Belarus: the repression intensifies, discontent grows
By Jan Kryzhkevich
He 5 of March, Participants at the Foundation Conference of the League of Student Associations were arrested in Minsk. At the conference, It was planned to establish a student union, Make elections for leadership, Adopt action programs, discuss the organization's work plans and listen to the reports of the leaders of local student organizations. At 18:30 Masked unknown hours broke into the event, All conference participants were taken to the District Police Police Station and the Temporary Detention Center. According to the latest information, nail 30 people were arrested.
Thus ended the first legal attempt to create a republican trade union organization of Belarusian students, An attempt to implement the legal right of citizens of Belarus guaranteed by the country's constitution. In fact, It was strange to expect a different result in the state, where the court declared Gennady Shutov guilty. This is a driver who was shot in the neck of a civil officer from the Special Operations Military Forces. In a country where Aleksandr Kordyukov, that witnessed this murder, He is sentenced to ten years in a criminal colony of maximum security for allegedly using violence against military, that at that time they also dressed as a civilian and caused the protesters.
What kind of realization of civil rights and freedoms can we speak when journalists Daria Chultsova and Katerina Andreeva receive two years in prison for fulfilling their professional duties: Media coverage of protest events? What kind of law can we talk in a country where police, With people with other names, They act as victims and witnesses in court? In a country where judges refuse to call witnesses by the defendants. In a trance where lawyers who have taken the freedom to defend the opponents of the current government, They end in prisons for false positions or are deprived of their licenses for their professional activities.
The regime is very afraid of a new wave of protests. The skating track of repression is gaining impulse. Cleaning the protest field as much as possible in a short time is the main task of the power block and the judicial system. This regime has no other way to avoid large -scale street mobilization, except the physical isolation of activists and psychological intimidation of all others. The power literally"Rest on the bayonets."Belarus has not known such a scale of violence and anarchy since the days of Stalinism and Nazi occupation. To date, Subdivisions of the Investigation Committee have started 2407 Criminal cases of the so -called"Extremist orientation". Literally, Everything that contradicts the guidelines of the state propaganda falls under the concept of“Extremism”. So Alexander Nurdinov, from 29 years, He was sentenced to four years in a maximum security colony for throwing flowers into the police.
Today, Almost anyone can be trapped in the street or in their own apartment, imprisoned, hit, mutilated and even murdered. Since August of last year, Not a single security official has been sanctioned for abuse of power, Excessive violence, beatings, torture and murder. The suspects of the murder of the artist of 31 years Roman Bondarenko, who were arrested by the police in their own patio to protest with symbols (White-red-white) and beaten until death four months ago, They have not yet been officially appointed.
But the City Hospital doctor Artem Sorokin and the journalist Yekaterina Borisevich were arrested and condemned for disseminating information that the murdered Roman Bondarenko was sober (without alcohol in the blood), What contradicted the official version. The medical examination data were disclosed with the permission of the victim's mother. Nevertheless, Artem Sorokin received two years in prison with a suspended sentence of one year and a fine of 1.450 Belaruse rubles ($ 580). Yekaterina Borisevich was sentenced to six months in prison and a fine of 2,9 A thousand beelorruse rubles ($ 1,160).
And these are just some examples of the total anarchy that the Belarusian people have recently faced. More of 34.000 Belarusians passed through the teeth of repressive machinery, that is increasingly difficult to stop. At the same time, The number of those who participate personally in the repressions of the State or acts actively grows. First, These are police officers, military, researchers, Tax, judges, state propagandists, Officials and activists of Public Organizations.
The objective of the regime is simple and obvious: cover up as many citizens of the country in crimes against humanity and justify repression. In the Jesuit style, By declaring this year the year of the National Unit, The state propaganda is doing everything possible to light the fire of enmity and confrontation among the Belarusians. The government is ready at any time to unleash bloody terror and civil war to destroy and suppress that part of the society that today represents a real threat to its existence, under false slogans to protect the independence and sovereignty of external enemies.
It is difficult to say how events will develop even in the near future. Although the Belarusians continue to carry out street protests, Your number and scope are very low. The Army and the Police are easily taken from the street. There are no reasons to expect that, along with the heat of spring, Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians again go out spontaneously to the streets. The stage of protest element has almost ended. In Belarusa Society a real demand for organized actions and the creation of capable opposition structures has matured. The unification of the strike committees of three large companies - OJSC"Grodno nitrogen", Novopolotsk"This soul" and the Metallurgical Beautiful Plant (BMZ), A legal attempt to create the Student Association League, The work of activists to establish political organization"Our party", The creation of a digital platform"Meeting", as popular alternative to the current parliament, numerous unification initiatives at territorial level, They are all components of the general training process of a unique political entity capable of taking care of the organization's organization and management management.
Despite a notable reduction in external manifestations of popular discomfort in winter, discontent with the current regime continues to grow. The intensification of repression in a context of mass dismissals, a strong price and tax increase, It leaves no possibility for a peaceful solution of the national conflict between the illegitimate government and society. The economic base of the protest is strengthened day by day and can become a decisive factor in the conduct of a national strike and the overthrow of the dictatorship.
06/03/2021
