Niakliaeu answered Statkevich’s questions

For two years Mikalai Statkevich has been waiting for answers to certain questions.

Mikalai Statkevich claims that some ex-candidates demanded to preventively arrest him on 19 December.

“In my case there were testimonies of one candidate, who told that several days before the event he addressed police lieutenant colonel in the street in order for the latter to tell his administration that I should be arrested on 19th. In the case’s materials there is the confirmation of the testimonies of that lieutenant colonel. For what I know, it was not only one candidate who demanded my preventive arrest”, - Mikalai Statkevich wrote in a letter to his wife Maryna Adamovich. The letter dates back to 24-25 December on the previous year, Radio Svaboda reports.

“I know the names of these people, - Maryna Adamovich says. – But it is pointless to voice them now”.

“I did not see the Statkevich’s criminal case, - the leader of the Tell the Truth campaign Uladzimir Nialiaeu responds. – There was something similar in my criminal case. But I cannot accuse people without a proof. There were names. But in order for me to voice them, I need to show the documents. The documents are so far at the place, where we cannot get them from”.

In his letter Mikalai Statkevich addresses the questions exactly to Uladzimir Nialiaeu, whom he calls Prakofievich. It was exactly him whom he was with that evening, but, as it follows from his letter, not according to his will. And he calls a trap what happened then.

Particularly, Statkevich claims that he ended up at the Tell the Truth’s office unexpectedly for himself, since Nialiaeu never showed up at the agreed meeting point.

”Later his driver came to take him to the new meeting point, having refused to tell where the place was. And he took him to the office. Me and Sergei, we couldn’t leave because we were afraid that we would be easily detained alone near the office, and I promised people to be in the square”, - he said in the letter.

“It is a shock for me, - Maryna Adamovich repeats with agitation. – I knew that the meeting point was suddenly changed, that there was a secret delivery. But that the prerequisite was broken… I have not been able to get over the surprise for several days now”.

She refuses to disclose the name of the people, mentioned in the letter.

The leader of the Tell the Truth campaign Uladzimir Niakliaeu refused to comment on that. “We will only discuss that with Mikalai Statkevich, - he says. – To talk about that out loud now is the same as to testify to a KGB investigator”.

It looks like Statkevich doubts the practicability of Niaklaieu team’s leaving the office when they were strongly beaten by people in uniform.

“And I could not understand how they were going to go. From the point of view of the adversary, which for some reason was warned about this procession and its format, this looked like a message addressed to them: “We do not care that there are more than 100 thousand of you all armed and prepared. We, thirty boys and girls, will break through you together with our bus”, - Statkevich writes.

Uladzimir Niakliaeu explains the actions of his team in the following way: “On 19 December 2010 at approximately 13.30 the reserve Tell the Truth’s car with amplifying equipment was detained. It became clear that our plan of secret delivery of the equipment to the square failed. The second car with equipment, which was near our office, was under thorough surveillance”.

According to Niakliaeu, they were preliminary going to the square separately with Statkevich, but the confiscation of the equipment changed all the plans.

“At 2 p.m. at the polling station where I was crossing Lukashenka out of the ballot, I called everyone, including journalists, to help us deliver the amplifying equipment to the square. To cover the bus. There is no secret”.

“It seems today, - Niakliaeu continues, - that everything was predetermined.  But at that time there was not a definite answer to the question how the authorities would behave. There rather was the answer that there would be no brutal actions. And we proceeded from that. That is why the plan of the amplifying equipment’s delivery was changed, the square could not happen without that”.

“Not once did the Tell the Truth campaign mention that Mikalai was there. Once one time one and a half years after the square Niaklaieu mentioned it, - Maryna Adamovich says. This is all very painful to me”.

“I cannot explain anything, - Uladzimir Niakliaeu responds. – The reasons for what happened are not known to me or Mikalai, or Maryna. We will only know the reasons when we have the access to the safes where they are kept. And we will only get the answers after the people, who gave all those cruel orders, lose their power. They will then respond for everything they have done, not only for 19 December 2010”.

Statkevich, who was beaten during the attack at Niakliaeu’s team, calls his health condition one of the reasons for the mistakes that he made in the square:

“For example, I expressed myself inaccurately when making a speech in October square. Some candidates, who grew bolder to each other and to people, repeated my inaccuracy. And then I had to take over and  turn the people from the “red” house. There was a point at the Nezaliezhnasci square, when someone needed to take people out of there. I did not have my own amplifying equipment (as well as the money for it). That is why I tried to take a microphone from Andrei’s guys. And those gave it to me to the tribune and back, when I went down from it. Twice I climbed that tribune with the stairs of almost one meter high with my leg injured and I understood that I would not make it another time. Then they gave me the microphone themselves, but it was already let to take the people out of there – they would have not allowed to pass”.

Mikalai Statkevich believes that some candidates could have been interested in his absence in the square.

“First of all, if I couldn’t make it to the square, some candidates would have tried to implement the re-make of 2006 that they had planned. Only they had planned to lead the people not to the Victory square but 150 meters further – to the TV building. Allegedly to demand going on air. They made strong statements and had to respond for that. However, this plan had one very big (up to 90 kilos) obstacle – me”.

“Two years have passed, but not a single person considered it reasonable to initiate a public discussion of what happened, - Maryna Adamovich says. – At least about the issues of the simple human morality. But I do not even expect it anymore”.

Why is Mikalai Statkevich asking these questions now? He writes himself that he has been waiting for the explanations for two years: “I think I have been waiting long with these questions. I do not accuse anyone, do not put forward any conspiracy versions. I simply want to hear some explanation of that trap”.

Maryna Adamovich gives the words of her husband for a response to this question: “Mikalai said, that he did not want for any misunderstandings to be used for or against before the parliamentary campaign. People should have decided themselves”.

Journalists asked Uladzimir Niakliaeu whether he attempted to respond to Mikalai Statkevich’s questions in a letter. “Other people read those letters, - Niakliaeu responds, - It would have been stupid for me to write to them what I can only tell Statkevich”.

“The fact that this letter made it without any censorship is a sign. In a certain way it shows that Statkevich and other political prisoners may be soon released”, - Uladzimir Niakliaeu believes.