We Have Become Angrier And Kinder

We rejoice, but we do not forgive.

"Today I turned on BT [a Belarusian state-owned TV Channel - Ed.] for the first time in many years to watch the Panarama show and see how they present it!" my mother told me.

I turned on BT too. For the same purpose – to see them. Exhausted, but alive. Smiling. Joyfull. Cuddling with relatives.

Here Ksenia Lutskina says to the TV camera that all this time – almost four years – she dreamed of hugging her son. And everything else that is said does not matter. Only these hugs and the fact that Ksenia can finally take care of her health and recover are important.

And Alla Zueva, who has leukemia and who was allowed to stay on bed rest in the pre-trial detention center, will also be able to recover. If the jailers allow the prisoner not to get up, it means that he is very ill. Vasil Berasneu with one kidney, it became worse for him behind bars, was actually doomed if he had not left the prison. 19 people came out, 19 families were immensely happy, 19 human lives were saved.

No, I was not bitten by a pink pony attacking from around the corner. "We will not forget, we will not forgive," it did not go anywhere. We won't forgive! And, of course, we will not forget Pushkin, Lednik, Ashurak, or other victims behind bars. Let's not forget that Iryna Takarchuk was recently sentenced to three years for food parcels. Let's not forget the additional year of Aliaksandr Frantskevich, who writes letters to his mother and still does not know that his mother has been in jail for a month. Let's not forget that yesterday they began to judge Mikita Zalatarou's father, who has been in prison since the age of 16, since 2020, and whose phrase "daddy, they beat me every day" spread all over the world media. Now they're beating his Daddy, too. And anger is overwhelming every day, every hour. But there are still minutes – like the one when 19 people were released, when we can afford joy. Clear, uncontaminated, unblurred. A rare phenomenon in our time, and all the more valuable are these moments when you can just rejoice that a few more families are now together.

One of the main lessons of the last four years is the awareness of the unconditional value of human life. Perhaps this is the most important lesson. Five or seven years ago, everyone would have been dismantled piece by piece, according to the intonation of each release: "Did he write a pardon? Admitted guilt? Repent? Gosh, he betrayed us all! And I stood in a picket with his portrait like a fool. Now I will wash my hands in chlorine for three days." I still can't forget how disappointed many sympathetic Belarusians were in 2012 with the news that Vitebsk activist Siarhei Kavalenka, who had been on hunger strike for two months, decided to stop it. As if he had to die to become a symbol. That portrait, which certainly will not do anything else that someone may not like. With portraits of the dead, it is always more reliable to stand in a picket: these are guaranteed not to write a petition for pardon, not to give an interview on the BT channel, not to admit guilt and not to pretend that they repented. Rejoiced, of course, but with a caveat: Yes, it's good, of course, that he is alive, still, a bad feeling has remained.

Belarusians don't do such nonsense anymore. They are waiting for political prisoners at large, but do not require them to expose the regime right under the walls of the prisons. I will say more: even if none of the released political prisoners utters a word, this will not interfere with the future investigation of the regime's crimes. Because the torture system has already been put on the shelves by those who left after their release. And everyone knows what is happening in prisons of Homel, Navapolatsk, Mahiliou and other cities. They know how the pre-trial detention center in Vitebsk differs from the prison in Zhodzina. They know the conditions of political detention in Akrestsina and how it differs from the conditions for "domestic convicts". The system has already been illuminated by all X-rays, all of it has been placed on public display. So there is only one thing political prisoners are expected to do – their release.

Over the past four years, Belarusians have become kinder. But they also became angrier. I think it's the perfect combination.

Iryna Khalip, especially for Charter97.org

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