Stanislau Shushkevich: Let's fight but for real political prisoners instead of abstract “elections”

Representatives of the opposition that run in the “elections” legitimise the regime.

Stanislau Shushkevich, the first head of independent Belarus and leader of the Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada, talked to the party's Minsk division about the 2015 presidential campaign. Belorusskaya Pravda writes about the main theses of the politician's speech.

“There are no elections in Belarus,” Stanislau Shushkevich noted. “We have political prisoners, including 2010 presidential candidate Mikalai Statkevich. All already forgot about Statkevich. All have begun to form some initiative groups. All want to get something for the elections. Niakliaeu forgot him, Milinkevich forgot him. The opposition legitimises the regime by such actions.

How does Europe look at it? There are different opinions. Martin Schulz thinks there are no elections and it is unclear what the opposition does. He, for example, knows Mikalai Statkevich personally, so he thinks the issue of political prisoners in Belarus is the most important.

Maira Mora (the head of the EU Delegation to Belarus) has another position. In my opinion, she simply doesn't understand the situation and doesn't know what she should do.”

The politician said how results of the presidential elections in Poland would influence the situation in Belarus. Stanislau Shushkevich advised to follow the example of Solidarity trade union of the 1980s.

“Let's speak about the latest event in the EU – the victory of Andrzej Duda in the Polish presidential elections,” he said. “The Poles will support us with him. He is more anti-Putin than Bronislaw Komorowski was. If we are speaking about Poland, let's turn to history. Changes took place when young people replaced old ones and stopped listening to them. The successful struggle of Solidarity against the Soviet occupation should serve as an example for us.

Many parties explain running in the 2015 campaign with 'party activities'. I say directly: it is impossible to carry out any 'party activities' in line with Belarusian laws. So my suggestion is to struggle for real political prisoners instead of abstract 'elections'.

There's one more thing I want to say about the elections. Please say how it is possible to run in the elections if undisguised traitors came to the opposition. I mean Ramanchuk and Rymasheuski, who gave evidence against Andrei Sannikov.”

Asked about if a “technical” opposition candidate is needed in case Lukashenka does not run in the elections, he said:

“It may happen so that a technical opposition candidate won't be a better president than, for instance, Haidukevich. The Belarusian Social Democratic Hramada can propose a decent person as a candidate, but only if elections are held without Lukashenka and Yarmoshyna.”