Alexander Lukashenko: “Down with Lukashenko, Down with This Regime, They Are Nuts” :: Charter'97 :: News

Alexander Lukashenko couldn’t but react to the April 19 events. Speaking yesterday before the MPs with an annual missive, the Belarusian leader broke into an aggressive and irritated speech concerning the social Protest March. Lukashenko’s wrath and unprecedented in terms of cruelty ill-treatment of the protesters is yet another confirmation of the fact that any reminders of Lukashenko’s failure to keep his election promises, are the dictator’s weak point. Following is an excerpt from Lukashenko’s speech, dedicated to the Protest March, NTV correspondent Pavel Selin, events in Kuropaty and the whole opposition in general.

“In the society there can and must be different viewpoints and interests. I understand this alright. But I can’t understand those who, claiming to be patriots, split and destroy their society, disgrace their country, cynically using every sly occasion for the purpose.

Bear with me, while I will return to the last events. Three and a half hundred bastards. People ask me: “What happened? What does the president think of that? What’s the matter?”. Let me simply say this: those who planned it, received what they wanted – a rich TV coverage. They approved the route of the rally and defined the place of the meetings. But then they started walking along the road and stepped on the road. Police patiently didn’t stir. They saw that there’ll be no coverage and lied on the thoroughfare. Tell me, what was the Interior Minister supposed to do? For he knows that the president controls and watches over his actions, so do the Minskers. What was an ordinary policeman, protecting public order, supposed to do? Why did Mr.Schukin lie on the road – it isn’t designed for sleeping. So they were down on the ground and the police started removing them from the road. The protesters began fighting. And the other side, also men, fought back…

"Why

There are a few reasons for that. I believe that Russian leadership can’t but know what’s going on at Russian channels. Western channels, having received the relay baton from Russians, also televised what NTV and the like are still showing to viewers. Here’s the first reason – President’s performance in the “Freedom of speech” talk-show. This my speech rocked Russia and revealed true opponents of the Union, true aspirations of the Belarusian nation; it likewise showed who restrains the integration processes today. To put it short, it had a great resonance. Who’s to blame? NTV. Now they are trying to bring everything back into balance, showing what’s happening in the neighboring state. But we know it, though never mentioned before.

Second. Our opposition saw what $500mln a year means – gas, transits and the rest, equal conditions for economic entities. And so, before Bush’s meeting with Vladimir Putin on May 23 they needed to show the pictures… They even wrote in his theses to urge Putin to exert pressure on Belarus, ruled by the wacky regime: people vote for the fascists there, the situation is awful, no human rights observed, no democracy. They got to crush Belarus. But to do this they first need the pictures, so that the world could see it…

This is a true price and our people are seeing this. Is that what they call opposition? The people called them bastards by right, there’s no other way how they can be called. Generally speaking, how can one turn, say the Chernobyl tragedy, into an instrument to split the society. This cannot be logically explained. Sorrows always united the people on the Belarusian soil. The nation becomes one in order to overcome the pain through joint effort. But look what they are doing there! Political show on the day of the national grief. Or take the situation with Kuropaty. Instead of thinking quietly on how they can immortalize the memory of those who are buried there, they once again embark on political speculations and arbitrary actions. How can in the world Pavel Selin (I guess, that’s his name) know that in Kuropaty lie the remains of victims, killed in the 30ies? That’s the direct support of opposition. But our researchers are proving the opposite. Well, if that’s your conviction, propose another viewpoint too. If you claim that 20 thousand immigrants settled down in the West – then go ahead and prove it! And he will have to prove for he won’t work in Belarus anymore. When Israel launched its operation, they silenced all mass media sources for their tendentious coverage of the events. And nobody said a word. But look – in Belarus there’s no stopping of them. Well, if you come to the country, live and work here respectfully. I’ll take a risk of openly warning you. But they only do it for the sake of the TV picture in the foreign screens, which is then paid for at the expense of the foreign grants.

People are buried in Kuropaty. In 30ies and 40ies the Germans, or someone else, shot them there. But they are people. And we have to construct a simple and comprehensible memorial there, which would correspond to the spirit of that epoch. This will be a place for mourning and remembering, not for the political dances on the bones.

This practice needs to be stopped. Stop disgracing your own nation! Instead, do something positive and help your country.

Belarus is our common house and we will build it together. And the people will appreciate this. We’ll find enough work for everyone, opposition being no exception.

Just look what these folks are doing there: opposition goes West with only one thing in mind: “down with Lukashenko, down with the regime, they are nuts!”