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Zmitser Bandarenka: Charter'97 Is Really Cool

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Zmitser Bandarenka: Charter'97 Is Really Cool
Zmitser Bandarenka

November marks 20 years since the proclamation of the Belarusian Charter.

Charter'97 was published on November 10, 1997, it stated that the Belarusians "won’t tolerate arbitrariness, violation of laws, crimes against the entire nation and individual persons committed by the authorities, and are ready to fight together for their rights and freedoms, for the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in the country."

The Charter97.org site starts to publish a series of interviews with the people who created Charter'97. Today, our guest is civil initiative coordinator Zmitser Bandarenka.

– In 1997, you were one of the Charter'97 civil initiative founders. Let's remember how it was. Where did the idea come from and why?

– At that time, there was an unformed desire in the society to unite the opposition. In 1996, it was already clear that a dictatorship was being established, and the opposition continued to operate with the same methods – that was, each party for itself. But it was necessary to unite.

Moreover, the dictatorship started to clean up the information field up and down: by that time, all the independent television studios had been closed down, the only independent FM radio 101.2 and some of the newspapers had been closed, a new law on mass media had been adopted, which significantly limited the activities of independent media and freedom of speech in the country. In 1997, the authorities took on journalists, in particular, at that time, ORT journalists Pavel Sharamet and Dzmitry Zavadski were arrested, and unknown people abducted Aleh Biabenin, a journalist of the Imia newspaper, in the street, took him to the forest and "taught him reason" there.

And if at one time, the Czechoslovak Charter'77 appeared in defense of musicians who were prosecuted in communist Czechoslovakia, one of the forces that contributed to the emergence of the Belarusian Charter'97 was the journalistic community.

At that time, there were a lot of strong and bright personalities in journalism, politics, and advertising. All that led to the announcement of Charter'97.

– Who signed the declaration of Charter'97?

– More than a hundred prominent Belarusian public figures, politicians, journalists, regional leaders signed it first. That was on the one side, and on the other side, as I know, a lot of independent media journalists were among the first signatories. It was a separate list, but journalists can tell about it better. Then the collection of signatures in support of the Charter as a document began. The document said that we had to be solidary and resist the dictatorship jointly.

A campaign was organized to collect signatures under the text of Charter'97. The signatures were collected at mass rallies, in the streets, one could send his signature to the independent newspapers’ editorial offices – there was a strong unifying movement of active and not indifferent people.

The Charter'97 organizing committee included at different times such famous people as Andrei Sannikov, Yury Khashchavatski, Valer Shchukin, Piotr Martsau, Viktar Ivashkevich, Liudzmila Hraznova, Aliaksandr Dabravolski, Uladzimir Matskevich, Mikalai Khalezin and many others.

– And how did the authorities react to the creation of the initiative?

– The authorities were frightened and, a little later, even tried to create a Charter'98 parody project, which was headed by pro-Lukashenka communist leader Viktar Chykin, but, of course, nothing came of it. Most importantly, they understood that the Charter was aimed at uniting the democratic forces of Belarus. Already in 1999, the authorities reacted very seriously to that uniting process, arresting and physical eliminating the Belarusian leaders.

– You’ve said that Charter'97 was created following the example of the Czechoslovak Charter'77. What is the similarity and difference between the Belarusian and Czechoslovak initiatives?

– Another country, another time. Although I was not a politician and never wanted to become a parliamentary deputy or the president of the country, I understood that it was necessary to unite. A strong brand, solidarity and a community of people ready to act together were needed. Charter'77 was a striking phenomenon. It made a difference not only in Czechoslovakia, but also factored heavily in the resistance to dictatorial communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe. We tried to show that Belarusians were not worse than Czechs and Slovaks. In 2010, when I was in prison, I thought that we were fighting and were put in prisons like normal Europeans, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and therefore, like them, we would be able to build a normal free country.

The common thing is that the Charters in Czechoslovakia and Belarus fought for freedom, human dignity, individual freedom, freedom of creativity. That was the similarity. As for the differences, we were even stronger in some ways, because at first, the Belarusian dictatorship was weaker than the communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia. The Charter 97 organizing committee organized a lot of mass protests, including the March of Freedom. This is the brand which puts no one to shame and I think that Charter'97 is really cool!

I always felt responsible to those people who were among the first to sign Charter'97. Those were Vasil Bykau, Nil Hilevich, Henadz Buraukin and many other decent people. And responsible to those 100 000 people who put their signatures for the Charter.

– And why did the initiative cease to exist? Today we have only the eponymous site.

– Here, as in an anecdote: "you need a limo or lift?" The main goal was to unite the opposition and take actions against the dictatorship, striving to win over it. But we faced the fact that the small brands of those parties that already existed were closer and more dear to many oppositionists. Since they were not ready to unite under some common brand, the Charter-97's organizing committee, in particular Andrei Sannikov, began their work on creating a unified structure.

In 1998, the Coordinating Council for Democratic Forces was established. I was present at this event, it happened at Andrei Sannikov's house. There were Professor Stanislau Bahdankevich, Henadz Karpenka, Yury Khadyka, Mikalai Statkevich.

Members of the Coordination Council acted together and conducted several general campaigns – Boycott-2000, many mass protests, there was an active and coordinated activity at the international level as well. At that time, for example, the Americans praised the united Belarusian opposition and criticized the disunited Serbian opposition.

The organizing committee of the civil initiative Charter-97 acted, but then the struggle with the unification of the opposition began at a new level. In 2006, when there was a so-called single candidate, Aliaksandr Milinkevich, many representative functions of the Belarusian opposition were actually delegated to him. He, being a "single candidate", did much to separate the opposition, and succeeded in this. It was necessary to act on a different level, and then the civil campaign European Belarus appeared that responded to geopolitical challenges. It was clearly stated that the goal of the campaign was to make Belarus join the European Union.

– It turns out that Charter'97 was the first attempt to unite the opposition in the modern history of Belarus. But you finally abandoned this idea. Is it really impossible to unite the opposition?

– We react to what the actions of the dictatorship. Over these 25 years, the authorities have achieved a lot in terms of control over the actions of parties and opposition politicians. This changed the situation. If at first it was possible to negotiate with people and unite, now I'm joking that it is necessary, apparently, to negotiate with the handlers of certain people, because these people have given their political will to these handlers and special services.

Our experience of being in the KGB prison and prison camps proved that to be a fact. Unfortunately, a number of opposition structures ceased to struggle with the dictatorship and turned into pseudo-opposition organizations. Therefore, there is a union of ready to act and fight people – this is the Belarusian National Congress. Now the BNC is the only, in my opinion, united opposition structure that is ready to act, and not just to chat.

– Twenty years have passed since the creation of the Charter'97, Lukashenka is still in power. What was the influence of the Charter? Was the game worth the candle?

– You know, at some point Belarus lost its independence. In 1794, we lost Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which was our state, we lost Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which was our state as well. And then, for 200 years Belarusians lived under Russian imperial oppression, and then under Russian Bolshevik oppression. But nevertheless, people lived and fought for the freedom of their country and for their personal freedom. Some actions were successful, some actions were unsuccessful, but we know that the struggle lasted for many decades.

Today, the countries which once were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, for example, Poland, rely on the ideas carried by the rebels of 1831, 1863-64. Lithuania and Belarus have it too. This is our common history and the spirit of struggle brings up a new generation.

Of course, I wish we could win quickly and easily, by waving a magic wand, but we must understand that we are not really fighting against the collective-farm dictator Lukashenka, we are fighting against the Russian empire. If Lukashenka acted on his own, he would not have stayed in power. The Lukashenka regime is part of the Russian Empire and part of the Soviet special services.

There were a lot of heroes in the recent Belarusian history, who gave their lives for freedom, thousands of them were imprisoned. There is also such a factor as the West: the democratic world does not realize what Lukashenka’s regime is, that it is a testing ground for Russia. The model of the Belarusian dictatorship has been used to establish the dictatorship in Russia and other countries. This factor also contributes to the fact that the dictatorship has overstayed.

For me, the struggle will continue until the Charter'97 goals are achieved, until Belarus is free.

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