Berlusconi called to account for his connections with Lukashenka

Charter97.org editor-in-chief Natalla Radzina participated in the conference “Belarus – an open-air prison” held in Milano.

The conference was organized by the Italian association AnnaViva founded in the memory of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya murdered in October 2006. The association provided a platform for a discussion around the situation in Belarus and the relations between Italy and the Belarusian dictator.

The conference was attended by Rapporteur for the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Matteo Mecacci and Charter97.org editor-in-chief Natallia Radzina. Well-known Belarusian lawyer Vera Stramkouskaya talked about the formation of dictatorship in Belarus and the Belarusian legal and judicial systems.

Below follows the text of the presentation of Natalla Radzina given at the conference in Milano. Italian politicians, human rights activists and journalists who took part in the conference are still poorly informed of the situation in Belarus. They were shocked by Radzina’s speech; some of them could not hold tears when Natalla was talking about the Belarusian political prisoners.

“This summer, in July, Italian Minister of Defense Ignazio La Russa was a guest at Ballarò, a show aired on one of the main Italian TV-channels. He could not recall who Aliaksandar Lukashenka was.

Leader of the oppositional party Union of Christian Democrats Pier Ferdinando Cazini asked the Defense Minister why Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi keeps in touch with “people that no one else meets”. He mentioned Aliaksandar Lukashenka as an example.

After that the show was interrupted for a commercial break. A bit later the Defense Minister, unaware that he was still on air, asked his assistant who was in the audience “And who is this Lukashenka?”

Well, if even Ministers in Italy do not know who Lukashenka is, let me try to tell you.

Lukashenka is the dictator who has been ruling Belarus for the last 17 years. All elections held in Belarus during this time have been falsified and the OSCE has recognized none of them as free and democratic. Today Belarus is Europe’s last dictatorship; its usurper Lukashenka is keeping his power with help of the military.

All the power in the country belongs to him.

There is no real Parliament in Belarus. The country is led by a fake institution that possesses no authority, makes no decisions and consists only of loyal politicians. They are marionettes who approve all drafts “proposed” by Lukashenka.

There is no independent court in Belarus. Judges are appointed directly by Lukashenka, and all their decisions are politically motivated.

There are nearly no independent media in Belarus. They have been destroyed during Lukashenka’s rule. All TV and radio stations, and basically the entire Belarusian press are owned by the state. There is only propaganda, just like in the times of the USSR.

During Lukashenka’s rule thousands political prisoners have been kept in jail.

In Belarus, opposition politicians, businessmen and journalists are kidnapped and murdered. All peaceful demonstrations are suppressed with violence.

December 19, 2010 is a black day in the Belarusian history. This is the day of the most recent presidential elections. Just like with the past elections, the results of these elections were forged. Dozens of thousands of Belarusians and independent candidates took part in a peaceful demonstration and demanded a free and democratic election. The powers suppressed the demonstration with extreme violence using special military forces. In the result, many people were assaulted, about 1000 were arrested, including nearly all presidential candidates. The world had never seen anything like that before.

Criminal suits were initiated against the presidential candidates and their teams. All of them, including me, were thrown to the KGB prison. The fearsome abbreviation “KGB” is still widely used in Belarus. Belarus is the only country in the world where KGB still operates.

Those who were in the KGB prison were tried and sentences were passed. Presidential candidates Andrei Sannikau, Mikola Statkievich, Zmitser Us were sentenced to 5-6 years in prison. Members of their teams, activists of youth organizations got 3-4 year-long sentences.

In KGB these people were tortured. They were beaten up, humiliated, searched naked and forced to stay outside in cold weather.

I am a journalist, editor-in-chief of the main Belarusian opposition website. I have spent one and a half month in the KGB prison. I was facing the same accusations as the candidates; they said I had organized the demonstration against the forged election results. With this article of the Criminal Code I could get a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

This was a very hard time for me. The KGB prison has not seen much change since Stalin times. I had to sleep on wooden plates on the floor. There was no toilet in the cell; we were escorted to a toilet with no hot water once in three-four hours. We were completely isolated from the outside, with no contact with our families.

One and a half month later I was released but prohibited to leave the country. They took my passport. I was to be tried. But I kept on working as the editor-in-chief of Charter97.org. After each article that the powers did not like, I was taken back to the KGB and threatened with prison. Right before the trial I run away from the country, at night, with no passport, no belongings. I have left everything. Not because I was afraid of prison, but because I wanted to work and to tell the world about everything what is going on in prison, and to do everything possible to fight for freedom for the political prisoners.

Lukashenka started to release those arrested after the elections under the pressure of the economic sanctions and the severe economic crises in Belarus. However, Lukashenka’s strongest peer Andrei Sannikau is still a prisoner. Had the elections been free and fair, he would have had all chances to become the President of Belarus. Today he is in prison under great pressure.

Even Andrei Sannikau’s wife, journalist of the Russian paper ”Novaya Gazeta” Iryna Khalip was thrown to prison after the elections for one and a half month, and then had to spend four months under a house arrest. Afterwards she was sentenced to two years in prison, but the sentence was suspended for two years. This means that in two years she can be thrown to prison again.

While both Andrei Sannikau and Iryna Khalip were in prison, the authorities tried to take their four-year-old son from his grandmother and leave him at an orphanage. Only protests of the Belarusians and international community helped keep him with his family.

Today a well-known human rights activist, coordinator of the civil campaign European Belarus Zmitser Bandarenka is kept in prison. Recently he has undergone a serious spinal surgery. The political prisoner can only briefly stand on his legs and has to walk on crunches in prison.

Zmitser Dashkievich, a leader of a youth organization, is tortured and mistreated in prison. His mother died when he was there. Her heart could not bear the humiliation of her son.

Today 15 political prisoners are still kept in Belarusian jails. Their lives are broken. Lives of their families are broken.

The European Union and US have imposed sanctions against Belarus. But Belarus is still a close friend of Italy.

After the events of December 19, European officials refuse to meet with Lukashenka and his allies. Nevertheless, Belarus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Siargey Martynau was invited to Italy in June and had a meeting with Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.

There is no information on whether the Italian Foreign Minister had commented on the situation with human rights and political prisoners in Belarus.

When Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visited Minsk in November 2009, he told Aliaksandar Lukashenka: “your people love you, and the elections prove it”.

And apparently little it does matter that according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (the OSCE), where Italy is a member, the recent presidential elections “were not held in accordance with the OSCE standards of democratic elections”.

But the most terrifying thing that Mr Berlusconi has done during his visit to Minsk was that he has freed Belarusian dictator Lukashenka from his well-deserved international isolation. Berlusconi was the first Western Prime Minister who has visited Belarus since 1994.

Berlusconi’s visit has made the dictatorship, the forged elections, murders, kidnappings and arrests legitimate.

Moreover, the same year Lukashenka and his little son went to Rome and managed to get the audience of the Pope. The sanguinary dictator and the Pope of Rome; Berlusconi and the Italian Foreign Ministry lobbied their meeting.

Today Italy is one of the few EU countries that do not approve economic sanctions against the Belarusian dictatorship.

Europe has tried everything with Lukashenka: sticks, carrots, promises, terms, dialogue, conciliation, harsh arguments, soft arguments etc. But you cannot change Lukashenka. His only thought is of keeping the power. And only hard sanctions can stop him.

However, a very crucial factor in Italy’s relationships with Belarus is business. And Berlusconi in his relations with the Belarusian dictator stands not for human rights and freedoms, but for the business. And according to the Italian and Belarusian media, these business interests concern a range of companies, such as “Finmekanika” whose management agreed on deliveries of double-purpose production and possibly weapon delivery after Berlusconi’s visit to Minsk; and GTECH owned by the Italian Lottomatica, owned in its turn by one of Italy’s most influential and wealthy families de Agostini, who is very close to Berlusconi. Some sources reported that GTECH was ready to invest in a chain of casinos in Belarus. Moreover, a high number of Italian private business operates in Belarus, and these people don’t care where the money comes from. But they influence political decisions that concern Belarus.

Silvio Berlusconi acted as a sycophant during his recent meeting with Gaddafi. Right after that the Libyan dictator proclaimed a war against his people. Today Gaddafi is dead, and Berlusconi acts as if he had never known this monster. The monster that such Western politicians as Berlusconi have created and provided with a carte blanche for repressions.

Lukashenka is such a monster, too. And we must stop him until it is not too late. To succeed in this task, everyone including Italy, its politicians, human rights activists, public figures, journalists and common people must adhere to rigid principles.”