Andrei Khrapavitski: Belarusian American Blog

Four members of Malady Front (Young Front), a youth oppositional organization, announced today the beginning a termless hunger strike. As reported by RFE\RL, Maksim Siamienčyk, Mikoła Packievič, and brothers Šyła, Ivan i Illa, started their action at 14:00, 29 May. Ivan (15) and Illa (13) are under-aged, they study at School #4 of Salihorsk. The guys explained that they chose this method to draw attention of the society to the authorities’ clampdown on the civil activists not only from Young Front but from the whole oppositional movement. Siamienčyk (18) elaborated, “From the beginning of the electoral campaign, what we get is constant arrests and releases, arrests and releases… As soon as a person comes out, he or she gets locked up again. In such conditions, we have to announce a hunger strike. We demand to stop the persecution of youth.” The courageous young men hope that their counterparts in other regions join in.
This news looks pretty saddening. It is way too bad that the Belarusian political climate has deteriorated to such an extent that the only way left for the activists to get through to the dormant society is by self-deprivation… What next? Self-mutilation, corporal punishment (ala Opus Dei)? Or something worse?
In these lines, my utmost belief is that the focus of the Western donors should be on how to break through the information blockage, how to reach the eyes and ears of ordinary Belarusians with the objective coverage. There are some doubts about the relevancy of satellite telecasts to Belarus? Damn, yes, they are relevant!
VOA has launched a TV program for Uzbekistan, and Belarus drifts without a free-to-air independent TV channel. There are many pros and cons in this project, and this undertaking would be very expensive. But a focused investment strategy sometimes can be much more effective than an over-the-top spending on some unimportant stuff.
The young guys have chosen this extreme way of protests, I guess, because nothing else seems to work. But will an average Belarusian ever learn of their action if he or she does not know anything of the persecution of youth in the first place? This whole dictatorship thing does not ring any bells for a village farmer or a factory worker. You will be surprised – many of them have satellite dishes, and yet they are profane about the national news. Leaflets and bulletins hardly work, the Russian television lies or often does not really care about the Belarusian news. Euronews shows just bits and pieces. The independent press has almost evaporated. Unless we go hi-tech and come up with a modern way to disseminate information, we lose the battle.

Viachaslau Siuchyk, a hero of the Belarusian maidan, said in his forum on RFE\RL one thing which I find important to reproduce here.
The question was – How are you? What are your plans? Why has the Belarusian opposition abandoned Kozulin?
Siuchyk replied, “When the chips are down, the opposition has abandoned all the people who underwent and undergo the real repressions. This happens because we don’t have a Belarusian system. It is good that we have a few orgs capable of apportioning about 100 dollars for a person not to die of hunger. Eventually, the fact that we have so many political prisoners is a certain foreboding that some dangerous Moscow’s projects can be realized in our country. I am personally not afraid to go to prison for Belarus. The absolute majority of the imprisoned are there for Belarus. I categorically oppose to Kozulin’s imprisonment. But I am curious whose interests – Belarusan or Russian – he will represent when released. I hope that those people who individually faced the repressions understand what kind of processes go on in the country where they live. But while Kozulin is in the cell, I am entirely in sympathy with him, as well as with families of Hanchar, Zacharanka, Krasouski, Juras Korban (who is forgotten by everybody), with thousands and dozens of thousands of the arrested, beaten up, and fired for political motives.”
Note: Juras Korban, the leader of Vitebsk’s NGO “Kontur,” the founder of Vitebsk’s Young Front, was a prominent figure in his city, respected in the youth third sector. Juras, whom I happened to know personally, vanished on 19 January, 2002. The common belief is that some criminal forces were behind his disappearance. But the case has never been properly investigated, and the fact is – no one knows for sure. Korban is one of many early, odd, unfortunate deaths during the rule of Lukashenko.

Mikalai Autukhovich, the martyr figure of the Belarusian derailed private business, has now been holding a hunger strike for 43 (sic!) days, the last three of which he even refused to drink water.
Autukhovich is accused of nonpayment of taxes and, if sentences, can spend up to six years in prison. The businessman pleads not guilty and sees the real reason for his detention in his struggle against the corrupt bureaucratic system. Announcing a dry hunger strike, Autukhovich said that in case of its tragic ending, this would be a political murder committed by the authorities.

On 26 May, a monument of Felix Derzhinsky will be erected on the courtyard of Minsk Military Academy. The sculpture is an exact copy of the statue that used to stand at Lubianka in Moscow. Its height is 3 meters 20 centimeters, reported Charter97.org. The Border Troops spokesman said that the decision was made to erect the monument because Derzhisky had been born in Belarus and dedicated a lot of efforts to strengthen the frontier troops.
A Belarusian émigré to the United States, Siarzuk Sokalau-Vojus, has recently written a brilliant fiction book “Bloody Grind,” in which Derzhinsky was empowered with extraordinary vampiric charms. The famous soviet brute was turned into a bloody infernal character. The novel literally represents what Belarusian intellectuals thought of him. It’s a shame anyone would want to see his statue in the capital. The fact of its erection is just another proof of the real nature of the Belarusian regime.

I am glad to tell you, folks, that I am finally all set and settled in downtown Washington, D.C. Thanks so much to Iryna V., a journalist and, as of recently, a TOL Belarus blogger, for her help in my apartment hunt.
Yesterday on my way to work, I read a story in The Washington Post about a growing sentiment for enacting English to be the official language of the United States. It is interesting to note that neither Democrats nor Republicans seem to oppose it. Even the majority of Hispanics, according to the newspaper, would approve it. So far the U.S. does not have an official language, but the growing Spanish speaking population raises a lot of debates and concerns. The country formerly referred to as “the melting pot” is gradually becoming more of a potpourri of cultures, traditions, ethnic groups reluctant to lose their roots. Spanish is not the only influential minority language, but others – like Korean and Chinese – are way behind in usage and popularity.
It’d be weird to compare Belarus and America here. And yet, I am often trying to question myself and others – are Belarusian-speakers and Russian-speakers in Belarus on the same page of nation building? Some striking differences often occur, and I don’t think they are empirically tested, so I won’t resort to any speculations about the divide between the two groups. It would be interesting to measure the numbers of Belarusian and Russian speakers who voted for Milinkevich vs. other candidates. Can language be an explanatory variable of political loss or success? In U.S. politics, language has become a big issue. There are some congressmen and senators who overtly oppose the enacted English dominance. In Belarus both Milinkevich and Kozulin tried to avoid the problem and answered language-related questions very cautiously. The former had recourse to a funny sounding bilinguism, while the latter could hardly say a word in Belarusian. It is well-known that the active Belarusian-speaking townsfolk are predominantly oppositional, and to succeed both politicians had to conquer their appeal. It was a difficult task for Kozulin whose knowledge of the mother tongue was very poor, while Russian speaking opposition was sage to back the front runner, i.e. Milinkevich. Could this explain Kozulin’s skinny 5-1% (according to IISEPS and CEC)?
Will the language problem arise during the upcoming campaigns? The answer is obvious – sure, it will in both U.S. and Belarus. Here American looming bilinguism may be an interesting case study of how language may either skyrocket somebody’s popularity or dump it. Kozulin’s mere Belarusian illiteracy (although he was learning) turned many pro-democratic nationals against him despite his alliance with some literati. On the other hand, Milinkevich’s association with the right-of-center BNF party scared part of the Russian-speaking electorate with firm (almost unbreakable) belief that BNF was a radical nationalistic party.
Language as an electoral factor might be a very interesting study for Belarus’ academe. I know that the issue is under scrutiny of American researchers taking seriously the language & politics causality. In Belarus, language has recently been shelved away as a secondary issue. But it willy-nilly bubbles up.

This is probably the only off-top message on this blog so far. But I’ve just bumped into this absolutely fabulous video about Carrboro, the town where I live. Actually, I am leaving it in a few days shooting off for Washington, D.C. where I’m gonna have my summer internship, and then I’m also planning some summer travels.
Carrboro is so sweet! Ranked as one of the best places to live in America, this town has its own distinctive North Carolinian flavor. Here is just a short quote from the song:

It’s a place where the hippies and the hipsters meet
Gonna get my grub on at the Weaver Street
Hoola-hoopers out front and they got some bare feet
Got a lot of bongo drummers and a lot of different beats

You can watch the video and download it here.

Alaksandar Milinkevich was released at 8:00 am today, although he was supposed to come out somewhat later. At 11:50 he returned to the gates of Akrescina jail to greet around 100 of his cohorts who gathered to meet him. When the meeting was over, some participants of the event were detained by the police.
Meanwhile, Mikita Sasim was convicted of evading the military service and sentenced to three months of jail.

The author of the denim color theme for the Belarusian revolution, Mikita Sasim, may end up in prison for six months. The prosecutor demands such a harsh punishment for the defendant’s alleged evasion of the military service.
However, Sasim does not see his guilt. This is what he said as his final word at the trial:
“My guilt per se is that once I didn’t show up at the military enlistment office. I don’t say it was normal that I had to do it. But I ask you to take into account that I did not intend to evade the military service. Had I wished to do so, I would have kept on ignoring to come to the enlistment office. Thus I plead to you for fair consideration of my case.”
The verdict is to be announced tomorrow. Doubtfully, it will be fair, as Sasim’s case is far not the unique one. Many Belarusian young men are reluctant to serve in the army commanded by such a controversial Commander-in-Chief, many don’t want to go there having heard multiple stories of hazing, harassment, abuse, and humiliation – a derogatory heritage of the Soviet Army. Many don’t feel like wasting a year and a half of their lives whereas they could find a job or pursue academic careers. The mandatory military service law has made many Belarusians look for ways to flunk the army – simulating a sickness, bribing a doc or a recruitment officer, hiding away, not registering at the enlistment office, etc.
Sasim could be anyone, a boy next door, your sibling, you. And the reasons why the court may go harsh on him is evident – he is the flag bearer of a new democratic Belarus, the authorities do not want and fear. Alexander Lukashenko said before the election that the oppositionists evaded the military service and they should go to the army. Does Sasim trial omen the start of a new witch hunt?

Belarus Partisan published an interview with a current Zubr brand name owner, Anton Cialeznikau, residing in Warsaw. To a question whether Zubr had died, Anton replied:

Zubr-Bison movement hasn’t disappeared per se, but stopped using its brand name. The organization is suggesting that all oppositional forces should unite into one movement which would be able to achieve changes in our country. By renouncing our brand, we want to set an example for other political parties. We call them to forget their local ambitions and struggle as one for our freedom.

Zubr (Bison) announced today interruption of all its activities under ZUBR brand and continuation of its struggle against the regime within the wide national movement. In my opinion, this is a positive stride. During the campaign, we had an abundance of youth groups trying to brand themselves as Pora (Ukraine), Khmara (Georgia) or Otpor (Serbia). Sometimes, it was hard to tell the difference. Their activities were not quite coordinated, goals and missions varied.
We had Zubr (Bison), Chas (Time), Chopic (Enough), Malady Front (Young Front), 3 Slach (Third Way), and others. Even “For Freedom,” which is now turning into a brand name for the united democratic forces, was initially a youth initiative.
Another thing is that I entirely disagree with the color choice during the campaign. The “denim” idea was introduced by Zubr, and I don’t know how it ended up as the main color theme. It is curious that the most active, vibrant part of Milinkevich’s HQ opposed to the jeans idea, and still it was chosen.
Clearly there are many reasons behind the Zubr’s decision to abandon their brand name and join the united movement. This is a good example for others to follow. At this point, there are many causes to bury the hatchet for those who feuded or competed in the past.