Kamarouski: Harassment of Belarusian journalists is a single continuous chain

On April 6, war veterans held a picket, authorized by the Minsk city executive committee, near the office the newspaper “Narodnaya Volya”.

Some dozens of people were standing in front of the editor’s office holding posters “Syaredzich! We won't tolerate veterans' humiliation”, “No to history falsificators!”, “No to libel”, “War veterans against lies”.

The action was orchestrated by the chairman of Minsk city branch of veterans' organization, Anatoly Adonyeu. What is going on and who stands behind the war veterans? Alyaksandr Kamarouski, the head of the Minsk region organization of Afghan war veterans, comments on the situation to the website “Belorusski Partizan”.

– Mr Alyaksandr, the Belarusian war veterans have recently become more active – they attack “Belorusski Partizan”, or hold pickets in front of “Narodnaya Volya” office. For an unknown reason, veterans more worry about politics rather then living on their miserable pensions. Why?

– It is becoming more difficult for the authorities and secret services to take on responsibility. They have to listen to the world (Lukashenka is depends on the world, he needs investments, loans, etc). That’s why they try to pull the fifth column of Lukashism. The things that the secret service used to do are now done by war veterans.

I have just talked to Adonyeu, who organized the picket yesterday. We agreed they we have nothing to talk about, we have different views on life. I tore his business card and threw it away.

Adonyeu is a professional officer responsible for political affairs, he dealt with distribution of deficit consumer goods. That was a duty of a political officer. He spent 1.5. or 2 years in Egypt, it is said he was an instructor. Only the people especially devoted to the Party could be sent to Egypt. They earned huge money there, but didn’t participate in combat operations. Being a son of kulaks, I couldn’t be sent to Egypt, but was sent to Afghanistan, because people were killed there.

So, when someone speaks about veterans, not war veterans, but veterans of the party are meant. They had normal life under the communism and have found their place under Lukashism. Let’s take Adonyeu: he seats in a free premises in the House of War Veterans and uses a telephone for free. So he needs to do something to thanks to these privileges. The regional center of Afghan war veterans in Zhodzina paid for premises and for telephone communication (much money, because we have many contacts), but we were expelled from the premises. Sometimes you need to conflict with officials to protect the rights of veterans.

But these veterans don’t know such problems.

We have faced provocations in the mid2000s: they planted drugs on us, the newspaper “Sovetskaya Belorussia” attacked us two times. I could have taken 100, 200, even 500 people to the office of “Savetskaya Belorussia”. But we would have been thrown into prison.

I know only two real war veterans in my district – Pavel Yarokhavets, a driver, who drove to Berlin during the war, and Uladzimir Murashka, who was shooting the Nazi since the age of 14. I talked to them, they said they wouldn’t picket “Narodnaya Volya” because the newspaper prints the truth of life.

– Attacks on Belarusian independent websites and newspapers, harassment of journalists Svyatlana Kalinkina, Iryna Khalip, Natallya Radzina, are these events links of the same chain?

– The authorities and secret services need to wash. They need to wash themselves for what they are doing with beautiful journalists, Natasha Radzina, Iryna Khalip, Svyatlana Kalinkina, Maryna Koktysh. These are pretty brave women. How can it come to beating Natasha Radzina trying to defend the honour of General Korzh? The whole President’s Administration doesn’t have enough honour to have the right to beat a journalist!

This is a single chain. The actions of the authorities regarding the Union of Poles in Belarus and its head Andzelika Borys is another link in the chain.

– What will this lead to?

– This is confrontation of the society. The result can be very poor… Why do we need authorities? The authorities are needed to serve people. There are 10 million of Belarusians. It is impossible that ten millions can have a common opinion. There are four of us in my family, and we have four different views. Should I destroy my family? But our state does– if the Poles have their opinion, they have to be pressed, if journalists have their views, they have to be pressed as well.

Two Afghan war veterans, Mikalai Autukhovich and Uladzimir Asipenka, have been in prison for two years. The veterans are in prison only because a provocateur gives false evidence. The notorious grenade launcher is a fake, it is proved by the experts who used grenade launchers in combat operations. How can it took two attempts to blow up the grenade launcher? Bu the provocateur gives evidence and the veterans are sitting in prison.

The veterans picketing the office of “Narodnaya Volya” are the last echelon, sent to a battle. The last column…