Tomas Mazetti to Ukrainian TV: Lukashenka's days are numbered
39- 2.08.2012, 14:18
A scandal with intrusion into Belarus's airspace is still in the spotlight of the world media.
The Belarusian dictator dismisses his generals and jails journalists due to teddy bears, Ukrainian ICTV reports.
“Alyaksandr Lukashenka dismissed commander of air and air defence forces Dzmitry Pakhmelkin and State Border Committee chief Ihar Rachkouski. The Belarusian dictator accused them of neglectful attitude to their duties.
“This is safety of our people. Moreover, the plane was detected on time, but why didn't commanders stop the flight? Who did they sympathize with? Those guilty must answer for this,” Alyaksandr Lukashenka said.
Top military officials were accused of being helpless to do something with a prank of a Swedish public relations group, who overflew the Lithuanian-Belarusian border on July 4 and dropped 800 teddy bears from a plane. Each toy had a label calling on official Minsk to respect human rights. The Belarusian authorities began to deny this information, but Lukashenka admitted the fact of unsanctioned flight at the end of last month.
The charter flight was ordered by a Swedish public relation company. The company head explained the stunt was made to show solidarity with people fighting for free speech in the post-Soviet state.
“One can be afraid of a dictator, one can hate him, but when people began to laugh at him – his days are numbered. It was our aim. But we found out no pilots wanted to perform a flight. We were unable to find anyone. All were saying it was crazy, dangerous and impossible. So we decided to do it ourselves. We took pilot lessons, received a pilot license and performed the flight,” PR company owner Tomas Mazetti says.
Swedes again proved laugher is a powerful weapon. But it's not going to be the end of the story. After the “teddy bears assault”, as the performance was dubbed by journalists, the editor of a Belarusian website which posted photos of toys, was arrested. The authorities also arrested an estate agent, who rented an apartment to colleagues of the Swedish pilots. Both men are said to be in the KGB jail.
