Harry Pahanyaila: The Authorities can return to political purging of 1937

Adopting of the draft law giving the heads of the KGB and Interior Ministry authority to arrest people can return Belarus to the terrifying traditions of Stalin’s times.

Alyaksandr Lukashenka suggested giving the interior minister and the heads of the KGB and the Financial Investigation Department the right to “carry out search and operative activity, use measures of restraint and apply certain procedural actions on a motivated regulation”. The Belarusian ruler believes such high ranking officials are not less competent than a prosecutor who issue authority. Lukashenka also insists on forming a separate investigative committee subordinated to him.

Belarusian human rights activists think the last initiatives of the Belarusian dictator send the country back to the notorious Stalin’s Troika commissions, when the head of a local NKVD department, a secretary of the regional committee, and a prosecutor authorized arrests before trials. It was used to eliminate the “anti-Soviet elements”.

In particular, Harry Pahanyaila, the head of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, told in an interview to the website www.charter97.org that giving additional power to the heads of the Interior Ministry, the KGB, and the Financial Investigation Department could lead Belarus to the situation of 1937.

“Besides authority to arrest, the heads of the Interior Ministry, the KGB, and the Financial Investigation Department receive the right to authorize carrying out operative activity, which was allowed only to prosecutors. Thus, procuracy agencies lose their power, and operative activity will be given to those who can be interested in settling accounts and falsifying investigation results,” the lawyer says. “In fact, this initiative is close to the way of things in 1937. Human rights defenders regard this as violation of the order of conducting operative activity.”

In Harry Pahanyaila’s view, these innovations can lead to further losing control over the executive branch headed by Lukashenka.

“If put into practice, such innovations will lead to the final disbalance of the checks and balances system, strengthening of the executive branch headed by the president, in fact, to its uncontrollability. If this is done to fight the corruption in procuracy agencies, these methods will fail. They are absolutely uneffective and can be just a fig leaf to hide the real reasons connected with riding procuracy agencies of control and supervision functions established by the Constitution. This will turn the procuracy bodies into a useless attribute in power and will act according to a principle “Can I help?” There is a danger of repeating the year 1937. The authorities will be able to organize political purge and fight dissidence,” the human rights activist thinks.

What concerns the investigative committee, subordinated to Lukashenka, Pahanyaila thinks its formation can lead to practice of mass arrests.

“The very idea of creating a separate investigative committee will be good If Belarus was a law-based state,” the human rights defender believes. “It would control operative agencies. But in our situation the effect will be reverse. Unfortunately, Belarus is not a law-based and democratic state. Absence of extradepartamental control in our situation can lead to manufacture of proofs and evidence, to mass arrests.”