Human Rights Center Viasna marsk 15th anniversary

The Human Rights Center Viasna turns fifteen years at the time of the ongoing political lynching of the regime's opponents. Human rights activists cannot think about celebration in such a situation. However, it is possible to lock back at what have been done and set the goals for the near future. This is done by Ales Bialiatski, Chair and founder of the Human Rights Center Viasna.

The history of the Human Rights Center Viasna started from dramatic events of spring 1996. The situation was active and tense: the Belarusian society resisted to the large-scale violations of the Constitution and restriction of civil and political liberties which the young at that time president started allowing more and more frequently. Lukashenka began to actively tighten the screws in order to completely subdue all branches of the state power and change the Constitution according to his own needs. At first his decisive steps were connected with dispersal of peaceful demonstrations. The traditional Chernobyl Way demonstration held on 26 April 1996 was the first case. Before this there was the demonstration of 25 March, marking the anniversary of the Belarusian People's Republic, then – a demonstration of protest against the union treaty with Russia, held on 2 April and attended by an unexpectedly large number of people. However, even more people came to the Chernobyl Way, about 40,000. The whole Yakub Kolas Square, the place of the gathering, was densely filled with people.

The action was decorated quite well thanks to efforts of publicly active artists from the artistic society Pahonia, there were many flags, gonfalons and posters. The demonstrators faced problems when they started coming out to the avenue in order to move to Peramoha Square. The way was overlapped by several rows of police with truncheons, and also by trucks and cars. A very violent clash with the demonstrators took place. I want to remind that there hadn't been such things in Belarus since October 1988 when the police dispersed a demonstration near the Maskouskiya cemetery dedicated to Hallowmas. Since then the authorities hadn't dispersed any mass actions. Then, in seven years there was a violent clash, tens of people were beaten. It happened before my eyes. I remember how artist Ales Marachkin, who was carrying the icon of Our Lady of Chernobyl, was hit in the eye and narrowly saved his sight. Other demonstrators were hit with truncheons, their heads were smashed, some of them received other traumas. However, there were so many people that the police were unable to stop the flow and the people simply pushed the cordons aside and went forward along the square. Chernobyl Way went to Niamiha and further, to the Palace of Sports. Clashes took place on Niamiha Street as well.

About a hundred demonstrators were detained after the action. Yury Khadyka and Viachaslau Siwchyk were arrested immediately. I was also summonsed to the procuracy as a witness. There was a certain shock in the society, because nothing of the kind had happened for many years. That's why there emergent an urgent need to gather information about the places of the imprisonment and render aid to the arrested, first of all to the families of Khadyka and Siwchyk who went on a hunger-strike of protest under arrest.

A group of support to victims of political repressions was established at that time by activists of the Belarusian Popular Front and was headed by me, the secretary of the BPF Council at that time. It was a natural decision for me, as problems connected with the protection of human rights have been always present in my life. I was one of the founders of the first Belarusian human rights organizations, The Martyrologue of Belarus, and then, being a deputy of the Minsk City Council, was a member of the city commission for the rehabilitation of the people who had been repressed in 1930-1950-ies.

At that time it seemed to me that our work on support to the new wave of repressed would be temporary. If somebody had told me that we would work for 15 years and the socio-political situation would considerably deteriorate in all respects including the legislation, the pressurization of the population and the relation of the authorities to the civil society – I would have never believed in it.

Having worked as the director of Maksim Bahdanovich Liteary Museum by that time, I actually became a professional museum worker who saw his future life in the Belarusian culture and literature and not just in the socio-political sphere, as it happened to be later.

Nevertheless, the Belarusian society was put before a challenge, which manifested in the purposeful and consequent persecution of civil society activists first of all. The challenge was accepted. We started raising funds for support to victims. One of my good acquaintances supplied two or three hundred kilos of foodstuffs (macaroni, sugar, buckwheat and oil). We took it all to the museum by a minibus. There we spread it all into bags with the museum emblem and passed them to those who were beaten or arrested. To put it short, we helped with what we could. We passed much food to the families of Khadyka and Siwchyk. This was the beginning of our Viasna, a symbolic beginning, as we can see now.

At present, at the 25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl tragedy, it was stated once again that not only physical Chernobyl, affecting our health, but also spiritual Chernobyl, related to the spiritual health of Belarusian, has continued in Belarus all these years. We got clear manifestations of this spiritual Chernobyl from the new Belarusian authorities, which became hardened having a drudge against the young democratic sprouts that emerged on the Belarusian land. We continued our work on the voluntary basis, mainly in the after-work hours. Soon there started new criminal cases, for instance against poet Slavamir Adamovich, and we rendered material aid to his family while he was kept in the pre-trial prison.

Support to victims of political repressions became one of our main tasks which we have been dealing with since those times. I can remember some of the first members of our group, for instance Halina Vashchanka, Maya Kliashtornaya (daughter of the Belarusian poet Todar Kliashtorny, who was repressed as well as she), I and several people from our museum staff who helped us too.

Besides the material support we also gathered information about the repressed. I should remind that after these events there was published the book Minsk Spring-96 which described the events of the Chernobyl Way 1996 and repressions towards its participants and contained a list of victims. We had to receive information from different sources, for instance from the Svaboda newspaper which often published such news, and also from participants of the actions, whom we questioned about the events. We started maintaining a chronicle of human rights violations almost from the very beginning of our activity and still continue doing it now in different variants. It is an important direction of our work, too.

The work we have been doing for these 15 years is hard and complex. It takes much nervous energy. Constant dealing with the problems people face in the struggle for their rights is not easy. Nevertheless, I get a great moral satisfaction from what has been done for these years within the frames of our organization, what has been done by Viasna within the frames of the Belarusian and international human rights movement. Our work has been distinguished with several authoritative international awards. There is satisfaction from what has been done and a great dissatisfaction with the fact that the main aim of the creation of our organization hasn't been achieved – human rights continue to be violated in Belarus on a mass scale, the country hasn't joined the family of civilized countries. This aims, which is to see Belarus a free, democratic and constitutional state, where human rights would enjoy a real respect, makes us move forward. We will continue working in this direction until this aim is reached.