By Anna Nemtsova
Are the wings of change blowing in Belarus, Europe’s last dictatorship? On EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's recent visit with Belarus President Alexandr Lukashenka, Solana called Belarus "a European country" while Lukashenka spoke of a “thaw in our relations” with the EU.
There are tentative signs of a Minsk Spring – a gradual slackening of Lukashanka’s tight grip. Two of 15 newspapers banned from distribution in 2006, Narodnaya Volia and Nasha Niva, have now been officially allowed. After pressure from the EU, authorities have released the political prisoners Syarhey Parsyukevich, Andrei Kim and Alyaksandr Kazulin. One of the major opposition movements, For Freedom, has been allowed to register; and representatives of civil society and opposition parties were invited for a meeting with Lukashenka (though not all accepted).
Why the thaw? Alexander Milinkevich, leader of the now-official For Freedom movement, says that Lukashanka needs good relations with EU in order to save Belarus’ limping economy. "We are concerned about a total economic collapse and without EU help to reform, our state might disappear,” says Lukashenka. “It’s a matter of survival.”
At their meeting with Solana, Milinkevich and Kozulin talked about continuing political persecutions and a new crop of political prisoners such as the recently arrested businessmen Mikalay Autukhovich, Yury Lyavonau and Uladzimir Asipenka, as well as the “Young Front” activist Artsyom Dubski. They also told Solana about the violent disbanding of the oppositional rally on February 14, and on the Day of Belarusian Solidarity on February 16th. During those rallies dozens of peaceful protesters were beaten up. “Authoritarian regime does not know how to rule without violence. They have been building this power for 15 years,” says Milinkevich. “It is too scary for them to pass some of their power to civil society. We only hope that the debt of 15 billion dollars and the threat of full economy collapse will push authorities to keep their promises to EU.”
At the Minsk Holocaust Museum director Yulia Lishuk says that “political thaw” began for her when president Lukashenka visited the Yama memorial in the former Minsk Ghetto last fall, for the first time in last 15 years. Until last year, Lukashenka maintained an official silence about the Holocaust in Belarus. “We still do not have a single word about Byelorussian partisan resistance or Holocaust in official school text books. But at least the president finally admitted the Holocaust did take place, this is a sign we might have our history rehabilitation coming soon.” Ales Antsipenka, the director of Belarusian Collegium, an unregistered Belarusian-language ‘university’ which teaches students in offices and private apartment in Minsk, hopes that the thaw might allow its students to have a chance to study in Belarusian language, currently banned in mainstream universities in favor of Russian. “Higher education needs liberalization, this country is in deep need of at least one free thought university that would be teaching students in their mother tongue,” says Antsipenka.
Not everybody believes that the thaw is anything but cosmetic. Valery Bulhakau, editor-in-chief Arche, a Minsk-based magazine, says he has “no big illusions” for any “so-called political spring.” Arche is a thick Belarusian language intellectual magazine publishing extracts from foreign and domestic novels, scientific articles and political analyses. Earlier this month week a court branded his magazine ‘extremist’ and ruled to confiscate all copies. The decision was made at an hour-long closed hearing. “The Belarusian KGB has been given a new instrument - a law against extremism that they use to suppress any independent thought,” says Bulhakau.“KGB is still censoring free speech,” says Alexander Starkevich, deputy chairman of the Belarusian Association of Journalists functions. “For 15 years authorities persuaded the same repressive policy for media and the latest news we have do not give us any hope that this policy is going to change.”
Earlier this month Belarus’s foreign ministry cancelled accreditation of a correspondent for the Polish newspaper Gazety Wyborczej for ‘”criticizing the head of state.” More, authorities refused to register Bel Sat, Belarus’ only independent TV channel.Lukashenka may be starting a thaw, but there’s a lot of ground to cover before his regime starts to look anything like a democracy.
