Viachaslau Siuchyk: Lukashenka Only Capable Of Pulling Money Out Of Belarusians

Discontent with the authorities and protests will escalate.

Leader of the solidarity movement "Razam" Viachaslau Siuchyk said this in an interview to the Charter97.org.

- How do you feel after the 15-day administrative arrest?

- I am trying to get involved into the normal civil and political life right now. For instance, today I has been at the trial against Maryna Adamovich, who wa sillegally fined for 20 base fees.

- Please tell what the attitude towards you in the Akrestsin Street detention center was. Have the confinement conditions changed since your last arrest?

- In the detention center, they treated me just like thay treat all the other people which stay there, that is, improperly. There are not just horrible confinement conditions at that place, the attitude to prisoners is also horrible.

I had to go on a hunger-stirike, with specific demands – I demanded to abolish the new regulations which were introduced in the detention center since January 1, 2016.

I would also like to draw the attention of the Belarusian society to the fact that in my memory, not one million dollars was invested in the building in Akrestsin Street. There were numerous repairs, reconstruction, it was possible to build a normal European prison for this money.

And we got a building with total arbitrariness, complete isolation of the detainees from the society, it is impossible to file a complaint or in some other way try to defend their rights.

- How do you assess the recent actions of the authorities with regard to the opposition activists and politicians?

- The regime gradually tightens the nuts. There was no adequate reaction of the international community to this difficult process, which has lasted for about a year, to this new wave of repression.

Representatives of the democratic West still have relations with Lukashenka's regime and do not take into account the fact that human rights should be ensured in Belarus.

In such an atmosphere, the bacchanalia which the authorities have carried out since this March was already predetermined. Of course, it's just terrible when there are mass arrests in the country, people are beaten up when the courts stamp decisions. More than a thousand members of the civil society were convicted and detained during this spring.

This clearly demonstrates the fear of the authorities, because Lukashenka has been in power for 23 years, and this is much more than, for example, Leonid Brezhnev.

And the situation is such that today's government cannot offer anything for the future to Belarusians. There is no real program, which at least minimally allowed the Belarusian society to develop, so the authorities decided to pull money out of Belarusians, and continue repressions that are not accidental.

I would like to mention the “patriots case” here, which reminds of the processes that took place in our country some 100 years ago. I mean the “Belarus Liberation Union”, which in the 1920s in the BSSR was an organization, totally faked by the KGB, it never existed in the reality.

The “patriots case” is a certain test for the Belarusian society, the international community, just how capable we are of solidarity. We need to defend the people who are behind the bars under criminal cases, but we also should protect those who get administrative detentions.

- In your opinion, what will happen next in the situation of the Belarusians’ discontent with the authorities crisis?

- Naturally, in a situation where our government has not changed since the distant 1996, appoints itself, no repression will help here.

It is obvious that Belarusians will protest and the people’s discontent with Lukashenka will only increase. You know, this is not the worst option, that the authorities chose the path of repression, because it certainly will not save them. It is already impossible to save this regime. Another thing is that he does not want to leave peacefully.