts say: Belarusians would be drawn in the conflicts which they do not need, inside Belarus and far from its borders. One should bear in mind that the Russian Federation in its current state is in no way an example of democracy even for the post-Soviet territory. Let us recall at least the recent story when Russian border guards in Japanese Sea attacked by fire a foreign commercial ship (as a result at least 8 families lost their loved ones), and deceivably justify their inhuman actions by a necessity to struggle with “frontier crossers”, though the ship was within Russian territorial waters legally.

by the way, all this means that in case of a military conflict of Russia with some other country, for instance, with Georgia, like in August Last year, Belarus would have to take part in these conflicts, and moreover, unavoidably on the Russian side. I am not even speaking of the spirit of the military agreements signed in Moscow, which contradicts the Constitution of Belarus currently in force, according to which Belarus is “nuclear-weapon-free country which aims at neutrality”… And the most important thing is that all these agreements in fact have a secret character, their essence is concealed from Belarusians carefully. We, the Belarusian society, should demand the regime clear and unambiguous information on this issue form the regime, as well as on the issues of the future of our national currency or the order of use of the foreign loans. The today’s regime has turned common Belarusians into actors with a non-speaking part, who are to approve blindly all kinds of shady deals of the powers that be.

March 25, the 91st anniversary of declaration of the Belarusian People’s Republic’s independence is the day when we can and we should make our voice heard in defence of our human and national dignity, in defence of political and economic rights, which have been given to us by God’s and earthly laws. In this connection, I and my fellow party members have submitted an application to Minsk city executive committee for holding a march from the Academy of Science till October Square on March 25, 2009 at 6 p.m. During the demonstration our and your voice is to be heard! The regime is obviously in no hurry to answer the application, but they should know: the way they would behave on March 25 and before this date won’t be unnoticed by the Belarusian society and the world democratic community.

The peaceful demonstration on March 25 and preparation to us shouldn’t become a protest of this or that political force. Every responsible political party, every person who hold dear the ideals of Independence, Freedom, Justice, European choice of Belarus, have a chance to take an active part in its preparation and carrying out! And let the sacred ideals of March 25 help us. Long live Belarus!

Lyavon Barshcheuski, the BPF party leader