Yury Khashchevatski: Lukashenka Will Be Thrown Under the Bus

The confession of a former SWAT fighter is just the beginning.

Famous Belarusian director Yury Khashchevatski commented for Charter97.org on the sensational confessions of former SWAT fighter Yury Garavsky. He stated to Deutsche Welle that he had participated in kidnappings and murders of Belarusian opposition members - opponents of Lukashenka - 20 years ago.

- You are the film director of "Ordinary President." You were the first to tell who Lukashenka was. Now Deutsche Welle releases a film about the kidnapping and murder of Zakharenka, Hanchar and Krasouski. What do you think about this video?

- I'd like to say that the number of people who fulfilled Lukashenka's dirty orders will increase over time. They had to escape abroad.

On the one hand, they will try to repent, but on the other hand, they will try to avoid responsibility.

Of course, whoever was interested in missing politicians in Belarus knows almost everything told by a former SWAT fighter. But we know that Lukashenka ordered to execute all these people. We have known it for 20 years.

It's horrible that civil society in Belarus is aware of it and others do not care. Including our Western partners in due time. It is great that Deutsche Welle has shown this video. What could have happened several years ago, when they had hopes that Lukashenka could be civilized?

I know this well because I tried to show certain films on German channels. I faced censorship. They tried to behave gently and not to spoil relations with the dictator.

Deutsche Welle made a good job by publishing this material. However, the West knew everything. But they went to Minsk, gave hugs, drank coffee... How was it possible to sit at the table and discuss the peace process in Donbas with the murderer?

Once again, these crimes have not been a secret for many years -from the moment when people stood in a kilometre-long line with portraits of those who had disappeared when a riot policeman hit Svetlana Zavadskaya in the face... Jesus, a huge monster hits a widow of the murdered person in front of her child. What would all citizens of some other country do after that? Yes, there were protests later... But millions should have taken the streets and razed this power to the ground!

But nobody cared, including the German authorities, where Deutsche Welle now shows the truth.

- You have to admit that now there are testimonies of the person who is in the EU. He confessed his involvement in a serious crime and asked for asylum. According to the logic of formal bureaucratic procedures, some investigation should be opened...

- I'm not familiar with the international legal mechanisms for such cases. I can't say to how reliable the petition for sheltering and the interrogation of Garavski be. We also have the report of Christos Pourgourides on the disappeared people in Belarus, made at the highest level in due time.

Did it make any difference? No, it's different. Here we should focus on business relations between the Belarusian authorities and German and Dutch industrialists and the number of carrots in these relations. Then we can understand why even Christos Pourgourides could not oppose the business lobby.

Thank God Deutsche Welle published this information. It may play in some business interests to put pressure on Lukashenka. Proving that these people were murdered makes no sense.

The investigation is required here. Dzmitry Pavlichenka must be jailed as it was done by KGB chairman Matskevich and Prosecutor General of Belarus Bozhelka. We should be back to square one and arrest the perpetrators - Pavlichenka and Sheiman. They should present information about instigators.

It can't be done in Belarus. The West can do this, if they are our partners and declare some moral values.

- Will Lukashenka be on the dock as well?

- Aliaksandr Ryhoravich Lukashenka should be in prison on completely different grounds. This crime also counts, but he must be brought to justice for crimes he committed earlier.

The fact is that Lukashenka committed a lot of crimes during the first year and a half of his power. This is the violation of the Constitution and the creation of criminal extra-budgetary funds.

If we consider this person from the point of view of criminal law, we can start with simple things. We can ask him first about extra-budgetary funds, the Esambayev Foundation, TorgExpo. It was established in 1995. Then we can investigate up to political kidnappings and murders. The creation of the Central Electoral Commission and precinct commissions will also raise questions.

We should start at the very bottom. For example, the girl who was caught while ballot-box stuffing at the last "elections" could act as the witness. Her superior, the director of the preschool and the chairman of the precinct commission, ordered her to do it.

Great! Then the principal of the preschool is interrogated and so on. And who is in charge? Aliaksandr Ryhoravich! Yermoshyna will throw him under the bus, as soon as she loses her cottage in Drazdy and is jailed. Everyone will do the same. No exceptions. They just need to see that his power is losing ground.

Words do not make a difference now. Remember how tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Belarus. And what is now? Until the sense of self-esteem raises in the Belarusians, no punishment will take Lukashenka.

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