Documentary about Mikalai Autukovich presented in Kyiv

A film by Volha Mikalaichyk “Endless War Travel” about Belarusian political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich has been shown in Kyiv.

The Kyiv presentation of a movie Belarusian Volha Mikalaichyk was organized Vyachaslau Siuchyk, the head of Together (Razam) solidarity movement. The film team, as well as over twenty representatives of Belarusian entrepreneurs’ and Afghan war movements came to watch the documentary how one of the leaders of the entrepreneur’s movement from the small town of Vaukavysk and hero of the Afghan War has turned into a political prisoner. The Kyiv Cinema House was full with Ukrainian oppositionist and NGO members, who demonstrated their keen interest in the presentation, Deutsche Welle reports.

Repressions caused by fear

The plot of Bramafilm studio’s documentary “Endless War Travel” is based on the high-profile political trial over Mikalai Autukhovich and his associates in the Supreme Court of Belarus last spring. Director Volha Mikalaichyk agreed that her film refutes Ukrainian myths about the situation in Belarus.

She is convicted that the movie shows more than just the fate of an oppositionist, for whom a state prosecutor asked 20 years in prison for his “disobedience to the corrupted authorities”. This may happen to everyone in Belarus, Mikalaichyk thinks.

Autukhovich’s friend, one of the leaders of the Belarusian Afghan War veterans movement and human rights activist Aleh Vouchak, said the real reason for the arrest of his friend was Lukashenka’s fear of “military men, who did not forget what honour is”. According to Vouchak, Autukhovich, he, and other their associates rebelled against the “unlawful cancelation of benefits for entrepreneurs” announced by Lukashenka and delivered an ultimatum to Lukashenka in the winter of 2009 threatening to organize protests across the country against suffocation of small business.

Afghan War organizations, Vouchak said, are highly respected in society. These organizations unite “economists, specialists and managers”. The activist underlined that his colleagues were ready to take posts and take responsibility for carrying out long-overdue reforms when the political situation changes. This was the main reason for show repressions against Mikalai Autukhovich, the human rights activist believes. “The authorities took a lead to prevent us to muter up our strength,” Vouchak supposes.

Belarusian warning to Ukraine

Vyachaslau Siuchyk, the head of Together solidarity movement, called on the Ukrainian colleagues to follow the example of Poland and Lithuania and form an association of MPs and politicians to support democracy and independence of Belarus. The call found whole-hearted support of Andriy Parubiy, themember of Our Ukraine parliamentary group and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Anatoliy Matviyenko, the Sobor party head, proposed to go further and organize an interparty coordination council to support the Belarusian opposition.

“We have been supporting Belarusian pro-opposition movement for many years. We are ready to organize and finance two or three seminars or actions for our Belarusian colleagues in the frameworks of the council,” Matviyenko said. He emphasized that one can hardly imagine free and independent Belarus without democratic and independent Ukraine and vice versa, free independent Ukraine can hardly be built without democratic Belarus.

The politician said the presentation of the Belarusian film in Kyiv was helpful for Ukraine, because the country was “on the brink of not less horrible situation, and a myth about good dictator Lukashenka poisons public conscience of Ukrainians and retards the country’s moving to the EU”.