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Dmitry Bandarenka: Lukashenka fights with journalists as with enemies

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Dmitry Bandarenka: Lukashenka fights with journalists as with enemies

The dictator is fighting for his life, and in war all means are good.

While authorities are forcing people to vote early, supporters of boycott are being arrested.

So, yesterday, people in civilian clothes conducted a raid against an authorized picket of "Zmena". Both protesters and journalists, who were performing their professional duties, were detained. Many were beaten, equipment was broken, activists were sentenced.

Reason of tighten repressions, according to one of the leaders of the civil campaign "European Belarus", former political prisoner, Dmitry Bandarenko, who gave an interview to "Belsat", is that the authorities know the real picture of public opinion, and realize that people won’t go to the "election".

- What is the reason for such acute response of the authorities?

- First, the that is because of the actions in support of the boycott of "elections". They are very creative, and attended by journalists, including foreign ones. The authorities know that people do not want to go to the "elections", they ignore them. Therefore, the reaction was so severe.

- Why the authorities want people so much to visit the "elections". Why one cannot draw the same figures that during the previous campaigns?

- I think that there are studies that KGB holds, and they show the real situation in Belarus. If the majority of people do not want to take part in this farce, then the authorities need to do more to bring Belarusians to these "elections". They also understand the need to keep the society in fear, and such brutal actions would be discussed – this is a part of intimidation, which background is the campaign.

- But this background will be discussed in the West. Do the Belarusian authorities want this "election" to look more or less decent there, or not?

- The dictatorship has different logic. Lukashenka remembers the fate of his friends, who one way or another were removed from power. This is Muammar Gaddafi, Slobodan Milosevic, Hosni Mubarak. He knows what is going on in Syria. Lukashenka is always at war - with the people, with the world. For him foreign journalists are foreign soldiers, enemies.

He is fighting for his life, and all means are good at war.

- You say that the government is at war with its own people. Does it mean the same as in December 2010?

- The dictator and his entourage always hear the words "Go away, go away", who chanted people at the Independence Square, maybe they even have dream about it. But tens of thousands of people, who shouted it, also remember this. Belarusian people are smart, and as a person who respects the marketing, I want to say that Belarusian politicians have to respect people's opinion. If the people understands that this is not a "parliament" and "elections", then you need to listen to it.

- You said that the opposition should take a break during this campaign. What do you mean?

- If repressions are intensified and many opposition leaders are imprisoned, and are not just in prisons, but in punishment cells the opposition need to take a pause and think what to do next, how to prepare for the next battle. It is more efficient today than mimic the activity of the "elections".

- The presidential election is our next battle?

- This can be a presidential election, or the events related to the economy, because the crisis continues. But the current situation - it's a game of the authorities. It should be ignored.

The Belarusian opposition does exist. It’s quite strong. If she would not been strong – there would not be such a hysterical reaction of the authorities to the events of December 19. We now look like an Eastern European country in the 80th of the last century - such as Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The complexity of Belarus was that we were alone. Now Lukashenization is happening in Russia and Ukraine. This will force the civilized world and political leaders to pay attention to our region more seriously.

We must be prepared to fight the dictatorships in the former Soviet Union, we have to complete the cause that we have not completed in 1991.

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