Maxim Viniarski: Regime Back-Pedalled Under Our Pressure

The release of the patriots-political prisoners showed that we were on the right way.

Coordinator of the “European Belarus” civil campaign Maxim Viniarski told this in an interview to the Charter97.org.

- Four more political prisoners in the “patriots case” were released yesterday. The “case” seems to be falling apart just in the eyes. How would you comment on the authorities’ decision to release these people?

- Apparently, the authorities are starting pedalling back in the so-called “patriots case”, fabricated by the KGB. So far, this process is moving slowly, they are trying to disguise it under the wording “the investigation found no convinceable evidence”, and the people are being released under a non-disclosure obligation.

However, all this is nothing but the result of the demands to release these people and to recognize them as political prisoners, set by the activists of the Belarusian National Congress, the “European Belarus” and other organizations.

The demands were precisely formulated by such renown Belarusian politicians as Mikalai Statkevich, Andrei Sannikov, Uladzimir Niakliaeu – and then the international community had no other option but to join them. The demand to rehabilitate all political prisoners in Belarus and release every one of them who was behind the bars is contained, for instance, in the recent PACE resolution on Belarus.

In fact, the regime stepped back under the pressure of political and civil activists from Belarus, and the Europeans. It was done by those who came out to the streets here, in Belarus, saying that new political prisoners appeared in Belarus, that the authorities were pursuing a fabricated, politicallly motivated “case”.

The release of most political prisoners-patriots (7 people remain in the remand prison) – this is the regime’s retrieval before the civil society in Belarus and the European politicians.

- What should be done to achieve release of the remaining seven people?

– We compellingly proved that, at the present stage, the tactic of pressure on the authorities with a demand to stop political repression works. This means only one thing – the pressure on the regime must be escalated.

Moreover, if another political case similar to the case of patriots is initiated ever again, we need to counterstand it with the same methods, not to wait till it all settles down by itself. If the society kept silence, waiting for the “investigation to figure it out” (like some “human rights defenders” did), these guys would have been still held in custody, and probably some of them would have already been convicted and imprisoned for years. If we stop putting pressure on the regime, it is quite likely some of the patriots could go to jail.