Anti-Terrorist Coalition Takes Interest in Belarus? :: Charter'97 :: News

Recently deputy head of the department for information of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Andrei Savinykh, answering the question why there followed no FM’s reaction to the articles in the US press about Belarus’ arms deals, said that there’s absolutely no point in their responding to such allegations. All of them, the official said, are concocted by journalistic circles in Vilnius. The FM representative even described the scheme of materials’ appearance: first, they are reportedly sent to the German telegraph agency DPA, after which, with a reference to DPA, they appear in the Belarusian press. Observer from the Polish weekly “Wprost” Yan Churilovich agreed to comment to the “Belorusskaya Gazeta” on these FM’s declarations.

- How would you comment on the statement, released by the FM officials, that all articles about Belarus’ arms deals are concocted by some journalistic circles in Vilnius?

- Belarusian FM found quite an interesting way out of the situation. I wonder what would it say, if it was shown facts, proving that DPA had nothing to do with the dissemination of this information in the very beginning. Just like none of the Belarusian papers did. Let me remind you that these materials appeared in print spontaneously in different parts of the globe – England, USA and continental Europe. Secondly, at the international organizations’ Internet-sites, which render humanitarian assistance to the African countries, one may read concrete data on the amount and cost of military machinery, sold by Belarus to this continent’s countries with the mention of concrete dates. The topic of arms trade was also brought up by Radio “Svaboda”. Otherwise, how would you explain the fact that the influential Israeli magazine started publishing such data? It is impossible that they all of a sudden addressed DPA, which, in its turn, gets the information from Vilnius. This is not serious.

- Can there be some third force in the world, interested in disseminating the information on Belarus’ illicit arms deals?

- The only organization, which, in my opinion, could be interested in that, is the anti-terrorist coalition itself. It methodically and consistently annihilates both the terrorism itself, the sources of its finances and support. And if they find out soon that the present-day Belarusian regime upholds terrorists, they will have to do something about it.

- Your article in “Wprost” described the very phenomenon of arms deals, but never gave answer to the basic question: what is the mechanism of this process? There are not even correspondence relations between the Belarusian banks, Libya and Iraq. So, how could they transfer the money?

- In my opinion, it is unwise to keep money in Belarus today. And Lukashenko realizes this. So I don’t believe that the money, earned through arms sales, is kept within the country. They don’t need it in Belarus, for it doesn’t work there. The regime’s funds are in great danger in Belarus, whose economic condition is unstable. The only solid guarantee of the money preservation is provided by the “bellicose” western states. It’s almost sure that the money is not in Libya or Iraq too, for both of them lack stability just as Belarus does. So there’s no need for the Belarusian banks to open correspondent accounts in Libya or Iraq. These countries’ banks have their own accounts in the stable western democracies.