Belarus is alive

The year 2011 was a difficult year. It brought losses and disappointment. But do we have the right to surrender?

Falling asleep in a cell of the KGB jail after a “light out” command at 10:00 pm on December 31, 2010, I did not wish freedom to myself. I did have strength even for a hope. All I felt was dull, without any emotions, exhaustion caused by humiliation and full isolation.

A few days later, when inmates were taken out for a walk, I heard Lyavon Volski’s song “Absent” playing on the radio through a small window under the ceiling. I gripped the window bars literally hanging on them and trying to hear every word. I had just one thought in my head: Belarus is alive! Alive in spite of the awful events on December 19, mass repression, arrests and raids…

I understood Belarus is alive just after being released from jail, when friends and journalists came to meet me with flowers and a taxi driver, who took them, shouted out of the car window: “Thank you for what you are doing!”

I later learned how much was done for political prisoners. How people organized help centres for prisoners in spite of fear and crowds visited them to give money, clothes and food. How human rights activists were rendering non-stop legal assistance and providing financial aid for every victim of the crackdown. How journalists, who faced beating, imprisonment and equipment seizure, continued to inform the world about the events in the country. How ordinary Minsk dwellers were gathering in front of the KGB headquarters to lit candles of solidarity with those, whom the authorities tried to bury alive.

This bloody flagitious, but coward system was not able to suppress this wave of solidarity, this desire to save and help. “It’s the best I can do…” I heard in reply to my thanks for quickly exchanged books in jail even from a guard.

We were not left alone in our attempt to remain alive and withstand the nightmare, into which the authorities have turned our life. The world showed solidarity with us as never before. Presidents, governments, parliaments, human rights activists and ordinary people from all over the world protested with us against the outrage and arbitrary rule of Lukashenka’s junta.

It took us a little time to recover after the shock and raise our heads again. We began to gather on squares in silence, block central streets, hold grassroots rallies and strikes making the authorities shiver.

We have no grounds to reproach ourselves for being tolerant, coward and placid. People in Lithuania also scold their authorities, especially taxi drivers. I was suprized to hear from one of them: “We cannot stand up like Belarusians. Belarusians are great!”

It is, but we again saw repression, arrests and new political prisoners… This year taught us a lot. We became stronger. We understood our aspiration for freedom cannot be suppressed by punitive actions of the regime.

We saw who our leaders are. It is the people continuing to suffer in prisons: Andrei Sannikov, Mikalai Statkevich, Zmitser Bandarenka, Zmitser Dashkevich. We understood how many heroes we have. It is the people who were thrown into prisons, but held out and remained adhered to his principles.

People lost their illusions regarding the kolkhoz-style regime in queues to exchange cash or buy cheap food. The bankrupt and beggar brought people to poverty. He is ready to sell the country to keep his power. But he does not have future. We do not have it either if we don’t disturb his selfish plans.

The European politicians, who tried to buy even slight political concessions from Lukashenka last year, lost all their illusions, too. It became clear he can be expelled from his Drazdy residence only by force or through economic pressure. An idea of economic sanctions against the regime of Lukashenka acquires more and more supporters making European cynics nervous and forcing them to find excuses why they continue to back the dictatorship.

However difficult the situation may be, we should know that history and God stand with us. We must not despair and lose heart while political prisoners remain behind bars. It is they, imprisoned and facing humiliation and torture every day, who have the right for despair. But we, who are not in prison, do not have this right.

We should not wait for scenarios from outside to have changes. We must create our own scenario. The year 2011 showed many examples of how people threw off the yoke of decade-long dictatorships.

We should not demonize Lukashenka. He is as coward as Gaddafi, Mubarak, Gbagbo or Ben Ali were. None of them was saved by riot police, special service troops or army when people believed in their strength and took their fate in their hands.

I am convinced Belarusians are able to do the same, too.

Natallia Radzina, editor-in-chief of charter97.org