Mikalai Statkevich: Why Are You Wriggling, Cunning Nonentity?

Dogs could kill their master if not fed.

Leader of the Belarusian National Congress Mikalai Statkevich has told this in an interview to Radio Liberty.

- You said that you were in the KGB prison, but the representative of this institution stated that "Mikalai Statkevich was not placed and did not stay in the KGB prison." Where have you been then?

- I already told you everything in details in the morning. Of course, I expected such an option that I might be detained, and then they would let me go and say that I was never detained. In the KGB prison, I tried in prison to let people know that I was there, to memorize the procedural documents that I had signed. However, I did not expect that, by hacking my accounts, they would spread false claims to the people on my behalf. Unfortunately, many journalists have also beieved in this, for example, they told me that Radio Liberty also distributed this information, it is a great pity.

I would like to say thank you to Charter97.org, which immediately raised this issue and kept it on the news agenda.

Thanks to Charter97.org, my colleagues from the Social Democrats in Europe and the world learned about this. They managed to alert all Belarusian embassies in the world, all the Social-Democratic governments exerted pressure on the Belarusian authorities and, perhaps, that is why they found themselves in such a situation that they began to refuse that they had done this. Do you hear me, rat, if you kidnapped a man, you cunning nonentity, so tell the truth, stop wriggling. Excuse me.

- Let us stick to some rules of conduct.

- It would be nice if they had stuck to any rules. Not only that they illegally detained me and kept for these three days, I understand that this is a punishment, because I managed to deceive their “grey men”, on which so much money was spent, in five minutes. But my party colleagues and friends helped me, they were under control, I hoped they would not be able to catch them in two nights. Siarhei Kulinich and Siarhei Kuntsevich paid for all this today. I was released, and they are still there.

I appeal to the society and the authorities. The same channels that were used for my release will be used this week to release the deputy chairman of the Belarusian Social Democratic Party (Narodnaya Hramada) and the head of the information department of this party. We do not abandon our people! At the same time, the Secretary General of the party, Siarhei Martsaleu, was detained just in case. It turned out that there was one of the stages of my evacuation near the place where he lives. In the middle of the night, they came to him, looked for me in the cupboards, then they grabbed the man.

- You have already seen how the regime was prepared for the Freedom Day, saw this parade of equipment. Imagine you had reached the Academy of Sciences, how would you act in these conditions?

- You know, I did not see this situation, there was not even an opportunity to see what was happening on the Internet, it appeared in the house only after dinner, and after dinner we had to go around the courts and look for Siarhei Martsaleu and Ales Lahviniec.

I do not know what happened there, what the circumstances were, I could eventually gather people and lead them to the other side. And all these questions - "why does Statkevich not talk in detail about his plans?" - it is either naive people, or their supervisors -informers yell. We are dealing with the authorities that occupied the country. They resist any attempts at protest. We do not know what methods they will use on a particular day, there is nothing to say in advance.

- If you don’tknow, what to do then?

- When I stand there, I will know what to do, believe me...

- You are asking to believe you again...

- I encourage people to believe in themselves, in their own dignity, in their honor. Do not let anyone push you around and scare you! As soon as they feel your fear - they will begin to stamp on you. People do not come out because they trust Statkevich. Many, like your radio station, believed in the lie spread on my behalf, or pretended to believe, I do not know. But even those who believed, came out, people takeon to the streets not for Statkevich, but to defends something of theirs. Their dignity, their country.

- Then let me correct you, we did not spread the information that appeared on the page of Maryna Adamovich when it was hacked, we just said that this information came from this contact (on March 24 at 11:11, an article appeared at the website of the Radio Liberty under the heading "Revolution is postponed on April 26? Calls on behalf of Statkevich not to go to the Freedom Day action appear in the Internet - Edit.) Then we informed with a reference to Yuras Adamovich that Maryna’s page had been hacked. There is another question that people often ask in the comments. It seems that politicians urge people only to take to the streets, is there any alternative to this? 

- There is, but it’s not our way. We stand against violence and blood. I believe we need to achieve peaceful changes, and there are no other methods.

- Aren’t there any other methods?

- Thereare no other methods.

- How to accumulate these unprecedented protest moods?

- We must do our best. Today, the authorities are spending huge amounts of money on this machine of suppression. They take this money in loans, take it away from the future generations. Now, again, there is the question of a loan from the West, then from the East. We must make this regime collapse; with our will for the victory, our resistance we can achieve that these gangsters will have no more money. If dogs are not fed, they could kill their master.

- I was in Vitsebsk at the "non-parasites march", there was no leader, the people just gathered, about two thousand angry Belarusians, they formulated their demands well, they self-organized and marched. The action lasted for two hours, in the end they did not know what to do, collect signatures or something else. Still, people need a plan, a specific program is needed, because these people want to go further, they just want to know why.

- A young, brave girl who wenton a hunger strike under inhuman conditions - answered all your questions. (She said: "I was on a hunger strike against lawlessness in court and I do not change my views - I will fight against the system" - Edit.) All the who are now free paid a very high price for their freedom. Thank God, not so many people were killed fighting for the freedom in Belarus, although the families of Viktar Hanchar, Yury Zakharanka and others do not think that this is few. I hope that Belarus will manage without irreparable losses. But for freedom and a normal life - you need to pay.

Young people, because of the flexibility of their minds, are not attached to this life - they understand it and go fighting. The most important thing is not that we gathered, walked around and that’s it. Most importantly, we showed the whole city, the whole country and the whole world that we are not afraid. To some it will help to overcome fear. Perhaps more people will come out.

When power is built on fear, and dozens of thousands people come out - the government begins to stagger. It does not consist of cogs, there are also people. Everything will be strengthened by the fact that dogs will not be given the same food. Everything can end very suddenly and very unpleasantly for the main "master."

If we want peaceful changes, and I think everyone wants them, no one wants violence and blood, especially under the current geopolitical conditions, peaceful changes require serious and hard work. Unfortunately, I cannot offer anything else. If someone tries to offer some kind of "talks", go to officials - they will deceive you, they are some "snitches", they are trying to work for the "rations" from the authorities. There is no other way out, however hard it may seem.

I am proud of thousands of people who, despite these intimidations and machine-gunners in the center of Minsk, came out and showed their unity, and held a demonstration under such an onslaught. I am proud that the Belarusians are a courageous people, they showed it today. We will continue to protest. There is no other way out. ,