Maksim Viniarski: We Mustn’t Give Up, We Must Continue Fighting

Fighting for the future of your country is just as logical as living in it.

Maksim Viniarski, the coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign, who was released yesterday after a 10-day arrest, said that in an interview to Charter97.org.

– We welcome you at large! Tell us what kind of "preventive conversation" did they try to have with you yesterday, instead of releasing from Akrestsina?

– I’m not sure myself what was behind that "masquerade." Instead of taking me outside the gate of the detention center in Akrestsin street, they told me that we would go to the police department of Maskouski district of Minsk. On our way there, a certain officer in civilian clothes started to talk to me in the car, and said that I was very "daring" and they would explain to me there, at the police department, how to behave and "teach me how to live." He did not try to hide the threatening tone.

When the car stopped by the gates of the Maskouski district police department, there was already another employee in civilian clothes waiting for us. I admit that it could be not a policeman, but an employee of a completely different agency. Needless to say, he did not introduce himself.

When we entered the building, the police convoy stayed in the corridor, and the plain-clothed officer took me into the room and offered to talk about Article 23.34 "Violating the procedure for organizing or holding mass events." I replied that I would not participate in any conversations, and reminded that the term of being under arrest had ended and a lot of people were waiting for me near Akrestsina, wondering where I was.

The unknown plain-clothed officer tried to read to me different articles and ask some questions, but having realized that the conversation would not work out, he offered to meet and talk elsewhere in the future. I replied that in that case he would have to send out a statutory summons, but the officer started to insist that he would better call by phone and began to ask for the number. Having told him everything what I thought about his actions and the actions of the Belarusian authorities, I made it clear that no "conversations" could affect my position and refused to have contacts. That was quite the end of our strange "preventive conversation" with the plain-clothed officer.

– You have reached a certain milestone, having spent more than 365 days in detention during your political activity. How can you comment on this?

– To be more precise, it was 365 days on the first day of this administrative arrest. Now I have 374 days of arrest behind me.

Lukashenka's regime pretends that it is almost "vegetarian" now, almost democratic: nobody is arrested in the country and there are no repressions. My year of imprisonment is a vivid indicator that there is no "warming" in the country. For the time of my struggle, the regime has actually stolen a year of life from me.

To be honest, this figure did not impress me that much. After all, there are many people in the country who have spent much more time behind bars for their political views. And if you stop activities because of a year of administrative arrests – it's the same as betraying your country. I'm not going to betray my Motherland.

– It understood this, when you wrote on Facebook right after the arrest, that "we can’t be stopped, can’t be defeated, can’t be suppressed!" Where are the roots of your courage and self-confidence?

– These are the words from Maksim Bahdanovich’s poem "Pahonia" is the essence of my path, and of the path of my associates.

There is simply no other way, and there is no other Motherland. Belarus is our country. Apart from us, nobody else can solve its problems and free it of the dictatorship. If we do not give up ourselves, nobody else can break us down.

Fighting for the future of your country is just as logical as living in it. It's your country, your everyday life, your life.

"We can’t be stopped, can’t be defeated, can’t be suppressed!" – because this is our life. We are not going to give up on our lives.