Give The People A Statement

27.06.2025, 10:38 charter97.org

Give The People A Statement27.06.2025, 10:20 1,610 Irina KhalipNot to forget, not to forgive, and not to be kind."The only thing Lukashenka could give to the Belarusian people is testimony," my brother once said. Then we talked for a long time about what a great testimony it would have been, and how many "hanging cases" could have been solved in decades, Murder, kidnapping, terrorism, robbery, fraud, bribery - the entire Criminal Code would have been useful there, not a single article would have been left unused.I remembered this long conversation after the release of Sergei Tikhanovsky. What exactly Tikhanovsky said at the press conference and in interviews is not the most important thing. It was enough to look at him to realize the measure of his suffering over five years in solitary confinement. In his eyes there is not only joy at returning to freedom, but also hatred and a thirst for justice. And justice is punishment for those who took away five years of life and drove him through the system, through torture, through humiliation.Every political prisoner has his own black list. And this list does not only include investigators, prosecutors, judges and guards. It is replenished by those who may not have sent people to prison with their own signature. But one random movement or word adds him to the list. "Some operative was present at the search," a former political prisoner told me, "and kicked a cat. He probably doesn't remember it. And I never saw him again. But he'll answer for it!"The number of punishers probably outnumbers the number of political prisoners. And more and more often there is talk in society about lustration and what to do with them all afterwards. I remember the phrase of the founder of the newspapers "Svaboda" and "Naviny" Pavel Zhuk: "I would only need to head the KGB for a couple of months after the fall of the regime, I don't need anything else!". We then jokingly thought up a scheme: the positions of power leaders would be transitional, not more than two weeks for one person, so that he had time to take revenge on the punishers.And seriously, in no post-dictatorial country local "Nuremberg" were successful. For example, in the Czech Republic, which had big scores to settle with those who supported the communist regime, only Ludmila Brožová-Polednova, the people's prosecutor (besides the official state prosecutor, the dissidents were tried by "people's" prosecutors, as if on behalf of the working class), who demanded the death penalty for "enemies of the people" at the 1950 trial, was convicted of crimes during the existence of the CSSR. Four Czech dissidents were executed, including Milada Horáková, a heroine of the anti-fascist underground. Now streets in Czech cities are named after her, while prosecutor Brožová-Polednová was tried only in 2008, and two years later she was released from punishment for health reasons. Although there were many such "people's prosecutors" and other punishers in Czechoslovakia.And in general, no matter how much you study the recent history of lustration and trials in post-communist countries, you will not find an ideal model anywhere. One can think of Kurt Waldheim, who made up his biography in time, became president of Austria and secretary general of the UN, and was exposed as a Nazi only forty years after the end of World War II. I have no doubt that many Belarusian officials have long ago prepared similar legends about how they were destroying the regime from within or spent thirty years on sick leave. And one can remember the same Czechoslovak punishers, who sent people like Milada Horakova to the gallows, but had no time to answer for their crimes before the society: they were eaten up by the system during the next wave of repressions and executed not for crimes against their people, but as American spies. There is no perfect formula, concept, scheme. There are no righteous people who can impartially determine the fate of those who worked for the regime: everyone has his own blacklist and thirst for vengeance. "Two months of leading the KGB - I don't need anything else," Pavel Zhuk used to say. ("Two months in charge of BT, so that Grisha Azarenok could be on the air every night with the rubric "How to repent correctly", and I don't need anything else" - I also heard that from my colleagues, and sometimes I thought about it myself). There is, after all, no successful precedent in history. Perhaps we will be the first.I don't know whether Belarusians will want to judge, for example, Latushko or Azarov (one was an ideological punisher, the other was a classic, typical one). Personally, I think it is necessary - they have something to be punished for. Others are ready to forgive their past for a timely re-shoeing. Others suggest to give them all to eat each other, so that, for example, first Judge Katser would judge Judge Shabunya, and then Judge Karsyuk would judge Judge Katser, and so on down the chain. Restoration of justice and punishment of the guilty, perhaps, will be the most difficult task for the Belarusian people after the victory. But also the most necessary. National reconciliation is possible only when the evil is punished.And meanwhile we must not forget, forgive and do not allow ourselves to be kind ("the main thing is to win, and let these ugly people go to all four sides"). Behind every mangled fate is not an earthquake or an airplane crash, but specific people. And these mangled fates are so many that our executioners have finally lost the right to leniency. And we - the right to mercy.Irina Khalip, especially for Charter97.org.PATREONSupport the website Write your comment You can support the website Charter97.orgMULTI-CURRENCY ACCOUNT FOR ASSISTANCE:Bank's name: Bank Millennium S.A.Address: ul. Stanislawa Zaryna, 2A, 02-593, WarszawaIBAN: PL97116022020000000216711123SWIFT: BIGBPLPWName of the account holder: Fundacja “KARTA ‘97”Purpose/title of payment: Donation for statuary aimsYou can contact us by the e-mail charter97@gmail.comFollow Charter97.org social media accountsFacebookYouTubeX.comvkontakteok.ruInstagramRSSTelegram