25 March authorities did their best to ruin Belneftekhim
- 27.03.2008, 8:38
"On Freedom Day the authorities did their best to ruin Belneftekhim and make Europe to work out harsher policy towards the Belarusian dictatorship," Andrei Sannikov, international coordinator of Charter'97, member of the organising committee of the civil campaign "European Belarus," said commenting on break up of the peaceful opposition demonstration on 25 March.
"Beating of demonstrators on 25 March wasn't just brutality, but the brutality pursuing a certain aim. It turns out that the aim was to demonstrate the whole world Lukashenka's regime is hopeless, that it is unable to any moves towards the democratisation. People who wanted just to pay tribute to Belarusian poets Yanka Kupala, Yakub Kolas, Maksim Bahdanovich, lay flowers to their monuments, were beaten on Tuesday. The organisers said it long before the action and pledged to keep festive spirit of the action during Freedom Day. But minister of internal affairs chose this day to show how cruel can be his officers," Andrei Sannikov said.
According to the diplomat, actions by riot militia overscored efforts of all people, both in power and in opposition, who tried to think about the state, the people, not about soothing of their vanity and realisation of complexes.
"The opposition has suggested the authorities to seek areas of common interest to save the country, to defend independence of Belarus, become a full partner of world processes, over long time. It should be admitted that some actions by the authorities, in particular, actions by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may be appraised as attempts to seek accord in the society, and to restore the role of Belarus on the international arena. However, it all ended tragically on March 25, 2008. and today at any seminars, conferences, meetings organised by Belarusian official representatives in order to try to improve the country's image, to increase its attractiveness for investments, pictures of real, not professed actions of the regime of Belarus could serve as illustrations. Bloodstained faces of young people, fat and impudent faces of people in black… That's what any Western businessmen would face in this or that way if they would like to try to work with Belarus," the member of the organising committee of the civil campaign "European Belarus" is convinced.
Andrei Sannikov is sure that the events of March 25 are to further strengthen solidarity of the democratic forces of Belarus, intensify support of the international community to the processes of democratisation in Belarus.
"Belarus has seen its heroes, the young people who sacrifice themselves for the sake of their country, and would never give up or surrender. No BRYU, where young people are dragged by force, could withstand this courage. The world feels solidarity with Belarus, and demonstrated that many times. It won't be long till the response to the beating of peaceful demonstrators in Minsk appear. Unlike Belarus, in Europe government listens to the opinion of the public, and it would have to react to those demands which are already heard from organisations in all countries of Europe and in the US, which follow the situation in Belarus and react to all events that happen in our country. March 25 the regime did its best to ruin Belneftekhim and make Europe formulate a harsher policy towards the Belarusian dictatorship," the diplomat believes.