Zmitser Bandarenka: Great power of Belarusian Resistance

“I believe that it would be easier for us to breathe and to create soon,” the political prisoner writes from jail.

On September 28 the coordinator of “European Belarus” civil campaign Zmitser Bandarenka marked his 48th birthday in prison. The political prisoner was arrested on December 19, 2010, he had a complex spinal surgery in prison, and now he is serving 2 years’ imprisonment term in Mahilyou penal colony. Because of absence of after-care he can become a disabled person, but he flatly refuses to write a petition for pardon.

On the eve of his birthday the political prisoner had sent a letter in which he analyses his life and fate of Belarus.

“The fourth life cycle is coming to an end for me, and something new starts. The last 12 years started with the Freedom March, and for all these years I am on the march in fact. We can repeat many times that we deserve better life, and Poles, Hungarians, Serbs, Chechens are doing more for their Freedom. And we should make our contribution in its internal competition of nations.

I do not know about the country in general, but we, our team and friends, have deserved a better future. And if not here, then in heaven. They are simply enraged by the light we have inside. They are trying to destroy our souls. I have never believed this dictatorship is a universal Evil. But our souls, human souls are their main target, as they are servants of the Darkness.

Natasha, Andrei, Dashkevich, Mikita, Iryna, Alyaksandr, Ales who refused to go away, Mikola who had suffered so much. The country can be proud of them. Mikhalok who is so powerful, who has become wakened… I believe that it will become better for us to breathe and to create soon. Belarus deserves better life. Today we have our people all over the world. They call us a Virtual Power, and for good reason, though they are trying to insult us in this way. Well, we exist, we are invisible and we are strong, we are dispersed but not-insubstantial heroes of the 21st century.

Trying to hide us, they have demonstrated us to the whole world. And spiritual dwarfs of Europe are grinding their teeth, as “”, Belarusian democrats, are a great hindrance to their dirty multibillion games.

What has happened and what is happening is to be contemplated for the decades which are yet to come. It is natural: something new for Belarus, a dynamic power of peaceful Resistance has found its place.

Will something become better for us from the spiritual point of view? I feel that my 12 years’ mission is over, and something new is not even planned. I am happy that I have such a wife and a daughter, that I have several friends, several team-mates and several followers. I am happy that I am a Christian, a European and a Belarusian. And that I have been living creating this Epoch.”