Ales Bialiatski: We, Citizens, Should Self-Organize And Protest

The human rights activist has named the triumvirate of values, which will bring Belarusians “on a clear and broad path.”

Ales Bialiatski, chairman of the Viasna human rights center, summed up the results of the outgoing year, spring96.org reports:

“Summing up the results of the year, we have to admit that the huge problems in the field of human rights that were laid down by the authoritarian power over the previous decades remained,” the human rights activist notes. “No major breakthroughs have occurred. We have undemocratic legislation that severely restricts the rights and freedoms of citizens. Authoritarianism is protected by beneficial laws.

There are great restrictions and prohibitions on freedom of assembly. This is the main reason for the endless administrative litigation. This year there have already been more than two hundred such trials. Although the participants in mass actions and even single pickets just wanted to draw attention to serious problems in the life of our society, concerning everyone. But the authorities do not want to see these problems, and punish the protesters. I must say that the fines are large. In this way, the state financially punished the people who are dissatisfied with the injustice of the authorities.

The second direction, which is strongly repressed, is the production and dissemination of information. The right to disseminate information, as well as the right to peaceful assembly, is guaranteed by the Constitution and international agreements, which Belarus has signed but does not want to fulfill. Nevertheless, we see how unaccredited journalists were persecuted during the year. But the main blow was aimed at bloggers. We remember the high-profile criminal trial of the Brest People’s Journalist Siarhei Piatrukhin, who criticizes in his region both corruption among officials, and the law-enforcement officers’ lawlessness against ordinary people. So they decided, through the false testimonies of the policemen, to actually shut his mouth through the court, and now he is obliged to pay almost 10 thousand dollars. They took, as they say, the last shirt off him, it’s good that they didn’t jail him.

They put pressure on bloggers from Vorsha, Biaroza, and Minsk ... Obviously, the authorities are afraid of the dissemination of truthful, often unpleasant, information coming firts-hand from ordinary people.

The third point worth noting this year is the holding of the “parliamentary election”, which was brazenly rigged by the authorities. The election was virtually illegitimate. People with different views were simply not allowed to become deputies. This is explained by the preservation of stability, but such “stability” only leads to a rise in corruption. Despite the fact that there are endless trials of high officials for bribes, for abuse of authority, corruption at all levels deeply ingrained in the body of this government. But there are no elections as an instrument for changing corrupt authorities in the state.

In such a situation, the hostility of the “rulers” to the figure of Kastus Kalinouski is understandable, since he called on the authorities to serve the people. It turns out the opposite. The authorities neglect people, do not listen to us, consider us all as incapable idiots, and decide for themselves what is white and what is black, whom to have mercy upon, and whom to punish.

No matter how hard we are fighting for the abolition of the death penalty, explaining that it is uncivilized and inhumane, that it is impossible, that no one will fraternize with you in Europe, so far we have not been able to convey this to the cast-iron imperious foreheads.

We have to admit that all repressive instruments of power have remained, they have not disappeared. All these ideologists, special services, riot police, dependent courts and toothless prosecutors remained ready to fulfill and overfulfill the plans. At any moment, the number of repressed can increase by dozens of times, which already happened in the modern history of Belarus. Police state, what to say.

What to do in this situation? Who can protect us? Only ourselves! We, the citizens of Belarus, need to achieve positive changes in the observance of human rights in the country! And it is possible!

This year, an article that criminalized activities on behalf of an unregistered organization was canceled. The joint efforts of people whose loved ones are serving disproportionately heavy sentences under “drug” articles have forced the authorities to make concessions. In Brest, opponents of the construction of the battery plant, despite repressions and provocations by the authorities, ensured that the enterprise was “frozen”. In a word, together we can achieve specific results, and this is a positive moment.

We, the citizens, should self-organize, and not play the games that these self-appointed people impose on us. We must openly speak out, protest, respond to injustice on the part of the authorities when we see and feel it. We need to protect those rights that are guaranteed to us by the Constitution. We must not allow one person to decide the fate of the people. I am deeply convinced that independence, democracy and human rights go together in one strong bond. This is the adamant triumvirate of values, which, in my opinion, should bring Belarusians to a clear and broad path.