BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01/01/2007

A plea for a free Belarus

Democracy

Aleksandr Milinkevich

MINSK, Belarus: Last month the European Parliament awarded me the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought. To be recognized with an honor that has been bestowed in the past on such iconic figures as South Africa's Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar is a truly uplifting experience. It also shows that the world has taken note of a 21st-century tyranny right here on the European continent. The world understands that that tyranny offends the values that unite Europe and all civilized countries.

The award is not, of course, merely an accolade for me personally. As leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus, I accepted it on behalf of all who fight for freedom in my country. I accepted it on behalf of my great and courageous colleague Aleksandr Kazulin, who brought himself to the verge of death in a hunger strike against the five-and-a-half-year sentence passed on him for doing nothing more than protesting the results of the fraudulent elections in Belarus last March. I accepted it on behalf of the thousands of other people who have been jailed, expelled from university or dismissed from their jobs. I accepted it on behalf of those who have paid for their dissent with their lives.

Last year was unprecedented for the democratic opposition in Belarus. Never before had we achieved such unity. Never before had the regime felt so threatened. Never before had the world shed such a bright light on a corner of Europe buried in seeming oblivion for so long.

Belarus's role on the stage of European history has often been a tragic one. In World War II we lost between a quarter and a third of our population. Of the six million Jews who perished in the abomination of the Holocaust, one million had lived on our soil. But we are also a country that gave birth to the great artistic master Marc Chagall. At the time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th century, it was from our lands that the first democratic constitution in Europe was born.

We feel that we have both suffered enough and given enough to be entitled to the same rights and freedoms that most of our fellow Europeans now take for granted.

So how can we achieve that aim? First, we want to say that it is not we - eager for democratic values, liberties and rights - who are afraid, though we are aware of the risks we take. It is the regime itself that is afraid. All dictatorships come to an end at some time. It is only a question of when and how. Aleksandr Lukashenko knows this as well as anyone.

Lukashenko also knows how precarious his current situation is. Our economy depends greatly on subsidized Russian gas. Right now the regime has been desperately trying to persuade Moscow not to go ahead with huge price rises that threaten to destroy the myth of Lukashenko as the great provider of social stability. The regime has already been shaken by the force of the domestic opposition. It has been shamed in the eyes of the world by the repression it has visited upon us. A powerful external shock could send the whole house of cards crashing to the ground.

More then ever, therefore, we appeal to those in the democratic West to keep up the pressure. We also appeal to our brothers and sisters in Russia - a country with which we share so much and whose continued friendship with us is a cornerstone of the Belarusian opposition's beliefs. As I have said many times, our freedom poses no threat to Russia. One day we will seek to join the European Union. But NATO is not part of our agenda. The European Union and Russia can help forge a free Belarus that will simultaneously suit both their interests and ours.

This year may be the decisive year in our struggle for freedom. Forces have been unleashed that cannot for long be contained We are not naive. But we also know that history is on our side and that change is at some point inevitable. Help us to get there sooner rather than later and to give true meaning to the glorious concept of a Europe whole and free.

Aleksandr Milinkevich is the leader of the democratic opposition in Belarus. This article was written with the assistance of Robin Shepherd, a senior transatlantic fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/01/opinion/edshepherd.php

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