Another demonstration is scheduled to start at 11:00 on May 1. The original plan was to protest against the contract system, but now the main theme will be to demand immediate release of the political prisoners. Both Lukashenko’s rivals – Milinkevich and Kozulin – are in jail. Besides, there are many others including the leadership of the election monitoring group Partnership – Mikałaj Astrejka, Cimafiej Drančuk, Alaksandar Šałajka and Enira Branickaja – who have been behind bars for two months now. Since the arrest, their parents were not allowed to see them. And the defendants were accused of acting on behalf of the unregistered organization. Shortly before the election, this had become a felony in Belarus.
Unfortunately, it is hard to imagine that the tomorrow’s event will draw a lot of people. The authorities have refused to allow a concert at Bangalor square, and yet there may be some music and singing at the venue. There’s not so much information online about the next protest, and looks like the preparation is a little bit spontaneous and hasty. It seems to me the wave of street protest is declining, the momentum is dying out. And it’s not just because the stamina of the people is lost or the fear of repressions is growing, but this is turning into re-runs, series of repetitious actions with no clear-cut strategy or goal.
I am afraid we may end up with the 1996 scenario when approximately the same numbers went out to the street rallies, but then the wave abated, for the people saw no point because the protests yielded no fruit.
I think this is now crucial for the Belarusian civil society to: (a) spread the message about the March events throughout the country; (b) involve all the new people who joined in during the campaign and post-election protests; (c) properly plan the next actions. It is also important to step forward into the new millennium and, although our situation is so similar to the Marshal Law in Poland, there are so many new forms of communication which can and should be used more efficiently. Somebody on Livejournal suggested that Belarusian revolutionaries should use CD-R and DVD disks to spread the audiovisual information about the events. Indeed, there is quite a lot of quality footage of the “Days of Freedom,” Belarusian music, documentaries and so on. This kind of stuff is much more expedient than antediluvian leaflets.
Yes, not too many Belarusians have high speed Internet access, but many do have computers even in the back of beyond. So here are my two cents for Belarusian grant seekers – let us storm the Belarusian society with revolutionary CDs, electronic books about Lukashenka, political satire, videos, documentaries, etc. We have so many great designers and programmers who can make those disks look attractive and professional. It is time to be creative!
According to this year’s Freedom House media freedom index, Belarus retained its ignominious 185th position and a status of the country with an unfree press. Moreover, the respected U.S. institution remarked the situation in Belarus’ media realm deteriorated. The moribund independent newspapers cannot yet recuperate after the clampdown, and there is no sign of the regime’s mitigation. So today Lukashenka said to Putin that he would “do without a couple thousands of oppositionists.” He elaborated that, globally speaking, those people (the opposition) were important to him, but if they kept on adhering to the other position, he would be able to keep powers in his hands.
Lukashenka’s hotheaded words are always fun, but Putin’s reaction is distressing, although expected – he said he was pleased that his colleague was apt to conduct a constructive work with everyone. Well, maybe the same “constructive” approach Mr. Putin employed toward oppositional businessmen like Khodorkovsky, the media, and civil society which is becoming weaker from day to day.
The constructive approach is well employed on the Belarusian soil – both presidential candidates who dared to rival Lukashenka are now in jail.
And yet, the opposition is preparing for the next street rally set for May 1. I have doubts it will be a mass event, but structures of the civil society are trying to disseminate the information about the action. It is hard. Number 185, remember?
Belarus’ opposition leaders in jail
I was giving a presentation on Belarus right as the Chernobyl March was starting. At that point, nobody knew where Labedska was – some feared it was another political disappearance in the country. At night Labedzka, leader of the United Civil Party, was released from the KGB. The agents interrogated him as part of “their investigation of a criminal case of terrorism.” In fact, they were interested with foreign travels of the politician.
Labedzka told RFE\RL, “As I see it now, having analyzed everything what happened yesterday, it was such a demonstrative detention – as if I were a felon, a renegade, I was put face down to the pavement, cuffed and beaten up to the kidneys. Then I was thrown into my car. I didn’t know where they were taking me because they pulled a jacket onto my head so that I wouldn’t see anything.”
At the finale of the march, Vincuk Viacorka, leader of the Belarusian Popular Front Party, was arrested. A bit later, Siarhiej Kalakin, leader of the Belarusian Communist Party, Alexander Bukhvostau, trade union leader, and Alaksandar Milinkevich himself were imprisoned. Most of them were sentenced to 15 days of arrest, including the opposition leader.
Milinkevich commented on his arrest, “The government cannot and does not want to act in accordance with the law. It wasn’t an unsanctioned meeting. We’ve taken part in an approved event. When the schedule shifted, it wasn’t our fault. When we moved out to the thoroughfare, the sidewalk was blocked. There are no reasons for a trial. These are political cases. When the prosecutor’s office warned me, I told them, “Let us arrange the passage so that people could go unhampered.” But they cannot live without fear. They are so scared. They want to intimidate us, but rather fear themselves.”
A fellow blogger, Br23, wrote,
- This is the most crucial point after the “elections”. If this arrest of the leader produces big enough outcry in the West and strong enough reaction inside the country, we’ll be able to say that Belarus has a new alternative leader. Otherwise, he’ll probably rot in jail (together with mister Kazulin), and Belarus will rot and decompose for another five years at least.
I think this is a legitimate conclusion. The West should make no mistake on this issue. Today practically all the key names of the Belarusian oppositions have appeared on prison rolls. Belarus is becoming an evident semblance of the totalitarian USSR. I think the West should seriously consider the demands of many pro-democratic Belarusians to convene an international trial of the Belarus’ regime.
Today Belarusian democratic forces ratified an action strategy for the next year and a half and declared about the creation of a new political movement “For Freedom.” The official launch is expected to be announced by Alaksandr Milinkevich during the Chernobyl March on 26 April.
The new entity is to unite all the major political forces that participated in the elections. Proposals for entry were given to the youth movement Zubr (Bison) and Kazulin’s Social Democratic Party Hramada.
On a personal note, I’m pretty busy this week as the semester draws to a close. Last Friday I had an opportunity to meet Adam Michnik, editor-in-chief of Gazeta Wyborcza. He shared his perspectives on the Belarusian conundrum. Especially, it was fun to learn about his experience of interviewing Lukashenko. Our president was pleonastic and expressive as always, making his point that the Russian language and culture was part of Belarusian tradition and history. Michnik reckons the major reason of Lukashenko’s integration leanings was caused by his long-standing wish to become, first, vice-president, and then the president of the new union.
And I’m also a bit dissatisfied with my schedule, because I’ll be giving a presentation on Belarus right at the start of Chernobyl March in Minsk. Whatever happens I’ll be missing the live reports from there. So I can’t promise a lot of verbiage here this week. But click on back… There is a chance that I’ll occasionally dig myself out of reams of papers and post something.
Rap music is much of a mainstream in the US, Germany, Poland and many other countries. For some reason, Belarus was lagging behind, with rock being a dominant style of youth protests. There are so many fantastic outfits singing heavy songs of cherished Belarusian revolution – N.R.M., Krok, Krama, Novaje Nieba, Tavarys Mauzer and many others. No surprise that “Songs of Liberty,” a revolutionary compilation, was much heavier than the Ukrainian albums sold on Kiev’s Maidan.
However, hip-hop is slowly coming to our good old little “outpost of tyranny.” The first truly Belarusan rap act is Cyrvonym pa Bielamu (CPB), an enigmatic crew of a rapper hiding under a nickname Krou (means “Blood” in Belarusian). CPB do not give gigs – at least, not in Belarus where they could easily be arrested for highly provocative anti-Lukashenko lyrics.
CPB released two albums, which can be downloaded from their official website. Krou is now working on his solo album which is planned as a certain encyclopedia of raps, as Krou says, and will feature different rap subgenres. The plaque is designed as apolitical, but the rapper is not planning to deviate from his favorite topic of struggle for independence. So Krou says the CPB is gonna release the third album and dedicate it to all protestors who fought for Belarus’ freedom.
The rapper is gonna cooperate with Polish DJ’s, and CPB itself is changing – the crew has new members - one more master of ceremonies (MC) and a DJ. The band is also to change name. Still it is unknown how they will call themselves, but Krou promises CPB will perform on Basovisca-2006, the largest festival of Belarusian music conducted each year in Eastern Poland. The working title of the upcoming third album is “Bloody March.”
Of course, hip-hop has become too commercialized and its true rebel feeling is almost lost. And yet, there is a whole scene of social raps in Poland, Germany. In America, rappers often touch upon the topics of social injustice, race issues, human rights, and life in the ghetto. Rap is very often political, but Belarusian rappers before CPB appeared had resorted to superficial topics of love and hatred, parties and nothing much else. This genuinely surprised me. And moreover, these infantile rap acts were rhyming almost exclusively in Russian. One of possible explanations of this phenomenon is that they looked up to their icons from Russia – Detsl, Kasta, etc. Russian raps, in fact, is often very hardcore and straightforward about the political situation in the country. But Belarusian Russian-rhymers maybe just did not have the guts. So such rockers as Novaje Nieba and Ales Pamidorau had to leap into the style which was not quite theirs. And to my surprise, they came up with very decent rap tracks.
I hope that CPB has opened the Pandora box and socially conscious rap will finally show up in Belarus. There are some good indicators of this happening – Imperator and Belarusian Lyceum recently recorded very good pieces which are not devoid of good blend of hip-hop beats and challenging lyrics.
Picture and extracts of Krou’s interview are taken from Tuzin Hitou.
Nasha Niva as UNESCO’s global heritage
According to the Chairman of Standing Human rights Commission in the House of Representatives Yuri Kulakovski, “It is incorrect to say that Belarusians are devoid of diversified, multifarious and objective information on events within and without the country.” He stated this yesterday during his meeting with Günther Noke, human rights commissioner of German Foreign Ministry.
Meanwhile, Nasha Niva, the oldest Belarusian publication is being closed down. You can read about it in my earlier post, and also at sites of fellow bloggers – WrongWays, Sturmovik, TOLblogs, and br23net.
Nasha Niva Editor-in-chief Andrei Dynko is attempting to appeal to the international community for inclusion of the publication to the list of UNESCO’s global heritage. It is nice that the ex-candidate and opposition leader, Alaksandar Milinkevich tries to contribute to the struggle for preservation of the great newspaper. So in his meetings today with Norway’s prime-minister and state secretary, the politician raised this issue.
After the distribution ban for the first time in its history, Nasha Niva’s website cleaved from the print edition content (the newspaper is published weekly) and offered news as they happened. Now the site is virtually becoming the only way to read Nasha Niva. It offers a nice digest of events, reprints from other sources, and of course, their own unique blend of style, high cultural and ethical standards, and the unsovietized Belarusian language.
There’s been a time when I watched Russian television. Now I occasionally turn on some online TV channels just to be cognizant of the current events from Russian official perspective. I remember a program Odnako, anchored by Mikhail Leontiev. I bet many of my readers can be quite critical of Bill O’Reilly, but the way Leontiev offers his “expert opinions” are way beyond any possible comparisons. His show is an explicit example of barefaced propaganda.
The reason why I’m mentioning him here is that he played a tape of allegedly a telephone conversantion between Georgian MP Georgiy Targamadze and “a certain Albinas, an employee of the Lithuanian foreign ministry,” and a person in Washington. In this talk, it is informed about preparations of assassination of Alaksandr Milinkevich during his visit to Turin.
The Georgian congressman was supposedly dissatisfied that Milinkevich had not been radical enough during the protests. “Why did everything stop half way? When everything was stringed up, and when I was sure that in two days we would make it, our Milinkevich came out and told people to disperse and return on April 26. I can’t get it why he behaved that way.” According to the tape, it was decided to take Milinkevich away, and his life was estimated at $20 thousand dollars.
Milinkevich denounced the provocation, “Masterminds of such scoops are known. These are people who do not want political changes in Belarus. Those provocateurs could’ve inquired about my schedule,” the leader of democratic forces refuted that he was planning to visit Turin.
This whole story is like a hell in a handbasket. It almost doesn’t make sense to mention it. However, Belarus’ opposition is preparing for the next big action, and the regime’s scare tactics are now elaborated by the Russian television, erroneously regarded in masses as more truthful than the Belarusian one. I can’t understand why somebody might still cherish this delusion.
Ideology Department closes the first Belarusian newspaper
I’m just back from a softball game at Duke. Before that we had a nice party at my professor’s. I could not expect I would have to read something that bad when I get back home:
- Right before Easter, Nasha Niva had gotten a letter from Minsk city executive committee. According to it, the allocation of Nasha Niva in Minsk was inappropriate because the editor-in-chief Andrej Dynko had been put under administrative arrest for 10 days”.
It is worth while reminding that the editor was detained while getting off bus #100 at Kastrychnickaja square on March 21, at the time of post-election protests, later he was convicted of “foul language”. Read more at the newspaper’s website.
It is hard to imagine Dynko, this new-generation intellectual, swearing in public. In fact, he was carrying some warm food to protectors of the tent-camp when he was stopped by the riot policemen and taken into custody. And now his imprisonment serves as a cause to ban one of few remaining independent newspapers in the country.
Br23net put it precisely:
- The authorities are cynically closing down Nasha Niva on the eve of its 100th anniversary. This legendary newspaper was founded in 1906, and it was the first ever newspaper published completely in Belarusian language. In 1915 the original Nasha Niva was closed after Vilnius was occupied by German troops. In 2006 the attempt to close it is ordered by the Lukashenka administration. We don’t have any German occupation in 2006. It’s Lukashenka’s Russian-Soviet occupation. And they’ve advanced very far. Read more at Br23.net.
Nasha Niva is more than just an independent newspaper. There is a whole culture around it. It is like a voice of the epoch, a tribune for authors writing in Belarusian, a gate-keeper of the civic society, an agenda-setter, and the most intellectual product on the print newspaper market in Belarus. Always an excellent read, this is probably the only Belarusian newspaper about which I can recall a song – “The Epoch of Nasha Niva” by Zmicier Bartosik. I was reading it from 1991, and I don’t wanna believe that this epoch of Nasha Niva is coming to an end.
They need your help. Please, spread the message around.
Yesterday I watched a very nice film about Minnesota, “North Country.” Today Wolny posted me a link to Belaruski Dom, a website of the Belarusian Diaspora of Minnesota. It looks a little bit empty at this point, but it’s not a bad start. For anyone of my readership up north, this might be a good idea to join the community with Belarus in mind.
- And this is a protest they organized in support of Belarus’ democracy in front of the State Capitol Building in St. Paul, Minnesota. Good job! The picture is taken from www.belarusiandom.org
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom is planning to switch to market relations with Belarus on 1 January 2007.
- Alexei Miller, the company’s president, said in an interview to ORT, “Gazprom is changing to the market principles of cooperation with all the former republics of the Soviet Union. The basis of this conversion is the international conjuncture of hydrocarbon costs. What we are saying is that the mechanism of setting up prices for Russian gas in Belarus will be decided by the global experience of gas business. We have duly started negotiations to avoid unwanted Christmas surprises. The talks will continue in the end of April.”
Lukashenka doesn’t seem to be pretty much worried about that. The message from the Belarus’ government is clear – “There shouldn’t be much ado about nothing. The discussions will continue and the agreement will be reached.” It would be nice if the Belarus’ society could find out how. What will the tradeoffs be? Hopefully, not the Belarus’ independence.
