Ales Byalyatski: All of Us Should Defend Henadz Fyadynich and His Colleagues

It's a hot early August in all respects.

Searches at the office of the Trade Union of the Radio and Electronic Industry and at houses of Henadz Fyadynich, Komlin and Pichuzhnaya were carried out on August 2. Electronic equipment, hard disks of computers and documentation were seized at the office. In addition, yesterday a search was conducted at the office of the Belarusian Independent Trade Union. Employees of the Department of Financial Investigation of the State Control Committee seized laptops and hard drives of computers. Trade union leaders were summoned for interrogation.

Chairman of the HRC Viasna Ales Byalyatski provided Radio Racyja with comments.

- It reminds of your case in 2011.

- Yes, one should not be a great visionary to understand that these are the same methods Belarusian special services, power structures and authorities use tagainst those who criticize the power for its mistakes and other problems in our situation.

- Maybe it's symbolic that they came to you in August. And now it happens again. Why August? After all, from a political point of view, this is a quiet political season.

It's a hot early August in all respects. I can only gues why it is as so. Decisions, of course, are taken secretly and it is difficult to discuss any versions. The one is that the time for holidays comes in Europe. And international public and political figures go on vacation. And now it is hot time for us in a negative sense.

And searches at a few Trade Unions prove that it's been planned. Autumn is about to come, people are back to work again and they face the same problems. After all, as we have already heard Decree No. 3 is not abolished, the economic situation does not improve, there are no ideas on the situation improvement, a joint round table is not discussed, negotiations on acute problems are not planned.

The authorities keep using heavy-handed approach. The situation is as the same as it was 6 years ago. On August 4 I was detained under the same Article of the CC (concealment of income in especially large amount). The court pointed out that this money had been intended for human rights activities. Only the non-registration of Viasna and the draconian laws adopted for the work of non-governmental organizations and independent Trade Unions lead to such problems.

- An unnamed politician said that Lithuania could again issue documents. Did Lithuania really repeat such a mistake again?

- Henadz Fyadynich did not confirm this version. Let's see how events will develop and what will happen next. He is now in the status of a suspect. The fact that he was released does not say anything yet. And we must now mobilize the Belarusian society, Belarusian public opinion and our international colleagues so that the Belarusian authorities feel that this is a very serious business and image and other losses caused by repressions will be heavy for the authorities.

We will watch how events unfold and we will take an active part since we all must now protect Henadz Fyadynich and his colleagues who have fallen under the repression running roller.

- What can we do in this situation?

- Today we have adopted a statement on this situation. And our assessment of the situation is extremely negative. Interrogations continue. We will call on our international partners to speak as loudly as possible, so that the Belarusian authorities could hear this voice.